Migraines

Most people remember when they started having migraine headaches. I started when I was in high school. The first time was incredible; why was my head hurting so violently without an injury?

My mom made an appointment with our family doctor for me. He talked to me about the pain and right away prescribed 2 Darvon 65 mg. I remember thinking they were Ohio State's colors. I would take them, close my window shades and sleep through the rest of the day and night.

I awoke with the headache still pounding in my head. I ate breakfast and would vomit, take one Darvon and walk to school with the pain. Our girl's guidance counselor, Miss Purviance was great and would let me go to the clinic and sleep part of the morning, making sure the room was dark. She would give me peppermint drops to put in water to help my stomach calm down. That would give me some relief. When I would wake up she would fix me a cup of tea and send me back to class.

I'd go home eat some supper, go back upstairs and vomit, take my Darvon and go to sleep for the night. After 3 to 5 days the headache would abate and I would be back to my normal active self. The headaches did not have a pattern of occurrence; I felt like I was being ambushed when they came though. The doctor hoped I would outgrow them and he was good at giving me pain medication when I needed it.

The habit to draw my shades and keep my bedroom darker started when I realized my headaches were not so frequent when in subdued lighting. Looking back maybe the florescent lights at school were a player in the headaches, I don't know. My mother would say, ' You're hiding in that dark room'. I had no idea what I was hiding from other than the pain of those debilitating headaches.
I vomited so much that we even had a family joke about my time in the bathroom vomitting. That was started by a roomer who rented our third floor bedroom when he made a comment to my family; very funny Tom.

Once I graduated from high school the intensity of the headaches slowed down. I went to Southern Ohio College and had only one headache while attending. By the time I started dating my husband I would say that the headaches seemed to disappear. After moving out of the house I had no more migraines. L my sister-in-law said that was what I needed all along, to be out of the house. I would have a light headache but nothing too bad and I would just take an asprin and it was gone.

Around the time my daughter was 4 years old, things changed again. I had the headaches back but they were different. I didn't vomit any more just could not function and would go to bed after taking my Darvon. My husband worked nights and was home during the day if I needed to lie down. I tried not to give in to all that sleeping.

The doctor decided I needed some very indepth tests and admitted me into the hospital. X-rays, scans, interviews with psychologists, and finally one morning they had me attend a group therapy session. Walking through those doors, having them lock behind me and then attending the session; that got my attention. My doctor came to me and asked me if I wanted to stay in that ward. I said no, the people in that session were ill and I was not ill like they are. He said good I wanted you to see that mentally you're very healthy, but we don't know the cause of your headaches. He then said he wanted me to see the other doctor and have them try some other medications on me.

Back then they wanted you to see a psychiatrist and have them monitor the medication. I was given Atarax and Elavil and scheduled to attend a therapy session. I was on both medicines for at least 8 months if not a year; I can't remember exactly and my headaches abated. But after that my extended family treated me like I had a mental condition and they thought they had to tip-toe around me. I often wonder if my mother started that concept, I guess I'll never know. The medications helped me tremendously and just talking to Mary, my counselor helped me realize even though my family treated me like I was weak in some way; I was just a migraine suffering person and needed the medication to help keep away the pain.

Mary was very helpful and we figured out that I needed to snack inbetween meals, mainly with some protein and my headaches would not come back so fiercely. Even now I try to always make sure I eat some source of protein at each meal to keep from getting ill, and snack on a piece of cheese or another source of protein. The doctor ordered a glucose tolerance test and said the results were borderline for low blood sugar. Today those results are normal and I just eat my snacks and protein to keep those headaches from ever coming back.

Through the years since I have had a couple migraines, the now drug of choice is Darvocet and it works well to rid me of the pain. I went to emergency a couple of times during the late 80s early 90s and they gave me Ativan, that stuff just knocked me out and I slept until the headache was gone. Hmmm escaping from the pain isn't so bad at times. But then I feel like I've missed out on life and I Like Life!

The Present

Now if I have a headache I can figure out what the cause is; generally lack of sleep/food, a change in the weather is coming or like today the blinds are missing from the window and way too much light is present. If I get a migraine I call my doctor and he has me take Darvocet to get me through.