Migraine

Smelly Socks and Garden Peas

Nov 4

Ouchy!

And that's putting it lightly.

This week I had my first "full blown migraine that I just couldn't cope with" in years.

My period started on Sunday so I knew that a headache would follow a few days later, it always does. So on Tuesday morning, I wasn't bothered by the dull ache. On Tuesday afternoon, I wasn't particularly worried by the thumping. On Tuesday night I assumed that something I'd eaten had disagreed with me when I woke up in the small hours with nasty stabbing pains in my abdomen. On Wednesday morning, the thumping was still going and I was getting annoyed. I attempted to blow the pain away and went for a run late morning. Sometime early-afternoon I realised that my right jaw and cheek were numb and tingly.

Uh oh! The realisation that this wasn't just a particularly bad headache, it was the recognisable return of a migraine.

I get them from time to time, and usually cope with lots of pain killers and chill out. But this was a bad one.

By 3pm, I wasn't coping. I'd stopped working because staring at the screen was fuzzy and my head was throbing. I went to pick the boys up from school early so that I wouldn't have to drive later if it continued to worsen.

I got them home, made some herbal tea and laid on the sofa with a blanket while they played video games upstairs. The nausea was kicking in too. Sounds were really loud, the light hurt, everything just felt too much.

Himself came home and made dinner, I ate less than small boy and took myself off for an early night. I was hoping I could sleep it off.

I woke in the middle of the night and was briefly relieved, then turned over and it was awful pain again. By morning I knew I needed some real medicine. It took me an hour to get through to the Drs reception, only to be told that GPs and nurses don't deal with migraines so I should go to a pharmacy. By this point I could hardly string a sentence together, my words were jumbled and I kept forgetting the end of my sentence. Like a bingo for migraine symptoms.

I walked down to the pharmacy as I didn't feel safe driving. The pharmacist took my history and had to explain three times how to take the tryptan she was giving me, when and whether to take a second dose. She said I had to see my GP as well since it was so long since my last migraine and because this one was severe.

I took my tryptan just before 10am and went back to my sofa and blanket. By 11 the tingly jaw was gone and the headache wasn't as bad. By midday, I felt well enough to join the important work meeting I'd been planning to skip. By the end of the afternoon, I felt like myself again, mostly just very tired.

So I've got a GP appointment in 2 weeks and hopefully they'll prescribe a tryptan I can take proactively to stop future migraines fully developing.

When large boy got home from school he checked on me and offered me tea. The first thing small boy said when I picked him up was "before you ask me anything mum, are you feeling OK?" What nice boys. Small boy was very concerned because he very occasionally has a migraine that lasts just a couple of hours, he's sick and then sleeps it off. When mine carried on for much longer than that and without me being sick, he was really worried.

So, now to wait and see what happens with my next period. I do hope this isn't going to be a regular thing. It was really bloody awful.