I'm not talking about the side effects on me (i.e. headache, nausea, vomiting, dizzy, exhaustion, lethargy, etc.) but those on my family.
My husband has been to hell and back with me this past year since these migraines entered our lives. I'm not saying we're perfect, but we have a wonderful marriage. He's my perfect match and I feel blessed eternally for the choice I had in marrying him. It was smooth sailing for the first eight years of marriage and then these migraines struck us from the side.
Wow. Talk about hitting the brakes in life! It was so difficult for everybody in the home when they came because, "when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." I spent two months on the couch. Getting up to do dishes or make dinner (things that before were so standard, needed and effortless) would trigger a migraine, massive dizziness and terrible nausea. So I only got off the couch for changing the movie (which I forced several a day on the girls) or dietary and restroom needs. My daughters learned to get food for themselves, though they would bring items to me for approval and access (like yogurt or cheese sticks).
Geoff would get home and toys would be all over, laundry not done, dinner not ready, girls bored and Mama...well I would go upstairs to bed after an exhausting day of laying down. And truly, after a day like that, I was exhausted and in pain.
I was spent. Geoff was spent (graduate school student and working and single parent). My girls....they had energy to spend. We all suffered. Looking back, Geoff and I marvel on how we all got through it. But we did.
My migraines since then have never been that bad. Back then, I had one big bad refractory migraine which the prednisone, after eight weeks of this, treated. I do have bad days still. But I know that they are migraines and so it takes the fear of "is this a tumor and am I going to die?" out of it. I also am building up a pain tolerance, so, for a lot of my migraines I can still function quite well and sometimes without medication. That is one of the beauties of our bodies: they adjust and get used to pain when something gets chronic.
Slowly, we are healing from last year. Slowly, my neurologist and I are getting better at treating my migraines. Slowly, my family is getting better at dealing with the migraines when they occur.
And I think this difficult transition we experienced and are still experiencing parallels with so many others' illnesses, be they migraines or other things much worse. I think the depression that went along with my migraines was the worst part. I am much more positive now with the migraines and my life. I am hopeful that I can find a good formula for preventing most of them, and am starting to get the formula down for treating them. And this is how life is.
We have a Father in Heaven who is mindful of us. I know this. He loves us. He strengthens us in our adversity to learn not just to endure our trials, but to endure them well.
To be able to communicate with my husband effectively is the most critical part of my healing. (I'm reading a book right now and the author, an oncologist and surgeon, writes about the difference between healing and curing. One can heal emotionally, without being cured physically. And he talks about the importance of this.) These migraines aren't going to just go away, it seems. So without them changing, we change. I adjust. My husband adjusts. My children can have a whole mother and a whole father through all of this and we can be a whole family, migraines and all.
I suggest to you migraineurs or anybody suffering: if you have difficulty expressing your emotions or your needs, if you feel your environment doesn't facilitate this process, consider going to a therapist! I haven't seen one for this problem, but I have considered it at times to learn to transition better. Migraines (or many other illnesses) can make you feel so powerless. But action on your part can be so empowering. Therapists can give you tools that will not only help you talk with your doctor more effectively, but your family as well.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Simple Blood Test for Stroke Risk in Migraineurs
My neurologist visits with me on the phone about once a month, instead of my having to drive down to see him and do the copay, find a babysitter, and pay for gas. He started doing this with his patients when the gas prices went up.
My brother, thirty-two years old and a migraineur since the age of ten had a Vertebral Artery Dissection and then a Transient Ischemic Attack almost a month ago. This had me on the internet looking at stroke risk in migraineurs. (Just to clarify, VAD can happen to anybody just from being in a car accident or cracking ones neck.)
So of course I had some nervous (ha ha--no pun to neurologists, really!) questions regarding the stroke issue. My neurologist said there is a simple blood test to help determine risk for this.
I haven't had the blood test yet, and I can't remember the name of the antibody he said the test looks for. But I googled "stroke migraine blood test" or something like that and came up with this article. Perhaps this is what he is talking about?
Interesting. Talk to your doctor. And by the way, if you aren't seeing a neurologist to treat your migraines, but a PCP, and your treatment isn't working...to quote my friend whose been a nurse for years, "get thee to a neurologist!" I can't stress how important it is to be an advocate for yourself, not to be afraid of your doctor and his/her nurse, but be aggressively assertive! You deserve the best care.
My brother, thirty-two years old and a migraineur since the age of ten had a Vertebral Artery Dissection and then a Transient Ischemic Attack almost a month ago. This had me on the internet looking at stroke risk in migraineurs. (Just to clarify, VAD can happen to anybody just from being in a car accident or cracking ones neck.)
So of course I had some nervous (ha ha--no pun to neurologists, really!) questions regarding the stroke issue. My neurologist said there is a simple blood test to help determine risk for this.
I haven't had the blood test yet, and I can't remember the name of the antibody he said the test looks for. But I googled "stroke migraine blood test" or something like that and came up with this article. Perhaps this is what he is talking about?
Interesting. Talk to your doctor. And by the way, if you aren't seeing a neurologist to treat your migraines, but a PCP, and your treatment isn't working...to quote my friend whose been a nurse for years, "get thee to a neurologist!" I can't stress how important it is to be an advocate for yourself, not to be afraid of your doctor and his/her nurse, but be aggressively assertive! You deserve the best care.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
talking to the muscle...
As part of migraine treatment, I went to massage therapy for a while. Geoff was the one who suggested it...when your husband tells you that you should go get massages: you go and get massages! Our insurance didn't cover it, unfortunately, but I went ahead anyway.
They helped a little. They got me through some difficult times. Though one I had did trigger a migraine...though I think drinking water triggered migraines for me for a while! :)
To my point:
My wonderful therapist, whom I haven't seen for a while, was talking to me one time about relaxing the muscles. She said something to the effect, "It may sound really weird, but I talk to my muscles. If I feel a muscle tighten, I talk to that muscle." She went on about how she reassured it, and told it that it didn't need to be tightening.
I didn't think it sounded too weird. But it wasn't until lately that I've been trying it.
You see, at the base of my neck, where the shoulder meets the neck, and then up through to to base of my skull, the muscles tighten, sometimes, as my neurologist and I believe, causing some of my migraines. I'm pretty sure it is stress, both physical and emotional, that accounts for this tightening.
Physical stress: my trapezius muscle in the middle and lower area are weak. At the gym, one to two times a week, I do resistance training targeting that muscle area. Because those muscles are weak, the top of my shoulder does a lot of work. I was talking to my mother today and she mentioned something that made me think that perhaps her middle and lower trapezius muscle is weak and that I have a genetic disposition to this. But not sentence! That is where weight lifting comes in to strengthen the weak.
Emotional Stress: well. This is a completely different arena. I don't have to be lifting something for those muscles to go into a little spasm or start tightening up, though lifting has triggered a migraine that began with lovely vertigo and vomiting...Mom still hesitates to ask me to lift things for her. Back to subject: As soon as I feel the pain my arm goes up there, sometimes without thinking, to massage and "smooth" the area. The past few days I've thought about what my massage therapist said and I started "talking" to that group of muscles. Tonight I "talked" to the muscles about stress, and to try to push that tightening down to my arm (while I stretched out my arm), that my arm could handle the stress and push it out. A little mental imagery for me and my cute little tight neck muscles.
I am sure I sound crazy. (Just between you and me, I am, just a bit!)
But lo and behold, I'm not having a migraine right now and my neck muscles are relaxed. That is power. All from a little self talk. Maybe I can try it on a migraine? Push the pain down and out of my head, past my shoulders and out of my hands? I'm not sure...but it can't hurt to try. Maybe I could go one step further, before the pain starts, after an aura (that I can't see coming) and talk myself out of a painful day?
Maybe I'll start talking to my adipose tissue and tell those fat cells that they don't need to hoard all that energy in them...that energy can be excused to leave my body! Seriously...I think I'll try it. Like when I'm on the treadmill or elliptical or doing yoga or lifting weights....after all, you have to earn it, right?
What have you told your body today?
They helped a little. They got me through some difficult times. Though one I had did trigger a migraine...though I think drinking water triggered migraines for me for a while! :)
To my point:
My wonderful therapist, whom I haven't seen for a while, was talking to me one time about relaxing the muscles. She said something to the effect, "It may sound really weird, but I talk to my muscles. If I feel a muscle tighten, I talk to that muscle." She went on about how she reassured it, and told it that it didn't need to be tightening.
I didn't think it sounded too weird. But it wasn't until lately that I've been trying it.
You see, at the base of my neck, where the shoulder meets the neck, and then up through to to base of my skull, the muscles tighten, sometimes, as my neurologist and I believe, causing some of my migraines. I'm pretty sure it is stress, both physical and emotional, that accounts for this tightening.
Physical stress: my trapezius muscle in the middle and lower area are weak. At the gym, one to two times a week, I do resistance training targeting that muscle area. Because those muscles are weak, the top of my shoulder does a lot of work. I was talking to my mother today and she mentioned something that made me think that perhaps her middle and lower trapezius muscle is weak and that I have a genetic disposition to this. But not sentence! That is where weight lifting comes in to strengthen the weak.
Emotional Stress: well. This is a completely different arena. I don't have to be lifting something for those muscles to go into a little spasm or start tightening up, though lifting has triggered a migraine that began with lovely vertigo and vomiting...Mom still hesitates to ask me to lift things for her. Back to subject: As soon as I feel the pain my arm goes up there, sometimes without thinking, to massage and "smooth" the area. The past few days I've thought about what my massage therapist said and I started "talking" to that group of muscles. Tonight I "talked" to the muscles about stress, and to try to push that tightening down to my arm (while I stretched out my arm), that my arm could handle the stress and push it out. A little mental imagery for me and my cute little tight neck muscles.
I am sure I sound crazy. (Just between you and me, I am, just a bit!)
But lo and behold, I'm not having a migraine right now and my neck muscles are relaxed. That is power. All from a little self talk. Maybe I can try it on a migraine? Push the pain down and out of my head, past my shoulders and out of my hands? I'm not sure...but it can't hurt to try. Maybe I could go one step further, before the pain starts, after an aura (that I can't see coming) and talk myself out of a painful day?
Maybe I'll start talking to my adipose tissue and tell those fat cells that they don't need to hoard all that energy in them...that energy can be excused to leave my body! Seriously...I think I'll try it. Like when I'm on the treadmill or elliptical or doing yoga or lifting weights....after all, you have to earn it, right?
What have you told your body today?
Studies on Vitamin B-2, CoQ10 and Butterbur
Yoga
I did yoga today at my gym. I looked up the schedule last week and decided to treat my body to this ancient practice.I'm looking for things to help take tension away from my neck and was inspired to try this.
Inspiration, indeed.
It was one hour of "gentle yoga" and it was an hour well spent. It wasn't too strenuous (helps that I'm limber, probably) though some poses did challenge me and during some my trapezius muscle, lower between the shoulder blades burned a little. At the end of the hour I noticed that my shoulders were completely relaxed. No pain! Wow! When does that happen? Not even after a massage do I feel like that.
It has brought up an interesting point in my life, to me: do I breathe? I feel like I hold my breath or take shallow breaths.
I also noticed during the class how negative my thoughts are towards myself. Because I was so focused on getting these poses right, the only left in my thoughts were of how I looked when doing the poses. I assume some of the weight on my shoulders comes from stress I give myself from this "stinkin' thinkin'" and I'm going to put a stop to that. Because stress...well, it's not so great for the body. There's already enough stress in the day; I don't need it coming from me.
So, three goals I made today:
1.) Continue yoga at least once a week. (My gym offers two classes that I could fit in.)
2.) Breathe. Really Breathe.
3.) Start talking nicely to myself.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Butterbur
I am currently taking Butterbur, 75mg, once a day.Here is the results of and description of the studies done.
Nothing great from it has happened yet...but I've only been taking it for a few weeks.
I have to admit: I'm not much of a "natural" person when it comes to medicine. BUT, my neurologist wants me to do this AND it doesn't have any side effects AND if it works to reduce them by 50% in other people...why not me?
It's pretty, isn't it?
My history and treatment
My migraines started in July of 2007, on the first day of my period. It took eight weeks to diagnose because my aura, vertigo so bad that it brings me to vomit, isn't as typical. I would get the vertigo which lasted only five minutes or less. Then I would get a headache with massive pain at the base of my skull on the left side. The severe vertigo only came once or twice a week. The rest of the time, I would be dizzy, nauseous and have a headache. Every day for two months.
At the end of the first week, after having the severe vertigo twice, I saw my doctor. I knew that it was a migraine that I had after the vertigo I experienced. I asked him if the vertigo caused the migraine or if I had a the vertigo because I was getting a migraine. He said the migraine came on because of the vertigo. He diagnosed it as a "viral inner ear infection" and a few weeks later a "bacterial inner ear infection" and prescribed antibiotics. A few weeks later, after the antibiotics did nothing, my primary care doctor sent me to an otolaryngologist (or ENT, for ear/nose/throat) to sort out my problem. The ENT ordered an MRI which ruled out a tumor and he quickly came to the assumption of migraines (which was my initial assumption).
Six weeks after onset
I went back to my PCP with the migraine diagnosis which surprised him. He talked to me about a few options on the migraine medication (he prescribed imitrex to abort) and I tried them. They did nothing. After a few more weeks, I reluctantly (didn't want to hurt my doctor's feelings) asked to see a neurologist.
The neurologist put me on prednisone, stating that the medications I was given wouldn't work on this migraine because it had been going on so long and you are to take those meds at the beginning of a migraine. He also put me on lexapro, thinking it would help balance out my serotonin. This was also a fine thing to be on since, in retrospect, the debilitating migraines had brought on a severe depression. I had never been depressed in my life before--WOW! that can be it's own blog. :)
One month later (three months after onset)
Well...the prednisone helped a lot. The lexapro...I didn't see much difference. The migraines went down to three a week and I wasn't having a severe vertigo aura, though I was still dizzy often. After finding that didn't help, he put me on topamax, a heavy hitting seizure drug that is found effective on migraines. This helped! Because my neurologist felt that it was the combination of the lexapro and topamax, I stayed on the lexapro.
Eight months after onset (I saw my neurologist once a month)
My neurologist changed but at the same facility. I discussed with her the side effects I didn't like on the lexapro and she said I could taper slowly off of it if I wanted. I did. Major migraines with the slightest change in dose. I decided to stay on it.
Nine months after onset
I was still having migraines, but only during my period; though I had several little "non-migraine" headaches throughout the month. My neurologist sent me to a gynecologist to put me on the birth control pill to stop my period entirely. This took ALL of the headaches (even the ones I considered "non-migraines"-which my neurologist said were probably migraines) away for one month....until the topamax got in the way of the pill working.
Ten months after onset
Because of the efficacy of the pill being compromised, I got off the topamax. A few weeks later (and a new neurologist at a different facility because of insurance changing) I got off the lexapro. This was two months of hell. Well, not two months of hell (that was July and August of 2007!). But so many migraines. My neurologist said to just go through it. It was worth it in the end. One less medication to take. My new (and current) neurologist also said to do neck traction to treat my neck problem (interesting that he was the first to listen and assume it's role in the migraine), and to take Vitamin B-2 (200 mg, twice a day) and CoQ10 (300 mg, once a day). These were for preventative care and he prescribed me Migranal, a nasal spray that clamps down on the arteries to stop an attack.
One year after (and still trying to figure it out....)
The Migranal helped, but not entirely. Still I would have nausea and pain sometimes. So my neurologist added three adult aspirin and some anti-nausea drug. This is my current abortive treatment and it works well. Also, my neurologist isn't convinced that the birth control pill helps migraines. Though I've seen it work for me I don't like the weight retention it causes. I stopped it over a month ago. It brought on...can you guess? Yes, more migraines. I had to do another prednisone treatment (for the past seven months or so, whenever I have a migraine for three days in a row, he has me take a prednisone taper to stop the cycle.) and just finished it last week.
As of this past week...
Migraine on Saturday that I took the drugs for and it only lasted the morning and afternoon.
Then yesterday evening...I didn't take drugs, it was extremely painful but only lasted four hours.
At the end of the first week, after having the severe vertigo twice, I saw my doctor. I knew that it was a migraine that I had after the vertigo I experienced. I asked him if the vertigo caused the migraine or if I had a the vertigo because I was getting a migraine. He said the migraine came on because of the vertigo. He diagnosed it as a "viral inner ear infection" and a few weeks later a "bacterial inner ear infection" and prescribed antibiotics. A few weeks later, after the antibiotics did nothing, my primary care doctor sent me to an otolaryngologist (or ENT, for ear/nose/throat) to sort out my problem. The ENT ordered an MRI which ruled out a tumor and he quickly came to the assumption of migraines (which was my initial assumption).
Six weeks after onset
I went back to my PCP with the migraine diagnosis which surprised him. He talked to me about a few options on the migraine medication (he prescribed imitrex to abort) and I tried them. They did nothing. After a few more weeks, I reluctantly (didn't want to hurt my doctor's feelings) asked to see a neurologist.
The neurologist put me on prednisone, stating that the medications I was given wouldn't work on this migraine because it had been going on so long and you are to take those meds at the beginning of a migraine. He also put me on lexapro, thinking it would help balance out my serotonin. This was also a fine thing to be on since, in retrospect, the debilitating migraines had brought on a severe depression. I had never been depressed in my life before--WOW! that can be it's own blog. :)
One month later (three months after onset)
Well...the prednisone helped a lot. The lexapro...I didn't see much difference. The migraines went down to three a week and I wasn't having a severe vertigo aura, though I was still dizzy often. After finding that didn't help, he put me on topamax, a heavy hitting seizure drug that is found effective on migraines. This helped! Because my neurologist felt that it was the combination of the lexapro and topamax, I stayed on the lexapro.
Eight months after onset (I saw my neurologist once a month)
My neurologist changed but at the same facility. I discussed with her the side effects I didn't like on the lexapro and she said I could taper slowly off of it if I wanted. I did. Major migraines with the slightest change in dose. I decided to stay on it.
Nine months after onset
I was still having migraines, but only during my period; though I had several little "non-migraine" headaches throughout the month. My neurologist sent me to a gynecologist to put me on the birth control pill to stop my period entirely. This took ALL of the headaches (even the ones I considered "non-migraines"-which my neurologist said were probably migraines) away for one month....until the topamax got in the way of the pill working.
Ten months after onset
Because of the efficacy of the pill being compromised, I got off the topamax. A few weeks later (and a new neurologist at a different facility because of insurance changing) I got off the lexapro. This was two months of hell. Well, not two months of hell (that was July and August of 2007!). But so many migraines. My neurologist said to just go through it. It was worth it in the end. One less medication to take. My new (and current) neurologist also said to do neck traction to treat my neck problem (interesting that he was the first to listen and assume it's role in the migraine), and to take Vitamin B-2 (200 mg, twice a day) and CoQ10 (300 mg, once a day). These were for preventative care and he prescribed me Migranal, a nasal spray that clamps down on the arteries to stop an attack.
One year after (and still trying to figure it out....)
The Migranal helped, but not entirely. Still I would have nausea and pain sometimes. So my neurologist added three adult aspirin and some anti-nausea drug. This is my current abortive treatment and it works well. Also, my neurologist isn't convinced that the birth control pill helps migraines. Though I've seen it work for me I don't like the weight retention it causes. I stopped it over a month ago. It brought on...can you guess? Yes, more migraines. I had to do another prednisone treatment (for the past seven months or so, whenever I have a migraine for three days in a row, he has me take a prednisone taper to stop the cycle.) and just finished it last week.
As of this past week...
Migraine on Saturday that I took the drugs for and it only lasted the morning and afternoon.
Then yesterday evening...I didn't take drugs, it was extremely painful but only lasted four hours.
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