Ideally, I would like to offer some resources and educational articles here, but my tendency is to journal in a reflective way, so as a warm up I will just get started and hope perhaps this may encourage or inform others in some way on their own healing journey.
It has been 14 days since the last migraine, and about 25 days since the last one before that. I did have one tension type (a continual, widespread, dull, burning ache) 3 weeks ago, and I have another one today. For me, this information is a significant victory and shift. For the last migraine I didn't even use medication and it was gone the next day. In additon, I still functioned minimally throughout the day.
It has been a long road, and for the majority of the last 8 years I have had weekly migraines, and for over 12 years I have had them regularly. At times they were easily aborted with triptans and various prescriptions. Other times I self medicated in less healthy ways, and other times preventives such as blood pressure meds, anti depressants, ad anti seizure drugs failed to help, as did mouth splints for my teeth and strict dietary tracking and modification. It has been an intense journey of self awareness, struggle, and developing resilience and healthier coping mechanisms for myself and those around me.
Right now my practice is simple:
Exercise 4 times a week at least with cardio. Usually I dance once for 90 minutes and jog 3 times for 30 minutes.
Eat frequent meals
Drink more water
Organic dairly only as much as possible
Limit caffeine to once a day if possible, in the morning
Resist smoking
Resist beer and red wine a little more than white wine. Try to have no more than 2 drinks when I do (cocktails are best), and don't drink multiple days in a row.
Journal every day
Healthy boundaries including separation from people and situations that stress me - this includes stepping away from the computer to stretch or take a quick relaxing walk
Sleep 7, ideally 8 or more hours a night.
Have fun as much as possible.
Celebrate when headaches are less severe and less frequent
These are the main parts.
It gets subtler. If for example, I stay up late working -- which I love, as there is something wonderful about working in the middle of the night for me, and this is horrible for my body, then the next day I must go to bed early or anticipate possible repurcussions.
I've been irritable and emotional over the weekend. I wondered if a headache was coming on. I stayed up way too late Sunday. Yesterday I felt achey. By the end of the day the tension had resolved, and again, I couldn't get to sleep early enough. I chose not to drink alcohol to get sleepy and instead watched a show on Hulu that was really enjoyable for winding down, yet kept me up.
Today my head has hurt all day continuously. This is not a surprise. It is not a migraine, as I just jogged 3 miles in 30 minutes. This is the furthest I have ever gone without stopping! The pain was in the background the whole time.
Sounds like you really are trying to face it head on. Sounds like you are doing so many healthy things for yourself. Good work! I am struggling with all the "stories" that come along with pain. For example, I feel pain and I start to spiral thinking "am I ever going to get better? What the heck is wrong w/ these doctors--can't they be more aggressive? What? I can't even exercise without feeling awful?" and on and on. Sounds like you are continuing to function some with the migraines. I am trying to do that--well I have been trying for some time, but does it ever cause your migraines to go on for days when you push yourself like that? Or maybe I'm misinterpreting what you are doing. Thanks for sharing! Krista
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Krista,
Thanks for reading and chiming in! I do hope to help foster some conversation and knowledge sharing amongst other migraineurs.
I hear you on the stories that come up around ongoing migraines, the doctors, the future, and how even doing basic things seem to take so much energy. Getting better is so relative, depending on each of us over time and in the moment in my experience. There doesn't seem to be one thing that helps or even triggers for me. What about you?
I have to tell you that when I do have an actual migraine, I can't even take a step without throbbing and sometimes vomiting. Just last fall, on Thanksgiving actually, I was calling around for options for counselors and wondering again, "How will I support myself? Will I have to apply for disability? What did I do to cause this?" and being so frustrated at doing all my healthy regimen and still laying in bed for days a time.
Migraines for me have brought up the opportunity to look at where I am stuck and deal with a lot of anger and other emotions. These days it can be a blurry line with what is needed most -- relaxing, taking a bath, retreating, sleeping, medicating, or pushing myself to go into the world, or exercise because I know it is good for depression and health in general. Reward myself with the pleasurable chocolate cookie or be more disciplined in my diet?! Often, it seems there are layers to coping and the path to what works is every shifting, hence the need to be gentle and stay experimental, which is easier said than done as I'm sure you well know!
I must admit, that yesterday was a good day. A very good day. And not every day is so easeful. And many days I don't want to get out of bed. So there is a full spectrum here that I'm sure will become more apparent over time.
I really appreciate the chance to write you about all this. Does any of this resonate with what you were interpreting in my post or your experience? Do you have any self care practices to help ease the headaches Krista, like ice packs, or meditation, or acupuncture?
Be gentle and celebrate health whenever you can. (My advice to myself.) :)
Yes, I agree getting better is relative. Is a moving target for me. Some weeks what I think is better the next week I'm not satisfied with. I live so much in the present sometimes. I try not to look at it all long term but I do. I averaged about 8 migraines a month for the last year. I've kept records of all the med changes, all the migraines, what I took to stop them, etc. It can be helpful and quite depressing. The number of migraines overall just isn't going down. I do think that they were less severe when I was on Botox before. I doubt myself though and my ability to judge.
Are you able to work? Sounds like you aren't--I am not. I had to stop working 2 years ago this month. I was getting migraines almost every day at the end and was all stupid from side effects from Topamax. I'm in school now--in part to help pay the bills (student loans). I'm hoping I'll be able to work part-time. I start internship in late Aug--I'll find out then lol.
I've tried changing my diet--didn't help. Have to say nothing has reduced the number of migraines except not going out in the sun much and not being too active in a day. During the time me and my hubby were moving, I was up to 11 a month. I had to help so I just had to go through the pain. Which usually causes my migraines to last for days. And not being able to take meds more than 2-3X a week can be torture at times like that.
I too have spent a lot of time dealing with old emotions and forgiveness, etc. I meditate regularly. Usually every day. It's helping come to some terms with the pain. I am a Buddhist. Over New Years I was lucky enough to get a scholarship for a retreat. It deepened my meditation practice. Has helped me with acceptance. And stopping the stories.
I've tried TENS machine, heating pads, ice packs, physical rehab, myofacial physical therapy, oh heck I don't even know what else. I stretch each day--I'm bad about tensing my jaw and shoulders. I sleep w/ a bite guard so I don't grind my teeth.
I have gained a lot of weight in the last few years. About 30 pounds. It's hard for me to regulate what I eat when I'm feeling sick. Exercising gives me headaches or migraines, and it's hard to motivate myself to excercise on the days I'm not feeling well since about 4 days a week I have a migraine or are dealing with the after affects of one.
I've been on meds for PTSD and depression for years. I so want to get better. I am trying to accept that I have migraines a lot. That they may or may not get better. It's just so hard. I have one today and need to go to school. And I just can barely keep it together when I feel like this. I get emotional when I'm in pain. It's just hard. It's hard to feel hopeful after 3 years. Most of the time I've been seeing migraine specialists.
I have a long history of migraines overall. My sister has trigeminal neuralgia. My mom has clusters and migraine with aura. As a teen, I overused medication and got rebounds and was in an inpatient headache clinic in Orlando (where I grew up). So I've been through the gamet of tests and lifestyle changes. Thanks for listening. I have to believe we'll get better. Not sure how or when, but it has to happen or at least we'll be able to be ok with it. Lots of hugs, Krista