Life in the thrall of migraine

I think I may be nudging up to the edge of normality, although events of this week make me wonder. But I know that people searching for migraine information are landing on the blog, and in the spirit of helping fellow sufferers and letting you regular readers (if any remain) know what’s been going on, I wanted to give you a look at the last two months of my life.

The shortest possible version is that I don’t remember a lot of it. What I do remember is shrouded in layers of brain fog.

Yeah, it’s like that. When you’re having a migraine-a-day for several days straight, or the same migraine for multiple days, your brain stops processing the things that you do. You’re on autopilot for the basic stuff, such as bodily functions and hygiene. Things that require more intense concentration hurt, and so you don’t do them. You spend a lot of time asleep or vegging in front of the TV.

I have come to the conclusion that migraines have some highly uncomfortable resemblances to bad concussions.

On days that you feel somewhat functional, you know that you have to do the things that you haven’t done because you couldn’t do them. You know, like taking three weeks worth of trash, including poopy diapers, to one of the county trash collection points. Thankfully it hasn’t been too warm, nor have the animals wanted to get into the bags I didn’t have trash can space for. It seems no one likes poopy diapers.

When you finally get a string of good days, you launch yourself into the other things in head-down plowing mode. And you work yourself into a three-day migraine. If you’re not careful, you restart the downward spiral. Crawl before you walk, walk before you run, Grasshopper.

Thankfully, my neurologist has seen this movie before and he still had a couple of tricks up his sleeve. I now have a prescription for naratriptan and one for a nifty little pill that dissolves on your tongue and makes nausea go away right effing now. Has that one been a Godsend.

I’ve learned even more about the mechanisms of migraine and how the various treatments work. I know that sumatriptan works fast but doesn’t have much staying power, while naratriptan takes a while to be helpful but hangs in there for the long haul. Sumatriptan can cause rebound migraines, naratriptan doesn’t. I know that too many CGRP inhibitors can be as bad as too much CGRP. I know I never wanted to know all of this.

I also know that despite years of this I am stronger than I knew. Certain things are not wired into me, thankfully. Did you know that people who suffer from headache syndromes are 3-5x more like to commit suicide than the general population? I not only know it, but I now have a near-instinctive understanding why. Everyone has their breaking point, kiddies. I have yet to find mine, and I intend for it to stay that way. I am being a good boy and paying close attention to triggers that I know and trying to identify any I’ve missed. If there is a way to do it, this is not going to be repeated.

I think I’m nearing what passes for normal around here, and that we can get back to the usual regular irregular schedule of blogging. Strangely enough, I’ve noticed-and remember-things that need to be discussed.