How to Cope with Pain's June Pain-Blog Carnival is up!

There are some repeat entries from the Migraine & Headache Blog Carnival from this month, but there are also new things to read! Check out the summer vacation-themed edition of How to Cope with Pain's blog carnival!

good article on childhood headache & Migraine

I enjoyed reading this and found that many tips offered up can be applied to adults' lives as well!

http://denanhealthcare.blogspot.com/2008/06/frequent-headaches-and-migraine-in.html

Important breakthroughs? Let's keep our fingers crossed..

I'm sure lots of my blogger friends are already all over this, but I figured it could only help and encourage others if I spread the good news. At least I hope it continues to be good news!

There are two new devices that are proven to help headache sufferers before the headache completely surfaces. Look at just one of the many articles about these developments here on U.S. News & World Report's site.

In other news, I've been terribly out of the loop when it comes to reading aforementioned blogger friends' pages. Sorry, guys. BUT this can be seen as a good sign: I've felt great since Sunday and have been very productive working on the bookstore and doing other positive things. Hooray!

I'll catch up on your news later, and I am thinking about you!

another potential trigger?

Does anyone else here get bothered by ceiling fan lights? Overhead lights are annoying to me when I'm feeling good--when I have a headache, they are intolerable. But now that it's summer my ceiling fans are going at full-speed and the flickering shadows they cast on the ceiling and walls while the overhead light is on mimics the flickering of a dying fluorescent tube light. Does anyone else feel bothered by this flickering light?

old habits die hard

At least that's what my brain seems to think. Of course I was being deliberately naive (and a tad facetious) last week when I asserted my belief that my Migraines had bit the dust for good! Let's face it: Sunday I felt fine, Monday - Wednesday I felt phenomenal! Too bad the monster returned on Thursday, Friday AND Saturday. Perhaps that had something to do with Athfest weekend, which leads to my getting overexcited and therefore headachey due to that anticipation and stress. (Good stress, usually, but still.) Saturday I drove to Atlanta to meet up with one of my very best friends who was in town from Ireland. As much fun as we had going to see R.E.M., The National, and Modest Mouse, the long drive to meet her in addition to the rush to get into the amphitheatre and the sheer excitement of seeing her and seeing the bands led to #3 for the week.

No triptans for me until Thursday! I'll make it. I have to.

That's all for now--just thought I'd give a little update to say that I am not cured as I had wished to be.

notes from the insomniac

A couple of days ago I mentioned weird shooting pains I was having on the right side of my head. They were gone the next day and have yet to come up again.

Here's the best thing I could possible interpret from them in light of the fact that I've been Migraine-free since Sunday: THE PAINS WERE MY MIGRAINE EPISODES SAYING GOODBYE! Several especially painful Migraine episodes from the past were doing their own version of waving goodbye, having set up residence my head for years. They finally decided to leave me alone, and as the most painful ones left my world forever, they zapped their way out for a memorable exit.

Welcome to my dream world, folks.

In truth, I felt pretty amazing Monday, health-wise (especially in the evening), a feeling I've not experienced in a while now. Tuesday was even better, and today's pretty good but not as good as the first two days of the week.

Let's talk about what's not so hot: NOT BEING ABLE TO SLEEP. That's right, kids: that little insomnia problem I've not mentioned much on here reared its ugly head again. (Awhile back, a friend led me to a little song I love about insomnia--I pretend the song's about Migraines. I mention it in a post that's over two years old. Unfortunately the link to the free download isn't working right.) In the last couple of years, I've had some sleep issues, and they've really plagued me during their short stays. When I got off Amitriptyline a few months back, the glorious side effect it causes--sleepiness--was gone. I had trouble staying asleep through the night, and forget about 3 AM bathroom breaks. Those left me tossing and turning for what seemed like forever, nervous I would miss out on too much sleep and be tired or headachey the next day.

This insomnia is markedly different. I can't fall asleep at first but am not worried or frustrated about the problem. In fact, I haven't been sleepy at bedtime in a few days now! Very different from how I was feeling up until last week when I was exhausted almost all. the. time. Usually I feel exhausted when I wake in the middle of the night, it's just that I can't fall asleep. For the past few nights, I've felt energized and wide awake during sleepless times. Last night I couldn't fall asleep 'til 1 (after having climbed into bed at midnight). Woke up at 2:30 to pee and was up until 3:45 or so. Fell asleep for thirty minutes or so and was back up again at 4:15 and stayed awake 'til 6. My alarm went off at 7:20 and I snoozed a bit (yes, in the morning I was able to snooze) and then got up and was pretty chipper and energetic.

This afternoon I took a nap, which was probably a mistake for someone who wants to sleep normally at night. But I cannot read a book without getting sleepy-eyed (even if it takes an hour during insomnia bouts), and around 4 PM I fell asleep despite my not feeling tired.

I'm a real piece of work, I tell you. Let me know if you can identify with this issue--and definitely let me know if you think I'm right about the Migraines waving goodbye and leaving me forever. Ha.

shooting pain/lightning headaches

Occasionally, I suffer from little spasms of pain in my brain. They're always unilateral, usually on the right side. Today it's been happening again, and I'm not worried about it--I'm just aggravated and in pain for a few seconds at a time.

It feels less like a zap of powerful lightning in my brain than it does a rapidly-lit, long fuse. You know how Road Runner cartoons feature dynamite with really long fuses? And the fuse gets lit on one end and slowly, slowly works its way to the actual explosive? It feels like that, but VERY fast. A little zippy pain that shoots from the bottom-middle of the back of my head to my temple. Over and over. Every few moments, then stops, then resumes minutes or hours later.

Pinched nerve? Sinus problems? Cluster headache? All of these things sound as if they could be a possibility, but I don't buy 'em. As I said, I'm just annoyed. Luckily my healthy pattern of diagnosing myself by reading internet articles led me to a few on brain aneurysms. I'm not having one-whew!

Migraine blogger interviews

The lovely (and more organized than I) Rain Gem has this entry on her blog to point you all to the Wego Health page of interviews Adrienne conducted with some of us Migraine bloggers. Interesting to read about different people's takes on the disease and why it's helpful to blog.

congested congestion never ends

I have felt congested for, I don't know, a few MONTHS now? I chalked it up at first to Georgia weather, but this has gotten out of control. Quite often my entire head, from the skin on the back of it to my nose to the sinus cavities under my cheekbones (uh, there are sinus cavities there, right?) has been stuffy. Yes, experts, I realize that the diagnosis of "sinus headache" is not accurate and that it's usually Migraine at work (this is touched upon here). Yes, I realize that sinus congestion can be a precursor or side effect of a Migraine attack. But all the time? Really? Even when I'm not in the midst of a Migraine episode?

Perhaps this is tied to the incessant tiredness I've been dealing with. In the last couple weeks, I've gotten so tired I've succumbed to the desire to take a nap for 30-120 minutes. When I awake, I feel groggy at first but then have energy again. Imagine that--energy!

Here's what I'm thinking. I need to make more money. I need to make more money so I can see a doctor who actually practices in my town. I need to talk to a doctor whose staff doesn't feel like I'm bothering them. I need to figure out what's going on with my body as a whole, but I have to get over my hesitation when it comes to holistic healing. Okay, let's clarify: holistic treatment is one of the only methods that makes sense. Of course you have to look at the entire body in order to figure out what's happening to make you function under par. But so many holistic healers I've come across--mainly on the web or in accidental late night conversations at music shows--are a bit kooky. The daughter of two die-hard skeptics (not to mention I'm a skeptical little squirrel myself), it's difficult for me to swallow the talk they deliver, the talk that smacks of New Age (e.g., millenia-old) wisdom. What to do?

For now I can't do anything anyway. Ain't no dispensible income to speak of, so I'll just sit tight. Bright news at the moment? My stuffiness is only 15% present at the moment. And yes, that's an official calculation.

I'm watching W the Women Show right now. A few days ago I mentioned their special on Women & Migraine before having watched it. I'm about halfway through right now and have mixed feelings about it.

A few minutes ago, Suzanne Simons (NHF Director) mentioned how oral contraceptives can help some migraineurs, while they worsen the condition for others. I was surprised she didn't mention the risk that accompanies birth control pills for female migraineurs (especially ones with aura). See a brief description of the risk here under the "risks" section.

Thus far they've heralded the advances of pharmaceuticals without noting that thousands upon thousands of people can't get relief from preventive or acute drugs. They mentioned the existence of "other therapies" but haven't gone into descriptions of those methods.

The pluses outweigh the minuses, of course. I think the episode is pretty good. Of course I'm most interested in the emotional, social, and psychological effects of Migraine disease, and they've touched on that but haven't gone into as much detail as I would've liked.

It's definitely worth a watch, though. I suppose it's good that I'm educated enough to know which parts of the disease they're not covering adequately, eh? It's hard to recap lifetimes of pain and frustration and education into a thirty minute show, eh?

Migraine & Headache Blog Carnival for JUNE!

You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't enjoy taking vacations, but in our Migraine & headache community, it's easy to come across many folks who see the health threats that accompany any trip out of town. Luckily for all of you reading this, we have a really helpful batch of blogs to sift through, all of which will increase your chance of having a happy, healthy vacation despite your headache disease. Some people have a very personal take on the situation, describing specific issues they've had preparing for and embarking upon vacations. Others give us generalized lists of things to pack and/or what to be aware of as you travel to maintain a pain-free brain. Whether or not you have a trip coming up, I believe these writers' tips and insights will benefit you.

• First let's look at some entries that explore the personal side of dealing with Migraine while you're out of town.

To kick things off, Andrea has an entry called "Horrid Day for a Migraine. Could Have Been Worse." that will probably hit VERY close to home for any of us who've had a Migraine attack before. Reading about the various commitments she's trying to balance in the midst of a rough episode will let you see how even the most summery, beautiful day can be hell for someone with Migraine.

Aaron D., who blogs at Pain in the Head, wrote a personal and practical entry about readying your mind (and suitcase) for a headache attack before vacation even if you've been feeling well lately. He also discusses the desire to "not ruin it for everyone" even if your friends are very understanding about Migraine disease. Check his entry here: "Vacation from Pain."

Migraine Chick talks about how she's planning on tackling Migraine-related fear (and Migraine attacks themselves) during her next vacation in "Conquering the Dreaded Migraine Monster on Vacation."

Debbie Fister is on the same page. In "Migraine and Vacation: Oxymoron?" she has created an entry featuring an easy-to-follow list for herself so she can stay as healthy as possible on vacation--and this list will be handy for many of you, too, I'm sure!

Ever feel that you'd like a migraine-oriented reminder list before you go on vacation? Reflecting on a recent trip that was chock full of potential triggers, MaxJerz (rhymes with migraine) offers several tips for traveling migraineurs that will help ease your frustrations before and during your trip in "Shred of Normalcy."

Diana Lee presents "14 Tips for Chronically Ill Travelers" posted at Somebody Heal Me: The Musings of a Chronic Migraineur.

"Vacationing With Migraine - The Down & Dirty Details" is a thoughtful post by Ellen Schnakenberg giving a nice batch of information and recommendations for traveling Migraine and headache sufferers. She has condensed her tips here so you can easily print the main ideas for yourself. How useful!

I had been planning on writing a nice, long list of helpful tips for myself and you all on my blog--but after one hellish night at a hotel a couple weeks ago, I ended up chronicling my adventure instead: "How to Survive a Vacation Tip 1: Don't Trust the Website." Dare I say it's worth a read? Then a quick search of my blog caused me to realize I compiled a list of travel tips in early April. Check 'em out if you wish.

• Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you'll be able to let go of all the stress you feel! The following entries focus on controlling stress, triggers, and emphasizing relaxation.

Thought-out planning is a necessity for anyone for chronic illness, and it's also important to make sure that unplanned choices that come up while on your trip aren't going to trigger a Migraine. James Cotrill sheds some light on some surprising ingredients in energy drinks in "Energy Drinks - Know What You're Drinking." If you're like me, I know you might have a Vitamin Water now and then to give yourself a boost. Before you take that next sip, know what you're drinking!

Have you ever had trouble on the prescription front, worried you'll not have enough medication to last you before, during, and after vacation? The blog How to Cope with Pain has two excellent entries giving us tips. First there's a post about getting "90 Days of Narcotics: How to Best Use the New Drug Laws." We also are let in on "A Pharmacy Secret" that will de-stress your trip a great deal.


Roshan at Taoist Yoga gives us this piece called "Regulating the Body." Here we find a basic introduction to the benefits of breathing correctly in order to heal the hurt spots in our bodies--check out the entire blog and links for further instruction.


Focusing on the belief that our bodies instinctively know how to heal themselves and that we can best be healed when in a state of peaceful relaxation, here Anmol Mehta discusses some underlying tenets of natural healing on the blog http://anmolmehta.com/. Axel G. takes this discussion in a slightly different direction, giving us some information on stressors and how to control their effects on the body with "Stress Management."

In discussing the post "The Power of Pearl," author Lee writes, "consider this: bring a string of pearls (or pearl powder) along and use it during your vacation for a headache reduction. This article reveals the not-so-well known healing powers of pearl..." If you're interested, you can read more entries from Reiki Vancouver.

Be well, everyone! That's an order.

**Thanks to Diana Lee for allowing me to host this terrific blog carnival this month!**

W the Woman Show Migraine episode!

Here I mentioned an episode of a show called W the Woman Show all about Migraine and women!

Someone at the station emailed me and said we can watch the entire episode here:
http://www.mymigraineedu.com/

You have six hours left to submit!

The June Migraine & Headache Blog Carnival is due by 11:59 PM EST TONIGHT, June 6! Get your entries to me ASAP!

More info here: http://themigrainegirl.blogspot.com/2008/05/june-migraine-headache-blog-carnival-im.html

once upon a mattress

I can't wait to go to bed tonight. And no, this desire is not directly connected to the constant tiredness I've been feeling lately. (Yes, I'll call my neurologist about this. Maybe even as soon as tomorrow!)

You see, I bought a new bed today. Miracle of miracles: you can't feel the springs in it when you lie down! AMAZING. It's soft yet firm. And inches wider than the full-sized, hard bed I've had for seven years. To top it all off, it was one of the less expensive models the store had to offer--and (surprise of surprises) I BARGAINED WITH THE SALESMAN. True story, folks: you can haggle over mattress sales. I got the thing for $80+ less than I would have had I not asked the guy to strike me a deal. (A few months ago in Boston, my friend got a deal on a mattress by staging a walk out. The salesman, really wanting a sale, called her back as she was exiting and offered her a deal. We are awesome.)

So that's the story. I've been waking up with back aches for many a week now, knowing I had to purchase a new, supportive mattress soon. And today I bit the bullet as soon as the Maxalt kicked my menstrual migraine out of the picture. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel stupendous!

Women and Migraine show

Check this out! W the Women's Show (boring title, but show sounds good) is having "episode focused on helping women with migraines gain control of their lives. The show is titled, “Women & Migraines” and features renowned medical professionals as well as the Executive Director of the National Headache Foundation, Suzanne Simons." (quote is from the article I linked to above)

how to survive a vacation tip 1: don't trust the website

A couple of weeks before Memorial Day weekend, I had an epiphany: I needed a vacation. Not an action-packed trip, mind you, but a vacation. No commitments. No one to answer to. No schedule. A vacation.

Considering my health situation and limitations caused by the seemingly incessant Migraine attacks I've been suffering through the last two months or so, my first instinct was to assume that I had to go alone. Having another person there would mean I'd feel guilty if I had to bail on plans to go to the beach for a couple hours or if I sat through dinner with my ice water glass against my forehead. So I concluded I'd go it alone.

Until I thought of a certain friend of mine, one of my best and dearest friends. In the interest of privacy (read: she doesn't know I'm talking about her on my blog as we speak), I shall call her by the nickname each of us has taken to calling the other: Handicapped Twin. HT for short. She is a woman near my age with rheumatoid arthritis--this year in particular she's had a really rough time of it and we've taken turns being laid up at each other's house to watch movies and zone out in our drugged hazes.

A week or so before Memorial Day, I emailed HT, who was finishing up a particularly hectic week at work. I said something to the effect of, "I need a vacation. I'm going to the beach. You're the only person I can think of who'd be the perfect company. Interested?" Within a couple hours I got an all-caps response: "HELL YES!!!" And thus The Plan was born.

I researched lots of hotels off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina and decided we should go to Jekyll Island, a gorgeous and (for now) well-preserved island I've been visiting since I was a wee little thing. Turns out HT and her family went to Jekyll since the 70s or early 80s as well, so she was up for some relaxing and reminiscing. I showed HT the top five hotels I'd found, and we selected one with a sharp website and a claim that the entire property had just been renovated. After confirming there was a hot tub and beach access, we booked it.

A five or six hour drive on Friday afternoon led us to Jekyll. We parked in front of the lobby at what looked like a long, stretched out motor lodge. "Maybe it's nice inside," thought I, thinking simultaneously of how the hotel room price and the facade did not at all match. We got our hotel room key and anxiously wheeled our luggage to the door. First thing I noticed? Cracks and cobwebs and rust by the dingy front window. I reassured myself again: "Maybe it's nice inside."

It wasn't.

The room smelled of stale smoke and mildew. (When we left for dinner, HCTFebreezed the whole joint--after asking me if the scent would bother me. What a great handicapped twin!) The hotel had graciously put in incandescent bulbs for me but, when I went to turn on the lights, the lamps weren't working. The "new" carpet was torn in a couple of spots, there were spider webs in the corner, and the stuccoed ceiling looked almost furry in texture. I dared not look too closely above my head for fear of figuring out what the dark matter in between the white fibers of the ceiling was, exactly. The bathroom light was a fluorescent, so I brought in one of the lamps to plug in and set on the counter. Turns out the only outlet functioned only when the overhead fluorescent was on. Attempting to remove the sticky, dusty, yellowed cover off the fluorescent bulb proved disgustingly impossible. The bathroom fan cover was suffocating with dust, dirt, and "debris," as HT so affectionately called the clumps of mysterious gray matter on the intake screen.

I called the front desk about the nonworking lamps and said, "Also: I was wondering if you had any renovated rooms available..." "What room are you in?" "617." "That one is renovated, ma'am." "Um, what exactly was renovated? Because..." (Then I proceeded to give a brief description of the horror I've already described above.) "Oh, each room got new paint, new carpet, and furniture."

Oh. Well then. Ignore the typical hotel tradition of cleaning the rooms and making sure the electricity works, I guess.

That night, I fell asleep in my double bed not feeling so hot. In the middle of the night, I had to take some medication and at last fell back into a hazy, fitful sleep. In the morning, I felt great--that is, until I lifted myself from the bed. Pressure rushed to my sinuses and the Migraine attack restarted in earnest. I left the room to read outside, but the blaring sun was too much for me to take when in so much head pain. Heading back into the room to lie on the bed to read meant another rush of stale mustiness, which made everything feel worse again.

When HT woke up, she too was feeling worse for the wear and completely congested, as I was. She said, "It's the mold." "What mold?" "The mold. On the ceiling. Look." "Wait--that dark stuff is MOLD? Are you serious!?" Eventually, after we'd decided we'd leave in order to save our poor bodies, I climbed on a chair to scrape at the ceiling with a ballpoint pen. Sure enough, the white ceiling material stayed put as the wettish mold scraped off with little work.

DISGUSTING.

We went to the front desk, ready with my camera full of evidence in case the receptionist said we had to pay for the next two nights, too. Instead, the impersonal but effecient woman quickly printed up a receipt for one night and said we weren't committed to Saturday and Sunday despite the internet agreement we were supposed to adhere to. Cool.

We drove out of there and scoped out more hotels, eventually deciding upon an expensive (but aptly priced) condo farther down the main road. The space was open, clean, personal, and--get this!--not moldy in the least. We felt pretty good for a couple of days and, unsurprisingly, those pesky sinus issues cleared up as soon as we were away from Room from Hell for a few hours.

That brings me to lesson 2 in tips for surviving a vacation: paying for what you need may cost more than the cheapy places, but it's NOT splurging if you're putting your health first.

NHF Headache Awareness week--Migraine video

Check out this new youtube channel in honor of this awareness week: http://www.youtube.com/nhf1970

And this video is very helpful.



Soon I shall return to normal writing mode--for now, I must be off to work.