It's all in her head

Brynn has been complaining of bad headaches for the past... oh I don't know, 7 months or so. Yes, that long. They bring her to tears. I took her to the pediatrician's office a few months ago and visited with one of the nurse practitioners who said he believed it to be psychological. He suggested that perhaps there was a situation at school that she was trying to avoid. Not getting a long with the teacher or another student. He suggested I take her to see a therapist and gave me a handful of pamphlets on therapy for children. I'm a big fan and supporter of therapy. I've been, and am getting my degree to become a therapist myself, but I wasn't at all satisfied with his diagnosis. The tearful headaches happen, if not daily, then every other day. Including weekends and through the summer and now into a new school year. I'm ruling out "it's in her head". Well, it is in her head. It is a headache after all. I called the pediatrician's office again and they set us up with the actual pediatrician this time. He didn't blow us off with "it's hard to say with headaches... bet it's psychological" (though I'm sure that in many cases this may very well be what's happening). He asked her questions about how and where specifically it hurts. He ran some motor skill testing with her to check neurologically (she's sound. Not brain dead.). And then told me that it's common migraines. Not regular ones that knock you on your @ss, but common ones that don't have the extra side effects like light sensitivity or nausea. Common ones happen very frequently, even daily. He said his son used to get them, but grew out of them. He prescribed a pill to take nightly, the same pill his son used to sway them. Watch it, keep track of it for a couple of weeks, and if that doesn't seem to help, come back, we'll look further into it. Here's to hoping.