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Posts Tagged ‘Migraine triggers’

Hormones, Migraines and Menopause

February 14th, 2010

Migraines happen when those of us with excitable nervous systems - nervous systems prone to Migraine - experience a change in our external or internal environment that triggers the Migraine process. This doesn’t explain what causes Migraine, or why some of us have nervous systems that react like this. It just describes the process. Hormonal fluctuations are one of the internal changes that can trigger a Migraine. Migraines are not “caused” by hormonal fluctuations, but hormones can be a big factor for many Migraine sufferers. One theory about why more Migraine sufferers are female, by a proportion of 3 to 1, is that the fluctuations of our hormonal cycles make us more susceptible. Interestingly, up to puberty the numbers of male and female Migraine sufferers are more even; many more girls join the ranks with the onset of puberty.

It’s hard to generalize with this disease; people are triggered by so many different things. Some women don’t notice any particular effect of hormones on their Migraines, others seem to be only triggered by hormones, and for some hormones are one of a host of possible triggers.  That said, it is common for women to experience an increase in Migraines during peri-menopause, the period of years leading up to menopause when their hormonal levels are changing, and often beginning to drop off.

I had a sharp increase in Migraines, as well as onset of fibromyalgia, and increase in IBS as I moved into peri-menopause. I have found a bio-identical, bio-mimetic hormone replacement therapy which I believe has helped my overall health quite a bit. I started the program about 4 years ago. It has not had a noticeable effect on the number of my Migraines but has definitely decreased their severity. It has given me more energy and stamina overall, which has helped keep the fibromyalgia fairly mild, I believe. It also did away completely with many symptoms of menopause that were troubling me – hot flashes, night sweats, anxiety, insomnia, vaginal dryness. The program I use is known as The Wiley Protocol.

T.S. Wiley is a cancer researcher who hit on this method of replacing hormones in a pattern that mimics the hormonal patterns of a normal menstrual cycle. Her book, Sex, Lies and Menopause explains in great detail the effects of hormones on our bodies, on aging, and how she developed her protocol.

As I understand it, pharmaceutical HRT (hormone replacement therapy) chemically creates molecules which are similar to, but not identical to, the hormones our bodies produce. If the pharma companies are not inventing a new substance, they can’t patent it or make much money from it, so you don’t find these hormones advertised widely. Bio-identical HRT chemically synthesizes the exact same molecule our bodies produce, so that when we use it our bodies treat it as if we had produced it ourselves. Bio-identical HRT is made by compounding pharmacists. There are many producers of bio-identical HRT, some of them prescribe a constant level of the hormones to be used all the time. The drastic side-effects and health complications that come with pharmaceutical HRT are caused, Wiley says, by the fact that these are not molecules our bodies recognize, as well as by the fact that the hormones are dosed at a constant level which is not normal for our bodies. Bio-identical HRT can also cause problems when dosed at a constant level.

What is different about Wiley’s program is that the hormones are not just bio-identical, they are “bio-mimetic.” Wiley invented a method of dosing the hormones so they mimic the menstrual cycle of a healthy 20 year-old woman. The theory is to recreate a time when we are biologically at our healthiest, and giving our bodies the ebb and flow that is normal for them. Some women have bad Migraines when they are younger, and bad menstrual Migraines throughout their lives. I don’t know if the Wiley protocol would help them with their Migraines. But if the Migraines began or drastically increased in menopause or peri-menopause, it makes sense to me to replace the hormone levels of a time when you didn’t have the Migraines! The drawback, I suppose, is that as long as you are on the protocol you will menstruate. There are women in their 80’s on it, getting periods. But I have found that my periods on the protocol are very regular and fairly painless. The horrid PMS and menstrual Migraines I got in my peri-menopause years are gone, as are the terrible cramps I had, both when I was young and again in recent years.

Wiley does suggest that Migraines can be treated by spreading the hormones more evenly throughout the day, instead of just in the usual morning and evening doses. I have not tried this - it makes a certain degree of sense, in evening out any hormonal fluctuations during the day. Hormones do not seem to be the only thing that triggers my Migraines, though.  If you read Wiley’s book or visit the site you might get the impression that the protocol is a panacea for all problems of aging. I don’t know if I buy into it that far, and as I said it has not been a complete solution for my Migraines. It has definitely made a big difference for me, though, and you may want to investigate it as a useful component of your toolkit.

- Megan

Neither T.S. Wiley nor the Wiley Protocol has given me any payment for reviewing these products. If you click on the link to the book and buy it from Amazon, however, I will receive a small referral fee.

Tags: bio-identical hormone replacement, Hormones, Menopause, migraine, Migraine triggers, T.S. Wiley
Posted in Books, Managing, Medicine | Comments (1)

Staying out of the Spotlight

July 22nd, 2009

It’s very uncomfortable to suddenly have one’s vulnerabilities become center stage. I had an odd experience this week. I haven’t met many Migraineurs yet who actually want their illness to be center stage. We want to be understood, we want support and empathy and help where we need it, but not generally to be fussed over and be the center of attention because of our disease. At least, that’s my impression of the many many Migraineurs I have met! Do you agree?

A few nights ago I had a parents’ meeting to attend for a program my kids are involved in.  I’m currently on vacation in a conference center, and the space found for the parents’ meeting was the stage of the auditorium, where they had set up a circle of chairs and turned on all the stage lights.  I stepped onto the stage and in every direction there was a spotlight pointed straight into my eyes. I edged my way around for a bit, trying to find some safe angle, but the lights were just everywhere. As often happens in the face of a trigger like that, I got disoriented. I couldn’t figure out whether to stay or go. I can’t imagine what I must have looked like, staggering around the stage. My husband was there and he kind of guided me to a chair, and sat on the floor in front of me.  I bent my head down onto his back, threw the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and eyes and asked if they could turn the lights down. Someone said they were trying to dim the lights.

Now at this point my face was hidden in my husband’s back, I felt dizzy and disoriented, and I didn’t know if my voice was loud or muffled.  I was worrying about how strange I looked. The woman next to me said something sympathetic and handed me a booklet to further shade my eyes. I thanked her and said, “I’m sorry to seem so dramatic, but those lights will trigger me into a Migraine in no time flat.”

Apparently it wasn’t easy to dim the lights because the meeting started with them still on. My kind neighbor called out, “turn out those lights, we have someone with Migraine problems here!” Several people made suggestions about where else I should sit, and I answered, without picking up my head, “No, then the lights from over there are in my eyes.” My voice sounded whiny and desperate to me.  So, they turned out the lights.

This story is not about other people not understanding. I don’t know whether the people in that meeting understood or not. Whether they understoood or not, they were very caring and responsive. The whole meeting sat in the dusk so that I would not have lights in my eyes. This story is about how mortified I felt to have my vulnerability, my weakness, my Achilles heel, my Kryptonite, right up there, center stage, under the spotlights, for everyone to see.

I worried what everyone thought. Did they think I was being dramatic? Were some of the other people there sitting in judgment, annoyed at sitting in the dark, wishing I would just go away? Did I sound as whiny to others as I felt to myself?

Interestingly, I had a chance to talk about the meeting with one of the other parents the next day (it was a very good meeting, by the way), and I made some comment about having made everyone sit in the dark. She looked confused, and then said, “Oh, was it you with the hood over your head?” So obviously, I was not remembered for that! I guess I won’t go down in history here as the drama queen who made them sit in the dark because I SAID the lights would give me a Migraine!

But tell me, why is it so hard to let people see I am less than perfect?

- Megan

Tags: migraine, Migraine triggers, spotlights, vulnerability
Posted in Communicating, Musings | Comments (8)

Keeping the Faith

May 18th, 2009

I haven’t posted in a bit and I find myself feeling a little guilty about it.  The past few weeks have been busy, but that’s not unusual, and they have contained several Migraines, but that’s not unusual either.  My life is more complex than I like.  If I was my own coaching client I might advise myself to simplify.  Since I can’t get outside my own head sufficiently I don’t know what I would suggest cutting out.  The fact is that times are tough economically, and my family is not exempt from that, and I have several businesses to keep up with, a family, a house, and several chronic illnesses, and it’s a lot.

I do know, though, what works.  I know I need enough sleep, though when I feel like I didn’t really have any fun time all day, it’s hard to put down my novel or turn off the tv, or tell my darling daughter (who is 18 and likes to talk late in the evening) I need to go to bed.  I know I need a walk or some exercise in the morning, though when I haven’t slept well it feels like I need the extra bit of sleep more, and when work awaits it’s hard to remember that I will focus better and have a better attitude if I exercise first.  I know I sometimes need a nap after lunch if I want to avoid a Migraine or fatigue.  I know there’s no point in sitting at my desk trying to force myself to focus if my brain won’t do it - a break: a brief walk, a brief snooze, a ten minute clean-up in the house or office, any of these will refresh me and help me return my focus, and time spent trying to force myself is time wasted.  I know at 5:30 I need to leave my desk and focus on my home and family.

I have to confess, though, that knowledge is not the same as action.  I know all these things, but I don’t always do all these things, especially in the face of my anxiety - over finance, over my illnesses, over my daughter leaving home in 4 months, you name it.  Doing the right thing, when I don’t feel like it.  Now that takes faith.

Some days we get up, and we have no energy.  Saturday was like that for me; weather triggers have become much more prominent for me this year and thunderstorms were threatening all day on Saturday.  I felt oppressed - I was in Migraine pro-drome all day.  And so (with some encouragement from my wise husband) I went for a walk.  I did not want to go for a walk.  I wanted to crawl under a rock.  The exercise helped to restore my perspective, raise my endorphin level, and give me the energy I needed to enjoy the day. Going for that walk was an act of faith.

Keep the faith! What do you need to do to keep yourself on track, even when you don’t feel like it?

- Megan

Tags: exercise, Migraine triggers, weather triggers
Posted in Communicating, Managing | Comments (2)

Sneezebushes and Sneezetrees

April 18th, 2009

Other people do not consult me about their landscaping.  That is one of the unfortunate facts of my life.  This is a spirea bush.  A most attractive shrub.  When it is blooming it has a lovely little cluster of white or purple flowers, like this:

They are very attractive.  The purple ones bloom from spring to fall and have very little smell.  The white ones bloom in spring and have an acrid smell that makes the inside of my nose tingle, and make me sneeze up a storm. I call them Sneezebushes.  I am allergic to them.  When I breathe their pollens for an extended period, I tend to get a Migraine.  Interestingly, Landscape America tells us

“Aspirin is the generic medical name for the chemical acetylsalicylic acid, a derivative of salicylic acid.  Compounds of salicylic acid are found in some plants, notably white willow and meadowsweet (Spirea ulmaria).  Acetyl- and spirea which inspired the name aspirin.”

I am anaphylactically allergic to drugs in the aspirin family! Coincidence? Hmmm…

Then there is the Bradford Pear. It is a lovely blooming, non-fruiting pear tree, much favored for landscaping along shopping streets.  Here is Witherspoon Street in Princeton, NJ, completely lined with Sneezetrees, oh I’m sorry, I mean Bradford Pears…  I don’t know if they are in any way related to spirea.  Spirea are in rose family and so are pear trees, but I am not allergic to roses or other blooming fruit trees.  The smell is similar, and the effect on me is the same, an acrid sensation in my nostrils, sneezing, and Migraine.

My neighbors across the street put in three lovely little Bradford pears in their front yard last spring. When we open the front door on a nice April Saturday like today our house fills with the scents.  Achoo! Ow! Achoo! Ow!  Me lying down with the Imitrex and the Benadryl, hoping to be on my feet later…  Well, the blooms will fall in a week or two, right?

- Megan

Spirea image courtesy of Di the Huntress; Single Bradford pear image courtesy of Deep Valley Tree Farm

Tags: allergies, Migraine triggers
Posted in Rant | Comments (2)

Running on Fumes

March 14th, 2009

A while back I wrote a… um… post (rant?) about how stress is not a Migraine trigger (officially) but… why does it seem that way to us so frequently?  The International Headache Society calls stress an aggravating factor, in other words, it’s not considered a trigger, but a factor that can make us more susceptible to our triggers, perhaps lower our threshold to be triggered into a Migraine.  As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out on this question.  Given that hormonal fluctuations are one of the biggest triggering factors, (such as the hormonal fluctuations that give women menstrual Migraines and increases or decreases in Migraines around menopause), and given that our bodies react to and cope with stress by release of stress hormones (cortisol and epinephrine, among others), I’m betting research will eventually show that changes in stress hormone levels play a role in triggering Migraine attacks.

I’ve spoken with Teri Robert, author of Living Well with Migraine Disease and Headaches, about this topic.  Teri makes several good points - the level of stress in our lives may be largely out of our control, while individual triggers may be in our control.  Therefore if we focus on stress, we may be focusing on something we can do little about, rather than on something we can change.  And, if we blame stress we may be missing other triggers that being stressed makes us forget.  Do you sleep well, or enough, when you are stressed? Do you eat well, regularly, or enough? Do you overdo it on caffeine?

As so often happens, I had a chance recently to be my own guinea pig for these speculations.  I was given a rush project to complete over a weekend, and my world became all about getting it done.  It took me back to college, law school, and my early days as a lawyer, when a project could take over everything, and sleep, food, everything else would go on the back burner. It’s not a mode of operations I have used much in the past decade, and clearly not one that is good for me, but boy was it familiar!

On the second day of the project I woke up early after not enough sleep, my head full of the research I had to do.  I whizzed through getting my son off to school, and whatever I had to do of my morning routine, and was at my desk and deeply immersed in legal research before nine in the morning.  I was alert, turned on, and my mind was moving fast.  I was drinking more coffee than I usually do, and I noticed I had little appetite, and less tolerance for taking the time to eat, or rest.  I don’t know exactly when I noticed, but I could see it coming.  I was definitely pushing myself beyond normal endurance limits, and I could actually feel the point where the stress hormones took over.  When I was 25, I could run like that for several days without triggering a Migraine.  Now I could feel the lurking heaviness around the margins of my mind, crowding right in on the heels of my adrenaline high.  I caught myself before I lost much sleep, or skipped many meals, or propped myself up on much more caffeine than usual.  I forced myself to stop and rest, and although I couldn’t nap with all that caffeine in my system, I did lay down and do relaxation exercises, and I did manage to avoid the Migraine I felt threatening.  My hat is off to Teri for good practical advice, because if I was busy blaming the stress, I could not have attended to the triggers in this way.

I realize I’m not telling you a tale of a Migraine, but of a Migraine averted, and that’s good news. That’s actually another post, for another day, and I’ve written others on the theme - you can push those triggers back at times, and stopping and relaxing can do it. That’s why I offer relaxation teleclasses and recordings!  But if I hadn’t been so aware, and hadn’t had that tool; if my Migraines weren’t managed to the degree they are, I would have had a Migraine that day. In fact, I had one at the end of the project, three days later!

So, was the stress itself a trigger, one in the stack, with the lack of sleep, insufficient food, and excess caffeine? Was the stress an exacerbating factor that made me more vulnerable to the effects of the other three triggers? Or was the stress the producer of the stupidity that made me willfully expose myself to those triggers, the very things I so carefully manage my life to avoid? What do you think?

- Megan

Dashboard image courtesy of Winstonavich/Winston.

Tags: International Headache Society, Migraine management, Migraine triggers, relaxation practice, stress management, Teri Robert
Posted in Managing | Comments (4)

Creating a Migraine-Friendly Home Environment

March 6th, 2009

When I was a kid one of the games my brother and sister and I used to love to play on a Saturday was the Farm Game. It involved the Encyclopedia, and a pad and pen. We designed an imaginary farm for the three of us to live on and run, and we would draw it and plan it, and use the Encyclopedia to select our location and all our animals and plants.  I’m sure the farms we created would have been impossible to run, with animals that wouldn’t get along, and plant species that wouldn’t grow wherever it was that we were going to be. But it kept us busy for hours, and we loved it.

Creating the Migraine-friendly home enviroment is a little like that. I could spend hours, and use home design and architecture magazines, catalogs, the web, and a lot of imagination. I could spend bottomless amounts of money I don’t have, to create this environment, have a great time doing it, and I don’t know how practical it would be at the end. But what I’ll try to do here, instead, is mix fantasy and reality, pie in the sky with down to earth, and see if we can come up with some things you can actually use.

Starting outside, the Migraine-friendly home should be well-shaded, with deep covered porches and pollen-free trees.  Migraineurs need fresh air and good circulation, but have trouble with extreme heat and bright sun, and often get triggered in high-pollen season.  So let’s make it possible to get outside even with a Migraine, and to open the windows and enjoy the fresh air.

Inside, lighting is very important.  If you can choose lighting fixtures, great. I discovered the hard way that “high-hat” spot-lights are terrible for me, bright lighting coming down into the top of my eyes is about the worst from a triggering standpoint.  Torchiere type lights, which point the light upwards and spread it gently on the ceiling, illuminate the room more indirectly and can give plenty of light without glare.  Many Migraineurs find that fluorescents, even compact fluorescents, trigger them. Good old-fashioned shaded incandescent lamps can be good. We just recently got some of the brand new soft-white LED lights, which we have put in the “high-hat” sockets, and they are terrific.  Non-flickering, soft illumination, but plenty of it. For the first time, I can have light coming down from above that doesn’t trigger me! They are very good for the environment, too.

Having a quiet place to escape to is key. Lots of my Migraineur friends spend time on the couch, for me it’s my bed. I have 2 kids and a husband who like lots of music and tvs on and I need a place where I can control the light, sound and stimulation level. If you could really set it all up beforehand like the Farm Game you would choose yourself a quiet partner and quiet kids, but I wouldn’t trade the ones I have. I just have to buffer them at times.

Ideally, the Migraine-Friendly home environment would be tidy enough that the Migraineur was not tripping over stuff all the time, without the Migraineur having to be the one to tidy it up all the time. This also falls into the realm of the Farm Game - the ideal Migraine-friendly home environment comes with enough money to hire someone to do the house-keeping. Either that or choose your spouse based on their neatness and housekeeping abilities, though that may not be the best reason to choose your life companion.

Don’t forget to keep what you need for comfort on hand, whether it’s pillows, blankets, eye-shades, ice-packs, comedy DVDs, kitties, doggies, books on tape, spouses, children, best friends, rocking chairs, ginger Altoids, Ben & Jerry’s Heath Bar Crunch, you name it.  What else would you add to the design for the Migraine-friendly home?

- Megan

P.S. No, that is not a picture of my house. I wish!

Wisconsin Farm image courtesy of Randen Pederson; craftsman house image courtesy of David Sawyer.

Tags: LED lights, lighting, Migraine triggers
Posted in Managing, Musings, Silliness, Tips & Techniques | Comments (1)

Holidays don’t have to Hurt your Head

December 1st, 2008

How was your Thanksgiving? We just got back from a very relaxed five day trip to my sister’s house, where the extended family descends for an annual Thanksgiving extravaganza. There are a lot of reasons to love it. My sister and brother-in-law and nephews are warm and welcoming and they pull out all the stops to accommodate everyone. Danny and I bake pies and cook some side dishes and load them in the car with ourselves, our kids and our luggage, maybe some fruit and wine, and off we go. We don’t have to clean the house (not that it couldn’t use it). We get a mini-vacation from the worries of our daily life. Their house is set up so that even with a crowd, the upstairs rooms are pretty sound-proof, so if a Migraineur needs a quiet retreat, there is one.

I am very thankful at Thanksgiving time, for the loving and accepting, funny, intelligent and interesting family I have, the fun times and wonderful food we share. I have many blessings to count. I have never managed to travel to this particular fest, however, without at least a little pang of wishing it were different. I wish I could host an event like this at my house. I wish that I could host any event of more than a handful of people for more than a few hours, without getting a Migraine. I wish that my home was orderly, organized and clean to the point that preparing for overnight guests wasn’t such a huge task.

The internet and the newspapers right now are full of articles on how to have happy holidays on a shoe-string, or how to enjoy the holidays without the stress, and I don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Over at My Migraine Connection you can read Teri Robert’s interview with Marcia Cross on Holiday Parties with Migraines. Coming up on December 8, the December Headache & Migraine Blog Carnival will be posted at Somebody Heal Me on the topic of “Maximizing Your Enjoyment of the Holiday Season,” and there will be lots of good reading on the topic, I’m sure! (If you’d like to submit a post for the carnival, the deadline is the midnight Friday, December 5th, and you can submit your post at this link at Somebody Heal Me.)

What I’m here to say is - the holidays don’t have to hurt your head. Like me, you may find there are things you have to give up. I conceded Thanksgiving to my sister years ago, since she loves doing it so much, but for most of the past 6 years we have hosted a big holiday weekend at our house around New Year’s. We won’t be doing that this year. Having that many people in my house, and that much noise, for an extended period of time, is a whole series of Migraine triggers for me. I end up missing a chunk of the celebration, I’m not much of a hostess, my family feels bad for me, and I’m in pain that often lasts days after everyone leaves.

I was surprised to find myself in tears when I told everyone we would not be hosting this year. It’s not like it was unexpected! The truth is that it is hard to give up on something we want to do. What we can do is to look below the thing itself, and see what is important to us, and how else we can express that.

When you look at your holiday season, think about what is important to you, and how you can express that without hurting your head. One holiday party may be much better than five. You may not have to wear yourself out to cook huge meals - choose one or two things that are important to you or your loved ones. The quantity of toys will mean less to your kids than the time you take to stop and play with them.

I gave up trying to be Martha Stewart years ago, but as my Migraines became more frequent I have had to give up more. So where we used to make six kinds of Christmas cookies, maybe we will make two. Where we used to have 18 people for a holiday weekend with a big dinner, we will ask a smaller group to join us for just dinner on Christmas day. Where we used to climb on the roof and hang lights, we light a few windows. In our family we have always celebrated Hannukah and Christmas, since we have a mixed background, but several years ago we became clear that our kids didn’t need gifts every night of Hannukah and under the tree and in their stockings!  We buy less, and light the candles to remember our heritage and hope in the darkness, rather than as a reason for eight more gifts.

Festivity is great fun, but it can also be addicting. Advertising tells us to do more, buy more. Many people find that however much they spend and do, they still fall short of the “perfect” holiday they imagine in their mind’s eye. As Migraineurs, we need to go easy on ourselves. Whether or not you’re hurting financially this season, you don’t need the added stress of worrying about whether you have bought or done enough. A little can go a long way. What is most important to you about the holidays? Is it time with loved ones? An expression of peace and hope? Find ways to express what is important to you, that don’t hurt your head. Remember to get regular sleep, eat regularly, avoid your Migraine triggers, and enjoy the joys of the season!

Peace!

- Megan

Sliced turkey image coutesy of Roland Tanglao; advent candles image courtesy of Per Ola Wiberg; menorah image courtesy of Andrew Ratto.

Tags: Christmas, Hannukah, holidays, managing life with migraine, Migraine triggers, Migraines, Stress, Thanksgiving
Posted in Managing, Musings, Tips & Techniques, Weblogs | Comments (3)

We Can’t Avoid Every Migraine

November 19th, 2008

This may seem obvious, but it’s something I need to remind myself of from time to time. We can’t avoid every Migraine. The job before us in managing life with Migraine disease is to avoid as many as we can, through avoiding triggers, getting rest, exercise, nourishment, drinking enough water, living a healthy life, through relaxing and calming our nervous systems, through getting the best medical treatment we can, appropriate use of medications, using other therapies to help us maintain ourselves, balancing our energy and our work-load, getting support, getting to know our own bodies and our own reactions… are you breathless yet? Yes, we do all of that, and it is a big job, and most of us can have a huge impact on the number and severity of Migraine attacks that we get. But we can’t avoid every Migraine.

I didn’t avoid the one that hit me last night. Sometimes you can see them coming, you can see the set up as it is happening, like in a movie where you start yelling at the heroine, “No, don’t open that door, don’t do it!” but she does it anyway. Here’s what happened to me: I missed a dose of my preventive medication; I had several days of anxiety over current financial uncertainties; I slept badly for two nights; I got my period; something upset me and I cried; I had a fun and exciting radio interview which I enjoyed very much; I began feeling some head pain and didn’t take an abortive right away because I needed to drive my kids to some appointments.

Chances are that even with the large stack of triggers I was dealing with, if I had taken my triptan and laid down at the first sign of pain, I probably would have minimized the Migraine, if not eliminated it altogether. In a perfect world, my husband wouldn’t have had an important commitment I didn’t want him to miss, and could have driven the kids. Hell, in a perfect world, we’d have safe available public transportation! No, wait a second, in a perfect world we’d have the public transportation and I wouldn’t have the Migraine!

Instead, I took Adam to his drum lesson, then we went to the library until it was time to get Rachel from her rehearsal, then we sat outside the High School for 45 minutes until she was let out from the rehearsal. I should have let her drive home but the effort of climbing out of the driver’s seat and into another was too much to face. By the time I got home I could only climb upstairs, vomit, give myself an Imitrex injection, and lie down. I couldn’t find my ice packs. The pain was so intense that even shifting position in bed made my head pound. All I could do was lie perfectly still with my bean-bag eye mask, do my relaxation breathing, and wait for the pain to ease. After a couple of hours it let up enough that I could sleep. It’s still with me today, though much less intense. I think if I keep very quiet it will leave today.

I am lucky that I don’t get a Migraine that bad very often. Not more than once every month or two. Most often I am able to treat the Migraines I get right away; most of them do not progress to that kind of excruciating pain. Life happens, though. We don’t live in a perfect world. We have a disease; we do the best we can. I have been going about a week between Migraines, which is great progress. I’m grateful. I hope you are doing well too.

- Megan

Tags: Migraine management, Migraine pain, Migraine triggers
Posted in Managing, Musings | Comments (3)

Where did Megan go?

August 13th, 2008

A big gap in posts here, but not due to Migraines and illness, for once.  I took my daughter on a trip to look at four colleges in the mid-West.  Perfect weather almost all week, some very promising colleges, and we had a fun time - many hours of cracking each other up

in the car, and some lovely visits with old friends.  We were in the Windy City,

and the Twin Cities, and many miles of America’s Dairyland in between!

I had only one Migraine on the trip - the day we flew in.  The triggers were two nights of insufficient sleep, stacked with the change in altitude on the flight.  I had two marathon days of driving, which certainly exhausted me, but didn’t trigger any Migraines, I’m happy to say.  Clearly fatigue and stamina are issues for me, but I was glad not to be coping with frequent Migraines as well.  Stress may not be a direct trigger (I have my doubts) but a trip away from the daily stresses of my life is always welcome!

- Megan

Walker Sculpture Garden image courtesy of Eli Duke; Wisconsin Farm image courtesy of Randen Pederson.

Tags: fatigue, migraine, Migraine triggers
Posted in Travel | Comments (3)

Managing my Migraines: Recent Success

June 25th, 2008

All my hidden superstition comes out and I hesitate to say this for fear of jinxing myself, but I have only had one very mild Migraine in the past 19 days.  It is too soon to tell if this is a trend or a fluke.   It’s quite a contrast to the last 6 months though, when I’ve had an average of 5 Migraines per month and my Migraines have generally lasted 36 hours.  I promise not to be embarrassed if this trend doesn’t continue.  I believe I am doing a lot of right stuff - just sometimes we need even more right stuff to add to our toolkits.

I have yet to try preventive medications; I missed my long-awaited headache specialist appointment when I was sick with bronchitis.  But I will give you my current regimen, and list the things that I think are making a difference.  Please note that this is my list; the same factors might not work for you.

1. 400 mg of Magnesium (see studies done by USDA linking magnesium deficiency and migraine)
2. 200 mg of B2 (riboflavin)
3. a high potency multi-vitamin
4. 60 mg Armour Thyroid*
5. an iodine supplement*
6. 3000 mg phosphorylated serine per day, 1000 mg each at lunch, dinner and bedtime*
7. 10 mg DHEA*
8. the Wiley Protocol - bio-mimetic hormone replacement therapy
9. not drinking caffeinated beverages more than 2 -3 times per week - and the ones I drink are mild!
10. 30 - 45 minutes aerobic exercise daily
11. sleeping 8 hours per night
12. daily meditation
13. basing my work schedule on the idea that I have about 30 productive hours in me per week, and not trying to do more than that!
14. taking frequent breaks throughout the day and gardening or doing housework
15. napping if I need to
16. switching overhead lights in the house back from CFLs to incandescents
17. banning my son’s stinky cologne from the house
18. Summer - long days, warmth

I have Migraine disease, early stage chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), low thyroid and, I believe, seasonal affective disorder.  I also have allergies, and frequent, sometimes chronic, sinus infections, and am very prone to catching whatever illnesses are around to catch.  The factors that I marked with an asterix (*) above are not there to prevent Migraine; they are there to balance my hormones, strengthen my adrenal glands, and manage my CFS.  All the research shows that CFS and low thyroid are co-morbid conditions with Migraine - they occur at the same time, without a causal relationship.  I can only speak to my own experience, but when I am fatigued, and I push myself beyond my limits, I often get a Migraine.   Low thyroid also contributes to my fatigue, which contributes to my Migraine frequency.  Unless someone can prove to me otherwise, I will maintain that taking care of my thyroid and CFS also takes care of my Migraines.

I began the Wiley Protocol about a year ago to address menopausal symptoms.  The Wiley Protocol replaces a woman’s hormones with the identical hormones her body makes (rather than the synthetic hormones found in traditional HRT), and doses them in the way that mimics her natural cycle when she is young.  It is not specifically designed to combat Migraine, but for those of us whose Migraines increased in peri-menopause, it makes sense that returning to a younger hormonal state would help!  I found initially that while my Migraine frequency didn’t improve, the severity went way down.  My doctor started me on an adjusted dose of the hormones about 3 weeks ago, with estrogen levels raised slightly in the beginning of my cycle and lowered slightly later on.  Since that’s the same time period where I’ve been having so few Migraines, I can only guess it’s helping.

I am usually healthier in the warm weather months, and sluggish and illness-prone over the Winter.  I feel like I come alive again in the Spring.  Short of moving far south, I think I will have to get a light-box for next Winter to address this.

The CFLs are funny for me.  They are on a list of things that I “just don’t like” - and haven’t liked most of my life (baking in the hot sun, strong men’s colognes, crowded rooms full of noisy people, fluorescent lights).  Lo and behold, these things that I never liked are actually triggers for me.  When I began blogging about CFLs a month or two ago it occurred to me to get them out of my own house and see what happened.  My husband had started replacing incandescents with CFLs in our overhead lights about six months ago.  My Migraine frequency went way up when?  About six months ago!  Coincidence?  We’ve been taking them out again and… fewer Migraines?

A conclusion here?  As you all know who deal with this disease, there are many factors involved.  If you are one of those people who only has to avoid one trigger, or take one herb, or use one particular drug, to eliminate Migraines, then God bless you!  You have my undying jealousy!  If you are one of those complicated cases who have to manage multiple triggers and multiple treatments, I know how tired you are of managing it all.  I just want to hold out some hope - that the detective work is worth doing, and can make a difference.  Keep on trying!

- Megan Oltman
Managing Migraines one day at a time.

Crossed fingers image courtesy of Meisje van de Sliterij.

Tags: chronic fatigue syndrome, magnesium, Migraine treatment, Migraine triggers, the Wiley Protocol, vitamin B2
Posted in Managing, Medicine | Comments (8)