Like a relative that comes without warning: The migraine

I equate my migraines to the unwanted, unexpected relative. The one that shows up and wreaks havoc on not just you but your family and your event/life. I have had migraines for as long as I can remember. Of course, they have always been diagnosed by those around me," Drink more water, you're dehydrated, I bet it's your hormones, you don't get enough sleep/vitamins/green veggies, it's your birth control because it happened to me." Then you get the ever popular," You are playing it up, no way you hurt that bad. So, what are you avoiding?" As I have gotten older and it seems that they have gone in and out of intensity and frequency. I have taken medications, vitamins, watched my diet, lost weight, changed birth controls, meditated, worked out and tried to sleep as much as I could but I did have 3 children , a job and a husband so take that into consideration.

Lately, my migraines have taken an odd turn, APHASIA. I have had aura and all the psychedelic wonders that go with it. This was nothing new but to not be able to get words together and speak them scared the hell out of me. I had a racing mind and a scrambled alphabet and no words. My daughters helped me take my medication , my wonderful auto injector and it became charades. My husband arrived and put his foot down," Dr today no ifs ands or buts" I cried and they cried and I went to sleep until the office opened. I could speak by this point and my vision was still off and I felt like I was underwater but I went. I waited and then told my GP the issues, the frequency increases and my thoughts to rationalize ," My job is stressful, I'm menopausal" He told me ," If you are going to try to justify why these attacks happen you are going to drive yourself crazy .It is neurological and you can't schedule a good time. They are what they are and you know that." He now has me on a preventative propranolol HCI 80 one time a day, increased my sumatriptan to 100 mg and backed it with 800 mg of ibuprofen for attacks coming on and a wonderful medication for acute severe migraines ,like the one that got me there called Fierocet. This is all buddied up to Chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy twice a week.

I am hoping that this works and reduces the number, severity and frequency of these migraines. Keep you posted because as everyone knows it's like any of the anonymous self help groups: One Day at a Time!