a candid look at managing and living with headaches & migraines

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Archive for October, 2007

I’m Skipping Halloween

I love answering the door for trick or treaters. Tons of kids visit our neighborhood with big smiles and cute costumes. Our porch lights will be off this year. I just know it will be too much for me.
After migraines in the night both Friday and Saturday, the dizziness and pain finally let up Sunday [...]

American Pain Foundation’s Pain and Creativity Center

The American Pain Foundation and HealthCentral have created an online exhibit to highlight the importance of creativity activities in coping with chronic pain. The exhibit includes poetry, prose, digital photos
artwork and crafts, and inspirational videos. Everyone who has made a submission has included a paragraph describing how their art represents their pain experience.
Although the deadline [...]

Dizzy and Nauseated

I’m on my third day of horrible dizziness and nausea. Today is a bit better than the last two. I can get up and do a couple things before I have to lie down again.
Hope your week is better than mine!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition Builds New Home for Chiari Advocate

Julie Carter and her three daughters all have Chiari malformation, a rare abnormality at the base of the brain that results in brain tissue extending into the spinal canal, which causes severe headaches. Nearly a half a million dollars in debt from brain surgeries, they lived in a refurbished chicken coop. An advocate for Chiarians [...]

Flickering Lights and Sensitive Eyes

The trees are shaking violently in a windstorm and are casting ever-moving shadows on the house and windows. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to my sensitive eyes, the flickering looks like a strobe light. With a migraine, that’s a terrible, terrible sight.
I’m looking forward to sunset and hoping that the electricity doesn’t go [...]

Drastic Elimination Diet for Migraine Triggers: What Was I Thinking?

File my plan for a drastic migraine and headache elimination diet under “What was I thinking?” In the innumerable elimination diets I’ve tried — whether based on eliminating common headache triggers or foods I tested intolerant to — I have never found a food trigger. Never. Even when I stuck to the diet for three [...]

Manual Lymphatic Drainage Therapy

In the next therapy in my “Why not?” treatments, I had manual lymphatic drainage Friday. The best description I’ve found of lymph drainage is: “The aim of the massage is to stimulate or move the excess fluid away
from the swollen area so that it can drain away normally. Massage also
encourages and improves drainage in the [...]

Whoa! I’m Depressed

I’ve been debating all week whether I’m down or if my clinical depression is creeping back. Arriving a day late for the psychiatry appointment I scheduled a month ago was just what I needed to confirm my suspicions.
Even though I could reschedule for an hour later this afternoon, I was crushed. Not like a soda [...]

Potential Liver Damage When Combining Caffeine and Painkillers

My response to Painkillers, Caffeine May Cause Liver Damage, a post on Somebody Heal Me , was much stronger than “Oh darn.”
[P]reliminary research indicates that people who take in large quantities of painkillers containing acetaminophen [Tylenol] and ingest large amounts of caffeinated beverages may be at increased risk for liver damage. Migraine medications that intentionally [...]

Strong Warnings of Zyprexa’s Side Effects

Not sure how often — if ever — Zyprexa is used for headache, but just in case. . .
Zyprexa, an antipsychotic, has a
tendency to cause weight gain, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and
other metabolic problems. The side effects have long been know, but the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly, has now added them to prescribing information.