Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Self-Medication For Headaches

I have been getting fewer headaches lately so I thought I'd share my regimen. Lisa Valentine Clark has been keeping track of my headaches for years now and noticed a seasonal pattern. I started taking allergy medicine and it helps a lot.

I did have a little outbreak of migraines about a month ago. My last migraine started at church during sacrament meeting on fast Sunday. Since they are fairly (if temporarily) debilitating I had to get out of there fast so I started incoherently texting the primary presidency to cover for me and I had my father-in-law drive me home. I totally pulled a Lohann!  Christian was sitting on the stand so I gave him a meaningful look. I was sure he felt my pain. As it turns out, he had no idea what was happening. This makes me concerned that my meaningful looks are not conveying everything I thought they were. Also, that's the last time I try fasting.

Unfortunately, I'm out of migraine medicine. I'm sorry but I just don't have time to see a doctor to get a refill--I'm too busy writing blogs about how I self-medicate. So while my migraines are less frequent, they are much worse when I do get them on account of no medicine. I wonder what I could do about that. Nothing, I guess! Let me just finish this blog post...

But I get other headaches too. I've noticed that if I eat less candy and take more naps I can eliminate almost all of my non-migraine headaches. I can still eat candy and sugar, but if I eat a whole (and by "whole" I mean 2lbs) bag of M&Ms I get kind of a hazy all-over gnawing headache. The most useful thing I've found for headache elimination is a short nap. Even just 10 minutes will do. It's like it pushes a reset button and clears the headache. I never knew a short nap would be beneficial. But it is. And now you know too.

I used to wake up almost every morning with a headache. It was horrible and made me sad. Then I discovered finishing sleep.  I need my finishing sleep. At a certain stage in life it's impossible to ever get finishing sleep because of babies. But now I can usually get my finishing sleep. If Ellen wakes me up at say, 5am, to get in bed with me I will have a headache. But if I can go back to sleep for just a little while the headache will go away. That's finishing sleep. I need it. Of course, I'm not a doctor!

I hope you don't get a lot of headaches.

12 comments:

  1. We have disagreed in the past about which is worse, a mild headache or a mild stomach ache, and up until recently I've never really had a bad headache much less a full on migraine but I still have to say that I'd prefer a mild back of the skull pain to even a little bit of nausea. Nausea debilitates me. But stomach aches can only get so bad until you throw up and feel better so they don't really compare to migraines. Do you wish you could throw up your migraines in some kind of equivalent way? What would that entail?

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    1. Stomach aches are bad but a headache is your brain. That's what I hate. I throw up with migraines but it isn't good at all.

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  2. I've been trying to explain to my Husband the need I have for sleep after the main night sleep and your term "finishing sleep" says it all perfectly and makes it sound scientifically researched and identified, making me justified in doing it on a regular basis. For my own health.

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  3. You arent going to believe this. I'm getting a migraine right now! The day I wrote this. I'm pulling a Lohann right naow...bleh. Irony.

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  4. I get a lot of Monday headaches that are really just weekend hangovers because I drink lots of water at work all day but then I'm not bored on the weekends so I don't have as much time for something like drinking water. So, yeah. Make sure you're hydrated.

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  5. I second the fast sunday migraines. Those are brutal. I get headaches about once a week, (probable culprit is all the candy I eat....dangit!), and the Excedrin migraine pills seem to usually do the trick if I catch it in time.

    I also need "finishing sleep"!! I call it my morning nap. Wake up, put a show on for the kids, give them their sippy cups and I go back to sleep for 45 mins/hour. I don't nap during the day, so I feel no guilt doing that! It's the best.

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  6. I get a headache every Sunday without fail, fast Sunday or not. Maybe I should abstain from attending church? I think God would understand.

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  7. So interesting you would mention the 10 min. nap. I grew up getting headaches weekly. They would start small and almost always end in vomiting. And they were almost always on Sunday. I learned that if I could fall asleep right as I felt it coming on (even if just for a few minutes - I believed it was the actual falling asleep that did it, not the sleeping), it would go away. That and protein. Sometimes if I would hurry and eat a piece of cheese, they would disappear. Since college, I haven't had the weekly headaches, and they have tapered off quite nicely. But now I get migraines that make me dizzy. Not often, thank goodness. The only thing that helps mine is a Mountain Dew and TONS of ibuprofen. And sleep. Since I started eating super healthy and drinking enough water to make me feel like I'm drowning, I haven't had one single headache, but it's only been 4 months, so we'll see. My husband has a headache every day (he says as far back as he can remember). I wonder if it's because he doesn't ever get his finishing sleep. Very interesting. Can you tell that headaches are a subject near and dear to my heart?

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    1. I think it's the actual falling asleep that does it, too. The question is, what causes a headache that falling asleep cures?

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  8. Anonymous4:54 PM

    My doctor says migraines can be hormonal - I tend to get them around that time of the month. The only thing that helps (besides my prescription meds) is sleep. We all need a little more finishing sleep.

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  9. Anonymous11:05 AM

    Water. Lots and lots of water is my surefire way to end a headache. I recently developed an allergy to Advil and have had to tweak my headache routine. Basically, what it comes down to is this: take a couple of tylenol, drink at least (usually double this) a quart of water and hope for the best (on weekends or at night, I like to lay down and close my eyes...sleep is good). I also pretty much abstain from caffine, and usually have to drink a bunch of water to compensate. But I am a lot better now at recognizing the symptoms, and making sure I stay hydrated.

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  10. It totally makes sense that falling asleep would help a migraine. Think about it, brain waves slow down, muscle activity slows down, the body releases melatonin and the levels of adenosine drop. Basically a total mandatory relaxation session. My question is, how can all of you nap so easily? It takes me ages to unwind enough to sleep.

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