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Posts Tagged ‘Migraine attack’

Migraine Consolation

February 5th, 2009

I have to thank Diana Lee for this topic, which I’m exploring for this month’s Migraine Disease and Headache Blog Carnival, I’ll excerpt the subject as: when sex can help with migraines – anything goes.  I’ll just warn you that as Danny (my dear hubs) discovered when he went off to college, girls are just as disgusting as boys, in their own way.

Hideous head pain got you down? Tired of dizziness, not being able to see straight, or losing sensation in one side of your body, or spending hours kneeling in front of the toilet? There is a consolation: sex can help with Migraine pain!  Now it’s true I’m being a bit sarcastic, and I guess that comes with the territory, because there’s a chicken and the egg problem here – it’s hard to feel sexy when you’re in a lot of pain.

When I was in my early twenties and having menstrual cramps that left me in bed moaning for hours at a time, I heard that an orgasm would help with menstrual cramps. There were times in there where I had a willing boyfriend to help out, but I found that, though I’m not generally the squeamish type, it’s hard to get into masturbation when the flow is heavy. Either it’s just a god-awful mess, or you have to spread out a towel and wear rubber gloves, and really, how sexy is that? When I managed it, I will report that yes, an orgasm helped. For a while.

Well, likewise with a Migraine. It’s a good theory. If the pain is severe, movement makes it worse. Though I will not turn up my nose at an orgasm most of the time, and would much prefer pleasure over pain, there is a level of pain I can’t seem to get past. If nauseous, that’s even worse. I defy you to show me someone who can really get in the mood when nauseous.

And there are other logistical issues. When I have a Migraine I tend to retreat to the quiet zone, my bedroom, where I can control the noise, light, and stimulation levels. I also have teenagers. I could go into a whole separate post about how difficult it is to have a sex life when you have teenagers. When your children no longer go to bed before you do, life gets complicated. Maybe it’s nature’s way of getting you ready to push them out of the nest. “Leave home already, your father and I haven’t had any nooky in…..”

But imagine, if you will, the combination of these two elements. I am away in my quiet cave upstairs, I have a Migraine but not one so severe that I can’t contemplate the deed, and I must somehow communicate to my spouse that I would like a little orgasmic intention directed my way. How do I do this without alerting the offspring, and how do we arrange the whole thing? Frankly my ingenuity level is not high during a Migraine either. I am most likely to hang the whole idea up and watch some Law & Order.

If we managed the logistics, would it help? We have managed it a few times, and I am happy to report that an orgasm, or three, is dandy for a Migraine. It may or may not make it go away, but it certainly helps for a while. Why not? Your body is flooded with feel-good chemicals and you are beyond relaxed. That’s got to help.

When I take a triptan and lie down to try to sleep off a bad Migraine, as long as I don’t have that mess situation going on, as mentioned above, I might give myself a little orgasm to help the process along. It doesn’t require much vigorous movement, and it’s not a bad tool to have in your Migraine toolkit.

– Megan

Tags: managing life with migraine, menstruation, migraine, Migraine attack, sex
Posted in Managing, Silliness | Comments (2)

Hello there Migraineurs – I’m Still Here!

December 30th, 2008

Hello dear readers – I think this may be my the longest break between posts since I started blogging last January. I apologize for leaving you alone so long! I’m happy to report that the reason for my silence is not that I’ve been off having Migraine attacks – well, not many. I’ve had two since I last spoke to you on December 11th – that’s a great 3 weeks for me! Actually I have felt well, and I have had the opportunity to do quite a bit more paid work, which made me quite busy, and which makes our family budget very happy! And then, of course, it has been the holiday season, and even with a toned-down, taking-it-easy and not-over-doing-it kind of holiday season, I’ve been busy with that!

It’s appropriate that my last post was about balance. Remember that see-saw. Balance is always about adjusting – it shifts, and shifts again. I’m in the middle of a big shift right now. I’m finding that I have more energy to work during the day, and more energy to be with my family and friends, and care for my home, than I have had for a long time. Where’s the energy coming from? I think the Topamax is working well for me. I think the relaxation practice is working well for me, and leading some of you in relaxation sessions has reinforced my own relaxation. I also think that adding CoEnzyme Q-10 to my supplement list has helped a lot. Just having fewer Migraines makes a world of difference. I didn’t even know how much constant low level head pain I was living with – until most of it went away over the past few months.

The other side of the see-saw is that I need to still find the time for this blog, for the writing and creating that is important to me, for staying connected with the Migraine community that sustains me. I need the reminder that I am not, will never be, and don’t need to be, Superwoman, and that I still need plenty of rest and down time.

I love this week between Christmas and New Year’s when things are quiet and slow. Yes, there are celebrations and parties, and yes we’ve been to some of them. Some people go away on vacation, and though we went visiting over the weekend, for the most part we are staying put. I catch up on all sorts of paperwork, get my files in order, straighten up. For some reason the tasks I put off and hate the thought of all year become very satisfying to get finished. It’s interesting to me that this year I really get a chance for a kind of a fresh start, with a new level of control over my Migraines, with new work to do, with my desk clear and files in order to make room for new things. Then whatever those new things turn out to be, they will have to be worked into the balance. The balance will shift.

Thanks to all of you for being on this journey with me this year – it has been one of great learning and growth for me, I hope it has for you too. If I don’t talk to you again in 2008 (25 hours of it to go!) I wish you a happy and healthy new year!

– Megan

Christmas see-saw image courtesy of Tomeppy.

Tags: CoEnzyme Q10, life balance, Migraine attack, Migraine management, Topamax
Posted in Communicating, Managing, Musings | Comments (2)

Balance through the Storm – Maintaining our Health in Hard Times

December 11th, 2008

Balance is a precarious thing. Living a life in balance is a challenge for most of us in the 21st century, with the demands of careers, family, a fast-changing world, information overload. Add chronic illness into that mix and living a life in balance becomes both more crucial and more challenging.

The elements are the same, whether you are ill or well.  All of us need:

• sufficient sleep
• exercise
• plenty of water
• enough, but not too much, nutritious food
• love, laughter and companionship
• relaxation and rejuvenation
• challenging work
• spiritual fulfillment
• to be heard, known and understood
• to know that we are making a difference.

With these elements present, and balanced, in our lives, human beings can live healthy and fulfilled lives, on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels.  When these elements are lacking, or out of balance, we see problems arise. For someone without chronic illness, those problems may not show up right away. They may take years to manifest. For those of us with chronic illness, lack of balance triggers us into attacks, flare-ups, and deterioration of our conditions.

I have to confess I have struggled quite a bit with that balance lately. Like most of us, hard economic times have had their impact on my business, and I have tried to compensate by working harder and longer. To the extent to which this means I am more focused and get more done with my working time, it’s not a problem. The issue that I see is one that most of my clients experience as well, that of being unable to stop. I know I can’t work through lunch or on beyond 5:30 without real immediate consequences to my health. Trying to sustain that level of focus without rest breaks is one of my biggest Migraine triggers. Knowing that if I keep pushing now I may lose the whole day tomorrow is usually enough to stop me, but not always. Do you find it hard to maintain balance right now?

I picture us standing on the center of a see-saw. In calm weather, we can learn, through time, to balance pretty well on the center of that see-saw, training our muscles to adjust to little fluctuations and shifts of weight, to keep us in balance most of the time. If a big wind comes up, the muscles we have trained and the balance-ability we have developed just aren’t sufficient to the job any more. I think in the current economy we are standing on the center of a see-saw in a big gusty wind. We need to strenghten those balance muscles now more than ever! We need them more than ever!

Many of us are facing realities in which we must do more work to survive, or go back to work, or do different, more difficult work. I can’t give you a one-size-fits-all answer here, but remember you must relax, and breathe, and have balance. Don’t forget you can join us on Monday evenings for relaxation teleclasses. It won’t help if you work so hard it makes you too sick to work.

– Megan

See-saw sign image courtesy of Tyger_Lyllie/Kat; storm image courtesy of BCMom/Anna.

Tags: chronice illness, economic hardship, healthy living, life balance, migraine, Migraine attack, Migraine trigger, work-life balance
Posted in Current Affairs, Managing, Musings | Comments (2)

Fun with Eye Exams – Bright Lights, Big Migraine

December 7th, 2008

Last week I had an eye exam. It’s not something I had ever thought was a big deal. The purpose was to check the pressure in my eyes. A particular type of glaucoma can be a side effect of Topamax, the Migraine preventive medication I am on. In addition, there is a correlation between low-tension glaucoma and Migraine. I learned this about a month ago when I first went in for the eye exam, in the early stages of a Migraine, and asked to be taken out of the bright noisy waiting room. The optometrist scolded me a bit for never having told them (in seven years as a patient) that I had Migraines. My experience has been that most doctors know very little about Migraine, and it never occurred to me to share it with them. I didn’t know it was relevant.

That first visit was a very satisfying patient experience. My optometrist was sympathetic and clearly quite knowledgeable about Migraine; she also refused to dilate me and do the full exam while I had a Migraine. She did a partial exam and I was scheduled to come back in a week. There followed a month where I had a Migraine every Wednesday. It was a good month for me, because those were the only Migraines I had. But for some reason, they kept coming on Wednesdays, and I kept rescheduling the eye exam for the next Wednesday. Finally last week I got a Migraine on Tuesday evening. It was still hanging around, slightly improved, on Wednesday, but I decided I would not cancel the appointment a fourth time. I decided to go ahead with the exam, come hell or high water. I’m not sure whether you would call what followed hell or high water. Maybe both.

First we did a visual fields test. No big deal. Lots of little lights blinking on in my visual field, and I had to press a button when I saw them. Apparently I did well. No blind spots. Then she dilated me. And shined very bright lights in my eyes. Very very bright lights. And then brighter ones. And I had to look directly into the bright lights. That is not something I have done in a very long time. I have spent several years shying away from bright lights.

When I got home I spent the evening in a dim room, blurry eyed, in sunglasses. I tried to read, work on this blog, watch tv. My Migraine came back to life with a vengeance. And hung around another 24 hours, wringing me out like a wet rag. It took days for me to feel well again. So, no, I don’t recommend getting an eye exam with a Migraine. Problem is, if I hadn’t had a Migraine I’d say the chance is pretty high I would have gotten one. The good news is I don’t have any kind of glaucoma, and I was approved to increase my medication dosage. My eyes are in good shape. It’s my brain that’s a little iffy.

– Megan

Eyeball image courtesy of Rob Bell; retina image courtesy of Eliya Selhub.

Tags: glaucoma, low-tension glaucoma, Migraine attack, Migraine trigger, optometry, Topamax
Posted in Medicine, Musings | Comments (4)

Imitrex Now off Patent – Non-Brand Name Forms now Available

November 24th, 2008

Imitrex – the trade name of the drug sumatriptan by GlaxoSmithkline – is at long last out in generic form. Imitrex was the first of the triptan class of drugs to be released, and is therefore the first to be coming off patent. When Imitrex came out about 15 years ago it revolutionized treatment of acute Migraine attacks. Triptans work not as pain-killers but work directly to abort the neurological process involved in a Migraine attack. Although they are contra-indicated for some Migraineurs, particularly those with cardiac-related problems, they are tolerated by most, and make it possible to greatly limit the impact of a Migraine attack.

Kerrie at the Daily Headache reported last week that injectable sumatriptan is now available in a generic form, and the Wall Street Journal announced today that Dr. Reddys Laboratories has launched the generic version of sumatriptan tablets. This is great news for Migraineurs – Imitrex has been one of the more expensive triptans on the market, retailing for anywhere from $15 – $25 per pill. Many Migraineurs, myself included, have found ourselves in ongoing struggles with our insurance companies, which limit us to 4 (or 2, or 6) pills per month, forcing us to choose which Migraines to treat and which to suffer through. I am still fighting for reimbursement of over $200 for Imitrex that was prescribed, and which the insurance company said they would pay for and didn’t. But that’s just another health insurance headache story.

– Megan

Tags: generic drugs, GlaxoSmithkline, imitrex, Migraine attack, The Daily Headache, triptans, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Current Affairs, Medicine | Comments (3)

“Breaking the Headache Cycle”

February 18th, 2008

Breaking the Headache Cycle by Ian Livingstone, M.D. and Donna Novak, R.N.

When my migraine pattern suddenly shifted from once month or less to three to four times per week, I went to see Dr. Livingstone. When I first saw him in August of 2004, it was six months after I had two episodes of anaphylactic shock, caused by ibuprofen. I was a little gun-shy of trying new medications. I did agree to try Imitrex – I needed to be able to abort my attacks. But instead of preventive medications, Dr. Livingstone suggested that I get into a regular relaxation routine – using deep breathing, meditation and
guided imagery to strengthen my nervous system’s relaxation response.

I first read the book at that time: Breaking the Headache Cycle: A Proven Program for Treating and Preventing Recurring Headaches.  I took on practicing meditation daily, and after about six months I found my migraines reduced to 2 or 3 per month. The methods outlined in the book were very effective for me, in combination with the migraine abortive, to reduce my migraines to a manageable level.

The authors say migraineurs’ nervous systems are “very reactive to any change, even good change. This
sensitivity is the hallmark of the migraine condition. Unless it is understood and recognized, the migraine disorder cannot be adequately treated.”

If our nervous systems are over-responsive, it makes sense that relaxation and meditation will calm down the responsiveness of the nervous system. Dr. Livingstone cites studies showing that preventive medications reduce migraine about 40% on average (the book was published in 2003 – there may be more up to date statistics on this); and other studies showing that a regular relaxation practice reduces migraines 40% on average. Is it a safe bet to say if doing both, we might reduce migraine 80%? That’s a number I could be very happy with!

Many times I pause and do deep breathing when I first feel pain in my head, or even just when I feel my tension mount.  This often down-shifts me from a budding migraine back to a state of no head pain.  I have come to be able to notice when I am getting too excited or too engaged – it’s not just negative 
stress that can trigger me! Not surprisingly, when I got out of the habit of practicing regular relaxation, my migraines increased again. As tricky as
it is to remember to take a variety of medications, in the right amounts, at
the right times, I think it is even more challenging to establish and keep a
routine of putting the busy concerns of life aside and take time out to look
inward, breathe deep, become aware of the body, calm oneself, and relax.

I came to these methods already convinced – I was not a stranger to yoga, meditation and relaxation. I had practiced yoga in many periods in my life, starting in my teens, and meditation and guided imagery from my early twenties. Later, as a life and business coach, I have used meditation and guided imagery with my clients to help them get clear about issues that were stopping them, and to visualize what they wanted in their lives. So I wasn’t surprised that this practice would aid with migraine disease as well. The challenge is
keeping it in my life as all the demands of life crowd in. The reward is getting to know my own system
really well, and gaining at least a little bit of control over it.

By the way, I think preventive medication is a great thing, and many migraineurs find a lot of success with it. I may be headed down that path myself, as my migraine pattern has changed and my treatment will need to change too. But I’ll always keep relaxation as part of my routine.  It makes me feel good!

– Megan Oltman

Nothing to gain from pain!

Tags: Breaking the Headache Cycle, Ian Livingstone MD, Migraine attack, Migraine preventive medication, reactive nervous system, relaxation practice
Posted in Books, Managing, Medicine, Tips & Techniques | Comments (2)