Dealing With Headaches

Where you go where you die is often referred to as “The Other Side”. It’s a very PC term for your favorite after-death party house. Personally, I call it The Summerland, but even I forget to call it that half the time. Whatever your spirituality calls it, are there migraines in that dimension of existence?

The Evidence

According to many holy texts, psychics and those who have experienced near death experinces, there are a lot of things on Earth that are not avilable on The Other Side. Two of these are food and bathrooms. Suppossedly, you don’t need to eat on The Other Side, but I really doubt this. Knowing human beings, we will eat whether we have digestive organs or not. And that food has to go somewhere.

Also, you don’t have to sleep on The Other Side because it’s always day or twilight and never night. I don’t like that. If I don;t get proper sleep, I’m certain to get a migraine. If no one sleeps, then there aren’t any comfortable places to sleep. Some spiritualities claim that we live in the clouds. I don’t trust sleeping on clouds. Quite frankly, I don’t trust doing much of anything on clouds. They’re so changeable. You can never depend on them. Besides, I really don’t know clouds at all.

In Conclusion

In reading all of this evidence, I have come to the conclusion that there are, indeed, migraines in the afterlife. On The Other Side, there is no place to sleep, no food to digest properly and no bathrooms. These can all lead to major migraine triggers. No wonder we reincarnate so often instead of just flitting about in paradise for the rest of eternity. We need the bathroom, something to eat and a lie down. Alll in all, migraineurs seem to have it better here on this side of eternity.

Nothing’s ever easy, is it?

Many people who suffer with migraines or chronic headaches take medicines called “preventives” or “abortives”. Or, perhaps they are like me and take both kinds. Until recently, I didn’t think there was ANY difference between an abortive and preventative medication, and I have two college degrees. I was recently set straight by my primary doctor, Dr. Fountain Of Youth Face.

However, if I made the mistake, then perhaps other readers out there in the blogosphere will, too. I’ve seen the terms used interchangeably in medical websites, and I’m sure I’m guilty of doing the same thing on this blog. I’ll be going back through some of my older posts to correct that mistake.

Anyway…

An abortive medication stops something once it already begins. Such a medicine would be Zolmig nasal spray, or Imitrex (sumatriptan), which is taken as soon as you feel a migraine coming on. (And remember — an abortive does NOT mean it will give you a sudden abortion. It’s just a name.)

On the other hand, a preventive medicine stops anything from even starting in the first place. In the wacky world of migraines, you would have to take this medicine every day, no matter how you were feeling. Such a medicine would be DHE. Another medication would be verapamil, which is actually a high blood pressure medication that (as a side effect) often reduced the frequency of migraine attacks in migraineurs.

Still, It’s Not A Cure All

No matter if you take an abortive or a preventive medication (or both), you still need other painkillers, ways of coping with stress and to identify and avoid anything that might trigger a migraine. Keeping a headache journal helps you identify your triggers.

Hope this helps.

This isn’t the best YouTube clip in the world, but it does have a certain amount of charm and is (probably) unintentionally quite funny. I’m not a big fan of the slide-show style of YouTube clips, but in this case, it works. “Home Remedies for Migraine Headaches” pairs some stock photography and cute clip art with some easy-to-read information on folk remedies for migraines. I don’t know what the music is playing behind it, but sadly, it cuts off. It sounds a bit like Deep Forest.

This was posted by YouHerbal.com (which sounds a little like name-calling — “Hey, you! You herbal, you!”) which is a site that sells (ta da) herbal and food-related remedies for various ailments, as well as a lot of bottles of capsules. Keep in mind that just because something is natural, doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. You can get side effects from herbal remedies just as you can with prescription medicines. And never slam back an herbal remedy without talking to your doctor first. (However, aromatherapy you can tinker with without a doctor’s supervision.)

Also, as an English major, I couldn’t help but notice some capitalization and grammatical errors. If that gives you a headache, then you’d best skip this clip and check out one of my older posts on folk remedies for headaches. Otherwise, enjoy!

A recent study in The Cohrane Library published in the Land of Oz (Australia, of course) concludes that oxygen therapy may significantly help those suffering from cluster headaches or migraines. 210 human guinea pigs volunteered to participate in nine small studies around Oz in order to compare treatments. Cluster headeadche patients, in partuicular, did much better than placebos after 15 minutes of breathing in an oxygen chamber.

Normobaric and Hyperbaric Therapy

There are two kinds of oxygen therapies. Sadly, just breathing in and out like usual doesn’t count. Anyway, normobaric oxygen therapy refers to breathing pure oxygen from an oxygen tank. Buy hyperbaric oxygen therapy (the one considered so promising) involves going in a chamber and breathing pure oxygen. Why the chamber? The chamber is put under pressure.

No, I have no idea what this means, either.

Which Leads Us To The Problem

Finding an oxygen chamber is just about as hard as trying to comprehend oxygen therapy. Critics of the Oz study point out that the migraine or cluster headache might even be over before the patient can begin snorting the pure oxygen. Also, oxygen tanks are highly flammable (not that this hasn’t stopped us from driving cars). However, this could be a first step in finding a far more practical solution.

Meanwhile, keep on taking your usual medicine.

This post is aimed more for American readers. My apologies to non-American readers. You can go look at Brad Pitt photos here.

Anyway, American Migraineurs…

A petition to Congress has been started by Diana Lee of Headache Blog Carnival and Somebody Heal Me fame. It’s currently up on iPeteitions.com. This is a non-profit site, so expect to be asked for a donation after you electronically sign the petition.

This petition is to ask Congress to rethink the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, which suggests all public places replace their lighting with CFL bulbs. (I’m really paraphrasing the Act here, so if I painted the picture of potential public lighting with too broad a brush, I apologize.) These bulbs have been proven to trigger migraines in the headache-prone.

Although the makers of CFL bulbs constantly say their bulbs do not flicker, they sure do. It’s very slight, but it is enough to make my life and the lives of many other American migraineurs miserable. I can’t have them in my house. I hate to think I’ll be trapped in my house because I can’t tolerate the lighting anywhere else. I think they’re a great idea, but needs a design overhaul to elimnate the flickering.

What About the Planet

Considering all of the crap things we humans are doing to the planet, lightbulbs are really far down the list. Cutting out human overpopulation, strengthening public transportation, curbing our ridiculous buying habits, dropping our consumption of red meat and taxing the tar out of Big Oil will should be far up on our priority list because they have far more impact ont he planet than trying to these little piddling things like ban cigarette smoking, ban trans fats and change out lightbulbs.

There is no magic bullet to climate change and the environmental crisis. Heck, in the state of Pennsylvannia, you can’t even get the citizens to agree that there IS such a thing as a climate crisis. But making everyone in the country use light bulbs that make us sick is not going to help anything exept get the 30 million or so American migraineurs really ticked off.

Thank you and good light…I mean, good night!

It’s a beautiful day in the Pain-er-hood
A beautiful day for a neighbor… Howdy, neighbor! Hope you are having a great day. No? You say your life sucks because of acute migraines, which really aren’t so cute? Well, follow me to the Land of Make Believe, otherwise known as the wacky world of Phase I Clinical Test trials for new drugs, where anything can happen and usually does.

Can You Say ‘Transdermal’? Sure You Can!

One of the suppossed breakthroughs in modern medicine is the creation of the transdermal patch. That’s one of those white bandage doo-hickeys you tape to your body and then absorb the medicine bit by bit through your skin. This really isn’t much different than the medicinal poltices or herbal compresses native healers have used for thousands of years. However, it wasn’t hip until the success (read=lots of money made) on the nicotene patch.

Why am I not keen on transdermal patches? Because I have realtives who can’t have them because for some strange reason their bodies soak up all of the goodies in the patch IMMEDIATELY. This has lead to some very sick relatives. However, those that used the nictoene patch when they tried to quit smoking were pretty happy until they found out why they were so happy.

The Latest Future Star

NP101 is the trail name of the transdermal patch for acute migraines that has done well so far. It is put out by NuPathe, Inc, a very small pharmaceutical company reported to be “privately held” (sounds painful.) The patch is a combination of sumatriptan (the active medicine in Imitrex) and “NuPathe’s SmartRelief™ proprietary iontophoretic transdermal technology”. (No, I don’t know what that means, either, but it sure sounds impressive, doesn’t it?)

The Nitty Gritty

NP101 was tested against Imitrex nose spray, tablet and injections. There were 23 human guinea pigs descibed as “healthy”. I assume that means the subjects were not prone to migraines if they were “healthy” and that the migraines were chemically induced. I could not find details of that fact on the Internet or in NuPathe’s press release.

The big hope is that the patch can give you the same relief as with triptans, but without the wacky side effects. It didn’t give any serious side-effects to the 23 volunteers except swelling of the skin at the patch site. Although some reports say this patch will be availbale in a year, odds are with the way Phase II and Phase III Trials have gone for other drugs recently, that it will be at least two years.

Whoops. That’s all the time we have for this episode, boys and girls. Time to go back to real world where all your dreams are clouded by a haze of blinding migraine pain and splintering dry heaves. Bye for now!

Thanks as always to Diana Lee for hosting a fabulous Headache & Migraine Blog Carnival for most of the months of this year. It almost makes having chronic headaches and migraines worth while (almost, mind). As you can tell from this posts title, this months blg carny focused on “Migraines & Spirituality“, although anyone experiencing a head pain from all demoniminations and sects are invited.

My Top Picks

Personally, I feel that this is one of the strongest carnivals yet of the series. There’s nothing like trying to attach some meaning to your suffering in order to help you bear the pain. Although not all of the posts dealt with the specific topic, they did tie in and are interesting reads in and of their own right.

The best title for this month’s blog carnival goes to Rain Gem for Visualization Techniques for Migraines, Headaches, Pain and Increasing Breast Size. For some people, the female breast is certainly a religion. For females like me, they are merely twin sources of headaches. Check out the fluffy kitten picture.

The best common sense for those with migraines goes to Rhymes with Migraine’s On Migraines and a Path to Harmony. Don’t let the title fool you. It’s a very down to earth post that probably could apply to a lot of people today.

The Me, Me, Me award goes to my own Could Migraines Try to Help Us Cope with Stress? from one of the other blogs I write for, Where We Relax. Remember, if you are looking for a name for a band, why not try Comatose Locusts?

And the best post that sums it all up is yet another brilliantly written post from Megan at Free My Brain from Migraine Pain called God Grant Me the Serenity to Accept the Migraines I Cannot Change.

If I didn’t mention your post here, it’s not because it was poorly written or anything like that. It just didn’t catch my fancy today. Not your fault — mine.

Next Month

The theme for August’s Blog Carnival is yet another good topic, “Handling People who Don’t Get Migraines or Headaches”. Entries are due Friday, August 8th. You don’t get paid, but you do get mega publicity and access to information you might otherwise miss. Your blog does not have to be about head pains in particular, but the post should be related to headaches or migraines in some fashion.

See you next month!

It’s interesting what pops up when you enter “migraine” into the search bar at YouTube. Granted, there’s an awful lot of crap, but sometimes you come across a little gem that you would have discovered in no other fashion. I’ll admit up front, this clip doesn’t have anything to do with treating migraines…well, maybe it does. It does suggest that people who break your heart are the cause of migraines. Having them get run over by a bus is perhaps an alternative migraine treatment.

The song is called “Migraine” although I don’t think it actually pops up in the song lyrics. The band is Moonstar 88 from the Phillipines. The music is not traditional world music kind of stuff, but very hip and very smooth. It just happens to be sung in Phillipino by a woman with a lovely voice, Machelle Baay. (I hope I got that name right — the official website for the band is down, so don’t take my credit listing as Gospel, here).

The video uses a mixture of Phillipino and English, which is how some Phillipinos talk (from what I’ve been told. One day, I might actually get to travel to the Phillipines.) You really don’t need to translate the lyrics to understand what the video is about. Enjoy!

WARNING: There is a brief strobe effect in the beginning of the clip.

Right up front, let me say that if you don’t like yourself swearing, then don’t worry about it. Do whatever you have to to help yourself through migraine pain. But there are those of us who find swearing a great relief when we are in great physical pain.

Your Thoughts Affect Your Health

I am aware that, to some extent, your thoughts greatly affect your physical health. When you think or shout swear words, you tend to work yourself up into becoming even more tense, with your heart pounding harder. However, that might happen to you. The opposite tends to happen for me. I let out a good string of profanity and I suddenly can heave a tremendous sigh of relief. Granted, this only happens when I am in physical pain. Otherwise, swearing gets me even more upset than I was before.

Think Good Thoughts

I’m all for alternative healing. I think there is an amazingly string mind-body connection that has a potential not yet fully explored. However, I can’t jive with the “think happy thoughts” approach to migraine pain management. This is especially prominant in EFT, where you are encouraged to repeat, “Although I have this migraine, I fully accept myself.”

I’m not able to do that when in the grips of a migraine, like the one I had on Wednesday. It came out more like “I am a $(^&%HB:ing person and I HATE this ^$@@*&^$%ing migrane!!!” The paint peeled off of the walls. On seeing that, even my dog knew to leave me alone.

And it helped. Of course, the Zolmig sample, curling up into a feotal position and being able to lie down also probably helped, too. But I never would have been able to lie down if I didn’t swear so much I could’ve fried an egg with my words.

This approach isn’t for everyone, granted. But if swearing helps you when you are in the grips of pain, it sounds wonderful.

I went to my doctor yesterday and broke the news ablot proplanalol not working for me. I thingk he was more disappointed than I was. So, I’m going to try a new medicine, verapamil, as a daily preventative as well as try out a couple of samples of Zolmig nasal spray. Actually, both verapamil and Zolmig (zolotripltan) have been out a while, so they’re new for my body but not on the migraine medical scene.

I didn’t realize I’d have to try the Zolmig so fast.

Flipping Pills

Why the nasal spray samples when I’ll be taking pills and don;t have trouble taking pills? Well, when I get a migraine, my stomach gets really upset and sometimes I throw up. When my doctor heard this, he said the nasal spray works for people who have trouble “flipping pills”. I had to have him repeat that.

Note to self: Latest medical euphamism for vomiting is “flipping”.

Now, I will never be able to hear the term “flipping houses” again without having a really bad mental image.

I’ll Give It A Nine

I got a migrine this morning. This was a scary kind — one that comes on without any warning (unlike most of my migraines or migraines in general). This hammered the left side of my head instead the right (as is usual for me). On the scale of 1-10 for my migraines, this was a 9.

Trembling, I ripped into that Zolmig box, where the instructions are written in everyday English and have color photographs as to how to take it (which was great, because at that point, I couldn’t focus my eyes enough to read).

You only need to shoot it up one nostril, but remember to inhale and THEN shoot it. Otherwise, it will drip out of your nose. I was so desperate, I licked what dripped out. Then, I staggered off to lie down. My Mom was alarmed when she saw me.

It was worth licking what dripped out of my nose. An hour and a half later, I felt good enough to sit up and eat lunch. Two hours later, I could go back to work.

Granted, this could in part be a placebo effect kicking in, but at this point I really don’t care.

Now, I guess I really should get that prescription for verapamil filled…

First off, I still haven’t figured out how to pronounce it. I already have a stutter and trying to pronounce this beta blocker high blood pressure medication must really look comical to onlookers (I say through gritted teeth.) I’ve been on propranalol for about a month and I’m really not impressed (as you can probably tell from the title).

I’m fighting a migraine now. I’ve been getting migraines and headaches like barometric pressure headache at the same rate since before I was taking this stuff. The only noticeable change I see is that I have the squirts and I’ve been farting really loudly (much to my dog’s amusement). (I know, too much information, sorry). My doctor warned me that I would get constipated. Hah.

The Next Step

I’m suppossed to be on four mini pills a day of propranalol, but I haven’t been able to move past three because of the nasty digestive effects. Personally, I’d like to dump the rest of the pills down the toilet (it would save time) but there’s already too many prescription medicine in the public water supply.

My doctor said that the next drug I was to try was Imitrex, which I’m scared of. Not nightmares of huge Imitrex pills chasing me through a forest scared, but “how’m I gonna pay for this crap?” scared. “Maybe this stuff will make me feel TOO good” scared.

Don’t Be Put Off By My Reaction

Although my body doesn’t seem to like propranalol and your doctor sugests it for your migraines, don’t be afraid to try it. It works for a lot of people. I just happen to be one of the lucky ones where it makes me run to the bathroom a lot.

As always, be sure to let your doctor know about all the medications, vitamins and herbal prescriptions you are taking before you start popping propranalol. Even though your doctor will have your charts right in front of you, he or she can still not actually read it.

Some says, I think it’s easier to just suffer with the migraines and be sone with it rather than try a new treatment.

I had a migraine this morning, so I could only begin work this afternoon, hours behind schedule. I was behind another hour because my computer wouldn’t get onto the Internet. It kept that little hourglass thingy going and a white screen as if to say, “Talk to the browser.” I finally just shut the computer down and rebooted. Now, it finally works.

Which gets me to thinking — do computers get migraines, too?

Stay With Me On This One

My computer acted very much like I did this morning — I had many false starts and wound up blinking inchoherently at the day. And then the pain hit suddenly (even though I already know I get migraines, the acutal intensity and suddenness of the pain still takes me by surprise). Because of the pain, and sounds and light becoming intolerable, I had to say, “Screw this” and go back to bed.

By 1pm, I was fine. Perhaps I needed rebooting.

Anyway, the similarities are too much of a coincidence.

Could My Computer Have Caught Migraines From Me?

Not that migraines are contagious, but that when you are not feeling your best, you can make some mistakes as to what buttons to push and when. My computer is about ten years old, so it’s a bit on the slow side, anyway. I’m used to that — usually. When it’s slow, I do filing, read a book, pick my nose, that sort of thing.

However, when I’m getting over a migraine, I’m a wee bit grumpy. My dog stays away from me. I’m more impatient and could perceive that the computer is “acting up” when, in fact, it’s acting the same way it always does.

The moral of the story? When it comes to migraines, sometimes everything around a migraineur needs a reboot.

One of the things migraineurs live in constant fear of is having a migraine strike at the most awkward times in our lives. Like at our wedding.

This has just happened to Kim and James Fisher of Arizona. The day before the wedding (gee, no stress for Kim on that day, eh?) a migraine came calling. It was so severe that she had to go to the hospital.

Determined to get married “no matter what”, the couple changed the wedding plans at the last minute — to get married at the hospital. I wonder if the wedding guests were able to get opiod painkillers as a wedding present for the bride — and groom.

Yet Another Reason Not To Have A Big Wedding

The reports on this event are not clear on a few issues, such as whether this was Kim’s first migraine. If she was riushed to the hospital, then it does suggest that it probably was a first time occassion — which can be incredibly frightening. When I had my first “official” migraine, my doctor wondered if I had an aneurysm. Perhaps Kim’s doctor thought the same thing.

But this leads to a point — migraines are event crashers. You wind up becoming an unreliable friend because of the sudden cancellations you have to do if a migraine should unexpectedly strike.

All is not lost if you stubbornly insist on having a big wedding and know that migraines can come crashing. If you keep a headache journal, you get to learn what your body’s warning signs are that a migraine is on the way. This is usually slightly different for each person, but many warning signs include (but are not limited to):

• Shakiness or dizziness
• Sudden intense irritability for no reason
• Two or three days before your period
• Pressure behind or over your eyes (or eye)
• Auras

There have been cases where migraines have started and then were cured about an hour or so later with medication and a lie down in a dark room. This happened to Denver Bronco’s Terrel Davis in the Super Bowl (who went on to become MVP of the game), so it might happen for you on your wedding day. Arguably, there’s more pressure on you than Davis had for a mere Super Bowl, but the principle applies.

You could also have a Zombie Wedding, where wearing sunglasses, vomiting and covering the wedding venue in black curtains is normal. If you feel like the living dead, you might as well milk it for all it’s worth.

There’s a bit of a buzz throughout the British press about a class of migraine drugs called “gap blockers” that are available in the UK on a limited basis. Unfortunately, these drugs don’t remove Gap stores from the face of the planet. That’s another type of headache altogether. No, these gap blockers are to help prevent migraines by directly affecting brain chemistry to keep certain nuerons from firing. Many of these drugs are still in the clinical trial stage.

Don’t We Already Have Those?

There are a lot of drugs available to prevent migraines, including Imitrex (which yours truly might be moved onto soon if her current medication doesn’t pan out). However, these drugs tend to have some really heavy-duty side efffects, including asthma, hair loss and sudden wieght gain. There’s also the usual “risk of harming foetal development”, but that tends not to apply to most migraineurs because we’re too busy having migraines to have sex.

The big buzz about the gap junction blockers for migraines is that they work just as well as a drug like Imitrex, but without the side effects.

As a point of interest, an article in the Daily Telegraph went on to explain how migraines are treated:

Once attacks happen they can be treated with powerful painkillers such as codeine and anti sickness medication.

Day -YAM! When I lived in England, I was NEVER offered codeine for my multitide of migraines. Where’s my codeine? I think I’m due some codeine!

Tonabersat

Get used to that name if you have migraines. That’s suppossed to be THE migraine drug of the future, although it is still in development. It’ll probably cost an arm and both legs when it comes out. The good news (financially speaking) is that dosage seems to be less than for other drugs.

The thing that really, really bothers me about gap blockers is that I can’t remember if I ever wrote about them before on this blog along with other migraine drugs in development. Obviously, this is proof that all of my neurons definately aren’t firing.

I can’t recommend a lot of the videos listed under “migraine headache” in YouTube, as they are usually hawking one product or another. Some of them also have very strange “facts” to present. But every now and then, you get a really helpful video, such as this one from FYINowHealth (which is a YouTube user name, not a website or a magazine). It very clearly lists in layman’s terms how to tell the difference between a miraine and a tension type headache.

In case you didn’t know, it does make a difference as to what kind of had pain you have in order to get proper drugs and other treatments. And also to know whether you can move around or stay as still as possible. Personally, I think migraines are worse than tension-type headaches, but I’m admittedly biased.

Speaking of headaches, I’m not doing so well today. I’m off. Enjoy the video.