Friday, January 23, 2009

Migraine Thursday (Friday Update)

I never should've weaned Claire. I should have breastfed her until she went away to college. Seriously. I forgot how bad it is to have hormones. I forgot about migraines.

I can honestly say that having a migraine is worse than being in labor, at least for me. At least when you're having a baby, everyone is there cheering you on, telling you that you're doing great, and at the end you have a baby. When you have a migraine, it's just you and your pain, alone in the dark, wanting to cry but knowing that it'll actually make the pain worse. Ugh.

Imitrex works, but it's weird. It feels like it pushes the pain out of the top of your head, so your migraine gradually moves up from your ears and gets smaller and smaller until you realize it's gone. Then you're just left with shoulder and neck pain from trying to hold Very still so as not to disturb your migraine. I wonder if the shots work any better? If this continues (every 3 weeks!) I may have to overcome my needle thing and try it. The doctor (not our usual doc, his partner) offered me a preventative medicine that you take at bedtime, but it apparently knocks you out, and I told her that with the kids still getting up in the night, I can't be knocked out. It's not safe. I may also have to revise that opinion and let BJ deal with the nighttime shenanigans around here so that I can stop losing entire days to headaches.

I took the kids down to the Children's Museum yesterday, and Claire kept running away. She ran away in Garden Ridge (the store we stopped at to get my mom some chairs - have you been there? It's AWESOME, like a Tuesday Morning on steroids. I got a couple of rugs (yay!) and need to go back when I have fewer kids and more time and money). She thought we were playing hide and seek. I could hear her laughing, but she's so short that I couldn't see her. It was horrifying. As if that wasn't bad enough, she and Mary Grace kept running in opposite directions in the museum. Thank goodness it wasn't crowded yesterday. The final straw was when, as we were leaving, she ran around the front of the car and away from me in the parking garage. Oh. No. You. Didn't. Claire!

I'm not taking this child anywhere else until she grows some sense.

Anyway, that's approximately when the migraine started, so I really can't say if it was hormones or stress. Either way, BJ ended up making dinner and I went to bed at 7:30, and didn't get up until 6:30 this morning. I didn't sleep that whole time - I finally fell asleep at about 9:30, and I was up for a while around 4, but I couldn't do anything but lie still. It was hideous. Definitely not something I want to make a habit of with two small, noisy kids in the house.

My cousin started an online family tree and asked for help, so using my mad googling skillz and the recognition of names that I'd seen before in our family geneaology when my great-grandma had it, I got her back to 1500 (this was before I went to bed, while BJ was making supper). Boo-ya! Not bad at all. Of course, it's all secondary sources, but there was some really cool information on some of the websites. We're directly descended from this dude named Ephraim Minor, who was important enough to be the jumping off point for a lot of geneaologists. He lived from 1642 - 1724, and probably has thousands and thousands of living descendants. In fact, knowing that he's in my geneaology will probably cause several of you to realize that we're related. I'm working on fleshing out the direct ancestors in another branch tonight, if I finish blogging and Claire stops chewing on goofy things (like the dining room table).

Oh, wait, it's mostly family who reads this. You already KNOW that we're related. Duh.

Nothing else much going on. I had a friend come over for a visit today while MG was at school, then went to work this afternoon. What's new with you?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amy,

The shots work well, but feel even crazier. One of my friends gets some other stuff she likes better, I will ask her. :) Mandy

Anonymous said...

If she's a runner, get the harness and leash. It helps, really. The peace of mind is so worth it.
(mom of 4, two of whom should be track stars)

Would going on a longer phase birthcontrol help? Like Seasonale? (period 4 times a year). I love love love my Mirena IUD.

Sorry, I don't know if you are Catholic or contemplating more kids, just a suggestion.

Cate said...

So sorry for your migraine -- eesh. Just before Christmas I had a severe outbreak of hives -- I've never had hives, and it started with just some patches, I thought it would go away with Benadryl -- no, I should not have been so positive. It lasted five days, itching all over my body -- I mean, "itching" sounds so tame compared to what it was, it was like my skin was being consumed by fire or something. So during that I also thought, "My god this is like childbirth --" because it was such a full body experience you couldn't escape from, but then I realized it was worse, because there was no rhythm, coming and going like contractions, it was just hell.(It eventually swelled up my throat and I had to take steriods to stop it. Now I am one of the epipen-carrying members of the population; allergy testing has not revealed the cause.)

So, anyway, maybe we should start a list of things that are like childbirth -- but essentially worse, without the big reward at the end?

Also, what do men have to compare extreme experiences with, do you think? :)

Anonymous said...

I've gotten migraines as often as daily. Nothing works for me unless I mix my drugs. I'm fond of Excedrin Migraine (a/k/a Excedrin Extra Strength), Imitrex (which I cut in half), Benadryl (my migraines tend to have a histamine component) and Ultram (a prescription pain killer). I usually start out with one Excedrin. If there's no progress in an hour, then I add a half tablet of the Imitrex along with half a tablet of Ultram. I'll keep adding drugs every hour or so.

Momo Fali said...

My migraines have gotten so bad that sometimes I have to go to the doctor to get an injection of Dilaudid. That stuff is so strong that I'm completely knocked out for the rest of the day.

Imitrex doesn't work for me, but if I catch it REALLY early, sometimes Maxalt does.

KaityK said...

I had the WORST migraine of my life at the beginning of my pregnancy...I had it for 2 days before I went to Urgent Care. They gave me a shot of Nubain because when you're pregnant you can't have imitrex. The Nubain worked, but it's super strong and I slept for like a day and a half so it's not a very practical solution.
You have my sympathy though; there is NOTHING worse than a migraine. It's completely debilitating. I hope you find something that works for you!!

Anonymous said...

Part 2
Stress and hormones aren't the only triggers; caffeine comes to mind. You need a specialist -- a neurologist specializing in headaches. Contact Lawrence Robbins, M.D. (847-480-9399) near Chicago and ask for a recommendation in the central part of your state. Read his Web site: www.headachedrugs.com.

Anonymous said...

Part 3
Read _Headache Help_ by Lawrence Robbins, M.D. and Susan S. Lang. Read _Migraine: The Complete Guide_ by The American Council for Headache Education with Lynne M. Constantine and Suzanne Scott.

Keep notes on your lifestyle so you can figure out what's triggering the migraines ... and what's helping to alleviate them. Start treatment at the very first sign of what might possibly be a migraine; waiting two hours will be too late.