Cutting Stress Out of Your Life

One of the things that you get told when you have migraines is to cut sources of stress. It's hard to do, cut stress. Sometimes nearly impossible. The past few weeks have been stressful at our house. My husband's grandmother died. We scrambled to see if we could get passports for those of us who needed them, find plane tickets to England that did not cost an arm and two legs, and find a house sitter, or at the very least a pet sitter for the zoo we have. In the end, we all agreed that his grandmother would rather have us not rush to get there, and that we could make a trip this spiring or summer to pay our respects. There was no way we could get all of that done in the time we were given.

Then, we all managed to get sick. Well, all of us but our daughter, the youngest. First my son brought home a cold from school. He shared. Of course I got hit, and hard. Then my husband, and now my son has a double ear infection. Poor kid has had them since he came home from the hospital, a few weeks before his actual due date. He is autistic, which makes getting the medicine down his throat a bit harder than normal. And then the cold I got from him turned into bronchitis.

Getting sick when you have migraines is hard. The first challenge, for me at least, is to remember to eat more than a few bites of things. The second is to keep up on my medications, which had been changed a week before the ick hit. I switched from fentanyl patches to oxycontin, which thankfully is working well, and keeping the majority of pain at bay. Add to that the cough medicine that I take at night, and I am one tired mom. We also have kids waking up, the water heater pilot light going out, and life gets stressful. Keeping stress at bay, or down, can be hard in real life. There are ways to do it, though.

First is to make sure that you carve some time out of the day for you. It can be after the kids go to bed, which is what I do, first thing in the morning, or in the middle of the afternoon. Sit and read, take a long bath, a walk, or just sit. Do something you enjoy.

Second is to make sure that you eat and drink enough. It sounds so simple, but one of the major triggers can be dehydration. That is easily avoidable by keeping a bottle of water near you to sip from, or a glass of milk, or juice. Avoid coffee and sodas, caffeine can actually make things worse, not better. Make sure that you eat well- even if it is just snacks. Protein helps so much, whether it be cheese, meat or peanut butter. Keeping your body fueled keeps the pain at bay.

For me the most important thing is to be able to talk things over with someone. For me, I have my husband, three of the best friends a person could hope for, and an extended group of friends online, any of whom are available at about any time of day or night for an encouraging word or virtual hug. Having someone, or someones, to talk through a stressful situation, vent and rant to, is priceless. Talking it through, having a shoulder to cry on, is so important. Stress, sometimes, can be offset by good conversation with a close friend. Friends are invaluable when it comes to pain management, someone who can talk you through the worst times and share the good ones with you.