Dec

24

Imitrex and Migraine Pain

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Someone just told me that if you are taking Imitrex for your migraine headaches and take tylenol around the same time that you can have a severe respiratory reaction.  HAs anyone ever heard of this happening?  The doctor I see for migraines never said anything about mixing the two drugs being a problem.

Dec

15

Tension Headache Help

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Here is something new, or at least new to me.  I get tension headaches from spending too long at the computer in one position.  Well my back went out and sitting has beenunbearable so I took my laptop to the bar table which is quite high so I can stand at the computer.  Wow what a difference. I last so much longer at the computer before I start rubbing my neck and temples. I know no one can stand all day but it just goes to show that changing positions through out  the day can make a big differance for tension headaches.  Now if I could just get my back to improve…..

Dec

13

Migraine- What its Really Like

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Have you ever met someone who says to you ‘I have had a migraine for a week’ while they pound away at a computer listening to the radio and talking to an old friend on the phone?  Well they may have a migraine, but not my kind.  I have always said that you cannot describe a migraine to someone who has never had one.  A cold systematic list of symptoms does not convey the agony experienced by someone with a severe migraine.  If you have ever wondered what a migraine is like or wonder if you have had one read on as I will try to describe what it is like for me.  This is a true experience I had many years ago before I found prescription medications that help alleviate some of the pain:

I was twenty years old at a very happy time in my life.  Newly married and very stoked about all my new wifely duties.  I had driven the car to a car wash about three blocks from our home to clean out the interior.  As I drew the vacuum back and forth across the carpet I began to realize that I could not make out the finger nails on my fingers.  I put down the vacuum and held my hands in front of my eyes.  Like some kind of horror show I could only make out their outline which seemed to have a sort of gold edge lining.  I could see enough in my peripheral vision to function and it felt like the shadows I was seeing could be like any other visional anomaly.  I thought it would go away.  I of course thought it was strange and it occurred to me that I might be getting a migraine but since I had not had one for four years I dismissed it and carried on with my cleaning. 

As I drove home it became very obvious to me that what was happening was going to be a real problem.  I was not safe to drive but made my way home as well as I could.  I was unable to see what was directly in front of me and only able to drive straight down the road by keeping my head turned to one side utilizing my peripheral vision.  By the time I stumbled into my house I was completely blind in my right eye.  My left eye gave me enough sight to get to my room and find some Tylenol which I took knowing it would not help but it was all I had.  I laid down and waited, already crying knowing the pain would start any moment and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  It had been four years since my last migraine but I remembered with enormous fear those head pains.

The pain started behind my right eye like a pulse growing bigger and stronger every moment.  The pain is unlike any other headache.  SO many headache sufferers describe their head pain as a feeling of pressure from the outside like a band has been put around their head and is being tightened.  Migraine pain is opposite to that it is explosive.  The pain feels as though it were going to erupt on the inside and the pressure behind your eyes and at various points in your skull is incredible.  The pain is sharp and burns at the same time, and with each pulse of pain waves of nausea hit you.

I laid on my bed in the dark as the pain began.  When the pain increased my sight improved but not completely, and then the nausea began.  The agony became so intense I began delusionaly thinking that if I could punch a hole in my skull it would let the pain out and today I wonder if I had had the strength to get up if I would not have done some harm to myself.  That is the desperation of a migraine.

 

 The disconcerting partial blindness was heightened by a ringing in my ears.  I wrapped my hands around my head feeling it could contain the pain that was reaching unbearable levels.  As I laid still in the fetal position afraid even the slightest movement might bring a new wave of misery I caught a whiff of a smell that normally I enjoy.  I had put the perfume my husband had bought me on my wrists that morning.  The smell of the perfume stunned me, it instantly mad me heave. The pain in my head makes it almost impossible for me to lift it under my own power but my natural reaction to throwing up overcame the pain and I literally crawled on all four to the bathroom where I stayed for at least an hour until there was nothing left to vomit.  Throwing up when your head is at a screaming level of pain is a terrible experience all of its own, I am sure you can imagine.

The pain continued for at least four hours with the same intensity before it relented enough that I could fall asleep, exhausted by the pain.  I woke up feeling better but not enough to get out of bed or sit up.  The pain had lessened into a constant dull throb.  My eyesight had returned but is left with shadows bouncing around everywhere which makes me feel dizzy and disconcerted.  I laid in bed another two hours before, with help from my husband, I go to the living room and sit on the couch.

After suffering a migraine I usually spend at least two days moving very slowly and speaking quietly as sudden movements and loud noises cause pain reminiscent of the migraine.  My eyes will be blood shot, lights and smells are overwhelming and cause sharp pain in my eyes and temples and my appetite disappears.  Worse though than all the leftover symptoms from the migraine is the fear it leaves me with. I become afraid I will get another one almost obsessing about it.  Like a sort of short lived post traumatic stress syndrome I can become depressed, afraid to leave the house and weepy, feeling my life is out of my control.  That I am powerless to these painful events and no one can stop them, no one can help me.

Having a migraine is not an annoyance it is an event.  Every migraine is different, as different as the people who have them.  I do not quickly dismiss someone who claims to have a migraine but shows no major symptoms.  Some people will have a migraine without pain, only suffering with visual disturbances or sensitivity’s to light or smell and noise.  Still, it is difficult for me to relate to anyone who has a migraine and yet continues to function.  It does lend the question; do these people have a migraine or just a really bad headache?  Migraines are greatly misunderstood by sufferers, onlookers and doctors.  Until real answers are found, supporting each other and trying to understand the impact of these painful occurrences is one way to bring a degree of relief and it is always appreciated.  Please share your stories too.

Dec

12

Does Synthroid cause Migraines?

Filed Under Migraines | 2 Comments

I started taking Synthroid several months ago and since then have suffered more than double the migraines I normally do.  I am seriously considering going off the medication.  I discovered my thyroid problem because I was gaining weight with out cause and I know if I go off this drug I may start blowing up again.  I really hate being fat and out of energy but migraines are no joke.  Any input to help with the decision is welcome.  Thanks,

GG

Dec

11

Doctors Vs. Herbs - Who Has the Migraine Cure?

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My mom had been raised by country folk to believe that doctors make you worse and my dad never believed anyone when they said they were sick, even if they were bleeding or seizing or going into labor.  In our house there was no fever too high, no infection too green, and no blood loss to great to constitute a trip to the doctors. Subsequently my brother and I’s medical care consisted of vaccinations and crossed fingers.  I could tell you allot of weird stories of our surprising childhood survival but I am saving those for another day.

Because of our nonexistent health care it perhaps should not have been so surprising to us when after eight months of severe abdominal pain my dad relented and saw a doctor and was diagnosed with the colon cancer that would kill him five years later.  Those five years of prolonged life were owed purely to the help of surgeons and chemotherapy.  I learned to feel a sense of safety with doctors because of my experiences with my father and when I became an adult I quickly shook off the superstitions of my mom and treated my ailments medically.

 

The first big health problem began when I was nineteen years old.  I had chronic UTI (Urinary Tract Infections).  Of course when you go to a doctor with your first UTI you expect to treat it with antibiotics, which I did.  I had no idea that what appeared to be a single infection easily fixed, was to become a chronic and painful life sentence.  For ten years now I have battled Urethritis and Sistitus, which is like living with a constant UTI except you bleed more.  Never once has a doctor been able to offer me anything but antibiotics to stop the pain.  After the first four years of misery, two trips to the emergency room, MRI’s, bladder scope and one very painful procedure I would rather not talk about I began to realize that specialists , doctors and surgeons had no answers for me.  They had lots of bills, more appointments, more referrals and always a new prescription for more antibiotics but no cure and no compassion.

 

So I swung to holistic healing with one fell swoop.  I tried anything and everything someone would recommend and sat in ice baths when the pain became too much.  Months later I realized neither the medical world nor natural healing had a cure for me, at least not yet.  If I was going to find a level of quality in my life I would need to strike a balance between the two worlds.  Herbal remedies seemed to help prevent attacks but offered no pain relief.  Antibiotics did nothing to prevent but helped with the pain and a quicker recovery.

 

I have learned how to live with this balance.  I am not pain free, and some days are worse than others, but I have peace with my decisions.  I take antibiotics but not as often as I once did and I feel satisfied knowing that if I live all of my life with this condition I never stopped fighting and searching for a better way of managing it.

 

This theory of balance in my healing has become my standard for my health care and my family’s.  Doctor’s have no cures for migraines, cluster headaches and chronic headaches.  Depending solely on them to rid us of this tiresome pain is unrealistic.  Even if they find a cure someday I am not willing and hope you are not either to live painfully waiting for that cure.  This is true of any illness anyone suffers with.

 

Some people claim to have found cures for their headaches through natural means and that is wonderful.  I am not one of these people.  I have not found a natural remedy to stop my headaches but that is no reason to quit trying.  I have found allot of holistic treatments that help prevent migraines and general headaches from occurring but when they fail it does not bother my conscience to reach for the little orange bottles the doctors hand out so often.

 

There appears at times to be an all out war between the medical field and the holistic field.  I wish they could sign a treaty, make some compromises and maybe the rest of us could quit being stuck in the cross fire.  It’s like my dad said a few weeks before he died with his persistently sick sense of humor.  “You know you’re screwed when the doctors have run out of things to cut out or burn and the herb guy can’t find anything nastier for you to drink.  That’s when you go home and rent your favorite movies one last time.” 

 

We watched “The Fugitive”  for the last time together that night and thirteen years later I stop and realize how different from my strange redneck dad I really am.  For one watching movies is not on my bucket list.  I believe people when they say they are sick, and live life with thought and balance and I hope it serves me and my children well.  I Hope you and everyone else out there finds your balance in this shaky world.  Live well and always under your own power!