3 little Miracles

3 little Miracles

Friday, January 29, 2016

The VEIL of Migraine Pain

Do you suffer with migraines?  I don't mean headaches, most headaches can be fairly easily treated with over the counter medication, good diet and exercise, but migraines are a BEAST of a whole different nature.  I have suffered with migraines since I was in my mid-late teens and at times they have been very upsetting to my life and happiness.
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Migraines are a debilitating illness a #silentillness that no one else can see but effects not only the person who sufferers from them, but also those around that person.  For those of us who suffer from migraines, we battle them ALL of our lives trying to find the right combination of medications, therapies, diets, and exercises.  Sometimes our efforts provide us a little success but other times they do not.  Finding the "trigger" is the goal, but most of the time even that seems impossible.

For many years I abused the over the counter medication of Excedrin Migraine, which kinda worked for me, but I had to take an excessive amount of it for it to work.  Sadly the abuse of this medication came at great cost to my liver in later years.  The makers of Excedrin Migraine clearly state on their bottle how their medication should be used, but I was so desperate for the pain to end that I was willing to take extra to make the pain stop.  (Let me also say that the damage to my liver was also caused my infertility treatments that I went through in my mid to late thirties in our efforts to have 2 of our #3littleMiracles)

During my college years I was prescribed massage therapy which sounds like a wonderful "medication" treatment but lets face it, when a migraine is creeping up on you, you can't summon the masseuse and ask him to set up shop in the middle of your college classroom and massage your head and back until your migraine is gone so you can get back to your studies. It just wasn't a successful treatment plan and the medications they wanted to prescribe would have made me useless as a college student because they has the side effect of leaving me drowse.

After college I stopped taking most meds and just suffered through the pain or when they struck at their most intense I would shut down for a few days in the dark of our home.  This system worked OK for the time before we had children but alas that did not work well when babies started coming along.  To say I could name EVERY medication I have tried through the years would be a lie, I can not, but I have tried too many to probably even name if I could.

At present I am taking 4 different medications, 2 of which are new to my migraine regime and COST me big time in the past 48 hours.

It has probably been two months since my last BIG migraine episode.  My migraines come in weird cycles, sometimes lasting for up to a month and sometimes going away for 1-2-3 months.  It is rare that I make it more then a month without a migraine, most of the time I have 2 sometimes 3 migraine cycles in a months time.  Anyway, I just saw my doctor about a week ago and this was our hot topic and she changed up my meds some to include a new drug that will literally knock me out for 12+ hours (depending on my migraine) and if that doesn't work, then someone is to bring me into her office and she will give me a shot that should get rid of the migraine.

Here is my Migraine treatment;
Daily preventative:  2 Topirmate at PM after dinner
IF a Migraine still manages to break through I take : Rizatriptan every 2 hours until migraine is gone (but NO MORE then 3 pills in day).  If on Day TWO I still have a migraine I move onto treatment 3
DAY THREE treatment of migraine is:  making sure I have another adult around to watch kids, take 1 Tramadol and 1 Promethazine as needed every 4-6 hours, this will literally knock me out. and hopefully on the other side of the migraine med fog I will wake up without the migraine.  If after all of this I still have a migraine the next day, I need to be carted off to the doctor for an injection that should make all the pain go away.

It's HORRIBLE living like this and I can tell you from very personal experience it effects your relationships and your kids lives.  In some cases it even effects your finances, your ability to make a living.  I know recently (as in the past 48 hours) it caused me to loose $1100.  I had entered a giveaway through #Instagram through @poshpaxdesigns who was very generously sharing a giveaway along with other sponsors for a $1100 from TARGET.  I love Target, I mean come on, WHO DOESN"T LOVE Target, I can drop some serious cash there and my current dream shopping list of update of home decor is pretty long.  FOR SURE I want some bar saddle bar stools and rug for my living room.  Well I actually WON, YEAH ME right!!  NOPE, not yeah me, I was at the end of a 48 hour cycle with a migraine and so I had very little contact with social media during that time other then quick glances at my phone to see if I had notifications that needed my attention.  When Mr. came home I took my DAY THREE pills and off to bed I went, I vaguely recall getting a lot of people "following" me on #instagram as I started to fall asleep, but nothing more.  I woke up to "OH HOW SAD", I had won but because I hadn't contacted them within 24 hours they moved onto another winner.  YEP my migraine literally cost me $1100!!!

So for those who say that migraines are a figment of peoples imagination and they need to get over it.  I am here to tell you they are very real and a silent terror in our lives and ripe away at us and tear apart the very fabric of who we are.  I don't like who I am when I have a migraine.  I don't like how inaccessible I am to my children I am or how my personality changes when I have one.  Migraines are a life stealer and the sad part is that from the outside a person looking at me can't tell I have one other then the pinch of skin between my eyes.

What is your silent illness costing you?


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