[healthwork] further adventures in migraine

[kaberett]

• ... okay, well, that's not not a hormonal-cycle-related pattern starting to emerge :| (still not tracking anything else particularly carefully, but no link with alcohol consumption so far...)
  
• prodrome symptom: thermoregulation, particularly if I am feeling too warm
  
• prodrome symptom: "cognitive impairment + photosensitivity" is in fact distinguishable from "abruptly so tired I can't keep my eyes open" (and can be trivially checked by going into a darker room)
  
• setting everything up to be light-on-dark makes screens much more tolerable, so I should add "setting up my laptop so it's a single settings switch that's easily accessible" to my todo list
  
• zolmitriptan 2.5mg experiment #1: took drug at ~1624 after dithering for actually only about 5 minutes, go me; still developed partial Bad Headache while passing out circa 1700; upright again and tolerating medium light levels without sunglasses by 1945, where I think previously it has taken several hours more than that to get back to that stage
  
• earplugs were a good idea; eyemask now lives out on my side of the bed so it's easier to access; and I should go "fuckit" about Efficiency and Reuse and just buy an Expensive blackout blind for the bedroom that Just Works if I'm gonna keep doing this.

Comments

[kaberett]

Also! Having poked around the internet a bit more! I am increasingly convinced that the reason medics get The Look when I describe my second aura (total loss of field of vision, total loss of sense of direction including "which way is up", wound up clinging desperately to a wall because everything Bad and Vertigo as well as just... no sense of up) is... migraine with brainstem aura, an "unusual and rare subtype". So! On the one hand that's fun, and on the other it doesn't seem to be happening at the moment and that is, actually, Good.

on poking around on the internet healthwise

[rugessnome]

(I ...followed this link out of curiosity and was a little confused not to find my occasional ~sinus headaches listed among other headaches elsewhere on the sight and ...lo and behold, a quick search yields articles claiming that approx 90% of people with "sinus headaches" have migraine?? o.O And apparently actual sinus headaches present with like... Infection symptoms.

*surprised Pikachu*

it seems I may be occasionally getting migraines and Very Much did not realize that was a possible explanation)

Re: on poking around on the internet healthwise

[kaberett]

... oh DEAR. Welcome to the club? <3

[davidgillon]

Migraine with added vertigo is distinctly unfair!

[ewt]

IKEA have relatively cheap 100% recycled material blackout curtains, we have some, they work quite well. Can be cut to the right length. Could be tacked up on curtain wire for a maximum simplicity fitting (ours have a bamboo garden pole stuck through the top, and that hung from hooks, because that's what we have that's inside our existing curtain fitting and I didn't have any actual curtain wire handy.)

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/bengta-block-out-curtain-1-length-blue-50454456/

[kaberett]

Hmm! I am really after a blind, for reasons, but I will bear this in mind! (Last time I checked none of the IKEA blinds were long enough, alas.)

[ewt]

How long do you need?

FRIDANS roller blind (https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/fridans-block-out-roller-blind-blue-40396886/ , £15 each) is 195cm long, and SCHOTTIS pleated blind (https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/schottis-block-out-pleated-blind-dark-grey-90369507/ , £5 each) is 190cm long. Both claim to be block-out blinds and both are made from recycled materials.

[kaberett]

(ordered; thank you!)

[davidgillon]

Ugh!

Pissed off honeybadger seems to be entirely the appropriate icon for having to analyse a pattern of migraines.

Fingers (+other bendy appendages) crossed for zolmitriptan experiment yielding solid results.

[niqaeli]

So, I don't know if your photosensitivity is merely triggered by migraine or if it contributes to being prone to them, but if so I offer as a data point that you obviously can ignore entirely as irrelevant to you:

In addition to having everything light-text-on-dark-background always on my devices, I also have f.lux or the device's native orange-light settings cranked up pretty high at all times even during the day (I have it less cranked up during the day on the computers running f.lux (as opposed to the personal devices that are running iOS) where I have pretty fine control over the settings, but my 'less cranked up' during the day is more orange than the default settings for night sooo yeah) unless I am doing fiddly colour work of some kind. Because for me, my more general photosensitivity is actually my single biggest migraine trigger and it's cumulative, so it turns out minimising the blue light I am exposed to massively reduces the frequency of migraines. It was fun working that one out when mostly! I don't notice anything about being photosensitive! Except that I have Really Good night vision! Riiiight up until the migraine hits! *facepalm*

[syderia]

That triptan changed my life. (That, and starting coffee again, because it's very much a prophylactic for me).

It might be of interest to you: I have a migraine tracking app on my phone called Migraine Buddy, which is pretty customizable (it has the common meds and symptoms, but you can add your own) and once you've tracked enough crisis it starts trying to find similarities and gives you report of your crises.

[momijizukamori]

Ooh, ty for that tip, I'm going to check that out - so far for me the only relatively common thing is upper back/shoulder/neck muscle overuse, but it'd be good to have a record still.

[momijizukamori]

fwiw for me, sumatriptan usually took ~1 hr to really kick in, naratriptan more like 1.5h - 2h (naratriptan has a longer biological half-life - switched to it because my headaches last a day or two untreated and the sumatriptan would wear off after about eight hours). So there's some flexibility there with how long it takes to kick in/wear off depending on the exact triptan. They're also synergistic with NSAIDs.

(unfortunately my main prodrome symptom is like.... pain behind my left shoulder blade, which is also just sometimes my upper back/shoulder being shitty and it's always roulette figuring out which it's gonna be)

[macey]

I had my first ever experience of 'hmm I am losing vision in patches' 'hmm I cannot read sentences, for cognitive as well as vision reasons' 'OH OKAY RIGHT' --> naratriptan on Sunday evening, with an end result of 'a couple hours pressure-pain, photosensitivity, Unstable, and Unable to Word Brain' but not, as the last couple times, 'multi-day Oh God Pain plus several more days to be able to read plus several weeks to regain some chunks of language fluency'.

I am so glad to have gotten this pill out of the Good Neurologist, and also glad to have managed to teach Confused Brain that this is not a Hoarding Resource, this is a Take If Uncertain resource, no one is going to give you Stoic Points for Not Taking Your Migraine Pill, Macey.

hip-hip for taking the pills as one should, down with migrainely objects!

And now you've helped teach me

[jesse_the_k]

this is not a Hoarding Resource, this is a Take If Uncertain resource, no one is going to give you Stoic Points for Not Taking Your Migraine Pill

Because feeling like "my pain doesn't matter" is part of my prodrome

Re: And now you've helped teach me

[macey]

right!! well for me it's more that pain is one of the very last things to land, and by that time whoo boy are we in for a Time.