2017 Update

Hi! I've stopped blogging (well, aside from this post), but I'm keeping my blog up as a way to document my migraine journey for myself and others who may be researching for themselves or loved ones. It's amazing how many things I've tried to stop the pain - and what's just as amazing is there's still so much I could try!

If you've been following my journey (and thank you for that by the way!) here's a personal update. Our family is now a family of 4 with the addition of my second daughter last August. She's quite the handful so any crazy notions of picking up blogging again flew out the window with her. She is a blessing, and one for which we prayed and prayed, don't get me wrong. She's just a firecracker and likes to voice her distress. In her defense, she has reflux and spits up all day long; I'd be cranky too. I still do freelance graphic design. I still have chronic headaches and migraines. I manage them with Fioricet and Extra Strength Acetaminophen/Tylenol, and I avoid certain things like blue food dye, synthetic scents and bright lights. I'm taking a break from neurologists. My pain has been pretty manageable, it's something I've learned to live with and hopefully will one day outgrow. I still pray that it will go away, of course, but I've accepted it (I say this now that I don't have a migraine at the moment!!!).

So some quick housekeeping...I've turned off comments and deleted the email address tied to this blog since I wasn't checking it. If you need to get in touch with me, see my Contact page.

If you're here seeking help or advice for migraines, please don't give up the fight. You probably won't find a cure, but at least keep trying things until they're manageable for you. Life can still be good with migraines, I promise. :)

Expiration Dates

Don't worry, this post is about medications, not people. It is true that we're all slowly expiring, but that's a whole other monster. :)

Unless you're reading this post in the future, this med is still good!

You probably don't need this reminder, but boy did I need it a few weekends ago. So here it is:

Make sure your medications haven't expired!!!

I keep Fioricet and Tylenol (the only meds I can take for head pain right now since I'm still nursing Hollis) in my purse at all times. But when I travel, I pack a separate pill container that fits my multi-vitamins. Since I stay at home quite a lot, I don't go through the pills in my purse very quickly, so they end up expiring. A few weekends ago I was three hours from home visiting my in-laws for the day when I got a migraine. We saw my husband's dad first and that's when I took Fioricet, but the migraine didn't decrease by the time we got to his mom's house. Usually I feel the effects of Fioricet within 30 minutes (depending on if I take it with food - food helps!), but this time I felt nothing but pain and nausea. I ended up staying on their couch while everyone went out for dinner, but the pain was so bad at that point I couldn't sleep. I was popping ginger mints the whole ride home. Lesson learned - use my purse stash before the pills expire!

After that incident, I checked my huge bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol (generic brand) and realized it had expired in January! I was hoping that's why it hadn't been working too well, but I just took some new generic Tylenol for a headache yesterday and it didn't help much...probably because it's just acetaminophen.

Speaking of Tylenol, the Target bottle was about $4 cheaper than the name brand. Have any of you noticed the name brand working better than generics? If it does, it would be worth it because it's still cheaper than a prescription. I might have to try this out sometime.

Hope you all are well. Sorry I haven't been blogging much - there's not a whole lot I can try right now, so not a lot of blog material. :)

Fenugreek is a Headache Trigger

Fenugreek can help a long list of things, but I started taking it for milk production since I'm still breastfeeding my baby. I tried drinking Mother's Milk Tea at first, and it seemed to help a little (I only had one cup a day but they recommend more than that). Not that I really had a problem with milk production, but I figured it couldn't hurt. But when I took Hollis to her six-month checkup, she was only about 14 pounds and in the 8th percentile for weight, so her pediatrician asked about my milk production. She said that fenugreek was safe and worth a try, so I got serious about it and switched to the stronger pill form. In the back of my mind, I had this crazy idea that maybe it would magically help my headaches too. Well, it did increase my milk supply, but it also increased my headaches and migraines. Boo! A friend on Twitter later told me that fenugreek is notorious for triggering headaches. She also informed me that it's an ingredient in curry powder (I immediately went to the kitchen and threw out my curry powder). So in case you didn't know, fenugreek can make headaches worse. You live and you learn!

Also, a quick alert to pregnant women in case you didn't hear about this today: acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy has been linked to ADHD, but it just slightly increases the risk. Here's an article from Reuters. Yes I took a LOT of acetaminophen during my pregnancy and I still take it now that I breastfeed. It helped my head (when it decided to work) which lowered my tension and in turn was better for the baby, and if I could have avoided taking it I would have. Which makes this quote from the article hilarious:

Nevertheless, "it's reasonable to say that there's no reason to use these drugs during pregnancy unless there is a clear medical indication," said Olsen, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA and at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Because, ya know, pregnant ladies generally take acetaminophen just for fun. ;)

Acetaminophen / Tylenol Study & Infographic

Hi, friends! It's been a while...my graphic design company (at-home freelancing) has been super busy lately. I'm so blessed to have lots of work coming in, and FUN work at that!

So just a quick update before I dive into this post. My last post was about me planning to try biofeedback. Well, my insurance said biofeedback would probably be covered under their mental health side, and I haven't been able to figure out if I even have that, much less if they would cover biofeedback. I called a bunch of doctors in my area and one was nice enough to give me contact info for a couple places that do biofeedback, but I never got around to calling them. My deductible starts over in January so there's pretty much no point in trying now. Has biofeedback helped any of you? I'm guessing I would still end up paying big copays either way, so I'd rather use that money to try massage, something I really feel would help because of all the tension I carry in my neck/shoulders. But I'm still working on convincing the husband because it's expensive.

Acetaminophen Study

When I was pregnant, I was told that acetaminophen is generally safe to take for headaches (I took Fioricet for the really bad migraines). I tried not to take anything but my headaches and migraines got way worse the first and second trimester, so I couldn't help it. The stress from enduring the pain without taking meds wasn't good for the baby, so it was pretty much a lose/lose situation. Anyway, I just read about this recent study that found:

"Close to four percent of women took Tylenol for at least 28 days total during pregnancy. Their children seemed to have poorer motor skills than kids whose mothers had taken the drug fewer times or not at all. Tylenol-exposed kids also tended to start walking later, have poorer communication and language skills and more behavior problems."

 I definitely took acetaminophen 28+ days during my pregnancy...not gonna lie. BUT the study also says:

"Heavy users most often reported taking the drug for five to seven days in a row a few times during pregnancy."

I didn't do that and I don't ever do that because (1) I'm afraid of rebound headaches and (2) if I take meds too much my body adjusts and they aren't as effective (there's a medical term for this...google wasn't any help).

So far, my baby girl seems to be developing just fine. But I still want to warn anyone who is pregnant to be careful what you take and don't take too much of something (if you can help it) just because it's "safe."

Acetaminophen Infographic

On that note, I have an infographic to share - not related to the above study, but related to acetaminophen. The folks at the Acetaminophen Awareness Coalition (KnowYourDose.org) emailed this to me. The designer in me is loving it, and it's a great way to spread the word to, again, be careful what you take!

Larger version/download here.

Massage & Other Updates

Since my last post, I've had not one but TWO prenatal massages. They were absolutely heavenly. Why had I not done massage until now? Oh yeah...$$$ (but SO worth it)! My massage therapist has a pregnancy cushion so I could lay on the table and my belly went in the middle of the cushion. It was very comfortable and allowed her to press hard on my back, which she spent 45 minutes of the hour on because my back has been killing me. She pointed out that what I had been saying was hip bursitis from playing tennis in high school (which I did have years ago) may actually be quadratus lumborum pain on my left side. I'm glad she noticed that because all these years I'd been sleeping on my right side because of my left "hip bursitis" but that can actually make quadratus lumborum pain even worse; I read that you're supposed to alternate sides. I doubt any of this is related to my headaches, but it's good to know.

Speaking of headaches, during one of my childbirth classes we did various massage exercises where the partner tries out massages on the mom-to-be...my husband rarely gives me massages, even with the pregnancy, but with the peer pressure of classmates, he had to. *Evil laugh.* One technique we tried was pressure to the indented area in the middle of the back of my head. I had a migraine that day (and since I had a long class I took Tylenol & drank coffee which helped a little) so I'm not sure if it was the massage, the migraine, or both, but the next day when I touched that area it felt like how it feels when you touch a bruise. I told my massage therapist about the experience and asked her to only do a little bit of head massage to be safe. But I think for my next massage I'll ask her to concentrate more on my head and neck to see if it will help my headaches. The next massage probably won't be for a while since the baby is due any day now (official due date is Monday, July 1).

My headaches have been a little bad lately but it has rained or stormed here a lot lately so that might have something to do with it. I still haven't had to take Fioricet in a while, which makes me feel like I'm not harming my baby quite so much. :) The pain levels are definitely not as bad, and it's nice to have a break. We'll see if it keeps it up after birth.

Oh and I have a father-in-law update. If you don't read this blog regularly, my 91-year-old father-in-law moved in with us so we could take care of him. He's been a lot of work lately, especially for me because I work from home and since he's had a big appetite and more energy, he has been asking for things constantly (he's in a wheelchair). Jonathan and I decided it would be best to put him in a nursing home so we'll have time to rest and clean up the house before the baby is born. We checked him into one yesterday and then decided to move him to one closer to his daughter since she'll have more time to visit him (and the nursing home is in the country versus the city so he should be more comfortable there), so Jonathan may be moving him in on Monday. Yes, on my due date. And it's about three hours away. I'm going to stay home, rest and try not to go into labor or panic! We're not sure if it will be permanent or if he'll move back in with us after a month or so (I could write for hours about all the factors involved with that decision) but at least for now we'll have a short break.

So back to massage: if you can afford it, try it! There are lots of Groupon-type deals out there too, so it may be cheaper than you think. I could see regular massages helping my headaches, and it's better than going to the doctor and trying new drugs all the time. One word of caution, and someone mentioned this in a comment in my previous post: massage could possibly trigger a migraine. Too much stimulation can trigger migraine; for example, bright lights, loud noise, strong smells...so when you think about it, touch could have that same effect and could be too overwhelming, especially if other factors are already in play like the weather. This hasn't happened to me, but I've only had two massages. Just something to consider. I still say try it!

Fun Stats

Here are some fun stats. And by "fun," I mean "I want to hide in bed under the covers, hug my puppy and shed gentle tears." The stats are my headache and migraine days since around the time I got pregnant.

• November
• Headache Days: 20
• Migraine Days: 7
• Pain-free Days: 3
• December
• Headache Days: 15
• Migraine Days: 5
• Pain-free Days: 11
• January
• Headache Days so far, and it's only Jan. 24th: 12
• Migraine Days so far: 7
• Pain-free Days so far: 5

I'm at 17 weeks in my pregnancy which is around the half way point, so my hope that my headaches and migraines will get better (or even go away!) is definitely going down the drain. The pain compared to pre-pregnancy is a lot worse...while I'm used to having 20+ headache days a month, I generally only had one or two migraines a month, and now I'm having multiple migraines a week. Also, I can't take Aleve, which helped with the headaches as long as I didn't take it too much. Here's what I can take:

• Extra Strength Tylenol
• Vicodin
• Fioricet (Orbivan)
• Benadryl (to knock me out)

The first three contain acetaminophen, so even if I alternate them, I still run the risk of getting rebound headaches or having to take more and more for them to work (there's a term for that, I can't think of it though). While I was excited that my OB wrote me a prescription for Fioricet, which has been my go-to migraine abortive for years - side note, I didn't know a brand name of this, Orbivan, existed, but sadly my insurance hasn't agreed to cover it yet...still using samples for now - I'm nervous about using it because it's a Pregnancy Category C drug, which is risky. Same for Vicodin. I've only used these two a handful of times during the pregnancy, only when the pain was too intense to handle.

Thankfully, while I've been getting enough work to help pay bills (praise God!), I can do most of that work from home. I had a migraine today - not a bad one but a migraine nonetheless - and was still able to put in about six hours, and I plan on working another hour or so later tonight. So far my migraine hasn't gotten bad enough to have to take any medicine, but if it does I can take Benadryl to force sleep without having to worry about being anywhere. 

I've also decided not to make any concrete plans the rest of my pregnancy (except my baby shower, since I can't really avoid that). Just making this decision has made it easier to deal with the pain because I know that I won't be forced to do anything that would likely make the pain worse. I've already had to reply "maybe" to two birthday parties. I hate to be that person, but true friends understand. It really feels good to take care of yourself, and I think everyone should do that whether they're pregnant or not!

Pregnancy and Migraines

Christmas ornament from my sister

I'm so happy to share some good news with you all - Jonathan and I are going to be parents! I'm 14 weeks pregnant and the due date is July 1, 2013.

This is actually a hard blog post to write. From reading some of your blogs, comments and Tweets, I know that some of you can't have kids, whether it's due to infertility, not being able to stop migraine medications for nine months, and various other reasons. Last May after my surgery I found out I have endometriosis, which can cause infertility. Soon after the surgery when I told my gyno that my husband and I were planning to start trying once I graduated in December, she warned me not to wait even that long because the best time to try is right after surgery when they clean out the endometriosis tissue. Needless to say, I was nervous about the possibility of infertility and although, looking back, it didn't take long to get pregnant, each time I got my period it was heartbreaking. That gave me just a glimpse of what some of you are going through, and I just want to say I'm praying for you and I'm so sorry if I or anyone else has ever been insensitive to you.

When I told my friends the news, many of them asked how my headaches have been...they know me well. I was hoping my head pain would have improved during the pregnancy, but it's actually been much worse. The only meds I've been able to take are Extra Strength Tylenol, Benadryl to knock me out, and Vicodin for the full-blown migraines. My doctor said I may be able to take Fioricet too, and I'm definitely going to ask for a prescription at my next appointment because I've had a lot of migraines. Just this past weekend I had a migraine for three days straight, even after caving and taking Vicodin, and it went away for a day but came back this morning. Now that I'm into my second trimester, things might improve, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

I hope this doesn't come across as complaining. I'm SO thankful for the baby, and if I have headaches and migraines anyway, then I can handle a few more. Luckily I'm finished with school and only work at an office a few hours a week, and I'm planning to do freelance graphic design from home full time once I get enough clients. Not having to go out every day helps me deal with the pain and avoid taking medicine as much as possible. Also, I never threw up during the first trimester, I just had food aversions and nausea, so aside from the head pain, it's been a pretty good pregnancy!

I'll be sure to post updates, but War on Headaches will remain a headache/migraine blog, so I won't transform it to a pregnancy or "mommy" blog, don't worry! ;)