Kidney Disease as a result of my Migraines
I had my first migraine when I was 17. Mine are not nearly as severe as many that I have read about. In fact, I had no idea that they were migraines. I simply thought that I was having a headache. And so, when I experienced a migraine, I took Aspirin. Usually, it would go away, although I had some that lasted two or three days. Most often, the second and third day were not nearly as severe.
I got married and had children and you have to function so I continued taking aspirin. In fact, I took so many that my husband and mother-in-law told me I would destroy my stomach. So I switched to Advil which became my new drug of choice. And I went through bottles of my new drug.
Sure enough, the Advil and the Aspirin did destroy my stomach. I would take a pill and have stomach pain for 3-5 days. So, I finally went to the doctor who, after running some tests to rule out a tumor, diagnosed me with migraines. She also gave me some new abortives including Maxalt. And I went to the Cedar Sinai Pain Clinic in Los Angeles and got preventatives that worked for 25 years. (I am struggling once again, but that is another story for another time.)
Six years ago, I came down with a lung problem. The doctor wanted me to have a CT scan to see why I was getting pneumonia so often. They take a blood test first to make sure your kidneys can handle the iodine for the CT scan. My kidney function was low and I had Stage 3 Kidney disease. As I do not have high blood pressure, diabetes, am not overweight, eat properly, etc., the only thing that could account for my kidney problem was the massive amounts of aspirin and Advil that I had taken over the years. I am not sure what I could have done differently. Tylenol does not work for me and drugs like Maxalt, Relpax, Imitrix had not come out when I first had migraines. Nevertheless, be careful when taking drugs. Watch your kidney and liver functions scores when you have your check ups.
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