Cold bathroom tiles :)
When I was a 6 I started going to day camp in the summer. Everyday at the end of the day I went home feeling overheated, sick and absolutely exhausted. I felt like I was going to throw up and my head was throbbing incredibly hard.
I would go into the bathroom and lay on the floor. The toilet was close enough that if I needed to throw up I didn't have to go far and as an added bonus to tile floor was always cold and southed my pounding head. Eventually I felt good enough to get up and lay in my bed (which luckily was right across the hall from the bathroom) I fell asleep, usually with a cold washcloth on my head and would wake up hours later feeling better. Of course feeling better was coupled with the fear of getting out of bed. I knew from experience that most of the time my headache and stomach ache would come rushing back the second I stood up, but eventually I could hear my mom calling me down for dinner so I stood up and all the feelings came back, even worse than before.
This went on for years.
Now that I'm 21 its still going on however after years of experience I've learned how to deal with it much better. I never go anywhere without a water bottle and sunglasses, not enough water or too much sun in my eyes and I'm guaranteed to get a headache. Not enough sleep and I know I'm going to get sick. But sometimes even with my precautions I still get a headache. In which case I know I need medicine as soon as possible, a lot of water or gatorade (blue is the best! but in an emergency reds good too), and I need to go to sleep ASAP.
I never really thought about this until recently. For me it was always second nature, my mom gets migraines too. Normally shes supermom, running around taking care of four kids and helping my dad run his business but I've seen her when she gets a migraine and she goes from my amazing supermom to a sad deflated version of my mother, laying in her bed completely still waiting for her headache to pass.
Everytime I mentioned it to my mom she said I was ok, the school nurse thought with all those headaches maybe there was something seriously wrong with me. She said she gets headaches too and so did her aunt and not to worry about it. So I didn't and I still don't. But I didn't realize how out of the ordinary it was until I got older.
However, even when I was in high school and got headaches almost every day and got a migraine at least once a week I made a decision not to revolve my life around it. When I got a headache I tried to deal with it but if it meant laying in bed instead of going out with my friends, I went with my friends. I was strong enough to pretend I didn't have a migraine, I had been dealing with them my entire life so the pain was nothing new. There were times when I had to make the decision to go home, like when I threw up in public places or when my head got so bad I couldn't see but for the most part I drank water and pretended my head was ok.
I laughed and enjoyed being with friends even though I was in a lot of pain. I went to all my swim meets and all my classes and never missed a school dance or team pasta party. If I had given in to the pain I would spend half my life in bed, luckily I don't get them once a week anymore.
Community Poll
Do you feel comfortable advocating for yourself to your healthcare provider?
Join the conversation