Dealing With Headaches

In case you didn’t know it, this week is Invisible Illness Awareness. If it wasn’t for a mention on a few mingraine-related blogs, I never would have known. It’s certainly a very quiet little official week. I guess that’s only to be expected from a bunch of invisible illnesses.

Which, of course, leads me to the obvious question –

What the Hell is an Invisible Illness?

Well, I thought the quick answer to that would be found at the National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week website. How wrong I was. After scrolling through jewlery advertisements for those stupid little ribbon-shaped pins and bracelets, badges for this product and that seminar and even a big thank you to Christian Sheep Magazine or whatever it’s called, in a tiny little corner of the bottom of the webpage did I actually find the information to what I was looking for.

An “invisible illness” is an illness that can’t be seen on your face or body instantaneously, unlike such illnesses as leprosy.

Huh?

Most illnesses look pretty damn visible once you get to know somebody for two minutes. They’re clutching their heads, projectile vomiting or screaming at you bloody murder for getting into their aura. For example, it’s very apparent when someone is having an attack of cluster headaches or a are in the mainc phase of bipolar disorder. So, I’m still not entirely sure what they’re talking about.

Those Ribbons Are So Over

After clicking through the National Chronic Invisible Man Syndome Whatever website, I also have no idea what the point of the chairty is, except to sell pins and bracelets. Can we stop it with the ribbons already? They’re everywhere now and have lost their uniqueness. They just blend in with the landscape like air molecules.

Now, as regular readers of this blog know, I’m not the brightest spark in the blogosphere. I also have three “invisible illnesses” (major depression, migraines and chronic headaches) and yet I can’t muster up anything but skepticism for this “awareness week”. It looks like a front for the jewelry industry. And if I’m skeptical of it, then others will, too.

Sponsor some legislation or a clinical trial and then I’ll change my mind.

Hooray! The monthly headache and migraine blog carnival is up! It almost makes up for having chronic headaches and migraines…well, not really. But it does make for good reading, good publicity for your blog and good research for those trying to learn more about life with chronic pain. And this month, I actually remembered to submit a blog post. The topic this month was “Doctor and Patient Communication.”

Highlights

These are the posts that jumped out at me and got the attention of my tiny little brain. Once again, if your post is not mentioned, that is not meant to reflect on your writing ability.

• How to Talk to Your Migraine Doctor written by a doctor Mary Kay at Headache Advisor. This lets you know the information that your doctor needs to know from you in order to help you quickly.
• Getting the Most from Doctors Appointments from this blog. It covers the basics froma patient’s point of view.
• Hypnosis Reduces Headaches in Children by Michael Lovitz. This focuses more on stress headaches, but has the results of an interesting study.
• Saturday Thoughts by Sue at Inner Dorothy just for the guinea pig picture. Although the article about Dorothy’s participation in a drug trial is also worth a look.
• Although aimed for dealing with children’s migraines, Have Your Child Draw Their Migraines is also good advice for adults. Not suprisingly, this is yet another brilliant post is brought to your by James at the recently streamlined Headache and Migraine News Blog.

Next Month

November’s topic hasn’t been determined yet, but if youy have a blog post that would be of general interest to migraine or headache patients, then submit a link to it for November’s blog carnival. Contact Diana Lee at SomebodyHealMe.com for details.

Off to collapse.

The Census reports came out in late August and there has been some hoopla over the finding that there are less medically uninsured Americans than in the previous couple of years. However, this drop is pitiful and is no cause for celebration. We still have a long way to go before the health care system in this country can get on the right track, let alone be declared “fixed”. (Neutered, maybe, but not fixed.)

The Numbers

There were about 47 million uninsured Americans in 2006. This has now dropped to 45.7 million. This is the first time the numbers went down since the current President took office.

But of course there would be less uninsured Americans. Many probably died in 2007 because they couldn’t get medical care. I’m assuming that everybody who died was cut out of the Census, but you never know. They never quite break the numbers down into these things into categories as to why they get the numbers they do.

There was a mention that the number of people on Medicare/medicaid or state health programs rose. If you are on Medicare or state sponsored programs, you technically have medical insurance. It could be that the 1.3 million more people were finally eleigible for medical help.

No Mention of Underinsured

Also, having medical insurance means diddly squat for most people. For example, I’ve been encouraged by my doctor to use triptans — and guess what class of drug isn’t covered by my current health insurance? You got it — triptans, which are $10 per pill/dose IF you’re lucky.

So, if you see any headlines about the drop in uninsured Americans, don’t heave a sigh of relief. Things are still the same, just dressed differently.

Mayo Clinic isn’t the name of a band, but this is actually a video put together by the Mayo Clinic (named after a family of doctors with the surname of Mayo, not after the popular white condiment). I’m glad to see that they have their own channel on YouTube. Actually, they’ve had a YouTube channel scince 2006 but ding-dong me didn’t discover it until this afternoon.

This video has a good description of what a migraine is like, especailly about any amount of light being incredibly painful. There is also a good animation which is close to what I’ve seen in some of my auras. It’s also just over two minutes long, so you can watch the whole thing without dozing off.

Just a couple of warnings — the sound dips up and down in this little video. Also, the migraineur interviewed in this video was taking botox injections as part of her migraine treatment. Botox injections are controversial treatment which I personally frown upon — but then again, I’m not a doctor. You do what you have to when you have a migraine.

Enjoy.

If there’s any profession guarenteed to give you migraines, it’s being a soldier. That, and being a professional boxer. However, a lot of America’s Army personnel do not seem to be getting an accurate diagnosis for dealing with their pain. This is the finding of not one, but two studies.

And you can’t get proper help unless you get a proper diagnosis. There have been many reports of soldiers getting the medical shaft when they return from duty, and this seems to be even more proof.

Study Details

Both studies came out in Headache, the appropriately named journal for the American Headache Society. (I guss it could also work as a title for a journal about jackhammers, too). Although the studies concentrated on soldiers who returned from Iraq, they also looked at other Army personnel.

Some of their findings include:

• Although 19% had been diagnosed with migraines, the study showed that 17% of soldiers who did have migraines but weren’t diagnosed with it did indeed have it.
• 76% of miliatry cadets surveyed had migraines but were not diagnosed by Army doctors as having migraines.
• 18% of Army officer trainees had migraines for over a year
• Migraines usually knocked a soldier out an average of 5.3 days a month. Ouch. Even I average only four migraine attacks a month.

When Attacks Begin

Although the studies did include Army recruits and those in training, the studies did come up with something interesting. Their findings showed that the migraines often began after coming back home and not during combat. This is probably due to what’s sometimes called “Friday night migraines.”

The body is working so hard and has to stay in the best possible physical shape it can in order to survive Iraq. It’s not until a tour of duty is over until the soldier begins to feel the migraines. It’s yet another reminder that life sucks.

Personally, I think the best way to treat our soldiers for migraine is to get them out of Iraq and back home, but then again, I’m not a doctor.

Let’s assume you haven’t read any of the previous blog posts. Let’s also assume that suddenly you have headaches all of the time and were not born with having headaches all of the time. What do you do? Here’s the game plan to help you manage your chronic headaches.

Go To The Doctor

You can’t avoid this. A doctor has to actually put his or her hands and instruments on you and look at your medical history in order to try to at least attempt a diagnosis. There are hundreds of reasons why you have suddenly developed chronic headaches. Although the internet is amazing, it still can’t be used to diagnose your chronic headache. And, on that note, although I’m flattered at the thought that some of your Gentle Readers think I can diagnose you after getting one email from you, I can’t. I’m not even a doctor. I don’t even PLAY doctor.

Keep a Headche Journal

Before you go to your doctor’s appointment, write down what your headches are like so that the doctor can read them. It’s better to write this down instead of trying to remember it, because you won’t remember it, especially if you have to wait a really long time at the doctor’s office and are stressed.

Write down things such as:

• How long the headaches last
• What side or part of the head the pain is
• What the weather conditions are like
• Have you had any blows to the head in your life?
• Do your parents have chronic headaches or migraines?
• What time of day the heacheaches arrive
• Do you see any funny shapes or flashes before the pain starts?
• Do you have any other symptoms such as a stuffed up nose or nausea?

Learn All You Can About Headaches

Part of the misery of chronic pain is that it feels as if you are in the teeth of an invisible monster. The fear of wondering what is going on in your head can be just as bad as the actual pain. By learning what you can about chronic headaches and migraines, you can help take some of the bite from the pain, because you can get a handle on your fear.

Hope this helps.

It is with a certain amount of shock that I’ve discovered that I’ve been bloging at Dealing With Headches for over a year now. (”What?” the readers say, “It seems so much longer than that!”) Yes, indeedy. My first post here, Keep a Headache Journal was on August 6, 2007.

Hmmm — I missed my own anniversary. Well, I guess that happens when you’re busy blogging and recovering from migraines. (My last migraine attack was August 14. My eyes still get blurry.)

So, What Have We Learned This Past Year?

• Placebos do really well in clinical trials
• Never run with pencils
• WordPress spell check is crap
• Migraine pain is so bad that people will do just about anything to try and treat it
• It’s always important to go organic
• Having a chriping cricket loose in your bedroom sucks
• YouTube is fun
• The camera doesn’t love me, but sure loves my dog Pony.
• If you remember nothing else from this year about how to treat migraines and chronic headaches, for Pete’s sake, just remember to keep a headache journal.

A Final Thought

I hope you have enjoyed this year plus since I’ve become the blogger for Dealing With Headaches. And please keep in mind never to use this blog in the place of a doctor’s diagnosis and advice. Keep taking the medication and relax inknowing that everything bad that happens to your head is all the fault of Tom Cruise.

According to some leading doctors in the fields of sports medicine, tens of thousands of concussions may be misdiagnosed or not treated properly every year. The Medical College of Wisconsin estimates that there are 40,000 concussions that happen in high school sports every year. A huge conference in Pittsburgh, PA was held at the end of July entitled “New Developments in Sports-Related Concussion”. It was hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Pittsburgh, home to the head-clanking Steelers and bone-slamming Penguins, knows quite a lot about sports-related concussions.

Apprently, there is a lot of arguments in the sports medicine arena as to how best to treat a concussion or suspected concussion. How soon should treatment start? Do they really need all of those tests? Should you let them sleep? Just what kind of long-term damage can concussions do?

Why Is This News Here?

But, you don’t have to play sports in order to get a concussion. I got one working at Macy’s, for example. I remember for a couple of hours after the blow that I thought I was fine, and suddenly I couldn’t figure out how to stand up by myself. I couldn’t stand up by myself for nearly a week. Thankfully, I let myself be talked into going into an ambulance so I could be properly diagnosed, stuck in scary, noisy machines that kind of look like they were straight out of Doctor Who and then tucked into bed for a few days.

Old injuries like concussions can often lead to really nasty headaches. And concussions, if not treated, can certainly lead to chronic problems with your head. The movers and shakers in the field of concussion treatment tend to be the sports medicine physicians, becuase they are often well-funded. What they discover about sports-related concussions can often translate to everyday folks getting everyday concussions — like idiot me walking right into a t-shirt display at Macy’s.

Do People With Concussions Ever Wake Up?

In case you are wondering, let someone with a concussion sleep. It’s the best thing for them and they will wake up again. Here’s my previous post on concussion first aid if you want to know the gory details.

Well, despite promoting the August Headche Blog Carnival, I managed to once again forget actually submiting anything to it. (Smacks forehead with heel of hand). I guess some part of me expects Diana Lee (our Blog Carnival “hostest with the mostest”) to read by mind. Once again, Atomic City was to have been this month’s host and once again it wound up at the usual place, Somebdy Heal Me. Hopefully, everything’s okay with the blogger over at Atomic City.

(In case you haven’t heard of a blog carnival, it’s just a fancy term for a long list of blog posts or web page articles that are all somewhat based on one topic. In this case, it’s migraines and chronic headaches, obviously.)

This month’s topic was “How to deal with someone who just doesn’t “get” migraine disease”. Unfortunately, migraines do not have spectacular symptoms for someone watching you. If you break a leg and a bone is sticking out, you will automatically get a lot of sympathy. You don’t get any of that when you have chronic headaches or migraines.

Highlights

Although I urge you to read all of the selctions in a Headache Blog Carnival, there are some that strike me as being more urgent to read than others. This is just a selection based on my own bizarrre reading criteria. If I didn’t pick your article to highlight, it is no reflection on you as a writer.

• Let’s get the party started with How to Introduce a Migraine by James over at Headache and Migraine News Blog. Because, of course, it’s all about the migraine.
• We get down to basics with When People Don’t Get It About Disease over at No More Headaches. This is a holistic look at the frustration migraineurs often experience about nasty reactions from others.
• Now, let’s take it down a notch with Head Pain or Head Games: The Work Toward Understanding Pain (as in, communicating what level of pain you are at to a doctor or nurse). However, you might want to break out your magnifying glass before trying to read the post.
• And finally, let’s wind down with Meagan Oltman at Free My Brain From Migraine Pain with Handling Migraine Challenges: Helping Others Understand, where Megan says she’s the “Dear Abby of migraineurs”.

Well done, everyone. Now, let’s see if I can remember to actually something for next month’s carnival.

Better get your skates on. You have until midnight tonight to submit your blog post to August’s Headache Blog Carnival to be published on Monday, August 11. This month, it hopes to be hosted by Atomic City (cross your fingers, everyone. Anytime the Blog Carnival isn’t hosted by Somebody Heal Me, things get dicey.)

August’s Theme

This month’s theme? “How You Handle People Who Don’t ‘Get’ Migraine Disease”. Personally, I just bang them in the head with a cast-iron frying pan and say, “There. You’re enlightened,” but I haven’t been able to string that into enough words for an entire blog post. Hmmm — an idea for a future blog post, perhaps?

Of course, you don;t have to stick with that particular theme in order to sumbit a post, but submissions that to address the theme will get precedence. You should look at your post and think, “Hmm. Would this be of interest to someone with migraines or chronic headaches?” If the answer is, “Yes,” by all means, go for it. There have been some really interesting “off topic” posts in past Headache Blog Carnivals. More information about submitting can be found on Somebody Heal Me (Diana Lee).

More Particulars

A Blog Carnival is, basically, a collection of links beased around a certain topic. Because it’s based on links, your article or blog post needs to already be up on the web. Your blog or web site doesn’t have to just be about head pains, just the particular post.

Diana Lee is looking for volunteers to host future Headache Blog Carnivals. If you would like to do so, then please contact her through the links provided throughout this particular blog post. In case you’re wondering, I haven’t volunteered and don’t intend to do so because I can’t commit to such an activity when I wonder if I’m going to get a migraine that day or not. Such are the joys of being a migraineur.

Ever get a weird popping sensation in your head? You know what I mean? That “Oh-my-God-please-let-it-not-be-an-aneurysm-I’ve-got-to-walk-the-dog” sensation? I had one this morning as I was walking up the stairs. It was on the right side of my upper skull. Since I’m still alive and not screaming in pain, I think I can safely assume that it wasn’t an aneurysm. Not this time, anyway.

The Fears That Chronic Headaches or Migraines Bring

When you are prone to getting one kind of head pain, you normally start to fear that you will get all other kinds of head pains, including brain tumors, aneurysms and other kinds of organic headaches. So, if you ever feel a popping sensation that seems to be just underneath your skull, you might automatically jump to conclusions.

What Is It, Then?

What that popping sensation in your head most likely is:

• Your sinuses suddenly clearing up on one side of your head
• Your head adjusting to change in elevation (even by just sitting up)
• Nitrogen bubbles popping. This can build up between muscles. You can get this sensation anywhere in the body, specially the neck, ankles, toes and fingers.
• You’re just about to have a really good idea (Okay, I’m joking on that one)

When You Have To Worry

If you feel the pop and even a spread of warmth but nothing else, there’s nothing to worry about. However, if you feel the pop and suddenly get the worst headache of your life along with problems seeing or a sudden numbess in your body (and not in your head, unfortunately), then you better call an ambulance. Many people who did suffer (and survived) and aneurysm reported that the poppping senstion was in the neck and not the head.

However, the odds of getting such a life-threatening organic headache are slim. The odds of getting hit by a car are much higher (how comforting). But even if you do get one, the odds of your surviving and geting back to normal are high, such as with the case of actress Terri Garr, who sufferred a brain aneurysm in December of 2006.

I do have to admit, sometimes I get a kind of perverse pleasure finding out whenever is something is wrong with topiramate (best known as the brand Topamax). I really don’t know why this is. Perhaps because my doctor thinks I’m a poor candidate for the medicine and so I’m trying not to miss what I can’t have. Anyway, an article in the July 22, 2008 issue of Neurology Today indicate that Topamax may cause birth defects. It concentrates on women who take Topamax during pregnancy instead of any long term results.

With or Without Valproic Acid?

One thing that’s not clear yet is that the birth defects may not come from just taking Topamax during pregnancy. It could be taking a combination of Topamax and valproic acid (valproate). It’s been known for a while that valproic acid can be repsonsible for birth defects (as well as liver failure, so you need to keep taking regular liver function checks when on valproic acid).

What Can A Pregnant Migraineur Do?

Topamax was originally developed to help manage epileptic seizures, so pregnant eplieptic women have a really bad choice to face. Of course, I could be flip here and say that ALL women could avoid this problem by not getting pregnant, but some omen really don’t have any choice in the matter. And then again, that instinctive drive to perpetuate the species can be annyingly persistant.

If youo have migraines and not epilepsy and take Topamax, then there are other drug choices available to you. Please don’t use this blog post as a substitute for your doctor’s advice. But here’s a short list of some drugs currently considered okay for pregnant women:

• Paracetomol/acetominophen (Tylenol)
• Opiods
• Anti-ementics
• Zofran (for nausea)

Hope this helps

It’s looking like 2008 is shaping up to be a good year for more drug choice for migraine treatment. First, we had Stavzor approved in January, then it was announced that a generic Imitrex will hit the market in December and now a generic version of Depakote (delayed release divalproex sodium) has now received FDA approval for migraine treatment. This was a conviniently fast approval, since Depakote’s patent just expired in July.

What Is This Stuff?

This is an anti-convuslant also known as Depacon, Nu-Valproic and Depakene) that’s also used to treat seizures and bipolar disorder (In other words, “Kids — don’t do this at home”.) It’s also one of the ingredients that make up Stavzor. Now that Depakote’s patent has expired and it’s been aprroved for migraine treatment, doctors can also prescribe Stavzor for migraines. (Not that that didn’t stop them before, but things and just that little bit more legal now).

The generic Depakote is coming out with a black box warning (ooh ahh) about some of the nastier side effects that can possibly happen. These include liver damage, birth defects, pancreatitis and death. I’m not sure why “death” is listed last, but that’s Big Pharma for you. However, thinking back on some of the migraines I’ve had, I would be willing to try Depakote, despite the black box warning.

Keep in mind that all anti-convulsants or anti-seizure medications have recently been given an FDA warning in that they may give you suicidal thoughts and nightmares. Kids under 2 should NEVER be given this stuff.

In Case You’re Not Paranoid Enough

The warnings and cautions with Depakote are quite daunting. You can’t take a wide variety of medications when on this stuff, inlcuding Tylenol (acetominphen), blood thiners like Wafarin or Lasix, Topamax (topimirate), and anything from the Valium family. It is also recommended that you wear a bracelet that tells emergency medical workers that you are on this medication. Depakote can dry up your bodily fluids, so you need to drink plenty of water when on this medication.

As always, please don’t self-medicate and do not use this blog post in the place of your doctor’s diagnosis.

It’s nearly been a month since I started taking verapamil as a daily preventative for migraines. So fat in July I have had a grand total of one migraine (knock on wood). I have had sinus headaches and barometric pressure headaches, but they are far more manageable with over the counter painkillers for me than a migraine, which basically knocks me right into a fetal position.

The Good News

I had an appointment with Dr. Fountain-of-Youth-Face this morning, and so far all is going about halfway according to plan. I don’t have to see him again for another six months, unless things get worse. I can also check back in a couple of weeks or so to see if he received any more free triptan nasal spray samples.

I also received a prescription for the dreaded Imitrex. However, it looks like my insurance will cover most of it and I will only have to pay the co-pay, so I might as well give it a go. I had tried the Zomig nasal spray samples and wanted to continue with that, but we’re not sure if Zomig would be covered by my health insurance. Since Imitrex (which is covered) is an inbred cousin to Zomig, I’ll be using that.

Isn’t health care in America fun, boys and girls?

The Not-So-Bad News

My Mom has noted that sometimes I get a little trippy after I began verapamil. I guess sobbing after last week’s Greatest American Dog was a tip off. (But I loved Elvis the Jack Russel from New York!) Also, on my first day on verapamil, I complained to Mom about the evil church cathedral organ music being played — somewhere in the world. I couldn’t hear it — but I knew it was being played, and that annoyed me.

The next day, the music that I couldn’t hear was gone. This week I’ve been upped to two mini-pills with the hope that I can take three pills.

This is goign to be fun.

In this time of a “not recession”, you have to do what you can in order to pinch pennies. But one thing you can’t afford to do is take painkillers from questionable sources. One of the most popular painkillers in recent years is fentanyl (a memeber of the always memorable opiod family). Although usually given to cancer patients and those suffering chronic excrutiating back pain, it sometimes is given to migraineurs or for othe painful headaches. Since there is such a demand for fentanyl, there are those who will exploit that need.

What We Know

This demand has lead to 1,013 deaths in the last two years, says a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most of these deaths occurred around the cities of Camden, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. These deaths weren’t from fentanyl, but from “fake fentanyl”, which often was mixed with cocaine. As you can imagine, the kick from this mix was quite powerful. The CDC reports estimates the high is “30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin.”

What We Don’t Know

The CDC also notes that they don’t know “the total picture” when it comes to how many people die from fake fentanyl, as the report only covered two states (Delaware and New Jersey) and several cities. It does not cover all fake fentanyl deaths in America.

The report also does not distinquish between those who were taking the fake fentanyl as a more affordable form of pain medication as oppposed to those who were drug addicts. Because of the increibly ridiculous cost of heath care in America, I wouldn’t be surprised if a good number of those deaths were from people in pain who were self-medicating.

It is thought that the number of fake fentanyl deaths dropped sharply once a Teluco, Meixco factory was shut down. But chances are there are many more illegal factories in place. Although it may be tempting to buy street drugs for pain management, you just can’t be sure of what your drug is going to be made out of.

Perhaps you’re better off robbing a pharmacy. (Just a joke, folks! But becoming more of a possibility as health care costs in America continue to rise).