Friday 4 November 2022

Living with Migraine

I've suffered with migraines since I can remember, they're not linked to my menstrual cycle, not triggered by cheese, chocolate, wine or caffeine. 

I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy 3 years ago which has dramatically reduced the number of attacks I have, combined with beta blockers, I can go 2 months without an attack, but in the last 6 months, they've returned with a vengeance. 

In the past 6 months I've had migraines caused by travel, lack of sleep, lack of fluids, eye strain from endless tests and scans and just migraines for no apparent reason.

The latest one is on day 14 and showing no signs of stopping despite taking 1200mg of ibuprofen, followed by 900mg of aspirin as advised by the GP or 6 doses of Naproxen which was prescribed by the out of hours GP on Tuesday, so after a visit to the GP this evening there has been a change of preventative medication and a strong pain killer usually used to manage drug addicts withdrawal symptoms.

In the past I've tried all sorts of preventative medications and pain killers, all work for a period of time, some of them have had the most horrendous side effects and quite a few have left me with headaches.

In the past 14 days, I've visited people, been out shopping, cleaned the house, done some sewing, ironing and been to work.

I can function with a migraine, drive, cook, blog, watch TV. What I can't do is sit in a darkened quiet room, because my senses are tightened and I can hear the fridge humming and the slightest chink of light is like a torch shining in my face.

It feels like someone is twisting a hot cork screw in the side of my head. I know exactly what that feels like as I've had a bone marrow biopsy. I find it difficult to find words to describe things, I can't answer simple yes or no questions. The pain is predominately left sided but can switch suddenly to behind my right eye. I also get random shooting pains in my arms and legs that literally cripple me for a split second.

I can sleep with a migraine, which is what people find weird, and when I wake up, I forget it's there, until I sit up and it feels like I've been hit on the side of the head with a brick. Heat pads and hot water bottles dampen the pain temporarily, a bath helps, as does a can of coke and caffeine. 

There's lots of things I can do to lessen the pain, but nothing I can do to make them go away.

Do you have migraines? 

4 comments:

  1. I used to suffer with really bad migraines which were caused by cheese. I narrowed it down to the main culprit being cheddar cheese. Now I tend to stick to mozzarella and now I only get migraines when I am overtired or haven't drank enough.
    It sounds like you have really been through it. It must help that you can function when you have a migraine but I suppose you have to. It sounds awful. x

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    1. I can get migraines when I don't sleep or drink enough

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  2. I can feel your pain "literally" I was diagnosed with "complicated migraines" in 2016. I'm told that type is rare, while some migrainers get auras I get stroke symptoms. Chest pain, numbness, facial droop and numbness, slurred speech. Those symptoms don't last long and do not hurt me in the long run. I had those times when I had to go to the hospital emergency room and be hooked up to a migraine "cocktail", and other times admitted to the hospital to be hooked up to a drip every six hours. And I have chronic daily migraine on top of that, it's there all the time all day every day. Sweet friend, you are not alone. If you ever want to talk drop me a line at hello@simplycoffeeandjesus.com

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    1. sorry to hear you suffer also, apart from the auras, the other weird symptoms I get are the confusion with finding the name of everyday items

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