A headache sounds like such an innocuous thing. Something a bit annoying, or an ailment brought out as an excuse, “Not tonight, honey. I have a headache” It is hard to explain how something so seemingly trivial can impact your life so greatly. For me it is the duration which affects me most. By the third or fourth day of a headache, I am short-tempered, impatient, cranky, unfocused, uncommunicative and generally not much fun to be around. Even I want to leave myself in a corner until I can be sociable and nice. This personality change has never been more evident than now, when I am parenting a three year old.
It also affects the things I do; I avoid anything that may start a headache, or take a headache to migraine level. I don’t go in saunas, and love spas but can only stay in them a short time, otherwise I get dizzy and headache-y. In my twenties I avoided exercise which got my heart rate up, such as walking up and down stairs and running. Ironically, once R got me running and I pushed through the initial phase of run-induced headaches, running became a fantastic way to manage them.
The six months prior to my first pregnancy were the best six months of my life, as far as headaches went. I was drinking one long black a day and running at least four times a week. Some days I was even running during my lunch break and then again after work. It was fantastic. I was feeling fit and strong and didn’t need painkillers. I was so excited to have found the solution.
Then I got pregnant. For many people who have regular headaches and migraines, pregnancy can offer nine months of relief. However I fell into the small percentage of people for whom pregnancy significantly worsens them. Due to various effects of pregnancy which have lingered long past their welcome, I haven’t been able to get back into regular running and the headaches have become worse and the migraines are more frequent.
I started a gluten-free diet two months ago and it seemed to be helping. Then I came down with a migraine on Easter Saturday which lasted four days before reducing in severity to “just” a headache; a headache which I still have, two and half weeks later. The start of this post was written under the delightful influence of Codral, which has managed what panadeine forte could not. Amazing. I took the Codral this morning for the flu aches I woke up with, but I’ll be taking it tomorrow purely for the mask it so kindly put on the headache. It was like having a day off today and I felt more like myself than I have since before Easter.
The point of this post though, is to go through the various things that I have tried in the name of finding a cure, or some relief at least. I am staring down the barrel of yet another appointment with a doctor, and detailing the history to yet another professional so I might as well write it all down. I am so weary of trying to find a solution, but this week I also reached new levels of desperation where I actually thought that maybe a hysterectomy at 40 would be the way to go – my mum had an emergency hysterectomy when she was 37 and her migraines stopped. I’ve never thought I’d be that desperate but then I’ve never seen or felt so keenly how much they take away from my life and they are no longer something which I can just put up with.
So just what have I done and who have I seen over the past 16 years in my quest for a pain-free head?
- Elimination diet – Eliminated the top six migraine triggers, as recommended by a book on migraine I was reading in the early 2000’s. Results: coffee (n/a), citrus (n/a), hard cheese (n/a), chocolate (no change), red wine (a trigger) and Vegemite (no change). I no longer have the book and a quick search on google does not reveal why Vegemite was on this list – it was a long time ago and only one item came up as a trigger, so I gave up red wine and moved on, forgetting the details of this experiment!
- Breast reduction – At age 22 I had a breast reduction in the hope that relieving some of the weight off my shoulders would relieve the headaches. Nope. It was worth it however just for the boost of self-esteem that came from being able to shop for clothes and not buy everything two sizes too big just to fit my breasts.
- Trigger point therapy – Weekly massage sessions for somewhere between six and 12 months. No change. Just a lot of really painful massages.
- Chiropractor – Weekly or fortnightly sessions for the duration of my life-modelling job. There was no consistent change, but I found the chiropractor helpful generally and still go to see him regularly. It can be helpful sometimes, when the pain is aggravated by my neck or shoulders being out of alignment, but no change otherwise.
- CAT scan – no abnormalities found
- No painkillers – No painkillers for six months, just in case the headaches were at least partially withdrawal symptoms. That was just six months with no relief.
- Natropath – Two different natropaths; one for a year and a half. I was recommended magnesium supplements but never noticed a difference. The second natropath I also visited for about a year, for treatment of an ongoing stomach issue I was having. He also had me on magnesium supplements, and was trying to raise my blood pressure as it was consistently low. No reduction in headaches that I recall.
- Optometrist – I was diagnosed with astigmatism of varying degree in each eye which was causing my eyes to strain constantly to see properly. I was prescribed glasses to wear for screen time to allow my eyes some time to relax. Two years and two prescription changes later and I had to wear glasses all the time, and there was no change in the headaches. Of everything I have tried, this one I really regret. My eyes are so used to glasses now that they refuse to focus properly without them, and I really do feel the strain now when I try. Switching to glasses produced no discernible effect on the headaches, so I think I would have been better off with the eye strain instead of the inconvenience and expense of glasses.
- Chinese medicine – Horrible tasting teas, discussions about the winds, cupping – no result
- Dentist – The dentist thought it could be from me grinding my teeth at night. After three quite uncomfortable sessions of him grinding down my molars to minimise the amount they would grind together at night, there was no change.
- Caffeine – On R’s suggestion I tried using coffee to help the headaches just 4 years ago. It definitely helped. It was a rapid progression from soy mochas to long blacks and the occasional espresso, but sadly they do not offer the same kick now. I do however love love LOVE coffee and am very happy to have made this change!
- Neurologist – Seen once during pregnancy, he recommended going part-time at work, taking daily medication and threatened hospitalisation if the migraines didn’t reduce. He attributed them mostly to stress and thought that putting me in hospital would be the best way to address any stress I was feeling – ha. At the time the illusion of control was still very solid so the idea of being stuck in hospital unable to do anything horrified me. I elected to cancel the next visit, rather than risk daily medication or worse. Now I am ready to hold my hand out for any medication, if it will help.
- Gluten-free, alcohol-free, chocolate-free diet – Currently in progress.
- Pseudoephedrine – The magic ingredient in Codral and the current WINNER!!! But… probably not sustainable in the long-term.
Honestly, it feels like I’ve tried more things, but it’s possible that this is it. The cycle usually goes something like this: decide to do something about the headaches, decide which path I want to follow this time, contact appropriate practitioner, follow instructions and go to appointments/treatments for decent length of time (between three and 18 months), lose the will to keep trying, live with headaches for some months or years, feel ready to tackle the problem again. Rinse and repeat. There has also been financial considerations weighing in. The CAT scan was in preparation for a neurologist appointment which I never made as I didn’t have the money to cover the appointment, nor anything that might be prescribed. There have been times when I’ve just thought, “No, I don’t want to be spending lots of money on treatments which may or may not work right now. I’ll think about it in six months time”.
The current thought is that it is related to low blood pressure and possibly made worse at this point due to the strict diet I’ve been following. In order to follow the gluten-free diet I have been making all our own food, and I don’t use salt much in cooking, beyond what recipes stipulate. I don’t add salt to my meals, and I been started buying unsalted butter, because that’s what the recipes suggest. R came home two days ago suggesting that it might be related to having a low-salt diet, which leads to to low blood pressure. We’ve always thought that the headaches are connected to my blood pressure somehow….so this is the next avenue to explore.
Right now, I just wish someone could give me a pill and say “Take this and your headaches and migraines will go away”. Even if I had to take a pill every day for the rest of my life, I would do it. Anything to have my mind and brain back.
