Sunday, September 13, 2009

What a pain in the....

My whole life I have had headaches. I was diagnosed with migraines when I was two. (I don't know how they diagnose that but whatever) I remember leaving my friends house one evening when I was suppose to spend the night because I had a migraine. They have varied in frequency depending on the amount of stress in my life. The last few years I haven't had many migraines. But I do still get wicked bad headaches. (Many people assume a really bad headache is a migraine.....but they are different).

When I had my six week check I mentioned to the doctor that I was getting headaches nearly every day. She told me to see my primary care doctor, which I told her for the last 6 years I have been pregnant or nursing, she IS my primary care doctor. Which she didn't find amusing, if I ever find a doctor with a sense of humor, I will never leave them. So I made an appointment with a new doctor and finally got in last week. Basically I feel like I am falling apart. I have scoliosis, which causes a lot of back and neck pain, which triggers many of my headaches. I also have the tummy troubles. Teaching is not the best profession when your intestines decide liquification is the best option. So I went to the doctor and described all my woes.

For the stomach she suggested probiotics, less fatty foods and GASP cut out my three beautiful Pepsi's each day. So she sucks. But maybe has a point. I love my soda, it is a bright spot in my day. I love the taste, the caffeine, but mostly the carbonation. So I need to find something bubbly, but less harmful to the belly. Sigh

For my head, she gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxant, which should reduce my neck and back caused headaches. I mentioned the breastfeeding and was surprised by her response. She was very "breastfeeding is nice, but you need to take care of yourself, and take medication that YOU need to feel good." Which is odd, because when you are pregnant doctors don't really give a shit about you, just the baby. So that was totally weird, but she did prescribe something that should be okay.

So I took one Friday night, and maybe went into a coma, Bud said he kept checking to see if I was still breathing. I didn't even wake up when Ellie woke up in the morning, Bud got up with her. I think I slept for 9 straight hours, which is amazing for me. I usually wake up a lot with my back hurting, or to go to the bathroom, or because I one of the children's breathing changed rhythm. Then I can't fall back to sleep, and I lay there for an hour or two. So the sleep was great but I don't think I can take them on school nights. Unless I got to bed at 8:00.

I didn't take one Saturday night and woke up this morning with a horrifying headache. I realized I only had one soda yesterday, so some of it was caffeine withdrawal. So I took a few excedrin migraine(worthless), took a nap, then I finally took part of a lortab (they make me sick so I only take half), and drank two Pepsi's (apparently pain in the head trumps pain in the belly)

Anyway, I am thankful I don't get migraines like my SIL. She starts projectile vomiting for hours. One afternoon she called me when one started. I got to her house 15 minutes later to take my nephew for her. She had left a trail of vomit throughout her house. I really wanted to be the awesome SIL who cleaned it all up for her so she wouldn't have to deal with it later. I really tried, but finally gave up, because it was bad and I figured my brother could handle it. She gets them once or twice a month, she has tried a variety of medications, but hasn't had a ton of luck. So I count myself lucky.

3 comments:

melissa said...

Your headaches don't sound fun either but it definitely beats the projectile vomiting!

I am jealous of 9 consecutive hours of sleep. sigh

Aunt Becky said...

My Grains suck. I'm in the process of figuring out what on earth is causing mine, and I'm thinking that the meds are helping. But they bring all kinds of side effects.

Although, by this point, if it turned my arms pink and blue spotted I wouldn't care so long as it took away the pain. Every day for over 5 months now.

Swistle said...

I get the almost-only-visual kind: regular-headache-level pain but queasy and weird-feeling, and the worst symptom is I can't really see. Er, not good, but at least NO PROJECTILE VOMITING.