Headaches

I started writing this yesterday, and today I woke up with a migraine. I guess I shouldn't be surprised about this. Stress + heat/sunshine + PMS + not enough sleep = migraine. Was this what the vertigo was about? I've never had one come on two days in advance before. Should I feel special? Hm.

Headaches are nothing new for me. I had the first migraine when I was in my early twenties. I was at work and there was no pain, just a complete and sudden loss of my peripheral vision. I worked as a clerk on an inpatient surgical unit at the time and I mentioned it to the nurses. They shuffled me off to a conference room where they played nurse on me. My boss (whom I had a somewhat uncomfortable relationship with) came in, shooed them all away, and tended to me herself. Everything else was normal but not suprisingly, my blood pressure was "a little high". I suspected that might have had more to do with who was taking my bp than anything else. I was migraine free for a few years, then when I was about 27 I had another after working in the garden at my house in MI. Since then, I get about two or three migraines a year.

Between the migraines and the crashing headaches of my neuro-Lyme infection, I suppose I'm pretty experienced in the headache area. I thought I'd share some of what these experiences have taught me. Primarily, I learned to just try like hell to avoid the triggers for my migraines. Unfortunately, life doesn't always allow for that.

Most of what I learned about dealing with my headaches I learned by listening to other people and then using trial and error. I do have a new drug which I got from a sympathetic doctor a year ago. I didn't take it for the last one, but I did take it today. It helped some. None of the drugs I've taken ever help all the way. Hence the home remedies*.

So here's a list of what I do for my wretched migraines/headaches.

Massage:
Usually, if I have a migraine I don't want to be touched. But sometimes if it's relatively mild, I can stand a massage, of the right sort. Some folks have suggested temple massage, but I find the area is too sensitive when I'm head achey. I prefer light to moderate pressure on the forehead in two places (1) right above and between the eyebrows and (2) just at the inner ends of the eyebrows (light pressure here only, it's very sensitive). This is good because you can do it yourself**.

Migraine Tea***:
2 - 3 bags of black tea (depends on your tastes and how much caffeine you want)
1 - 2 slices of lemon
1/4 of peeled fresh ginger root (chopped or sliced)
that's a couple of inches worth of ginger root
1 Tsp crushed rosemary
1 Tsp dried lavendar flowers
1 Tsp dried chamomille flowers

Poor 4 cups boiling water over the ingredients into a tempered glass pitcher. Stir and cover. Leave at room temperature for a few hours. You can remove the tea bags and strain the tea into a different container, or you can just leave the ingredients in. If you think you'll want to drink this over more than just a couple of days, I recommend straining. Store the tea in the refrigerator. I mix the tea with juice for sweetener or drink it unsweetened and dilluted with water. If I know I'm in a migraine mode but don't have one yet, I make this and drink a few cups a day until I feel clear of the triggers (I'll be drinking this all weekend most likely).

Lavender Wash:
It's just the old "wet cloth" idea really, but with lavender essential oil added. Wet cloth on the forehead and wet cloth on the back of the neck. I usually end up rubbing it all over my face, head, and neck. This one is especially good if you have someone standing around in what would be an otherwise frustratingly useless (for both of you) manner asking "can I do anything?"

Hot and Cold:
My shrink suggested this one. If you can stand it, a warm bath with a cold compress on the back of your neck. If you can't or don't want to risk getting in and out of a tub, then try to get your hands and feet warm while applying the cold compress on the neck.

Notes:
*Read my disclaimer at the end of the post in this link.
** Whenever I enlist the aid of a well intentioned amature masseur, if he decides to "get fancy" and make little circles or something rather than just apply gentle unwaivering pressure, it utterly destroys the theraputic effect. It also tends to piss me off. If you're considering asking your partner to help you with a nice head massage for your migraines, test it out ahead of time when you DON'T have a headache. I've personally found I'm much less likely to get testy if I'm not in pain (go figure!). Anger and upset are detriments to teaching and learning. Snapping at someone you love whose only offenses are being over-eager or under-dextrous, even if you are blinded by pain, will make you feel bad too. (And if it doesn't, you are not someone I'd ever care to know.)
***I read in some herbal remedy book that feverfew tea is good for migraines. Perhaps if you have zero tastebuds and aren't already nauseous, you could choke down a half a cup or so before spraying it across the room. To make matters worse, it's something that is supposed to be taken every single day, migraine or not. I suppose in pill form it might be ingestible, but feverfew tea tastes ungodly bitter. I suspect that if I took the pill, I'd have nasty bitter feverfew burps all day. Yuck. I'll stick with the ginger.