Getting Ahead of Pediatric Headaches: A comprehensive guide for Nurse Practitioners to manage headaches in children and adolescents So it has been 2 years since I published my book, seems like forever ago! I am glad I was able to do it. I do think in hindsight, that my timing could have been better- though … Continue reading My book- it’s been 2 years!
The most recent volume (June 2021) of Pediatric Pain Letter (www.childpain.org/ppl) contains a review of my book, Getting Ahead of Pediatric Headaches. The review was done by Angelina Koehler, CPNP, a pediatric headache provider at Children’s Hospital of Colorado in Denver. Ms Koehler reviews the book thoroughly, covering the main areas of information presented. This … Continue reading My book is reviewed!
In my part of the country, there has been a gradual transition from remote learning to hybrid learning to full in-person learning, starting this spring. And as we all experience, there are significant stressors with all this change. Kids are happy to be back at school with their friends, teachers, feeling sort of ‘back to … Continue reading Back to school, bring on the stress; psychiatric comorbidities and headache
Ever notice that your patients with migraine and headache often have other medical issues? Well, there are a number of common coexisting medical conditions which are often associated with migraine and headache. Frequently these issues are associated with pain, and are referred to as overlapping pain conditions. Examples of these types of overlapping pain conditions … Continue reading Migraine and headache and pain conditions
Getting Ahead of Pediatric Headaches: A comprehensive guide for Nurse Practitioners to manage headaches in children and adolescents I started my blog as a way to communicate to pediatric providers about the care of pediatric patients with all kinds of headaches. Over time, I decided to turn it into a book. I felt that the … Continue reading My book is available!!!
The pandemic and its impact on life and work have consumed most of us during the past 6 months. So many choices and many not in our power to make. All vacations cancelled-no trip to Africa this June, no headache conference. Limited in-person interaction both at work and in life. Lack of control over most … Continue reading Managing headaches during the pandemic, part 2
In the previous post, I talked about the important lifestyle factors and strategies of hydration, diet and sleep. In this post I will discuss exercise/physical activity. Again these are basic lifestyle strategies that are appropriate for all headaches, but can be particularly important to migraineurs. Exercise or physical activity is vital to healthy functioning for … Continue reading All about the Migraine…. part 3
The 3 most common subtypes of primary headaches commonly seen in pediatric patients are: migraine, tension-type, and new daily persistent headache. Children often have a combination of types, such as chronic mixed type headache, which generally combine migraine and tension-type headache. All primary headaches present differently and are often treated differently. Migraine is a well-known … Continue reading All about the Migraine…. part 1
So your young teenage patient comes in the office with a primary complaint of headache. This is something that happens very frequently. In fact, headache is in the top 5 diagnoses for children and teens, occurring in 75% of teens and 25% of younger children. Kids miss school, lose time with friends and in … Continue reading I have a headache!
Hi, my name is Vickie and I am a PNP working in pediatric headache/pain medicine for the past 10+ years. I’ve been a nurse for 37 years and a PNP for 21 years, so I have plenty of experience under my belt. I’ve started this blog to share some information and insights I have gained … Continue reading Welcome to the HeadFirst PNP blog
HeadFirst PNP 