Frequent headaches, dizziness in teen DD

[tkband3]

DD2, 14, has been suffering with dizziness, lightheadedness, very frequent headaches (which range from dull ache to extremely painful and some nausea since just after Christmas. The first doctor told us it was flu (although she has no fever or other flu symptoms); the second referred her for blood tests (at my insistence) but these have gone back normal.

I’ve taken her to the optician who did a thorough check and said her prescription hasn’t changed and all tests were normal. Another call to the duty doc resulted in a recommendation to take aspirin dissolved in full fat coke for the headaches.

I’ve had issues with GPs in the past not recognising symptoms (DD1’s coeliac disease wasn’t picked up for nearly 3 years) so I may be influenced by that experience, but I’m getting worried that they don’t seem to be interested in looking for the cause of the headaches etc, just treating the symptoms.

Would you persist with yet another GP appointment or go another route...and if so where do we go from here?

[userabcname]

are the dizziness and headaches at the same time? If so sounds like she is suffering from migraines. I suffer from them too and they are triggered by hormonal changes (I get them pre-menstrually and after childbirth). I went on the mini pill at about this age and it helped. Also you can get proper migraine pain relief - speak to a pharmacist in the first instance and they may be able to help.

[anotherday4]

I get these when I am due on my period always worse then

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Also, has she had her iron levels checked?

[tkband3]

Thanks for your replies.

She had bloods done last week - iron, thyroid, full blood count etc - all normal.

I’ve been lucky enough never to suffer from migraines - is it normal for them to last such a long time? She’s not vomiting or reacting to light and whilst the pain isn’t constant, it’s very frequent (daily).

[lpchill]

What part of the head is she experiences the head aches? Could be she has hurt her neck/upper back muscles and it's causing tension and head pain. Maybe look at seeing a chiropractor just to rule it out. The more you can rule out the easier it could make the doctors job of figuring out the issue.

[mdh2020]

I would look at food allergies. I had ingrained (just called bad headaches) from when I was a child and it took me 30 years to realise I was allergic to eggs.

[tkband3]

Thanks again for the replies. We went to the emergency doctor today because she was feeling so awful. Doc was great and did lots of tests to rule out any ‘nasty’ headaches (ie tumours/brain bleeds) but couldn’t help resolve the issue. Back to GP this week to be referred for a scan.

She has coeliac disease but no other allergies (that we know of). Will definitely look into chiropractor to potentially resolve any neck tension.

Thanks again

[Embracelife]

Dd has coeliac also took a while to be diagnosed.

Her headache dizziness etc symptoms began age 12 and after long ride has diagnosis of chronic migraine.
Keep a headache diary. (GOSH headache clinic google it online has a sample headache diary )
See if any triggers like food...

Get referral to headache clinic if nothing on scan.
It is not unusual pattern for the kids they see in the headache clinics..
Preventive meds can help

Propranolol helped for few years ...

[tkband3]

@Embracelife that's really useful thank you. Am going to take DD2 back to the doctor tomorrow so will mention the headache clinic then and ask for a referral that might lead us there.

[tkband3]

Just a quick update...back to doctor today who thinks she’s having migraines. Has prescribed propranolol for every day and sumatriptan for when headaches are really bad. Has also referred to a paediatrician and made a follow up appt for 2 weeks’ time. Finally feel listened to!