Oh Look! Apparently It's Not All In My Head...

Hey everyone

For as long as I can remember I have a hypocondriac. I will admit that. I stayed home from school with "headaches" and "stomachaches" and all that. Although some of that stuff was real. I couldn't run in gym because the stitches in my side would hurt so much I couldn't breath and it felt as though I had swallowed razorblades when I breathed. And I did get some headaches but not nearly as bad as I get them now.

This phase continued until middle school until of course I did actually get stomach aches, having to go home once because I vomited at school. That's always one of the things I never liked as a kid. Well of course no one likes vomitting obviously but for me, when I did it as a child and even into my teen and young adult years(i'm currently 23) I vomit many many times at once. One time I can even remember vomitting 9 times in a row in one night and then many more times after that. I jsut found out now as in today that it can be counted as a precurser to Migraines in adults.

Well my first real migraine that I can remember? Was in my senior year of highschool during a stressful play. But I knew I had more of them before that. I jsut remember those because I had them so often with 3 or 4 within 2 months. It worried me but I thought I was stressed so I just brushed it off and after the play they didn't come as often, maybe once or twice every 2 months? then they became more frequent. Going to Once a month. But not always in sync with my period and at the time I was able to treat them with advil and icepacks and sleeping. But they started to get more intense. Lasting for 2 days then 3-4 days with pain levels of maybe 8 or 9 and the ice packs helped but they couldn't do much good when they got warm and I was too weak to move off the couch to get more. The advil didn't work as well anymore and they hurt so badly that finally in my 3rd year of college, I went to a doctor. Then another doctor and I was told I had migraines and my mom revealed that I have had migraines or atleast headaches all my life without my remembering it. I didn't know if she thought it was me playing up being sick so I didn't go to school or if they were real. But I digress.

My doctor told me to make a headache journal and record my diet and my stress level and what I was doing everyday and when my period started and such. She told me to avoid my triggers and I had a CT scan done and blood work. All of this revealed that I had nothing wrong with my blood or my head and my migraines were....Well in my words "Picky." They only SOMETIMES responded to triggers and other times I would be fine. Like I could eat greasy cheese pizza one day and be fine and the next it would give me a massive migraine. It was annoying. I told her this and my doctor said I was on the line of just treating it with icepacks and advil or going to drugs. I told her I wanted to think about it and she switched practices so I couldn't tell her my decision.

Well after that I just kept going with my way of treating it and hoped I didn't get them too much anymore. But then I started vomitting when I got one. I did that for about a year before I said, "F*** It!" And called a neurologist.

So now it's a month later since I've seen him and I've been on Sumatriptan and Nortriptyline. The Sumatriptan or Imitrex is great as a pain reliever. It works so well. I'm only allowed to take at the max 2 pills in 24 hours. But I haven't had the need, it works on a full migraine within 2 hours and keeps it away with only 1 side-effect of a stiff neck and shoulders like I pulled something but that doesn't last. Though the Nortiptyline, or Pamerol isn't working at all in the preventing side and i'm going to tell my neurologist that next. Though he doesn't seem to want to listen to me. It's odd.

So that's my story. Apparently my family has a history of migraines that I never knew about. My paternal Aunt gets them and my maternal grandmother gets them in much the same way I do. She calls them her "Drunk" Headaches because she gets dizzy and her head hurts and she feels like she needs to vomit. Whereas I only get dizzy if I move too fast, and the pain in my head is severe (atleast in my eyes) and I get nasueous as well. Only I do vomit now. Not fun. Not fun at all. And I think my maternal great-grandmother had something like this as well. While my paternal grandmother has narcolepsy, she has had migraines as well. So there's so much history of it. I just pray that my kids won't get them and hopefully my migraines will someday go away or atleast stay away when I'm pregnant. I've heard about women who have migraines and they've had them all through their pregnancies. That would suck.

Anyways that's my story. :) Hopefully with this new treatment I won't have to worry about jobs or school anymore. I'm still in school and I hope I can keep going with it and not have to worry about being out of class because "My head hurts."

Oh, Just wondering, does anyone know if migraines count as a disability? I have a chance to register at my school for a disability so I wonder if I should.