It has been some time since I have written a blog post.  Life has been rather hectic lately. There have been so many topics that have been running through my brain lately, but this topic has literally been smacking my head daily.

My Chronic Migraines 

Most of you have had headaches at times in your life, many of you have had a migraine before, and some of you suffer with them.  For me, I am pretty sure could deal if it was just a headache; I feel as if I have a fairly high pain tolerance, it is ALL the symptoms that come with the MIGRAINE & the frequency that is so frustrating. 

Most who are around me may not realize that I suffer with chronic migraines because I force myself to function in the everyday world.   Some weeks consist of daily migraines, while others I may have just two or three.  There is no rhyme or reason as to why I get them or how many I will get in a week.  I have had migraines since I was a kid but the last two years they have been relentless.

For me, almost every day for the past two years I wake up in what I call a brain fog, because either I am at the start of my next migraine or my body is trying to recover from the last one.   With the brain fog, I have an extremely hard time concentrating and focusing, sometimes I even feel so exhausted.  My speech even suffers at times, I feel like I am slurring my words.  There are times Jason or my girls are talking to me, I hear them &  see them mouthing the words but nothing is registering and if it does register there is a high probability I will forget what they said a few moments later.  (Those who are close to me, know that I am normally not forgetful, so this is very unlike me.  Ex. I normally can remember almost every detail of what happened 15 years ago.)  There are days that my head feels like someone is stabbing it and days that I may not have an actual “headache” but my vision is disturbed with auras and sometimes I have tunnel vision; then the nausea sets in, the dizziness and vertigo symptoms.   Sometimes I lose my vision, see flashes of light, have the auras, have high pitched ringing in my ears, and sounds are magnified for the day, sometimes just minutes, or hours depending on how the medications I am on decide to work that day.  Most of the time when I have a migraine I do have the combination of the headache and the vision but not all the time.  Then on top of it all too much stimuli makes the migraines worse.

The one thing that does seem to help is a cool, dark, quiet room where I can sleep it off.  Unfortunately, I have so many that I just can’t sleep my life away; I have a family and a job.  So, I put a smile on my face and push myself through each day.  Most of the time I can disguise it well; but this is exhausting.  There are only a handful of people that can tell when I am having one of my “episodes”.   When my migraine is over my body feels like Jell-O and I am wiped-out.  Maybe if I could go to that cool, dark, quiet room and sleep it would help but that isn’t an option. 

As many of you know, I love to run.  If I don't run, I do feel worse so there are times I have to force myself through my run.  Just the pounding of the pavement makes me even more nauseous at times.  There are times on the straight stretches I have to close my eyes to keep from losing my cookies.  But lately, I have been so weak that even getting out to run has been hard.   

 Did you know you don’t have to have a headache for it to be a migraine, just all the other migraine symptoms? 

My Triggers

I know of three triggers of mine but then there are days that I wake-up with a migraine and I am unsure what triggered it.

 Lights. My first trigger certain types of lights.  Florescent lighting is the worst; I can see the constant “flashing”.  Really bright LED lights.  Certain headlights.  

 Smells.  Certain perfumes, colognes, cleaning products,  certain candle scents, essential    oils, or anything that has a strong scent will automatically trigger a migraine. 

 Weather.  I am finding that my head is tending to be pretty good at predicting a big weather pattern change.

Things I have tried

I have tried elimination of foods hoping to maybe find a trigger without success.  As well as over the counter drugs, physical therapy, and ENT for my vertigo.  I have been doing Botox injections for almost a year now.  The Botox has not helped me in the fact that it has lessened the amount of migraines, but it has helped with the intensity of the pain associated with them.  I feel like a walking pharmacy with all the medications I take to prevent an attack or when one hits. Some of the meds I have to be “selective” when I am going to take because I can only take so many times each month; so I have to decide which is my worse day.   Many of the meds that I take just help ease the symptoms and they don’t cure the symptoms.

Cefaly or Sprint TMS

A few weeks back my neurologist sent me to see another neurologist to review everything we have been doing for the last two years.  There were hopes that there may be something she was missing or another medication that might work, or something else that we could be doing to help reduce the occurrence.  I met with this neurologist for about an hour and a half.  She did an exam and reviewed all my records and I am back to square one.   She agrees with everything that has been done so far.  Although she did suggest a Cefaly unit or a Spring TMS unit,  I am doing  research on both.  Cefaly is a onetime purchase but the electrodes are extra an extra fee and will frequently need replaced. The Spring TMS is a monthly fee.  But which is better?  Does one work better than the other?  I am so confused…     

Why am I writing all this? 

 I am frustrated… I am obviously not only one out there with chronic migraines with these crazy symptoms and maybe we can help each other.  I am hoping that maybe this will help people understand why I might seem “out to lunch” at times.  Maybe someone reading this will say, “Have you tried …?”   Maybe this will remind others to be sparing when using perfumes, colognes, essential oils because there are people who unfortunately have reactions to them.  

So if you have any ideas, suggestions, or maybe have tried the Cefaly or Spring TMS units I would like to hear your input.