Those of you on Twitter are probably sick of the whole #fail trend, but that's the best way to describe my experience with melatonin. I decided to give it a try last weekend (3 mg before bedtime...and it was from Whole Foods so it was a good brand) to see if it would help me sleep better (deeper) and indirectly help my migraines. Saturday morning, nothing felt different. Sunday morning, same. Monday morning...FAIL.
Sunday night I noticed I was getting a headache but that's normal for me, so I didn't think much of it. Then around 5 a.m. Monday I felt the throbbing in my head and it woke me up. I rarely have migraines that wake me up, and when they do, it's a bad sign. I was nauseous and in so much pain that I was shaking when I slowly made my way to the kitchen to get water, bread and Butalbital. Then I went to the bathroom and had umm...IBS issues shall we say? Next I sat on the couch to eat a little before taking the med, but just a little pinch of bread triggered huge nausea waves so I turned on the TV to distract myself, and of course the light just about killed me. And guess what commercial comes on? The limited time only flaky fish sandwich from Arbys - yum! I just about lost it right there. I couldn't stand the pain anymore so I took my medicine and had another pinch of bread, and that's when I had to go to the bathroom and umm...get intimate with my toilet shall we say? I've only thrown up one other time from a migraine, so I knew something was up. Miraculously, the medicine stayed in my system and started to kick in. I was able to eat crackers and didn't throw up anymore after that, but I did continue to have digestive issues the rest of the day and I had to take another dose of Butalbital after about five hours because the migraine started coming back.
There's a slight chance that it wasn't the melatonin because I did have Thai food Sunday for lunch from a restaurant I hadn't been to before, but the restaurant doesn't use MSG and plus food isn't a big trigger for me. Because melatonin is a hormone and my body hates when I mess with my hormones, I'm almost certain that's what caused the migraine from hell. So after three doses, I stopped melatonin.
A friend from church recommended L-Tryptophan for sleep, so I think that will be the next thing I try. Once I give myself time to recover from the big #fail, that is.
P.S. - I'm aware that migraines like this are the norm for a lot of you, and I just want to say I'm so sorry. Honestly. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. :(
P.P.S. - I've recommended ginger mints for nausea in the past, and now I realize that those help for nausea from bad headaches and some migraines, but not the mega-migraines. In fact, I had one in my mouth as I was throwing up.
