. . . I decided to have a five day migraine. Yep. I thought that would be such a good idea. Because who doesn’t want to miss their son’s girlfriend’s graduation party? Yeah. That was Sunday afternoon. But, I hear that everyone had a wonderful time and the girlfriend is officially not a high schooler!!
But, Monday morning, the headache was still awful and I had no more options for treatment, so I had PWM take me to the clinic. I was given Demerol (not my drug of choice – it tends to make me kind of jittery) and Phenergan which made me feel much better and some Prednisone to keep this headache kicked out. By the time we got to the pharmacy, the injection site for the Demerol was itching, so I went inside to check it out, and, lo and behold, I had hives! They were gone in an hour, but it appears I’m also now allergic to Demerol. So far, I’ve slept and knit since I’ve been home. The steroid-induced house-cleaning energy-surge has not yet shown up, but I slept till 5pm today, so I’m still awake at almost 1am. But, the migraine is gone. Hopefully, I can stay active enough to obliterate the calories that the steroids tend to make me crave.
June is officially Migraine and Headache Awareness Month as promoted by the National Headache Foundation. If you have been reading my blog, you’ll know that Migraine Disease is far more than a headache, but since it’s primary manifestation is headache, it is gets top billing for this group of illnesses. I’m generally not a fan of all the “awareness” campaigns, but I think this one is important. A lot of people out there have headaches that are debilitating and negatively impact their lives and don’t think that there’s any hope. They take some Excedrin or Advil and try to live with it. Or, if they can’t, they lose their job and struggle with all that entails.
What people need to know is that headaches that respond to Tylenol that go away after an hour or so are one thing, but headaches that occur more than four times a months and that impair your work and/or social life should be taken seriously. Medications and/or other treatment can give a person their life back. And taken too many medications can make things worse instead of better. Awareness is important because a visit to a doctor can help you decide if you need to pursue this with a medical professional. This is your life!! The headaches don’t always have to win!!!
Paste the purple ribbon on your FB page and tell your friends with headaches to talk to their medical providers. Life may not have to be as hard as it is. And, if a person has chronic migraine, there’s a lot of love and support out there. Nobody has to do it alone.
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