June PFAM Blog Carnival

The new Patents For A Moment blog carnival is now available. This month the topic is Getting The Attention You Need - especially the medical attention. Check out the link to read all the great posts by your fellow chronic patients.

Day 18 Migraine Awareness Month #MHAMBC

If I were to design a weapon to blast my chronic migraines away, it wouldn't be a traditional weapon. It would be a simple wand. This wand would be small, sleek, black in color, light in weight and infused with magical powers.

I would stand, without ceremony, and just wave my wand while focusing on destroying all the terrible migraine crap. Then *poof* they would be gone and I would go about living my life free from these wretched migraines. You see, these migraines have taken so much from me, I refuse to give them a big dramatic end. They don't deserve the attention and energy that it would require from me.

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project ofFightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Day 16 Migraine Awareness Month #MHAMBC

For the first few years I lived with these chronic migraines I was living under the impression that that all I needed to do was figure out what happened to cause my episodic migraines to turn chronic, fix that problem and life would return to normal. Because I was clutching to this belief, I was living like my pain was acute, withdrawing from most regular activity. Exercise was one of the first things to come to a stop.

When I finally came to my senses and realized that I needed to keep living and keep moving, I had to work on figuring out what kind of exercise was going to work for me despite my circumstances. Here is what I've come up with:

1. Stretching has become a daily thing and honestly feels really great every time.
2. I do some weight resistance 3 times a week. Using light weights and being very careful about my breathing has been the key to ensuring this activity isn't a problem for my migraines. It is worth noting that the actual movements I do with the weights depends on how much pain I'm in. More about this in future post.
3. I'm also find myself out walking our dog Gypsy regularly.
4. A couple days a week I add some yoga poses to my daily stretches. I've tried classes and following exercise tapes but some poses, like downward facing dog, that are used with great frequency but cause my head big trouble. I find it easier to just do some on my own, avoiding the trouble poses altogether.


June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project ofFightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Day 15 Migraine Awareness Month #MHAMBC

For the very worst of the migraines I use the following remedy:

1. Eat 1 plain slice of bread
2. Take 2 Ibuprofen
3. Take 1 Imitrex
4. Drink a full glass of water
5. Lay down with my head on a soft pillow, under a blanket
6. Wrap an ice pack in a towel to apply around the head and neck
7. If tolerable, put on a funny movie or TV show (at a very low volume) to have on in the background to distract from the pain.


June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project ofFightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Day 14 Migraine Awareness Month #MHAMBC

Has life with chronic migraines and fibromyalgia made me stronger in any way? It's funny, most of the time I just feel like all this chronic pain has beat me down and made me weaker. I'm super sensitive to my environment, the smallest little thing can trigger a migraine or a fibro flare. It's hard to feel anything but weak when so much of my time is spent dealing with the many disabling symptoms of these two conditions. But as I sit here pondering this question I am coming up with a few ways I am stronger.

1. I have gotten better at standing up for myself, especially when it comes to dealing with doctors.
2. I have gotten better at listening to myself and understanding my body.
3. I have gotten better at weeding through the bulls*&% of false promises and crap products.
4. I even think I've gotten a little better at coping with the pain - just a little.

Ultimately, the strengthening has all been internal. You may remember from my post, Getting Off the Medication Rollercoaster, that it is this kind of internal strengthening that I will be focusing on over the next year. Small world.

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project ofFightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Day 12 Migraine Awareness Month #MHAMBC

I've felt like a lab rat the entire 7 years I've had chronic migraines. But, the time I felt most like I was being experimented on would have to be when my migraine doc prescribed Neurontin (Gabapentin). The drug is supposed to treat nerve pain in addition to being an anti-seizure medication but instead it made my nerves screamingly painful. 

The prescribed titration was a lengthy one as I was working up to something like 6 pills a day. Right away I started to notice an increase in pain but I chalked it up to a fibro flare. The next week I increased my pills and noticed a huge jump in my pain so I called my doc. He insisted that this was not a possible side effect from the meds and that I needed to just keep titrating up. Wanting to believe him and be a good patient, I went ahead and kept taking it and increased again on schedule. It was this final step up that pushed me over the edge. The pain was terrible and it now seemed very obvious that it WAS the medication. I called the doc again and insisted that this was causing me an increase in nerve pain (the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do). The doc still insisted that it couldn't be the Neurontin but he didn't push me to keep taking it. 

As soon as I stopped taking it, my nerve pain returned to normal levels. Conclusive proof that it was indeed the Neurontin. 

Now, increasing nerve pain wasn't in the handout I got from the pharmacy and my doc said that he hadn't seen this in any of his patients before. There's a word for that: idiopathic. Like I've said before, my migraine doc can be kind of rigid but at least he didn't push it. 

The whole experience just underscored how inexact medicine is, how complicated our bodies are and how little (the collective) we know about it. 

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project ofFightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Day 11 Migraine Awareness Month #MHAM

The world is a very loud place. Just an hour ago as I stood sifting through the greeting cards at Target, my ears were accosted by some 4 or 5 years old boy trying to get his "me-maw" to respond to his question. With each repetition he just got louder and louder. Meanwhile I'm giving this woman a very cross look, hoping to communicate to her that she needs to do her part to keep her grandson's noise under control when out in public. This went on WAY TOO LONG before she decided to finally respond to his question. I don't think she even noticed the nasty look I was shooting her way.

Everyday noises from the television, to my husband's sneezes can feel overwhelmingly loud and painful. Add in the extra loud noises from young kids to construction projects that you will inevitably run into when out in the world and you have a recipe for migraine disaster.

I don't know that I've really developed any great tools for coping with my phonophobia (noise sensitivity). The most obvious solution would seem to be wearing ear plugs when going out into the big noisy world. The reason I don't do that is because my ears are incredibly sensitive to touch. Sometimes just resting my head on a pillow can cause my ears to flare in pain. Headphones, no matter the type, have always caused my poor ears pain.

My only strategy: whenever possible, I try to avoid or, at least, limit my exposure to loud sources. During big family gatherings my hubby and I will retreat to a quiet area for a break from the din. I try to do my errands during the week when the stores are not as busy. I don't go to concerts or see much live theatre. I keep the TV volume low. These are the kinds of things I do.

Have you found any way to cope besides ear plugs and avoidance?

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project ofFightingHeadacheDisorders.com.