![]() ![]() I’ve been dealing with a particularly stressful situation for about the last 3 months. Like, I might get a migraine once every 4-5 months if it’s even that frequent, and usually after a high-stress time resolves. Life has been so good, and migraines mostly disappeared. ![]() The opportunity to work from home fell in my lap, and immediately added 10 hours that I used to lose to commuting each week, time for yoga each day and flexibility to turn my work-life balance into a life-work balance. Well, by the grace of the good Lord above, the conditions of my job changed, and I came to have the very reasonable, very fulfilling and meaningful position I currently have as the Chief Medical Officer for a behavioral health company. At the time, I just logged it as an interesting tidbit o’ information, but over time, I realized I had the same pattern. One day, as I was sitting in my office with my sunglasses on, a colleague came in and said “migraine?” She went on to tell me how she had finally figured out that she gets her migraines not while she is under stress, but after her stress has been relieved. I downloaded a migraine app to help me identify my triggers and found them to be altitude and dehydration. Eventually, I had to step it up and get my own prescriptions of Imitrex and Zofran. I began having them so frequently that I had bottles of Excedrin migraine on my nightstand, in my car console, in my desk drawer and in every briefcase and purse I carried. It felt like internship all over again! Mix in frequent flights to the West Coast and it apparently was the perfect formula for migraines. I worked the longest hours under the most stressful conditions on the least amount of sleep with not enough time to eat or drink enough water. The new job, while exhilarating, was absolutely crazy. Once I put two and two together, I switched birth control methods and went for more than two years before the next migraine took me out. Only occasionally did I ever get the throbbing headache. Sudden onset of feeling all the way wrong associated with severe nausea in response to lights and sounds. She gave me an Imitrex, I went to sleep and woke up the next day just fine.Īfter that day, I began to have migraines very predictably once per month each time I removed my Nuva-ring. Somehow, this was a migraine with no headache. When I got in the car, she took one look at me and said “You have a migraine.” At first I balked, but then I put on my doctor’s hat - photophobia (sensitivity to light) yep… phonophobia (sensitivity to sound)… yep…nausea…clearly… headache? Nope. I called my cousin, asked her to come get me and told her to bring a plastic bag with her in case I had to puke again. I went to the bathroom and the rest is history (let’s just say God bless the cleaning crew). As everyone was talking, my nausea throbbed and grew and throbbed and grew. The same feeling came over me - something was wrong although I had no idea what. I came home, went to bed and woke up the next morning having no idea what had happened.Ībout 4 years passed and I was in a meeting at work. ![]() He talked the entire time and I just remember an overwhelming sense of nausea with every syllable that came out of his mouth. One of the ER technicians who was getting off at 11pm just happened to live in my neighborhood and drove me home. I knew I couldn’t finish my shift and I knew I couldn’t drive myself home. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but I knew I wasn’t right. But one night, while about 7 months pregnant, I was working a shift in the psychiatric emergency room. Until the age of 28, I could count on two hands how many headaches I’d had my entire life and would probably have some fingers left over. Let’s start with a little history of my migraines. I figured this formula might help someone, and so here’s how it all went down. I’m happy to say I won as defined by having the shortest migraine I have ever had (6 hours from 5:15am – 11:15am) and no migraine hangover. ![]() I decided that I would not let a migraine steal my joy and went to all out war. It started at 5:15am when I woke up with the beginnings of a migraine. ![]()
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