1653 My Crazy Migraine Journey (Part 2)

DISCLAIMER, THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE, PLEASE SEEK OUT PROFESSIONAL HELP. FOR ANY OF THE METHODS OF RELIEF I TALK ABOUT TODAY ONLY TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK AND SPEAK TO A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL BEFORE TRYING THEM.

Just a little note, this post may not make complete sense if you haven’t read the first part. I will leave the link for you to go back and read it in just a few seconds.

Here is the link

Part 1

If you are not interested in reading the first and second chapters, then here is a rough idea of what it said. Part 1: I started getting migraines at the age of 11, I tried many methods of medication and relief. They randomly stopped happening frequently and then I only got 4 over the space of 7-8 years.

In early 2017 I got a headache which lasted I think it was 11 days in total. This has a full story behind it which is quite complicated so I am working on telling you, just getting all the details together so I can write. In the short version, I ended up in the hospital quite poorly. Yes, I know day 4 of a headache should have told me something was wrong, but I ignored it. (Do not do this, make sure you seek medical help!) It took me a while to recover from this because there were a couple of complications.

Not too much happened after that so if we fast forward to 2018. During the summertime, I got another long-lasting headache. Then one morning I woke up and my face was fat (swollen) on one side. In a slight panic after what happened last time, I called the doctors and that turned out to be a sinus infection. Typical right? It was horrendous. The doctor gave me a week’s course of antibiotics and a couple of nasal sprays. Over the next 12 months, I started getting sinus infections regularly, I got 4 or 5 over that period.

I then found Sudafed, great stuff! I realised that a lot of the time I was getting headaches I was feeling blocked in my sinuses, so I would take Sudafed. I used the green coloured box and the red ones, the red ones helped best. (I will link them below). They are called Sudafed Sinus Max Strength, but they are a decongestant (unblocks your nose) and paracetamol. They kill two birds with one stone so to speak. They worked for a while, but it says on the box you are not supposed to use them regularly. (A little tip, don’t buy them from your local corner shop, hit up Savers, they are HALF the price there). Or if you have the time and patience, you can match them to a shop’s brand version which works out cheaper 99% of the time.

During 2019 I did get a couple of migraines, so I guess it was obvious that they had started coming about more often. But two migraines over 12 months is nothing to worry about. If they are not disrupting your life a lot, I would personally ignore them. But as I mentioned earlier, if something bothering you about your health it is super important to speak to your doctors.

Moving on to the only 2020. I dare ask how your 2020 is going. On the slightly bright side, we have only got a little bit of 2020 left and then we can say goodbye. Doesn’t mean that everything will improve but it will be almost a year of dealing with Corona so hopefully we sort of know what we are doing. The world has not seen a year like 2020 in a very long time! I’ve had a quick google and the last pandemic was in 1918 (102 years ago). So, pretty much everyone alive today (please correct me if I am wrong) will not have experienced a pandemic. Crazy!

Anyway, we are not here to talk about Rona, she doesn’t deserve our time. I say she; Rona could be male, couldn’t he? Moving on… The first 6 months of the year I had one, maybe two migraines but nothing significant and there was no cause for concern! I was getting headaches a lot, my mum kept telling me to call the doctors about the headaches, but I was procrastinating and didn’t. I was worried that the second I said headache they would send me to get tested for COVID-19, but I knew I didn’t have COVID.

The July rocked up with something to prove! This is where the fun began, and by fun, I mean Migraine HELL. I had to go back on my Facebook to get the date. I was getting bored with having headaches so often. Most days I was getting a very mild niggle somewhere in my head. Some days my eyes were sore, some days my head felt heavy etc. On the 22nd of July, I asked Facebook if anyone knew of any remedies for a constant headache. With the power of the internet, one silly little post on social media and you can have hundreds of answers. Luckily, I got a few answers to my desperate headache-killing plea. A lovely person (my uncle) suggested I get beheaded, to be honest, I am not sure that will work, what do you think? Others said to try drinking more water. Another suggested trying a peppermint or lavender oil. I must be honest; I didn’t try the oils. If you have, let me know in the comments below if it worked or not.

The next day mum and I went to the local supermarket. I made an off-the-cuff comment that “it was bright outside, and it hurt to move my eyes”. This was when a light went off in my mum’s head and she suggested it could be a migraine. So, we went straight to the pharmacy (I think it was in Tesco) and bought Migraleve. A word of warning, they are not cheap, you are looking at £10 for 12 tablets, just short of £1 for 1 tablet. According to my Facebook Migraleve appeared to work at that time.

Migraleve, I have tried before, they worked to start with when I used them as a young teen, but it didn’t last. They come in pink or yellow. I think pink you take as soon as you feel a migraine coming on, and you take the yellows after a certain interval if you still have the migraine. The main reason (don’t quote me) for the different ones is I believe the pink has anti-sickness which you don’t need to keep taking.

(OF COURSE, YOU SHOULD FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BOX, DO NOT FOLLOW THIS AS INSTRUCTIONS. CONSULT A DOCTOR OR PHARMACIST BEFORE TAKING THIS MEDICATION).

Then on to the dreaded August 10th, 2020. I will always remember this day and this migraine. IT KNOCKED ME FOR SIX. I woke up and I felt like DEATH. I remember waking up and having pain in my head and down the back of my neck. I got up and did my quick makeup routine (eyebrows and mascara). Shoved some clothes on, and then I could barely keep my eyes open, and my head felt incredibly heavy, so I set an alarm and got back into bed for about 15 minutes, I think. I probably shouldn’t have but somehow, I managed to drive myself to work. When I arrived, I did my bits to get ready but the pain was so intense all I wanted to do was get a cup of tea so I could take Migraleve. I felt awful. I told my manager that I have a migraine, she saw my state of me and just said “let me know if it gets too much” but I was determined to stay at work. I hate being sent home poorly.

My work was close to sending me home. I remembered I had my heat pack in my bag (which I used for my wrist), so I went to heat that in the kitchen area. While it was heating, I had my arms crossed on the table and my head was leaning on them. A lovely gentleman came in and immediately asked if I was okay, I told him yes and that I had a migraine, so he turned the lights off blessing him. I took the Migraleve, I had the heat pack over the back of my head and neck. It felt like my head was trying to explode! To date, this is probably one of the worst migraines I have ever had. I had to turn the brightness of my computer screen right down, I couldn’t look at my phone. I drove home for lunch so I could try and sleep for 20 minutes, when I got back to work, I locked my keys in the car. Just shows I was not with it at all, I have never done that in the 7 years I have been driving. I came home at the end of the day and went to bed.

The next day, (the 11th) I had already planned if I woke up and still had it, I would be ringing the doctors. I went to work and asked my manager if I could call my doctors. Luckily, I got through quite quickly. I got through about 8:45. The quickest phone appointment they had was at 3 pm! When I spoke to the doctor, she was understanding, asked me loads of questions and prescribed me a tablet to sop migraines when they happen. With migraines, there are two main types of medication you can use. A preventative, which you take regularly to stop them from happening and one you take when you get a migraine to stop or lessen the effects of the migraine.

The medication the doctor (a very nice doctor by the way) is called Maxalt Melt (Rizatriptan Benzoate). You must melt them under your tongue on an empty stomach (they do not taste nice so have a drink ready). They worked and worked very quickly which was brilliant! She only prescribed me 6 because we didn’t know if they would work or if I would use all 6 so it was kind of a trial on them. We were also hoping that I wouldn’t continue to get migraines as this was the 3rd or 4th in a matter of 3 weeks.

The doctor did say I should call back in 2-3 weeks if I am still getting them as often as I was. This is another reason why I only got 6, I shouldn’t have used 6 in three weeks and if I had I was needing to go back to the doctor. In the meantime, I downloaded an app called Migraine Buddy; it is really good. I highly recommend it. The detail you can put in it is amazing. So, you might have guessed but using the app, I started tracking them. By this point, I had 5 migraines between 21st July and 10th August.

On that note. This one is also got very long! So, I will leave it there and you will have to wait for Part 3. I didn’t think this was going to be this long but as I am writing I am realising there is a lot of information to include. A lot of little tips and aspects to the story.

Hopefully, that means it is interesting for you. If there is anything you found interesting or helpful, please let me know in the comments below. Here are the Sudafed tablets I was talking about.