Headaches after steroids

[matis_mom]

Ds 12 just finished the 30-day course of steroids. Overall he has improved with some ups and downs, but overall I think I see improvement...

We finished yesterday and today he has been complaining of headaches.

 

So my questions are:

 

1) Is this normal (swelling coming back?)

2) Is it OK to give him ibuprofen? I wanted to wait a week to give him a chance to clear all the prednisone out of his system, but today he was complaining over and over, which is very unlike him.

 

Also, this may be totally unrelated, but he has been squinting a lot. He is near-sighted and got glasses over the summer, just to rest his eyes maybe an hour or two a day, but now it seems since last week he is squinting all the time, like his eyesight is suddenly going downhill. I wonder if it has anything to do with the meds/PANDAS.

 

Thanks!

[thereishope]

Have you asked him if his vision is okay? Whether it is blurry or if he's dizzy? Perhaps the squinting and the headaches are related. The reason you are advised not to mix a steroid and Ibuprofen is together it takes a toll on the stomach. I don't know for sure, but I think it would be okay to give him the Ibuprofen now.

[matis_mom]

Have you asked him if his vision is okay? Whether it is blurry or if he's dizzy? Perhaps the squinting and the headaches are related. The reason you are advised not to mix a steroid and Ibuprofen is together it takes a toll on the stomach. I don't know for sure, but I think it would be okay to give him the Ibuprofen now.

Thanks Vicky, I did not think of tying the vision to the headaches...duh! I did give him a couple of Advil before dinner, and the headache got better. Tomorrow I'll just have him keep his glasses on all day and see how he does. He says he is not dizzy, it's just he's naturally compensating. Before he had one eye stronger than the other so they prescribed the glasses for watching TV, etc, maybe an hour or two a day just to give the good eye a rest, but now it seems he really has to strain to focus. I will have to take him back to the optometrist and have them measure again, and compare from where he was this summer... just another appointment, another expense. But it would be best to have it figured out before we go for our follow-up with Dr. Latimer, particularly to see where the headaches are coming from.

[thereishope]

I would be suprised if his vision changed that dramatically between summer and now. Did the eye dr ever suggest an opthamalogist? They do a more intense eye screening. His eyes are overly dilated or anything, are they?

 

Did they give him eye exercises to do? I have a friend who has one eye that is stronger and she has to do eye exerices every day for the bad one.

 

Just try to make sure he gets enough sleep and try to get him to wear those glasses a little more often. He'll love that:)