Migraine Fun

 Today, I have a migraine and am grateful for the medication that dulls the pain.  It's also the first day of my menstruation, so this is my period migraine.  I've been having this migraine since I was 19 so, I'm not surprised that even though I'm not eating trigger foods, I'd still get an hormonal migraine.

My migraines start as a dull pain above my left eye.  It starts dull- like someone pressing a finger in to my forehead.  As the migraine progresses, that finger turns in to a screw driver and then a drill that bores into my brain.  Along with the forehead pain, there's nausea, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to sound and the pain eventually works its way over the top of my head to the back of my neck and down my shoulder blade.  If I don't medicate in time, I end up laying dead still in the dark, wanting to vomit (and sometimes I do) crying and wanting to die.  I've never actually thought about killing myself, but there's a sense that it would make the pain end and that's all I want to happen as I lie in the dark wishing I had a new head.

I am so glad that I had a doctor who prescribed Imitrex for me very early on in my migraine journey.  I started getting migraines in January 1994 and by September, I had Imitrex.  In the last 26 years, I believe I've tried all the triptans:  Imitrex (sumatriptan), Amerge (naratriptan), Zomig (zolmitriptan), Maxalt (rizatriptan), Axert (almotriptan), Frova (frovatriptan), or Relpax (eletriptan).  They all seem to work for me which is a blessing, for sure.  When I first started taking Imitrex, they cost around $20 a pill.  I'm so glad that I was still on my father's drug plan!  They work pretty well, but I find as I get older, the side effects are getting worse.  Mostly, it's just a feeling of being dopey.  The headache goes away, but I can't do much throughout the day because I'm tired and drugged.  I'm not complaining- that's so much better than crying and vomiting, it's just that I've really noticed lately how much time I spend recovering from a migraine.  I've also noted that I'm reluctant to make plans because I never know when a migraine might crop up.  It is because of this, that I've finally decided to take the plunge and do the elimination diet to see if I can maybe, just maybe, have a few less migraines a month.