Woke with a headache that I'll categorize as a cluster headache. Though to be honest, it was touch and go all day, and I thought for sure it would bloom into a migraine, but never did. But it was persistent enough (11 hours long, to be precise) . It was touch and go, really. I thought for sure it would bloom into a migraine, be dealt with, and I could get on with my life. But no. It lingered all day long, with the potential of me losing yet another day to pain.
The process we (yes, "we," as I am lumping my husband into the team of "we" who try to troubleshoot and break the migraine and try to mitigate the pain) go through is roughly thus:
1. Before I get out of bed, he is at the ready with heating pads for my neck, back and face. He will re-heat them in the microwave if necessary. After a while, I will force myself out of bed to attempt the next stages.
2. I will start taking my supplements in the first wave: vitamin chew, fiber chew, colace, vitamin C and iron. All with a piping cup of coffee. Between the vitamin C and the caffeine in the coffee, sometimes that's enough to thwart it. Sadly, that was not the case. I laid back down for a half hour, to regroup.
3. I got up again, and tried the remainder of my first wave of supplements: omega 3, silymarin, alpha lipoic acid, CoQ10. More hot coffee. Still no dice.
4. Hubby hooked me up to the TENS/EMS unit to electric stim the headache into submission. No luck.
5. I forced myself to vomit. This usually is pivotal, and almost always has two known results:
a. It stops the migraine
b. I cannot stop puking all day and end up in the ER.
Today it was the wildcard "C" (meaning, I was still miserable).
6. Pop a zofran to quell nausea.
7. Take hot shower, shampoo. Nope. No dice. Headache in full effect.
We then decided to go to lunch, which means we also have cocktails and well...
8. Lillet spiked screwdriver was not enough to stop this beast in its tracks. Hell, before the cocktail arrived at the table, I had been loading up on water in anticipation, and refluxed it all back up. Off to the loo to spew. It was soooo romantic!
9. Got home, popped a tramadol (as really, the Frova is good in anticipation of a migraine like headache--not once you get it). The tramadol, unsurprisingly, did NOTHING.
10. More hot pads.
11. Hubby brought out cucumber patches for my eyes, and some cooling gel he rubbed on my temples. Got a shoulder rub out of it too. Headache still in full effect.
12. About an hour or two later, I chewed two children's advil. Still no dice.
13. Hyper hydrating all afternoon with low caffeine home brewed ice tea. Nothing. No change.
14. Sitting around at my desk farting around, I chewed about 2-3 pieces of salmyak (or salty licorice), just because I was craving it. Headache started to "shift."
By roughly 10 p.m., I was aware the headache was gone, and I was left with that "hang over" sensation of being dragged by a cross town bus, every fiber in my being aching, and my eyes were burning.
But mercifully the headache broke.
Mercifully it did not necessitate a trip to the ER.
A year ago this past April was the last ER trip due to unrelenting vomiting from a migraine. I'd like to see how long I can go without a trip to the ER for this shit. The headache is horrible enough, the unrelenting vomiting is horrid enough, without having to wait to be called (usually an hour wait if that), only to wait to be triaged, then wait some more until there's some actual resolution to my pain, usually in the form of an IV zofran and some dilaudid or demoral for the pain.
No comments:
Post a Comment