[migraine] further reading
Dec. 1st, 2021 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettTwo things in particular.
Item the first: I have been grousing... a lot... about Thinking, Fast and Slow, as you might have noticed. I will say for it, though, that it got me -- via checking its primary sources -- to look up what exactly the parietal lobe of the brain is implicated in, given that my migraine pain (and indeed my non-migraine headache) is mostly locked to my right parietal lobe. It turns out (Wikipedia) to have quite a lot to do with... visuospatial processing (both the "where" stream (as in spatial vision) and the "how" stream (as in vision for action)) aaaaaaand damage can result in dysphasia or aphasia. That is, at least some of my more distressing symptoms can in fact be explained by A Neurological Event in the bit of my brain that Hurts. Which is cool!
Item the second: I have been experiencing minor urinary urge incontinence since -- I think -- late September. I have (had?) a whole bunch of avoidant-upset-shame about this, but finally tipped over into Talking About It At All yesterday evening, which let me then go away and read the NHS pages. In terms of causes of urge incontinence, I can pretty comfortably rule out caffeine and alcohol consumption and, I think, not drinking enough water -- but "chronic constipation" (even while being treated for it!) is one possible cause, "neurological damage" is another (potentially related to endometriosis), and... comorbidity with chronic migraine is Very Much a thing that has been recently, concretely identified (Baser et al. 2020).
September, probably not coincidentally, is the point at which I pretty unambiguously tipped over into "chronic migraine".
I'd not been mentioning this to my GP because (1) shame (2) relatively limited impact on my life and (3) wanting to Deal With The Migraines First.
I will be mentioning it the next time I get in touch with them.
(Bonus item the third: given my feet, I've been switched to candesartan, another treatment for hypertension that is used off-label for migraine. I'm starting at 2mg and increasing to 4mg next week, and -- sigh -- slowly titrating up to 16mg if I actually tolerate it without side effects this time. I'm not... massively convinced this is going to work either, but hey, I'll give it a go.)
Item the first: I have been grousing... a lot... about Thinking, Fast and Slow, as you might have noticed. I will say for it, though, that it got me -- via checking its primary sources -- to look up what exactly the parietal lobe of the brain is implicated in, given that my migraine pain (and indeed my non-migraine headache) is mostly locked to my right parietal lobe. It turns out (Wikipedia) to have quite a lot to do with... visuospatial processing (both the "where" stream (as in spatial vision) and the "how" stream (as in vision for action)) aaaaaaand damage can result in dysphasia or aphasia. That is, at least some of my more distressing symptoms can in fact be explained by A Neurological Event in the bit of my brain that Hurts. Which is cool!
Item the second: I have been experiencing minor urinary urge incontinence since -- I think -- late September. I have (had?) a whole bunch of avoidant-upset-shame about this, but finally tipped over into Talking About It At All yesterday evening, which let me then go away and read the NHS pages. In terms of causes of urge incontinence, I can pretty comfortably rule out caffeine and alcohol consumption and, I think, not drinking enough water -- but "chronic constipation" (even while being treated for it!) is one possible cause, "neurological damage" is another (potentially related to endometriosis), and... comorbidity with chronic migraine is Very Much a thing that has been recently, concretely identified (Baser et al. 2020).
September, probably not coincidentally, is the point at which I pretty unambiguously tipped over into "chronic migraine".
I'd not been mentioning this to my GP because (1) shame (2) relatively limited impact on my life and (3) wanting to Deal With The Migraines First.
I will be mentioning it the next time I get in touch with them.
(Bonus item the third: given my feet, I've been switched to candesartan, another treatment for hypertension that is used off-label for migraine. I'm starting at 2mg and increasing to 4mg next week, and -- sigh -- slowly titrating up to 16mg if I actually tolerate it without side effects this time. I'm not... massively convinced this is going to work either, but hey, I'll give it a go.)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-12-01 11:33 pm (UTC)*hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2021-12-02 12:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-12-02 12:29 am (UTC)I got put on a hypertension med off-label for migraine back in, um. 2000? It flipped my migraines from having pain and all the other stuff to just being aura and neurological glitchiness. Annoying and limiting, but I can often function reaasonably well so long as my life can avoid bright lights and certain noises (and driving, so it's a "go home and do stuff there" situation as soon as I feel one hit). Which is to say, still not fantastic, but much much better than also having pain and basically needing to be in a dark room and unable to do anything at all for a day.
(The thing I found fascinating about it was my doc at the time - standard primary care doc, not a specialist - said it was a "try it for a month and go off it". Either it works for people and something about it allows your brain to adjust somehow, or it doesn't work for you, in which case it's not going to.)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-12-02 10:12 am (UTC)