#cause i don't have a primary doctor close to my anymore

[raybansandcoffee]

Thank you for that reply! People often think I'm being a baby or lazy cause I just wanna sleep but in reality I can barely function my head hurts so bad. Its hard not to have energy to do basic things. Regular ibuprofen also never works -- I take it for cramps sometimes. Do you have any tips you don't mind sharing?

I’m happy to share some of the things that I do or have tried. I’ll share with you tips but if you want any details on the different treatments I’ve tried (botox, acupuncture, different pain injections, etc.) I’m happy to give you info on that too, just ask :). My neurologist is super non-traditional and has tried a lot of different things with me, not all of them have worked but he’s always willing to try which is incredibly helpful.

So my go-to tricks are usually from this list (it’s a big long so it is after the jump but because every migraineur is different I want to let you know why they work for me in case you have a different symptom - I’d hate for my suggestions to make a migraine worse):

- Dark cool room: I have had black out curtains which are AMAZING! They help keep the room cool which is always helpful to me. I have my air conditioning cranked right now because it’s been hot and humid here all week. We were in the midst of a heat wave which was NOT my friend. I have a lot of light sensitivity so I try to have the room as dark as possible. If I can’t get it dark I wear sunglasses if I need to function and see or a sleep mask if I don’t.

- Ice Packs: Some people say heat helps them, I find it does the opposite. Because migraines are technically a vascular headache the blood vessels leading to your brain expand, heat makes that worse. I have a variety of sizes from the kind that goes over your eyes to one that is basically like a velcro headband that can put pressure on my head while applying ice around the entire thing - It’s amazing! I also have one that is large enough that it can cover most of my back, so I use it on my shoulders and neck. My pain radiates from my left temple/top of my left head down into my neck and shoulder. And then they all just feed into each other.

- Water!: I don’t drink nearly enough but I also can’t stress how important it is. Evie’s experience at the neurologist being dehydrated is based on personal experience for me, unfortunately so was the panic attack that followed. I tend to get dehydrated easily when I’m sick. The case that I was basing Evie’s experience off of involves a prescription for prednisone pills that tapered off throughout a week. No matter how much water I drink if I’m on steroid pills I end up dehydrated and awake for like 72 hours. I have tiny veins, to begin with, so the bruises from that IV were HUGE. It’s important to make sure you drink as many fluids as possible (water, sports drinks, juices). I do have an app called My Water that I have a notification on that goes off every 30 minutes that reminds me to drink water, it can be set from every 15 minutes to every few hours all at your discretion. It pushes notifications to my Apple Watch as well which is helpful and has been wonderful the last two weeks as I’ve gone through this rough patch. It wakes me up just enough to take a few drinks.

- Caffeine and Sugar: I have had a variety of doctors have a variety of opinions on this but it works for me. I love coffee (thus the raybansandcoffee username) but I have had to cut back over the years because too much caffeine can be a trigger. But when a migraine is coming caffeine and sugar can help me kick the medicine into gear faster. I have a hard time with the over-the-counter migraine medications though most of them have caffeine in them. I take prescription strength naproxen (Aleve) along with Imitrex and an anti-nausea medication at the onset of a migraine. I had a friend who was in nursing school test a theory on me. I’m a Diet Coke addict. It’s my life. Fake sugar is also a migraine trigger for me, though Diet Coke has never caused problems on its own, it’s things with a higher amount of fake sugar mainly aspartame (NutraSweet). She told me to start drinking regular Mt. Dew at the onset of a headache and it sort of helped. I switched the energy drinks I use, stopped using sugar substitutes in coffees because NutraSweet itself would cause a headache. Sucralose or Splenda hasn’t caused as many issues with me which is the sugar substitute used in syrups at Starbucks, I had a friend that was a barista research that for me. I tend to avoid the substitutes just to be safe, my brain likes it, my waistline maybe doesn’t, haha.

- Sleep: I know that’s obvious and sometimes hard to achieve. Often times the pain is bad enough that you are left awake from it and the caffeine in the over-the-counter medications. If your migraines involve a lot of nausea I suggest asking a doctor for an anti-nausea medication, mine also helps me sleep which helps relieve the pain. If you don’t like prescriptions or don’t have access to health insurance Benadryl is a great alternative. My anti-nausea is an antihistamine that is a stronger medication than Benadryl but often times if I need to be awake early the next day for work I substitute it. Benadryl’s active ingredient is used to treat nausea and vomiting due to motion sickness and has worked well for me, it also is a sleep aid. Follow the directions on ANY medication I suggest and always, always, ALWAYS talk to your primary care physician or nurse because I am not a medical professional just a person with a lot of history with migraines.

- A good old fashioned orgasm: Yup, it sounds weird and every movie and TV show with a wife who ‘had a headache’ is lying…sort of. The orgasm is the key to it, haha and unfortunately that’s not always guaranteed. So whether it’s through sex or self-pleasure sometimes it works. I know my body well enough to know if sex is going to make it better or worse and when it makes it worse it makes it A LOT worse. The dude in my life flat out refuses to try and help in that manner because there were a few occasions where it made it worse and we went from being happy and snuggly after a round of good sex to me on the floor of his bedroom in the fetal position. That’s not a sexy thing to do, trust me. Haha. It’s a risk that I’m not usually willing to take anymore because of that. But I have friends who swear by it so I have to put it out there.

- Massage therapy and aromatherapy: Always be open with the therapist that you have migraines and let them know if you currently have one. I have gotten massages for about 3 or 4 years as part of my care. Either to prevent or relieve. Hot stones can be amazing but I have to be careful as does the therapist. If it’s too hot or too close to my neck it can cause an increase in pain. Cool stones can do a lot to relieve the pain I experience behind my eyes. A lot of massage therapists use aromatherapy, be careful if you have scent issues like I do you need to make sure that it’s not something that will aggravate your migraines. I’ve found safe scents for me are lavender and peppermint. Peppermint can work wonders when it comes to nausea too so I suggest keeping a roll on of that in a purse or backpack. I have one that is a blend specifically for migraines that I bought on Amazon that I used to keep in my desk at work when I was in a traditional office.

- Find support: This is the hardest one. I am lucky that I have family who is loving and caring and a few of them have a history with this shitty condition. It took a while for them to understand just how bad they would get and a lot of people, friends and family, thought it was an excuse and that I just didn’t want to go to work. It took them noticing the signs with me and seeing me fight through a lot of it to realize that I wasn’t lying. The key physical sign for me is my pupils dilate and get super huge…on my right side. My left side is trying to compensate for the pain my brain is in as well as the sensitivity to light and gets small. Yup, I have unevenly dilated pupils, it’s creepy and weird and sometimes I look like a drug addict. But once they were able to see the signs I’d have my brother or a parent say ‘how’s your head feeling’ because they’d see how huge my pupils had gotten. My friends learned to understand that when I was well I’d be there for them without question and happy to go out and have fun but if I wasn’t I did the bare minimums in life. I worked and slept. I found a counselor that was willing to listen to me about all of the things going on in my life and help me talk through some of my anxieties as well as how to approach life and new situations when my migraines cause problems. I am on my third neurologist but he is amazing! It took a lot of trial and error to find what would work for me but he kept trying. It’s also nice to know a few fellow migraineurs because we can compare notes and keep each other upbeat when the days get long…I mean fuck I’m approaching 16 days in a row with migraines. If I didn’t have a community of people to support me and a few to listen and not say “Have you tried going gluten free it worked for me and I used to get like 3 migraines a year” - on a side note I’d rather have a migraine every day than give up gluten, we all make life decisions that is mine. Haha. I am never going to tell someone I know what will work for them because what works for me doesn’t work for others and vice versa. 

So if you don’t have any friends who also experience then know you can ALWAYS come to me. I will listen, offer advice where necessary and requested, and just be here to listen if you need someone to. If you don’t want to share it publicly feel free to PM me off anon and let me know that you don’t want it public and we can communicate back and forth that way. I also have my messages turned on so you can do that as well. Hell if you want my email or my KIK I’ll hand it over. It’s tough to find support when you’re always afraid people are going to judge you, think you’re lazy or in the case of the last week of my life a junkie who just wants drugs. You can also follow my main blog @iowagirlwrites. I tend to blog a little bit more about my health conditions (chronic migraines, anxiety, depression and a history with agoraphobia) over there. I also try and find humor in my migraines and often blog there about that too. I don’t want to overwhelm my readers here with a lot of bummery stuff but I also want them to know that I’m human and I go through shit and that I’m always willing to talk. I’m much older than a lot of my readers as I’m in my early 30s (what can I say Harry is cute and won me over easily when he was a wee 19-year-old). I’ve been through a lot of what my readers are going through and survived. So I am always here for them, sort of like a big sister or friend or something. I didn’t have a lot of people to turn to when I went through the worst of my health so I want people to know they can come to me. 

I hope something I’ve suggested helps you. If you have something you’re thinking about shoot it over and I’ll let you know if I’ve tried it and how it worked for me. I hope your migraines don’t give you too much crap.

But know I’m going to take something to try and get rid of my migraine or at least put me to sleep until morning.

xx AM.

#ask away