As you can’t help but have noticed, Kerrie has not posted to The Daily Headache in months. Her migraines have been increasing in intensity and duration over the last year, starting in our last months in Seattle this summer and continuing through our time in Boston. Since we’ve moved she’s been largely homebound, only getting out for a few hours a week to take a walk or run a few errands with me. In addition, looking at the computer has become a significant trigger which has made writing posts, responding to comments, or emailing friends almost impossible. Beyond the headaches, which have reached a new severity, she has constant nausea, common bouts of vertigo, muscle pain and stiffness, stomach cramping, and extreme fatigue.
The situation reached a head when we travelled back to Seattle for Thanksgiving. Kerrie has had an unrelenting migraine for more than two weeks which prevented us from going home on three separate tries and sent her to the ER on Friday. We never thought she’d go to the ER for her migraines but the combination of unrelenting level-9 pain and new stomach cramping/convulsions convinced us we needed to do something. They were able to reduce her pain to a 5 and get her a good night’s sleep, but the next morning the pain was back as intensely as ever.
We finally made it home on this past Wednesday by loading her up on painkillers and relaxants and shuttling her through the airports on a wheelchair. We were fortunate to have friends from Seattle willing to travel back with us to help out, and to get a row without a 3rd person in it so that Kerrie could lie down for the whole flight. (Our friends took some pictures along the way… when she’s feeling better she really wants to blog about the ER and flight experiences.)
She’s been suffering for years but I’ve never seen anything like the last few months and especially the last couple of weeks. We are forming a new plan of attack to get her help, and are hopeful for a new headache specialist that we are scheduled to see in January (and hoping to get into sooner.) I’m posting here today to let all of you know what is going on and to ask for your long-distance support. Please add a comment below wishing Kerrie well and I’ll read them to her while she’s working to recover.
Thank you all for your support, and I hope your heads are fairing better.
–Hart (Kerrie’s husband)