Kelli's Migraine Daily

Wall Street Journal article - focusing on brain chemical CGRP

My Mom was nice enough to clip this article from the Wall Street Journal for me and pass it on.  Interesting stuff...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444320704577567352444742524.html

Hopefully the research will continue.

Kelli  :)

Hamster Migraine? Plus, update after a long, hot summer.

I had to laugh when I saw this photo... I can't even remember where I saw it, but it so cutely illustrates how I feel when my head hurts.  Poor hamster.

For the most part, all has been well... but it's been a long, hot summer here in the midwest.  I spent a LOT of time inside, and the few times I really tried to push myself and be out in the heat for any extended time, I paid for it. 

I played a round of golf in 95 plus degree horrible humidity and was sick for a couple days after.  I just wanted to push and see if I could do it... or if my coping skills during and after had gotten better. 

I feel like I did pretty well being out in it for maybe the first 2.5 hours are so, but then it got bad.  The tightness and nausea started in and then I started getting dizzy.  I quit playing on about hole 12, but still stayed with my group and just rode along for the rest, trying to keep myself in the shade.  I made it through, but it was really the aftereffect that did me in.  I made it home from the course without throwing up, but then heaved my guts out (sorry TMI).  My poor 13-year old nephew was with me golfing and at the house... he's used to my migraines but said it freaked him out a little to see me get that sick. I had to sit still up in my cool, dark bedroom for about a half and hour before I felt steady enough to get in the shower. The shower felt good by that point and I started to feel a little more in control of myself.  It took another hour or so before my stomach was settled enough to get some medicine down.  I was able to get it down and get my ice packs on and then be a bit more composed.  My nephew is awesome and he just played his Xbox for a bit while I rested and then my Dad came and got him to stay out at their house with his sister for the night... so I had overnight to recouperate.  It really took me all of the following day and evening to get back to feeling somewhat normal.  Some of that was just consequences of the heat, and I think even non-migraineurs feel that (my Dad said he wasn't quite right for a while after that round... it was just brutally hot). We all drank a ton of water and made sure we were safe, etc... but it was just rough.

I'm still glad I pushed myself and just tried to see if I could do it... and what the consequences would be.  Result: no voluntary above 90 degree outings for me again.  That was the worst migraine I've had in years and it was scary. It's like getting a horrible flu and you feel like you have no control of yourself.  I had the uncontrollable vomiting and felt like I might pass out.  I feel like after 25 years of these migraines, I have a super high tolerance for the pain and symptoms... and am definitely not one to exaggerate them.  So, for me, I will continue to be really careful, and will limit my exposure to stuff that has the potential to cause this suffering.  Do I get bummed because it limits what I can do... absolutely.  But, there's a ton I can do, and I will choose to focus on that good stuff.  :)

Hope you all are well.

No more migraines,
Kelli  :)