Ups and downs...not unique to life as a migrainuer in the general sense, but I suppose we have a particular flavor of focus, battles, and celebrations. Recently I believe I had 12 days in between severe headaches. Right now it has been 1 week.
I am in Ottawa spending time with my sweetheart, and I wonder if I should go get massage or acupuncture. The pressure has built up to a dull constant energy-draining pain now. Seems to be a tension headache transforming into a migraine. A familiar experience. It doesn't seem intense enough to take one of my previous 3 remaining doses of Imitrex which last time did a bit to relieve to severity as I continued to struggle for an additional 24 hours with the pain. I've never seen a doctore in Canada and wonder if they would see me for a reasonable price and perhaps give a new insight or medication?
I have maintained work, regular eating and sleeping more, and even exercise increasingly over the past couple of months in spite of near weekly migraines. I wonder if I should go jogging as a few times I tried this and the pain eventually faded into the background as I ran only to return upon stopping. Warm showers, stretching, food, meditation, foot massage, extra sleep, and deep breathing seem to only slow the escalation of this episode, currently leaving me with my companions lavender and eucalyptus essential oils to soothe a bit of the pain. This is not even debilitating yet -- should I work? Rest? Find some acupuncture? I find the fear, anxiety, disappointment, and indecisiveness are taking a toll as they tend to do when sinking into a headache like this. Is there anything I can do? Did I do something to trigger this? Sleep too much? Or is it just the regular visitor that I need to welcome so it can then move on through.
The first few times I visited here over the last year and a half or so blessed me with no attacks...even with a full day of air travel. I guess those days are over. I wonder why. Is this really so mysterious or am I just missing something? Sigh.
Hi,
If you are getting more sleep than you normally do, that may be triggering a Migraine for you. You see, too much or too little sleep can trigger Migraines for some people. Here is a video that helps explains things; Video: Migraines and Sleep.
Thanks Nancy for reading and including the link. I am honestly not sure if sleep is the culprit, as I tend to need more sleep than I actually get, though it is something to watch, as I also tend to want more sleep than I actually need -- maybe. I watched the video and appreciate the resource.
What happened the other day was that I spent the better part of the day doing very little and ended up going on a run once the pain shifted some to less intense (more like jog as I run 10 minute miles at best), and amazingly went 4 miles and by the end my head was nearly clear (and body very tired as that is a long run for me). It pounded for a while at the beginning and then slowly the pain was more and more in the background. Then after I returned home the pain slowly came back but was not as bad as before, and I took a nap of about 1.5 hours, and gently woke myself up to go to dinner, and by the end of dinner I was 95% better physically and then only had to deal with the disappointment of not accomplishing much that day and a low mood accompanying the pain. Yesterday I was fine. I am celebrating that somehow I avoided a major episode and Imitrex, and even though I spent most of the day doing very little, the pain was much less than I've experienced many, many times...so if I have to take a day off, there are much worse days to spend it!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day.
Thanks again,
Kari