Over the past two weeks, I've had much fewer headaches than usual.  The difference?  I cut way back in the number of painkillers I was taking.

After I read all the recent stuff on MOH (Medication Overuse Headaches), I realized that I was definitely using those meds more than three times a week.  So, many of my headaches could have been aggravated by the very medications I was taking to get rid of my headaches in the first place.

The only solution, then, was to go through a very uncomfortable couple of weeks and cut out the painkillers to three or less days a week.

I'm not going to lie.  It was most unpleasant.  I'd already given up coffee for Lent, so I was already down one "crutch" for relieving migraines.  I don't take any prescription painkillers.  I voluntarily gave up both Vicodin and Ultram after I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  Since I knew I had a lifelong, incurable chronic pain disease, I did not want to habitually be taking narcotics, or synthetic-narcotics.

But, I was still buying massive bottles of Ibuprofen, Tylenol and Aleve at CostCo.  I was still buying Sudafed, even though it was now such a hassle to get, since its behind the pharmacist's counter and you have to show your driver's license.   On a typical morning, before I gave up coffee, I would take two Tylenol, two Aleve, two Ibuprofen, two Sudafed, a shot of Flonase (nasal spray), and drink a cup of coffee with my breakfast.  

And, that was just to "take the edge off my morning headache."

And, I thought I was doing "pretty well" since I was no longer taking any prescription narcotics.

But, by 2 PM, I was always slammed with another headache, right when it was time to pick my son up from school.  So, I'd chug down a whole handful of my "analgesic cocktail" again, otherwise I'd be "Mama Grumpy Bear," (I was actually more thinking of a word that rhymed with 'witch', but didn't want to be rude.)  This allowed me to get through the bright sunlight of picking him up, (everything is done outdoors, this is California), letting him play on the playground for 30 minutes, and then doing homework with him for an hour or two.

Ah, but after I read all that stuff about MOH headaches, I began to suspect my 2 PM headache was actually a rebound headache from my breakfast "cocktail" of analgesics.  

I'll always have migraine disease, but if I could cut way back on my analgesics, then my migraine preventatives would have a chance to actually work.

So, I began "Operation No Tylenol (etc)."

Ouch.  It hurt.

I spent most of the time while my son was at school with a hot "rice pack" on the back of my neck.  (A homemade remedy for aching body parts-- A tube sock with rice in it, a knot at the end, heated up in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Very soothing on aching muscles.)