There is nothing wrong with venting to people who understand the pain and frustration of migraine disease.  Keeping it all in is worse than letting it out.  You do have more than your share of stress right now and lack is sleep probably isn't helping the reoccuring migraine either.

You are clearly well informed about rebound headaches.  So I will not dwell on those.  Having been and still am a single mom I can maybe make a few suggestions that might help short term.  I'm not in your shoes and only you can decide what would or would not work.

You're going to school part time.  How much longer is your current term?  Do you think with the issues going on with your parents you might need to take a break?  It might not be possible due to the type of program you are in. 

You need sleep.  Sleep impacts your ability to deal with everything.  If you do not have the time to ask your doctor for sleep hygiene information, here is what my neurlogist provided to me.  As you read it remember that it's easy to say I can't do that and brush it off.  Try for yourself and your health.  It's too imiporant to brush off.

The term Sleep Hygiene refers to behaviors that may affect the quality and quantity of sleep. Good sleep hygiene is something that everyone ought to follow. The following are suggestions of what you could do on your own to promote good sleep and reduce factors that may interfere with sleep.

•1. Manage your sleep environment

• a. Reduce noise (radio, TV, street noise, household noise, noisy bed partner)
• b. Reduce light shades and curtains on the windows, TV flickering)
• c. Adjust the room temperature to optimal comfort (for most people 64 degrees F)
• d. Make sure that the bed is comfortable and that the bed clothing do not overheat you. A hot bath may interfere with sleep as it raises your core temperature.
• e. Make sure that the air quality is optimal
• f. Avoid uncomfortable night clothing. Make sure you are not too cold or too warm
• g. Ban your pets from your bedroom (especially nocturnal pets).
• h. Set limits with your young children.

•2. Cut down on stimulants or other substances which may interfere with sleep:

• a. Cut down on Caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, cola, energy drinks). Caffeine lingers in your body for many hours. You should avoid taking any items that may contain caffeine for at least 6 hours before bed time.
• b. Check with your doctor about your medications. Some medications can cause insomnia.
• c. Avoid alcohol. Alcohol especially in the evening helps tense people fall asleep, but causes awakening later during the night
• d. Quite smoking. Nicotine is a stimulant and may cause insomnia. If you smoke, abstain from smoking in the evening.
• e. Avoid excessive liquids the evening to reduce rest room trips during the night.

•3. Behavior during the day:

• a. Exercise regularly but avoid exercising at least 3 hours before bed time.
• b. Avoid daytime naps
• c. Wind-down, reduce physical and cognitive activity as the evening progress, along with reducing the amount of light

•4. Sleep-time behavior:

• a. Consider practicing a relaxation technique before you retire to bed.
• b. Do not take your problems to bed with you. Plan time during the day to work on what is bothering you. Worrying interferes with sleep and produces shallow sleep.
• c. Develop a routine or ritual of getting ready to go to bed. It should be brief, soothing and portable. If you wake up in the middle of the night and are unable to go to sleep repeat your ritual.
• d. Do not try to fall asleep. That makes your problem worse. If you are unable to become browsy in about 15-20 minutes, get out of bed and do something else, which will make you sleepy.
• e. Go to bed and get up a predestinated regular times. Even if you slept poorly get out of bed at the same times no matter how little you think you slept. Even if you have not slept much the night before do not go to bed earlier than your designated time. Regular wake up time in the moring leads to regular times of sleep onset and shelps reset your biological clock.
• f. Sleep only as much as you need to feel refreshed during the following day. You cannot store sleep hours. Spending time in bed while not sleeping promotes difficulty with sleep. Restricting the time you spend in bed will help consolidate and deepen your sleep. Escessive time in bed promotes shallow and fragmented sleep.
• g. Hide your clock so that you do not see it.

Please consider coming over to the forums which can be found by going to the orange "Mange" toward the top of the screen and selecting Migraine Forums.  The registration is separate and takes just a couple of minutes.  I think you would find the inforation and most espicially the support very helpful.

Take care,

Cindy

Teri Robert

3/31/08 5:05pm

Cindy,

 

What's the source of your sleep tips, please?

 

Teri 

Cindy

3/31/08 5:37pm

From my neurlogist. 

Terri

4/ 1/08 3:07pm

I appreciate your insightful words and assistance. I do the sleep behaviors all the time. I finally broke down and went and got a shot - knocked me out last night until today and I am still not functioning well, the headache is gone though..I am just groggy from the shot. That is my last resort and my doctor even commented to me that I am not one of those that comes in every 2 weeks for a shot-I know they are addictive therefore I don't want to get them but I couldn't stand it anymore! I took the day off - had to actually slept through most of it and am only up to ck emails and make sure no workload got sent home to me. So I appreciate your supportive and kind words and trust me I am so glad I joined with having the ability to blog on my pain - it is a relieve.

 

Thank you again