Thursday, April 30, 2009

A One Year Anniversary of Sorts

I don't know the exact date, but sometime in April 2008 was my last visit to the Emergency Room for a migrane. I never ever thought that I would make it through one year with no hospital visits. I have been battling these vicious headaches for over fifteen years!

Over the years, I have tried various meds to no avail. Finally, last April, after an especially horrible bout with a series of migranes, my ER doctor put me on sinus meds because he felt that half my problem was allergies. I walked around in a daze for about a month because I'm in the ten percent of Reactine users who experience drowsiness. A switch to Aerius solved that problem.

I now take allergy medicine everyday -- especially from March to the first killing frost. It has made an incredible difference not only in the frequency of my headaches (a lot less often), but the severity of them. If I get what I feel is going to be a doozy, I can take my heavy duty migrane med (Maxalt), and at the very least function -- if not get rid of it altogether. At other times when I have nagging pain that I know is not going to escalate, I can take Fiorinal. It can sometimes throw me a punch in that I feel a little loopy or on the other end jittery, so if I know I have to be driving anywhere, I will take Advil migrane instead. It is often, but not always effective too.

I make it sound like I'm a real med taker, but I spent so many years putting off taking any medicine as long as possible that I often caused more grief than I needed to. I would rather live with regualarly taking something that works for me than live with the debilitating fear that I am going to be feeling rotten on a vacation, for a family get-together, when my children most need my full attention, etc. It has been a wonderful feeling to know that we can go somewhere now and the first thing that I don't have to think of is where the nearest emergency room is provided I couldn't somehow manage to ride out seventy hours of pain instead. I've done that before and it is not pretty!

So I raise my glass of delicious unsweetened fruit juice, to being hospital room, writhing in pain free, for one year! Lord willing, I will be able to toast a two year anniversary a year from now!

3 comments:

  1. Oh Deborah, Congrats! I get migraines and actually have had one going on my 3rd day, it is finally easing up this afternoon. It is terrible with the meds too, because I never know how I will react to them. I know mine was set off by stress and allergies.

    Thank you for visiting my blog and your nice comments :)It was great to meet you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Deborah~
    I'm sorry to hear you have migraines! I have had some but my mother used to have really debilitating ones that lasted for days. She would have to stay in bed, in the dark, with no sound for at least three days! She had been to many drs. but no help. So glad you have found some comfort for these nasty headaches! I have figured out my triggers so have pretty much avoided all but a few the last couple of years.
    Thanks for dropping by my blog and for commenting ~ it is always so fun meeting new friends.
    Blessings to you today!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank God for modern medicine!

    Hallelujah!

    And may you have another good year :0)

    Julie

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I love to hear from my readers!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...