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This is my journal of living with Migraine and other chronic illness. Trying to live well, to live a purposeful life, with chronic illness, since I don't get the choice of living one without it!

April Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival

April 9th, 2008

Don’t forget to submit your entries for the April Headache & Migraine Blog Carnival which is being hosted at Somebody Heal Me: The Musings of a Chronic Migraineur by Diana Lee.

The April theme is “your best basic strategies for coping with migraines and headaches.” Entries on any topic that is particularly interesting, educational or inspirational for headache  & migraine sufferers are also welcome. Your blog need not be limited to the topic of headaches and migraines to participate. If you have relevant posts to share, you’re encouraged pass them along.

Entries are due at midnight on Friday, April 11th.  (That means the end of the day Friday.  And Diana is in Central Time). They may be submitted through the form on the carnival website Here – Blog Carnival, or directly to Diana by e-mail.

The carnival will be published on Somebody Heal Me on Monday, April 14th.

If you would like to be added to Diana’s carnival mailing list to receive updates and reminders or are interested in hosting a future edition, please send Diana an e-mail at somebodyhealme@dianalee.net.

Themes and hosts have been set for April, May and June, so please visit the following link to get more information about upcoming editions: Somebody Heal Me.

– Megan

Come on join in the fun!

Tags: blog carnival
Posted in Weblogs | Comments (0)

It’s 8 PM and I’m not Exhausted!

April 8th, 2008

Well, it may be a little bitty success but it’s certainly making me happy. I have been so exhausted lately, with many migraines spawned by it. Some nights I’ve been literally shaking by 8 or 9 pm – as if I had just climbed a mountain.  Sleepy doesn’t describe it.  This is deep down muscle achy bone-weary exhausted. Some days I’m like that by 4.  For 3 years I’ve been describing myself as recovered from chronic fatigue.  Lately I haven’t been so sure.

Today I was more energetic in the morning than I’ve been in at least a month. Had a good productive morning of work.  I got sleepy and fatigued after lunch but decided to take a walk instead of a nap. I figured maybe it would help and if it didn’t, I could always take the nap when I got back.  And whaddaya know it worked! I felt really wiped out in the first five minutes of the walk but twenty minutes later I felt awake and energetic! I got to enjoy the pretty spring day in the field!  (No, the dogwood’s not blooming yet.  That’s last year.)

I worked some more this afternoon, and took my son to his drum lesson.  Danny had a meeting to go out to in the evening and I actually made dinner, cleaned up the kitchen, had a nice dinner with the kids, all without collapsing. This is huge. And not one little twinge of head pain, none!

Maybe the latest hormone adjustment my doctor gave me for the chronic fatigue is actually working. Could happen!  He’s had me on phosphorylated serine/ethanolamine for adrenal support.  Sorry I can only find links selling it, not links describing how it works.  As I understand it my cortisol levels were too high in the afternoon, and the supplement helps bring them down to normal.  CDC (Centers for Disease Control) notes a correlation between abnormalities in production and release of cortisol and chronic fatigue.  CDC does not go so far as to say that hormonal supplementation is effective.  But hey, the supplement says it’s for adrenal support.  I guess my adrenals appreciate the support.

– Megan Oltman

I’m lying down now but I may just get crazy and fold the laundry!  Woohoo, we’re living large now!

Tags: chronic fatigue syndrome, cortisol
Posted in Musings | Comments (3)

Please Email Your Senator Today!

April 4th, 2008

You Can make a Difference – Right Now!  We migraineurs spend too much of our time feeling helpless.  Part of taking back your life from this disease is to feel and be powerful wherever and whenever you can.  You can do a piece of that today.  If you are in the US, please email your senators right now!  We just got word this morning that today is the deadline to get senators on board to support increases in NIH funding for headache disorder and Migraine disease research.  Last month’s efforts to get support in the House of Representatives were successful, so thanks to everyone who helped!  And now we get another chance!

Here’s the text of the email I received from ADHA this morning.  You can click on the link below to email your senators in less than 5 minutes.  Thanks in advance for your support.  Together we can make a difference!

Dear Ms.
Oltman:

Our efforts last month to urge members of
the US House of Representatives to support increases in NIH funding for research
on headache disorders were highly successful. Twelve Representatives signed the
Obey/Walsh letter. This is an outstanding result for the first mobilization of
our numbers, and we are optimistic that it will be enough to have our message
appended to the House appropriations bill.

It is now time to contact your US Senators
for the same purpose. Unfortunately our window of opportunity is only narrowly
open. The letter with Senators’ signatures must be submitted by today, April
4th.

1. Please take just 5 minutes RIGHT NOW to go
   directly to http://capwiz.com/headacheadvocacy/issues/alert/?alertid=11231066&PROCESS=Take+Action
   and send your message to your two US Senators
2. Please forward this email right away to
   anyone else concerned about the inadequate state of care for patients with
   headache disorders.

Only with increased research will new
effective treatments for headache disorders become available. And only with your
help will such research activities increase to levels appropriate to the huge
scale of this problem. The larger our voice, the greater will be our
impact.

Thanks again for your efforts.

Robert Shapiro, MD, PhD
William Young,
MD,
Teri Robert, PhD
Brad Klein, MD, MBA

And thanks from me too! – Megan

Tags: Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy
Posted in Current Affairs | Comments (0)

The Weirdest Migraine Trigger Ever

April 1st, 2008

It’s April Fool’s Day, but this is not a hoax.  I do want to have a little fun though.  I had a very weird event trigger a migraine the other day.  I’m going to tell you about mine, but I’m also going to ask you to tell me about your weirdest migraine trigger ever.   Then we’ll have a contest – I’m working on recruiting the judges right now.  I will publish our judges’ picks for the 3 weirdest migraine triggers on Free my Brain.  And there will be prizes!  Maybe we can’t stop the pain, but at least we can have a little fun in the meantime.

Here’s my weird trigger:

What is that a picture of?  Well, I had to drive my daughter to an appointment in the evening in the pouring rain.  We’re talking buckets here!  And suddenly as I drove along the passenger-side windshield wiper started flapping loose.  It was flailing and rotating so wildly it looked like it would smack into and break the other wiper.  The little bracket that holds the blade to the arm had broken, as I discovered when I stepped out in a huge puddle to try to fix the thing.  I fiddled with it in the pouring rain and the already broken bracket snapped in two.  So I took the blade off and got back in the car.

Now you may be wondering about the Triple A sticker on the windshield – why didn’t I just call them?  We live in a somewhat rural area and it takes them a long time to get to us.  We had this appointment to get to.  So I started up the car and watched this little metal hook at the end of the wiper arm passing back and forth – it wasn’t contacting the windshield so I figured we were okay.

I took my daughter to her appointment and on the way back the metal hook started scratching the windshield.  A faint squeak at first, getting louder and louder, until it became this loud squealing scratching noise.  After about 5 minutes I could see a scratch in the windshield where the hook was rubbing against it.  We’re driving along, it’s a few miles to the nearest gas station.  I’m worrying about my windshield breaking.  It’s dark and it’s pouring.  And there’s this hideous loud noise.  I can’t think and the headache is starting.

My brilliant daughter suggests I tie one of her socks around the hook.  I stop and find an old ragged piece of towel in the back of the car.  On the roof rack were some pieces of twine from when the Christmas tree was on top (let’s hear it for bad housekeeping – a tidy person would not have had these useful items!).  I ripped a piece of towel, tied it on with twine and finished it up with the Scotch tape that was in my purse for some reason.  That’s what you see in the picture, the brilliant solution that saved my windshield.  And enabled me to get all the way home before the migraine hit!

Now we all know that migraine was probably triggered by loud noise and bad weather, with a hefty dose of stress pushing it over the edge.  But when I ask you for your weirdest migraine trigger ever, I’m not
asking for the technical official triggers.  I want your stories of a pile of weird circumstances or coincidences that came together to trigger a migraine.  Want to play?

Just send me an email by April 30th with your weirdest migraine trigger story through Contact page.  Winning entries will be posted in early May.  Happy Spring!

– Megan Oltman
Hoping all your storms are on the outside of your head.

Tags: Migraine triggers
Posted in Silliness | Comments (6)

What are you complaining For?

March 23rd, 2008

Hi there – Happy Easter to all who celebrate it. I am up and walking around on a beautiful, chilly, early spring day, with bulbs poking their green noses out of the dirt (and a few, their bright flowers.) I am headache free for the first time in 5 days and enjoying a lovely family visit. I really don’t feel in the least like complaining. But I thought about it a lot while I lay in bed this past week with sinus Martians and Migraine beasts fighting for control of my head. (They both won.)

Some folks just don’t like to complain. That preference is generally seen as virtuous, stoical (for which read, a good thing) and considerate. Hazel Reese’s autobiography, a tale of a life with chronic illness, is entitled I Will not Complain. I don’t intend to take anything away from the non-complainers, they have my reluctant admiration. You may have guessed that I myself do not often rank among their numbers. I do think there are several ways to look at, and use, the practice of complaining, or not complaining.

What are you complaining for? I mean what is the point of complaining? Actually there can be several points. The complaining we don’t like, the kind we, well, complain about, is the complaining that has no purpose other than to make us feel sorry for the complainer. Whining. Whinging. We don’t want to go  visit Aunt Sue or we’re hardly friends with Bill anymore because all she/he does is whine. Taking it down a level, what we’re really objecting to is an evasion of responsibility. If only you knew how bad it was for me, you wouldn’t expect so much of me. If only you understood, you would take all these burdens from my shoulders.

There are several other reasons to complain, though, which are perfectly responsible, even virtuous. We can complain to get it off our chests, what we coaches sometimes call clearing. When I sit down to a coaching session with a client we usually spend a few minutes noticing if anything is getting in the way of our ability to be fully focused in the present – and if something is, we name it so we can put it aside. “I’m feeling sad about…, I’m upset by…, I’ve been angry about…” Those emotions keep on operating in the background and color the way we think and what we see as possible, if we don’t give them voice, whether we write them down or share them with someone who will help us clear our minds.

And then there’s complaining to get results, to make change, to change history. Most of us have seen the bumper sticker “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” Any social change worth mentioning has happened with a great deal of powerful committed complaining. Public opinion does not change without an awakening of empathy. You can awaken empathy by complaining, by making sure someone else really  gets it, really understands your world. I’m thinking about the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), which took a great deal of powerful committed complaining. For those of us with invisible illness, with Migraine Disease and the other chronic icks that have people saying “but you don’t look sick…”, it might not be a bad idea to complain more. Not like Bill and Aunt Sue, like the ADA advocates.

Try these: “I don’t look sick, but I feel like there’s a squirrel with a chain-saw in my head” (thanks Migraine Chick!); “Oh yes, I’d be fine, if only they’d stop trying to remove my brain with a grapefruit spoon” (that was me for the last week). Or a more sincere heart to heart with the non-migraineur of your choice, asking him/her to support the AHDA (Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy) efforts to get a fair share of NIH funding for headache disorders!

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

– Megan Oltman

Gripe, gripe, gripe!

easter egg photo courtesy of Jennifer Murawski; spring bulbs photo courtesy of irishninja01; hyacinth photo courtesy of B~

Tags: Advocacy, chronic illness, commitment to change, complaint
Posted in Communicating, Managing, Rant | Comments (4)

Not a Happy Camper

March 20th, 2008

I’m not really even up to a rant.  The nasty sinus infection has spawned several days of set my teeth on edge migraines.  Then today my computer died, taking several power cords down with it.  Conspiracy?  You could only call me a grumpy camper right about now.  I will write you all a nice juicy post as soon as things clear up in my brain and my world.  Can’t be long now!  Right?

– Megan

Please feel well – someone has to!

Tags: sinus infection
Posted in Rant | Comments (1)

The Weather Report inside my head (Sinus and Migraine locked in competition)

March 16th, 2008

Sniffly with a chance of coughing?  Yesterday’s migraine has transitioned into today’s sinus infection.  You don’t really want to hear about the nasty greenish glop going down the back of my throat!  I seem to have two major weather systems duking it out in here.

I’m going to try to make sense here, but the brain is not quite up to par today, so no promises.  It’s hard to think with stuff pressing on the brain – whether that’s from the inflamed blood vessels of a migraine or from blocked up sinus cavities.

I’ve been wondering for some time about the sinus/migraine connection.  In a thought-provoking article, Sinuses giving you a headache?  It’s probably Migraine! Teri Robert tells us that ” nearly 9 in 10 people with sinus headache symptoms likely are suffering from Migraines,” and Migraine not only causes pain in the sinus area, but can lead to nasal congestion as well! According to a research study  presented in 2004 at the 46th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society (AHS), “real” sinus headache is only present when there is a sinus infection, which typically involves fever, lots of green or yellow mucus, and swollen lymph nodes.I have to say, as one who has clear and obvious Migraines, (pounding pain in one or both temples, with extreme light and sound sensitivity) and clear and obvious sinus infections (with the green glop of doom, swollen glands and fever), the study raises as many questions as it answers.  To quote Teri Robert further:

Ironically, researchers believe a few of the people in the study may have acquired sinus infections as a result of having a Migraine. Lengthy Migraine attacks can lead to swollen nasal membranes and closed off sinus passages, creating the perfect environment for an infection, said Dr. Eross.

I had one neurologist (not a headache specialist) tell me my sinus problems are probably Migraine.  Without asking any further questions about my history, it sounds like he read the research, but I don’t think he was giving me useful information.  I don’t generally have those suspect sinus “headaches,” I have months of recurrent infection symptoms.

This is the essential chicken and egg dilemma.  Do my Migraines lead to sinus infections? Does the pressure and swelling of infection trigger Migraines?  Both look likely from my own history.  My internist is intrigued by the question but has no answer for me.  I’ve got my hopes pinned on the headache specialist appointment in June.   What difference does it make?   If I can work out a good preventive regimen for either ailment, I’d love to have it help both!

In the meantime, I try to live in the way that will best take care of both the sinuses and the Migraine brain, which for me involves avoiding dairy, keeping my supplements up (including magnesium and B for the head and C and zinc for the immune system), eating in a way that takes care of my gut (high fiber, not a lot of processed foods, using a pro-biotic supplement), keeping my nasal passages moist with a neti pot and saline spray, and using relaxation to keep the ole brain calm cool and collected (more or less).

Megan Oltman

Free my Brain from Migraine Pain, Free my Head from Sinus Dread?

Vitamin photo courtesy of DRB62/Daniel R. Blume

Gargoyle photo courtesy of ClatieK/Katie Claypoole

Tags: American Headache Society, migraine, sinus infection, Teri Robert
Posted in Communicating, Managing, Medicine | Comments (1)

What can I do with my hair?

March 15th, 2008

A frivolous topic, I know.  Can you tell I’m laying around in post-drome, not quite well enough to be up and doing but well enough to be bored?  This is dangerously close to a self-indulgent pop culture style mag question, but please indulge me!  When you’re a red head you spend your whole life with people commenting on your hair, so I guess it becomes an obsession.  What is the right hair length for a migraineur?  Is there such a thing?

The photo I most often use professionally and for an avatar online is about 4 years old.  I’m going to have to change it soon for a more recent one.  But lots of my online friends know me looking like this:

Now it’s not that I don’t look like this, but I grew my hair out over the past 3 years and now it’s quite long, almost as long as when I was a hippy-dippy teenager!  I also stopped coloring my hair, at least for now, I’ve got white wings on the red at the sides.  Hey if it’s good enough for Bonnie Raitt, it’s good enough for me!  The problem is, my hair weighs a ton!  And it’s hot on my neck.  I like to wear it up, or braided, or back, in hot weather.  But if I have a migraine, or I’m in post-drome, my scalp is tender and I can’t stand the pressure of putting it up.  Even the weight of it pulling on my scalp when it’s down makes me nuts.

So now I look like this (a not very great picture of me last spring break) but my hair has gotten even longer.  I hate to chop it all off again after spending 3 years growing it back.  I’m also pushing 50 here and I’m not sure the face holds up to a short haircut any more!

So, what’s a migraineur to do?  I don’t want this disease to dictate anything else in my life!  But days Iike today I sure want to chop it all off.  It hurts to even think about washing it.

Please leave a comment and let me know how you deal with your hair!

Megan Oltman

Migraineur Fashion Central?

By the way, Mom says I should cut it!

Tags: hairstyle, Migraine triggers, scalp sensitivity
Posted in Managing, Silliness | Comments (5)

Please support help for our heads!

March 13th, 2008

Here is the text of a letter sent Tuesday of this week to all of us on the AHDA (Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy) mailing list.  The time is now to contact your congressperson and urge him/her to support more research funding for headache disorders.  The ADHA link below makes it very easy to do.  Please help NOW.

Dear AHDA advocates –

Well, the key moment has arrived for you to contact your Member of the US House of Representatives to take action for increasing NIH research for headache disorders.

A Dear Colleague letter was sent yesterday by Representatives Peter Welch and James Moran to all House offices, urging all Members of the House to co-sign a letter to Representatives David Obey and James Walsh. The Obey/Walsh letter requests inclusion of language that supports headache research to be appended to the FY09 appropriations bill for NIH. (For details, see the letter and attachments at the AHDA site.)

The more Representatives that co-sign the Obey/Walsh letter, the greater are the chances that the language will be included. The Obey/Walsh letter must be submitted with signatures by 3/19. This unfortunate deadline was a late-breaking surprise for us, so we have little more than a week to get as many signatures as possible. Please go to the AHDA website as soon as possible to contact your Representative and urge her/him to co-sign the Obey/Walsh letter now.

http://www.allianceforheadacheadvocacy.org/

Blessings upon your heads!
– Megan Oltman

Tags: Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy
Posted in Current Affairs, Medicine, Science | Comments (2)

March Headache Blog Carnival – Maintaining Friendships for Those With Migraines and Headaches

March 10th, 2008

Be sure to check out the March Headache Blog Carnival – up now on My Migraine Connection!

Generally speaking, a blog carnival is a collection of links to a variety of a blogs on a central topic. The Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival has been created to provide both headache and Migraine disease patients and people who blog about headache disorders with unique opportunities to share ideas on topics of particular interest and importance to us. Visit the link to this month’s carnival for a collection of thoughtful entries on negotiating friendships that are so often impacted by headaches and migraine disease.

Thanks so much for hosting, Teri!

– Megan

Tags: Teri Robert, Weblogs
Posted in Weblogs | Comments (0)