Posted by Margi (161.184.81.207) on February 20, 2001 at 10:20:21:
In Reply to: first entry posted by Mindy on February 20, 2001 at 00:24:45:
So sorry to hear your little gal is suffering like this. And I know you are too. My husband is the sufferer in our family, and I can't imagine what it's like to watch a child go through this torture.
Here's some things you can try that have helped us, med free.
1. Ice applied directly to the pain. I keep those gel-filled ice bags in the freezer at all times, but frozen peas work well too.
2. Oxygen, if you can get a doc to confirm the diagnosis and then print out everything you can find on oxygen here, your daughter can inhale oxygen at the onset of an attack to abort it. It has helped about 80% of the people here. (I just dug that number out of the air but I'm sure it's pretty close).
3. You might want to try the water treatment, but please check with doc first - it might affect a child's kidney's more than it would an adult.
4. Dramamine/Gravol before bed to prevent the middle of the night attacks. It won't let her get into REM sleep, which seems to provoke the attacks.
5. Massage her shoulders to try to keep her calm through the attack. If she gets scared and angry, this will elevate her blood pressure and make the attack worse. Maybe even just rocking her on your lap would help her to stay calm and deal with the pain.
Best of luck to you and please feel free to email me anytime if you need to talk.
Hugs
Margi