#tensionmigraines

[findinglifessilversun]

A ton of neck and shoulder tension today, which could easily lead to a severe tension migraine later tonight. Thankfully, I have this roller that I mixed up yesterday! 💧Roller = wintergreen essential oil diluted in fractionated coconut oil 💧The wintergreen essential oil does a fantastic job of relieving tension in my shoulders and neck! While it may not totally prevent the tension migraine, it dramatically lessens it and makes it far more tolerable. . My tension migraines are severe: my muscles get so tight they feel like tennis balls and absolutely nothing can fully release them without causing me more pain. Massaging the knots out fully will cause a MASSIVE fibro flare. . Thankfully, the wintergreen relieves more tension with far less pain than anything I've ever tried! .. If you get tension migraines, or even just tension headaches (the most common headache type), I would HIGHLY recommend wintergreen essential oil! Message me to learn more about wintergreen and other oils for headaches. . (Also, find out an uplifting diffuser blend that smells like delicious candy! Obvs featuring wintergreen, lol!) ... ... #TensionMigraines #doTERRA #ChronicPain #ChronicHeadaches #ChronicIllness #ChronicConditions #TensionHeadache #MuscleTension #Migraine #WintergreenEssentialOil #WintergreenMiracle #Wintergreen #OilRoller #NaturalRemedies #HeadacheRelief #Spoonie #OilJourney #OilLove

[gelibean95]

A Migraine, day 2.

Right now the house is quiet and silent and I’ve been alone all day. It’s a Friday and most likely mom will be going out tonight with some friends. My boyfriend was working today, and has plans tonight, so I won’t be seeing him. My friend is exhausted and would rather be alone after a long day of work that I in part made longer by being sick today. My sister is attending school in SF and as of lately... I haven’t spoken with her in over two weeks. Not because of anything negative, just... we’re busy I guess. At least she is. 

Mentally I am exhausted. For any chronic migraine sufferer I don’t have to explain how tiring they are on your body and your mind. You would understand how it’s a constant unending pain that radiates from your skull down to your toes on the worst days. How lights physically hurt you, smells make you sick to your stomach and every noise louder than a soft spoken sentence feels like someone is jack hammering your brain. For me and my complex migraines, all these symptoms are magnified the longer the migraine lasts. Today was day two, and I woke up in tears from the intense pain in my head. I had to call out of work, which i abhor doing because I want to be a reliable worker that my boss can depend on. Today was another trip to the doctors office for more shots of medicine that leave me lethargic and heavy feeling and have a 40/60 chance of working or not with favorable odds on the not working side. I had to call for a ride in because with a complex migraine I get an aura around my vision, slurred speech, I become unbalanced and experience vertigo, and soon after black spots follow the aura leading to awful visibility. As one would assume, you can’t drive like this let alone function. I’ve passed out a handful of times from the pain and every time I feel a loss of control in my life, like this sickness (disease? disability? genetic hand me down?) is in charge of me sometimes. 

I would consider myself lucky though now compared to where I started from. In 7th grade I started experiencing tension migraines, which in turn led to complex migraines and I also found that just a regular old migraine that only hurts without symptoms runs in my family. At first I only experienced them here and there when I would be feeling particularly stressed from school. But by my sophomore year they became an issue. I was out one, two, three, and sometimes fours days a week missing classes. I started to fall behind, and the stress made everything worse for me. I went through every preventative medicine my neurologists could think of, and when they ran through them all we started doing sleep studies to see if maybe my insomnia was the cause. (oh yeah, I’m an insomniac too. That definitely plays a role in triggering a migraine some days.) When that gave us no answers we started looking for long term solutions. Birth control was brought up, but as a sophomore/junior I would say no till my senior year because I was already struggling to remember all the medicines I had now that weren’t doing jack shit. Botox was also suggested, but there was little research out that showed it to be a worth while solution and not only that, what 16 year old wants to inject her face? No thank you. There was also mention of a piercing placed on your ear in just the right spot that many swore by. But again, debunked by the multiple doctors we brought it up to.

It wasn’t until I finally gave in to trying birth control that things leveled out. I also said the only reason I would try birth control was if I could stop taking all the other medicines and supplements and mixtures I was taking seeing as they weren’t helping and I was never keen on taking anything into my body that didn’t effectively help me. I talked with my doctor and we decided to go with an estrogen based pill and see how that worked. She did warn I couldn’t just stop in the middle of my pack, so we would have to ride out a cycle or two to see results. And oh, did we see results. It became too difficult to function, because now I was essentially living with a continuous migraine that often required trips to the ER and heavy narcotics, only to return a few days later when they wore off. It was miserable, and till I was able to stop taking the pills I was no only in school for 4 days a month. Obviously meetings had been had with the principle, letters had been received in the mail about truancy. But what were we to do? We were lucky enough to find Independent Study was offered through my school, and to this day I still swear it was the only reason I was able to graduate. When I was able to stop taking the pill my doctor suggested another type, a different hormone this time. She was sure it would be better, because after the estrogen severely fucked me up she figured that’s where my hormonal imbalance laid. I never looked back. My migraines cleared up to one, maybe two a week. The longer I stayed on the pill the easier they became when I had them and thankfully the medicine I would take for the pain (Excedrin became my go to other than a few prescriptions when that failed) was more effective now. My only problem was my consistency in taking the pill at the same time every day. I messed up often, and because of that the effectiveness wasn’t as effective now.

I for awhile refused medicine of all kinds and said I would suffer through it, clear my system off all the crap I was putting in it and just reset my body. I tried that, and while it did help a small bit I was still experiencing migraines far too frequently. I never did find an answer to my migraines... When I hit 19 it seemed like they leveled out themselves, and the frequency dramatically fell to maybe one a week. Now, with an inserted hormonal birth control method and a good knowledge of what to do to avoid migraines (sleep well consistently, even if that means taking a sleeping aid some nights. Avoid a lot of dairy products. Avoid strong smells and don’t use strong perfumes, soaps, candles, lotions, etc. Don’t stress out more than needed.) I have at most two migraines a MONTH.

Sadly, they tend to be massive complex migraines that put me in the doctors office again and then my bed for the next 16 hours. But all the same... I’ve come a long way from where I started. And while I’m thankful I’m here and not there, it’s no less exhausted to do with each time. It always stirs up some loneliness being cooped up inside all day, unable to go to work, see my boyfriend, or just be outside in the loud bright world. Some days it gets the best of me. Today feels like one of those days, But of the bunches and bunches of people who deal with migraines, I know I’m not alone in this struggle. And in that, I don’t feel as trapped and alone in my struggle.

[findinglifessilversun]

I've had such a stressful day. ▪ Last night, Mikki (gray kitty) got her tail stuck in a door and I was afraid she broke/dislocated it. So I had to wake up at 6am (after adrenaline didn't let me sleep until 2:30am) to get her to the vet at open. Thank goodness, nothing was broken/dislocated! ▪ I had to mail the Mother's Day presents to our moms. They'll only be a day late, at least. ▪ I had to pick Mikki up at the vet, and unfortunately had misremembered the time of my next appointment. ▪ Had to rush to my gynecologist appointment, made it just under the wire for late shows, to check on a fibroid. The renal artery ultrasound had said there was a potential fibroid, so I was getting it checked. Turns out I actually have two #fibroids, but they are "perfect" - they aren't blocking anything or causing trouble at all! Yay! Finally, good news from a doctor! ▪ Had an appointment with my neurologist. He said that these new headaches are NOT #TensionMigraine #headaches like we thought... But, instead, they're something called #IcePickHeadache 😒 But, I guess they have relative success with an abortive medication he has prescribed me. Also discovered that my migraines aren't normal, so that's fun 😒 We're also going to do an EEG to make sure I'm not having seizures. I have weird episodes, that sound like hypoglycemia, but my fasting glucose is fine. If the EEG is normal, I may buy a glucose monitor to be sure it's not random hypoglycemic episodes. He's also going to help me figure out some of my #dysautonomia temperature problems. Thank goodness. The temperature disregulation is one of my more debilitating issues (makes me opt out of things or not enjoy them), so hopefully we can get some answers! ▪ We had to get some groceries. Even with my chair, I got toally drained. ▪ My back spasmed when we got home, so now I'm in pain on the couch. Ugh. ▪ I need a day of frozen time to just sleep! ... #Spoonie

[findinglifessilversun]

Went to the ER last night for a headache I've had since 2:30pm Wednesday. (It's now 11:23am Friday.) It is a completely different headache than I usually get, and apparently that's because it's a "tension headache with migraine crossover." . Luckily, I was only at the ER for about 2.5 hours! They gave me about 1.5 liters of fluids, Benadryl (apparently IV Benadryl makes me sleepy, but the pills do nothing), Decadron, and phenergan. It lowered the spikes from a 9/10 down to a 6/7 at least. Though, today, they're back at 7/8. . It still won't go away. I'm now trying wintergreen essential oil on my temples (thanks @sallys_oil_adventure) and some exercises my PT just gave me via email. (I emailed my PT asking for help because this is awful!) . I hope you're all having a much better time of things! .. Oh, and I had my renal artery ultrasound this morning from 8:30am to 9:30am. Longest ultrasound ever! I'll probably have results Monday. (We're checking for renal artery stenosis.) ... ... #TensionHeadache #Migraine #TensionMigraine #ChronicHeadache #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #ChronicConditions #InvisibleIllness #Spoonie #RenalArteryUltrasound #RenalArteryStenosis