Migraines

December 2, 2007
I will start out this one with the phone call. I am a phone caller. I will call anyone for any reason if I want information. I am an 800 number junkie. My husband calls me Talks Much Woman.

I saw an ad for a migraine medicine and one side effect is death. With what I had learned about migraines, I called the 800 number for the migraine support group. I said didn't you know that a lot of migraines can be cured just by drinking enough water and a lot can be seriously reduced in intensity by drinking enough water? The woman on the line told me that yes, they knew that, but that they didn't mention it because they had discovered that most people would rather pop a pill that might kill them than drink a lot of water!

I had my first migraine at 12. I was walking into the kitchen and I got major black spots, could not breathe, and woke up on the floor after hitting my head on the table leg. I did discover Excedrin, which does help, and only ever blacked out a few more times.

It was complicated by the fact that I got migraines, sinus headaches, tension headaches and perfume headaches. I learned to tell which one was which and by the time I was 20 I no longer got the tension ones as I learned to relax the muscles that caused them. The sinus ones I dealt with with sinus medication and the migraines with Excedrin and cold wash clothes. At one point I discovered if you can make yourself throw up, it will get rid of the worst of a migraine.

Migraines are like a stabbing on one side of the head and I can't breathe and light hurts so bad all I could do is crawl into bed and cry. Sinus headaches are pressure on the forehead and throbbing. Perfume headaches are like sinus ones, but the sense of smell kicks in and everything stinks so bad I want to throw up!

I learned triggers and avoided them. Thank goodness I am not a chocoholic! Then I found out about water about 15 years ago now. My migraines plummeted. If I forgot to drink enough, I knew the next day! I could even eat some trigger foods as long as I drank enough water.

The sinus headaches continued until 6 months ago when I found out they were not sinus at all. Food allergy to corn. I can now 100% be sure I ate something with corn when I get that sinus headache.

The perfume headaches can still get me when I client wears perfume, hairspray, and other nasty chemicals. I don't go into stores that use incense etc. Plain aspirin will cut the pain if it is totally unavoidable. But these have improved now that I am eating an organic diet with no corn. The system has no chemical, so the outside chemical reaction is less.

I did write a poem about migraines and water.

A gallon a day will keep the migraine away,
But you had better not be far from a bathroom!