And Yet More Migraine . . . .

My chronic migraine disease has been beyond crazy this month! On my last post about migraine, I wrote how I got injections from my family doctor. That happens, oh, about once a year or so. And, that should have been it. Unfortunately, about a million triggers hit at once, and I got a week long migraine last week!

The prodrome started on Monday with extreme fatigue. I thought it was just because PWM and I had walked a couple of miles the day before. Alas, no. Well, the walking so far might have been one of the triggers. The migraine was in full force by Tuesday, and I was up Tuesday night vomiting. I thought I was over the worst and life would get better. NO. Wednesday night, I didn't vomit, thanks to the early use of nausea meds, but the pain got up to a 9. I don't get pain that high. At least very, very, very rarely. So, at 3am, we trudged off to the Emergency Department (for the first time in three years - that's something, right?).

After Benadryl, Morphine, and Compazine, my pain was approaching a 4, so we finally went home for me to go to bed. I was ready for everything to be done. But, it wasn't I spent the next several days with pain levels from 4 to 7, malaise and anxiety (who knew they came together) and general body pain. It was completely miserable. I couldn't sit to read or knit. I could only sleep for a couple of hours at a time. We tried going out of the house a few times - to get my computer fixed on Friday night and to a movie on Sunday night.

I thought things might be getting better until I woke up Tuesday morning back at a 7. So, I called Neuro and they called in a prescription for a Prednisone taper. I have a love/hate relationship with Prednisone. For one thing, it gives me insomnia, hence my writing at 3:15am. But, it makes the pain - head and otherwise - better. I can sit and read and write and knit - not all at the same time!!

So, with Prednisone for a week or so, I'll be hungry, jittery, productive, and I might gain a few pounds. But, my migraine will go away and I might feel otherwise "normal". I can deal with that.

I'm used to the day to day dealing with migraine symptoms, but this was a whopper. It completely knocked me out from any kind of useful activity for a week. And it has made me remember that chronic migraine is different from episodic migraine. Not only do the migraines tend to be longer and stronger with chronic migraine, but there are more symptoms and it's a constant illness. I was just recovering from one migraine when this one hit. Now I've got about a week to look forward to recovering from this attack. 

This is an exacerbation of daily life, but it's still daily life. Always having symptoms. Always figuring out what is the best thing to conserve energy for the next activity, to prevent or reduce the next migraine.

But, the Prednisone gives me hope that I'll come out of this attack. And let's pray it's another three years before I see the inside of the Emergency Department!!