Another day of endless pain,
Oh yes, he's at it again.
He haunts me in the middle of the night,
Not to long after I turn out the light.
When I awake, who next to me lay?
My enemy ready to join my day.
I try to ignore him, a challenging task,
Most of the day it's with him I bask.
He's pulling me from the things that I love,
Even from the one I love up above.
My hobbies, activities, most are on hold,
Even some friends have left me in the cold.
All must compete with this monster in me,
He's evil and strong, and a loser won't be.
Some days I just want to run and hide,
But there he'll be, right by my side.
Seems no escape, no end to this pain,
I wonder will I ever be well again?
This fiend is immune to doctors and meds,
Nothing can take off his hideous head.
Where can I go, where can I turn,
A pain free day is all that I yearn.
My dream is for my enemy to die,
So I can go on with my wonderful life.
Joelle Mackey
2/2010
Your poem hits so close to home for me. It's been my life . When I look back on all the family photos not one has me in it, i was always in bed at someone's home or never there at all. Everyone sends me their newspaper articles about the "new" drug for migraine but of course i've already known about it or tried it before it gets to the media.
The pain is our constant companion i'm afraid. My hope for you is that you'll find some success with trial and error of medications and find the right combination for you. Good luck. I am thinking of you.
The intensity of my migraines has actually improved since my cervical fusion, I think once the fusion completes (it take 6 mo. to a year to completely fuse together) they may be in the past, not sure though. Once medicine that helped the intensity of the migraines was Amitryptiline. You may have tried that? Zomig works 1/2 the time. Lyrica made them worse... Topamax had too many awful side effects, Cymbalta made me feel suicidal. YIKES! Magnesium gave me GI problems (if you know what I mean), the list goes on. Do muscle relaxers help you? Does the source of your pain stem from your neck at all? It took me a long time to find out that my neck problems were the source of my headaches. Good luck to you. I will pray for you, even though I do not know your name. Hang in there, day by day, or hour by hour.
I've tried amytriptyline. Didn't work for me. Yep there are G.I. side effects from the magnesium but that seems to help a little in combination with the topomax, cardizem and lisinopril. Plus several abortives. I've tried everything but not the fusion, I really don't get them in the neck area. I have a constant chronic h.a. the only thing that changes is the intensity. I've had to learn many coping skills to deal with that. Muscle relaxers can sometimes help meand sometimes not. There are times when i think my h.a. might be tension related and in that instance, yes, the muscle relaxes may work. Good luck to you also and i will be thinking of you. Thank you for your reply, Diane
A few other things I have tried I wanted to share, that seem to help. One is called "Head-On." It's something you rub on your forehead, and it is homeopathic. Sometimes I'm rubbing it on 4-5 times a day. It takes the edge off, doesn't cure it. Works well at night while trying to get to sleep, or if you wake up in the middle of the night. Or it works while waiting for the abortives to work. You can get it at Walgreens, etc. Google it if you haven't heard of it. I LOVE IT. Keep it in my purse all the time. Also, one time I watched the Dr. OZ show and they suggested rubbing lavender oil under your nose and dabbing some on your temples. I laughed, thinking, like that will help MY headaches, ha! But one day I was desperate, and you know when you are desperate you'll do ANYTHING if someone tells you it will cure your h/a, so I tried it, and I tell you, it warded off my h/a w/o me having to try any abortives! I've also tried acupuncture 3 different times, it worked one time, but I couldn't afford to keep going since insurance does not cover it and we are on one salary. Breathing pure oxygen in the ER has helped my migraines before as well. Too bad I can't get an oxygen tank to carry around though! :) Nice to share with you.
Thanks Catherine, I'll definitely try the lavender and "head" thing. I've had acupuncture for a year, kept going thinking it was helping but was fooling myself it never helped me. Yeah it was expensive. I get a lot of use out of my heating pad on high. I know your not supposed to do it but for some reason the heat works. Ice never worked for me. And if my husband squeezes my temples for a while that can give me a few minutes of relief, sometimes even a few minutes is better than none. I just read about the butterbur or "Migravent" I'm going to give that a try also. It's a natural product. Have you tried that? thanks for sharing, -diane