Warning: contains self pity
I have missed three days off work in the past fortnight due to migraines. That's migraines, not headaches. The words are not synonymous. It's like comparing a below the knee amputation with a broken toenail. Just not in the same category.
Symptoms vary from person to person but mine will include most of the following:
A headache so bad that I can't lift my head from the pillow because of the pain.
Disturbed vision, so that I can't focus properly.
Nausea/vomiting.
Loss of feeling in my hands.
Disturbed speech, in that I forget some words, and get word order wrong.
Sensitivity to light, sound and strong smells.
I've known for many years that one of my triggers is citrus fruits, to the point where just the thought of drinking orange juice makes me wince because of the association with pain. I have now discovered this week that I am so sensitive to citrus fruits now that I can't even tolerate a thin spread of houmous, because of the lemon juice content.
As my dentist will testify, suffering from migraines to the extent of one a week during my teens has left me the tooth enamel of a bulimic. I had to take yesterday off work, not because I still felt ill from the migraine, but because I still couldn't focus properly and therefore couldn't look at a VDU. I spent yesterday at home doing housework, as being unable to watch telly or read left me with few other options to fill the day. Even today, two days on from the actual attack, I'm still a little woozy and disorientated.
Each attack I've had in recent times has made me nervous, after somebody I know dismissed their symptoms as one of their usual migraines for days before being diagnosed with a brain haemorrhage. As I'm incapable of even putting a sentence together during an attack, rational thought doesn't even come into it.
So to prevent myself from getting migraines I have to avoid the following: citrus juice, cheese, red wine, caffeine, dehydration, too little sleep, too much sleep, stress, lack of stress ( you're more likely to get a migraine at the weekend or on holiday as you relax) or catching a virus (the Cosmic Joker decress that if I'm already off work and in bed anyway, I might as well have a migraine as well). Being a woman and having periods isn't much help either, adding another reason why me and my homones are not best of friends.
After going to see my doctor last night and stating "I told you those things don't work for me", I have now been given what I am assured to be much stronger drugs. I still have little faith in them, but have promised to at least try them before my doctor will give me the prescription I really want, which is for 1mg tablets of Sanomigran to stop me getting the bastard things in the first place...
OK, I'm done now.
No pity required. Just needed to get it off my chest.
5 Comments:
well, I'll give you sympathy anyway. Have you tried Imitrex?
A lady I work with used to have the same type of migraines you do. I wonder how close she was to killing herself at one point. I still remember, she missed about 2 months of work in a 3 month period. She'd come to work with bruises from IV because he husband would end up taking her to the hospital she'd be so dehydrated and ill. It was awful. I think the Imitrex saved her life. She still gets the migraines but if she takes the drug when its starting, a real bad one can usually be averted.
hugs,
Laura
Sounds nasty, not sure I could handle that kind of pain :(
why won't the doctor give you the Sanomigran? Could you get it privately?
A friend of mine found that going vegan and teetotal stopped his migraines.
Isn't Botox meant to help too?
Blech. Hate the damn things. And how strange that citrus brings them on as lemon shows up every-damn-where.
No suggestions...just empathy.
I FEEL YOUR PAIN! Your desciption of the migraine was well done! I too suffer from the worst of the worst I have actually been documented in a health journal because at first they "thought" it was a tumor because I started them when I was 4. Serious 4 years old, my mom tried to tell them that I would climb into the coffee table (you know the old ones where you could store booze?) anyways finally when I was 7 and they did a million tests for tumors and epilepzy and about everything else they final said they were migraines.
The only thing that has worked for me is Imitrex for the REALLY bad ones that I do not catch with the pill I give myself an injection in the leg (this could be why I hate doctors and hospital so much)
AND OMG your tooth enamel they tried to put me in a eating clinic when I was 15 (puberty) because a teacher at school told the school counseler I was throwing up. If I could go back I would say to this counseler.
"Listen BITCH I could throw up for about 16 hours for no apparent reason at all and it may even sneak up on me so I have no warning and puke almost every day and its not cause I have an eating disorder its because my hormones are all over the place which has wrech havoc on my head!!" (I missed 179 days of school when I was 15
But I digress.
I have TRIED EVERYTHING!!
If you have not tried it already from one Migraine sufferer to another
TRY IT!
Its really expensive, not even sure why I mention it because I know you would do anything to make it stop. There are 2 kinds 50mg and 100mg also get them to perscibe the injections some doctors will not BEG for it!! It wipes me out, after an injection I sleep for about 4 hours and then with a little groggyness your good to go.
Even though we have never met I HOPE you find what works for you.
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