Headache Horror Story

12 October 2010

A few years ago I  evaluated a child who began to get frequent headaches when the new school year began.  Her mom took her to the pediatrician who couldn't find anything wrong, so she referred her to an ENT.  The ENT ordered an MRI which showed no problems. Next stop was the pediatric neurologist, who also found nothing, but suggested another MRI.  Eventually mom brings her to me. She had trouble reading the eye chart and with a small glasses prescription she was seeing a lot clearer.  Sure enough, since this young lady has been wearing her glasses she hasn't had any headaches.  I'm reminded of this young girl because today I saw another patient with essentially the same story.  Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.  

It is beyond me why professionals place so little importance on vision.  Vision pervades everything that we do and must be considered when frequent headaches are experienced.  The real clue in this story was that the headaches started when the school year started.  Vision related headaches are often in the front of the head or behind the eyes.  They usually start after you've been using your eyes awhile.

Short post this time around, but I wanted to plant the seed that when headaches are frequent to consider a vision problem as a possible cause.