Frequent Headaches and Migraine in Children

Children who get frequent headaches and migraine attacks have chronic illness. Such children and their parents face problem to adjust with school and their rules. Extra preparations and steps should be taken to cope with such illness. Pediatric specialist in migraine and headaches exist should be consulted for treatment and other precautionary & preventive measures. Also the triggers vary from child to child, which should be recognized accurately.

Firstly, it is the strict attendance rule in most of the schools that children with chronic illness find it difficult to deal with. To add to it, majority of the schools have zero tolerance policy regarding medications, even including over the counter medicines. Reports of students getting expelled for merely carrying Advil in school with them are common. Prior to making appointment with the doctor, it is recommended that parents read the policy of the school the child is attending. It is good to ask questions before hand, than feeling sorry later. Some of the schools asks for letter or medical record as a proof, incase the student didnt attend because of a health problem. Some schools consider sick leaves as regular leaves and in this case, the attendance gets affected greatly.

School nurses can be given the prescribed medicine so that they can give the medicine to the child at the required time. If this is the case, things such as medicine storage location and availability of substitute should be checked. Apart from not attending regularly, the child can sometimes be unable to take part in co-curricular activities especially physical education and outdoor recess. Other possible options should be discussed with the teacher. Usually a recommendation letter from the physician will do the needed. In all the cases, some kind of medical identification can be carried by the child at all times. If the child is attending an after school babysitter or program, directly after school, extra measures should be taken. The babysitter or program in charge should be told about the problem in advance. Their cooperation can be asked for timely administration of the medicine and for taking special care of the child. If the child himself is grown enough to understand the matter, the child should be educated about taking medications. They should also be made to understand that it is harmful to take medicines from any un-trustable source even if their fellow students do. Budge them to ask questions and clarify any of their fears of concerns.

Most of the children lack the ability to convey their problem properly. The situation is further aggravated because of different kinds of headaches. They can be related to chronic illness, tension, sinus or fever. Only diagnosis can bring out the correct problem. If the rate of headache becomes more frequent, like more than twice a month, doctors appointment should be taken instantly. Younger kids find it more difficult to explain the problem. If they become cranky, restless, irritating, tired, is having sleeping disorders and is not eating properly, a problem surely exists. Most of the children complain of headaches during exams because of increased stress. Seventy five percent of the children experience headaches because of tension. If so, stress management education, along with counseling, should be given to the kid.

Headaches can be an indication of other problems, too. So, thorough diagnosis is highly recommended. The childs previous medical history provides important clue. Prior to the doctors appointment, notes can be made after referring the medical history. Maintaining a log about the childs headache frequencies, pain location, time of occurrence, symptoms, etc. also helps. If not due to illness, headaches can also be a result of head injury. Sometimes, headache can be hereditary, like in the case of migraines.

Headaches can also be caused because of infections, vision problems, odd levels of blood pressure, neurological problems, muscle weakness, improper ear balance or serious problems such as tumor, blood clots, etc. If the doctor is not able to diagnose the problem, he/she can refer the child to a headache specialist or neurologist. Test such as CT scan or MRI are done if there is a serious problem. After the diagnosis, the doctor prescribes medication or will ask to take over the counter medicines. According to a study, children who face headaches and migraine take overdose of over the counter medicines for immediate pain reliving. In some of the cases, the parents are clueless about this situation. This practice is risky and mostly children above six years are involved in such cases.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Estrogen Therapy

In the past years, many women have stopped taking estrogen hormones because of the report that it can cause heart disease. Now, researchers have found out that this hormone is not as terrible as what others thought.

Estrogen hormones are helpful in avoiding diseases such as heart attack and stroke. Once a woman has an insufficient number of estrogen in her body, she needs to get a solution to this kind of problem. And the only solution for it is an estrogen therapy.

An estrogen therapy is a therapy for the body, emotional and health-risk factors linked with menopause. It can be in the form of a pill, patch, cream, implant, injection or vaginal ring.

Who should take the estrogen therapy?

There is no exact answer for this since every woman has her own medical record and desires. However, the women who can benefit more from estrogen therapy are those:

With serious vasomotor symptoms like hot flushes

More prone of having bone fracture and osteoporosis

Who have experienced early menopause which is resulted from:

1. Surgery of the ovaries
2. Chemotherapy
3. Malfunction of the ovary

What are the advantages of estrogen therapy?

1. It lessen the threat of osteoporosis
2. It lessen the threat of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease
3. It reduce hot flushes
4. It may reduce mood changes and enhance psychological comfort

Although there are severe threats associated with estrogen therapy, many health practitioner and institutions believe that the helpful result set aside the risk factors. Consider the following statements made by the American Medical Association:

Estrogen therapy is the only reliable and adequate therapy to maintain system dependents with the hormones in the ovary and to reduce hot flushes.

Indicative vaginal waste and vaginitis and waste changes of the lower urinary tract with irregular and inconsistent urination are reversible with the estrogen therapy.

In order to avoid osteoporosis, it requires estrogen replacement.

What are the disadvantages of the estrogen therapy?

1. It increases the threat of uterus cancer

2. It increases the threat of breast cancer especially when used for over 10
years.

3. It can be very dangerous for women who are more prone to blood clotting.

4. It can give headaches or migraines

5. It increases the threat for endometrial cancer

6. It can destroy the liver

With all these advantages and disadvantages presented, it all depends to the person if she wants to have the therapy. However, if you really want to take an estrogen therapy, it would be a nice idea if you discuss the matter carefully with your doctor. Keep in mind that it is your health that will be at stake so, you have to think about it a hundred of times.

Great details and information can be found in the Internet. Having an estrogen therapy could be a very big decision. It is imperative that a woman should be well aware of what she does with her body. This is where the information superhighway, the Internet, could be of valuable help.

Many support grouped and sites dedicated to estrogen therapy could provide invaluable information to many women who are thinking about getting estrogen therapy. Forums and discussions are abound and many women could help each other out. Professional advices are present and women who has undergone the therapy could point out some more advantages and disadvantages about estrogen therapy.

E. R. Nurses in a Maze

This article explains a few things about nurses, and if you’re interested, then this is worth reading, because you can never tell what you don’t know.

Millions of patients walk relevance emergency rooms every year to get medical attention. With the proliferating of medical series, everybody seems to copy amazed with the 24 hour action hospital department with emergency nurses running and treating critically injured victims.

But how does emergency room really works?

According to Dr. Carl Bianco, writer of How Emergency Room Works, the first step in the emergency room process is the triage. A triage is an emergency nurse who categorizes and prioritizes the patients condition. The triage categorizes the patients situation into three categories:

1. immediately life threatening
2. urgent, but no immediately life threatening
3. less urgent

The triage is also responsible in recording the patients key signs which are temperature, pulse, respiratory rate and blood pressure. The triage also gets the brief patient history, medications, allergies to actuate the appropriate category.

Registrations will be the next motion. Take cover the registration, additional information is obtained from the patient. Mainly insurance information, opener of medical record for reference while in the hospital. But for life threatening situations like car crash of impulse threatening cases, registration can be completed later on.

The patient will snap next to the examination room where an emergency room nurse will get more detailed information about the sickness. There are certain hospitals that have divided their emergency department into areas dedicated to pediatric ER, a chest – pain ER, a fast track ( for minor injuries and illnesses ), trauma center ( usually for severely injured patients ) and an observation unit ( for patients who do not require hospital admission but needs prolonged map or diagnostic tests ).

Meeting the nurse has completed her duty, the emergency physician will get a complete review of the information obtained from the patient. He then formulates a possible cause or diagnosis based on the symptoms.

Diagnostic tests are required when the physician sees that the patients symptom and physical examination failed to get a likely diagnosis. After conducting the unique tests and was powerhouse to identify the probable diagnosis, necessary action or steps are undertaken to treat the patient.

Normally, a scene from the ER can be psyched out and confusing for a victim of patients family. A long line of patients wanting to be examined could a horrendous sight. There are some people who tried to get medical elevation to no avail. Donna Mason, an emergency nurse gave CNN five things to remember in an ER:

1. Inform your doctor is you will be reaction to the emergency room.

2. Use the ambulance specifically for threatening situations. There would be instances that whenever emergency personnel charge see that the patient can actually walk and chose to arrive with the emergency room to get attention, they asked the sensitive to step down and wait.

3. If the triage is not being helpful in addressing the case, speak up and look for the person in charge.

4. It is important to control nature at all times. It is also important not to lie about your symptoms just to get attention key of the others.

5. If things are really getting bad and nobody from the emergency department is helping, look for a house phone and inform the issue to the hospital administrator or patient advocate who is available 24 hours.

Emergency room experience can be tough and rough. Undoubted is necessary for us to understand the how things work to understand why some emergency room or departments will take a while to address patient issues. Emergency rooms are a mazes filled with emergency room nurses who I wager will hold office expanded than happy to take disturbance of the patients.
That’s how things stand right now. Keep in mind that any subject can change over time, so be sure you keep up with the latest news.