Dealing With Headaches

I only have one relative that I know of who is left handed. There might be others, but they’ve kept really quiet about it. My Aunt Marjorie had to endure a lot of teasing growing up — and, quite frankly, at over blah-de-blah years of age, she probably still gets her fair share of it. Unfortunately, she has more than her fair share of hardships in life. However, she does not get migraines.

Which somewhat contradicts the recent study between migraines and left-handnessness that recently came out from a group of German scientists. They only polled 100 Europeans and clearly had no contact whatsoever with my Aunt Marjorie.

Although the study ultimately was inconclusive on whether lefties have MORE migraines, but it suggests that being left-handed makes you more prone to migraines. As ususal for any kind of medical study, they have called for more medical studies to be done. I guess this keeps the medical studies industry going. (And can I buy stock in this group that keeps medical studies going on forever?)

About Left Handedness

Lefties are generally male (according to Wikipedia — not according to my family). There are about as many people who thinks left-handedness is a sign of genius, while just as many other people say “Whaddya, NUTS?” Famous left-handers include Sir Paul McCartney, Freddie Mercury and my Aunt Marjorie. Animals can also show signs of being right pawed (hooved, finned, whatever) or left pawed. For example, anyone who has ridden horses a lot will know horses have a tendency to behave better favoring one side than the other.

We could do a very unscientific study here and ask you, Gentle Readers, to answer the following as honestly as you possibly can on a May afternoon:

• Are you left sided, right sided or ambidextorous?
• Do you have migraines?
• Are you related to me?

I’m not sure how the scientific community will handle the results of our little study. Probably by calling for more studies to be done.

Faking a migraine is not recommended, but if you are reading this post, then chances are you never have an opportunity to fake one — you’re too busy having the real thing! But have you ever been tempted?

There’s A Good Thing About Migraines?

When you have migraines long enough, you realise what you have to do to fake one. You have to use these fake outs for emergencies only — such as getting out of a family reunion early. One time, my family and I traveled across state to attend the wedding of my cousin. We knew the bride, the bride’s parents and no one else. We are an animal rights family and we wound up in Hunter’s Paradise. I faked a migraine to go out to the car. The rest of my family followed “to see what’s wrong with Rena” and had a long talk.

“If I see one more idiot with a rifle in one hand and a beer in the other, I will commit a crime, ” my Dad warned.

“Well, we put in an appearance and have been here over an hour,” Mom pointed out.

“You’re faking that migraine, aren’t you?” asked my older brother.

“Nu-uh!” I insisted, tears streaming out of my eyes as I imitated very authentic dry heaves.

The rest of my family looked at each other, kissed me and Mom slipped out to break the bad news to the mother of the bride, then we went and hid back at the hotel.

The Danger

The danger of faking a maigraine is the “boy who cried wolf” syndrome. If a lot of people suddenly start faking migraines, then no one who actually has a migraine will be believed. Unfortunately, some of the people most taken by migraine fakers are doctors, especially if the “fakee” wants a perscription for powerful painkillers. (A scene like this was dramatised in an episode of ER.

Up to 60% of migraine sufferes have reported a bad experience with a doctor. In the early 1990’s, I had one doctor tell me flat out that I was faking (I wasn’t — and at the time I was having a panic attack, too). I never went back to him again.

So, if you are going to fake a migraine, use the opportunity as if a genie gave you three wishes — and you have the rest of your life to cash them in.

At the other blogs that I write (here and here), I often ask questions to engage the readers. Sometimes, I get a response via comment or email; occasionally a link, answering my question…sometimes readers even ask me questions back and that’s when I get really excited. The point? I’m trying to engage the communities of these blogs and I love it when you want me to talk back to you.

So recently, I’ve begun experimenting with polls - opinions are both the basis for the great conversations and the bane of free will, so to speak - and I thought I’d bring the concept over here, too, since you all are not a very chatty bunch. In fact, I’m getting a little lonely; it’s just me, my Excedrin Migraine and a very tall glass of water.

This week, I’m asking you: what do you do to treat a migraine? Go to’ er…

I’ll let you know the results and a new question, next week!