Praise the Lord for Prozac....

I have had such a great streak since I started my 10 days (this time 12) of Prozac before my cycle on Dec. 12th. I had my typical migraine the night before my period started (23rd) but I also had a head cold and my period was late so I didn't realize what was going on. Instead of giving myself a shot like I should of I took a frova and it did nothing. So a few hours later I took another frova and it didn't help much either. I was able to go to sleep that night with the headache but woke up in the middle of the night with it. I considered taking percocet, but since it's not technically on my list I tried something else first. I took some bendaryl and an ativan, got an ice pack and went back to sleep. I woke up without the headache and eventually started my cycle on the 24th. *typical explanation for a drug resistant headache!

The 24th and 25th were fine and then the morning of the 26th I woke up with another one. It wasn't very strong at all but since I know what to do with my period headaches I went ahead and gave myself a shot. I tried to angle the needle in this time and my leg didn't hurt at all this time (except from the initial shot) so that was great. Of course I took the compazine 20 min. before and it really helped quite quickly. I was able to have a normal day. However, I did notice that all day I felt very agitated and restless, unable to sit still. Anxious I guess. I don't know if this was from the DHE, period or what but it was pretty annoying and I tried to distract myself as much as possible and went to bed early to avoid feeling that annoying feeling.
In 15 days I only had 4 headaches I had to treat, including 2 menstrual ones, so that is a great improvement. It will be interestng to see how I do now w/out prozac until Jan. 10th. That's 15 days. It's possible that prozac in general could help a lot so I need to pay attention to that. Also, since the 20th I've increased my Trileptal another 100mg. to 300mg. so that could be a factor but I was noticing improvement before that (because of the prozac).

Not so bad this time

Boy, have I been slack here.

Let's see. Monday (the 20th) I had a pretty stiff headache. Gave myself a shot and it still took about 6 hours to feel better.

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty good. Thursday the 23rd, Thanksgiving, I did pretty good until the evening. I was watching a movie on a big screen in a small room and started to feel lightheaded. I took a frovatriptan as the migraine was starting and felt better w/in an hour. Went home and went to bed only to wake up with the headache again. I got an icepack, took an Ativan and went back to sleep. I was then able to wake up without the headache.

Friday was great and Saturday was fine until about 11 am. I started to feel very sleepy and then noticed that my menstrual cycle was starting. Within a few hours I started to get a headache. By the time I decided to give myself a shot of DHE the pain was picking up to a three but never got past that. I think my worst symptom was the tiredness. It was strange, like all the energy was drained out of me. Within a few hours the pain and the tiredness was gone.

This was the first menstrual cycle in a long time that I didn't have really bad, burning type headache pain.

Last Night There Was a Freakin' Baby Kicking Around in my Leg....

Geesh! It was a great day yesterday, but in the evening, around 7:30, my left temple started to hurt. It wasn't but 30 min. and it was ramping up. Since it's still technically a menstrual migraine I decided to do the DHE injection and not let it get very far out of control...to the point where it wouldn't subside w/out a lot of drugs!

Like last time, first I took the compazine and waited 20 min. I got the syringe ready before my thinking diminished anymore and i wouldn't screw it up like last Thursday.

This time I put it in my right thigh and made sure I was extremely relaxed in that muscle, hoping that my leg wouldn't hurt so bad and for so long like it did on Monday.

It didn't hurt when the medicine was going in, but as soon as I pulled the syringe out my leg started to hurt. Man, that's the weirdest thing. Last night I could have used a pair of crutches, it would have been easier to get around.

I layed down and iced the site and pretty soon the muscle started twitching. Then, it started twitching all up and down the top part of my thigh. It felt like there was a baby inside kicking around in my leg.

I was a little nervous about it because I have started the beta blocker and all, and I can't see what's going on in there. I took 2 aleve to help with the migraine, the pain in my leg, and was hoping that it would help the jumpiness in my muscle. But, just to make sure, we called the Advice Nurse and she said it would be gone by the morning and that I had probably nicked or gotten closer to nicking a nerve. That made sense to me so I didn't worry about it. Within 2 -2 1/2 hours after the injection my migraine pain was gone, and within another hour my leg stopped hurting so I could walk on it. Also, this time I had no pain in my back and chest which had concerned me on Monday. So, all in all, pretty successful.

I did, however, wake up @ 2 a.m. and was still up @ 3. And, I felt wide awake, like it was morning or something. I decided that with just getting over the migraine that losing sleep would probably not help things any. I took 1 Ativan (anti-anxiety) to see if it would help me sleep and probably within a 1/2 hr. I was back in dreamy land.

My concern now, is that my menstrual cycle doesn't seem to be over yet. My DHE perscription says that the injections are for 2-3 x a month. I'm not counting the first one I did since I am positive I didn't have any medicine in it. So that makes 2x so far. But, since I just went off the Levlen (oral b.c. pill for menstrual migraine) it could take a while to get back on my regular cycle. All I'm supposed to be treating myself w/ is Aleve w/ either DHE or Frovatriptan, and those are to be used 2x week. I'm not worried about the 2x week so much right now because he said there'd be bad weeks and with the menstrual action going on, I'm definitely in that week. It's just that if the bleeding continues and I have to do one more injection in the next couple of days, I will pretty much be out of options of how I can help myself here and stay w/in my doctor's orders.

I would just e-mail him about this but he won't be back in the office for 5 more days. I will definitely need to contact him then. I could leave a message with one of his partners, but when I did that last week I never got a call back.

I don't want to annoy the people who are trying to help me (i.e. shoot my help in the foot) but at the same time I need to stay within the parameters that the PA gave me. I have a lot of questions because I have more than 2x a week, so what am I supposed to do on the other days I get one? If it's just pressure @ a 3-4 I can pretty much get by w/ staying home, using ice and heat, not doing any housework and using tiger balm and/or salonpas, peppermint oil. But, if it's the menstrual type, the ones that start up fast and feel more burning, then I can't not treat these. I know he knows that too and doesn't want to leave me hanging, I just didn't take the time to get clarification on how to attack these.

I think he was thinking that I would get IV magnesium sulfate in these in between circumstances. But, we didn't know that 1: I would have to go 40 min. to over an hour away 2. each time I get a treatment the doctor has to call it in and o.k. it first 3. the first time I tried it it didn't help.

I think I can make it until monday though. I really hope. Including today, it's just 5 days away. I cannot predict what will happen in 5 days but I'm sure even though it could be difficult that I can make it until then.

Thank God I'm feeling better today though. Shelley picked me up this morning in her new Honda Element and I went to Starbucks w/ my other friend Susan and their friend Cindy. It's a small thing, but was so nice to have a little girl time. When I got home I started a fire in my woodstove so it's nice and toasty down there. I got 2 new books yesterday that the PA wanted me to read, so think I will take my TAZO Green Tea down there, curl up and start reading "50 Ways to Control Migraines" by Ceabert J. Griffith, N.D., P.A.-C.

success in a syringe

The other day I described the body scan I do, or head scan, as soon as i become concious in the morning. This morning I was "50 % gone." Because I know that during this "hell week" or week of menstrual migraines that I will virtually have a really bad one every day, I decided to try to knock it out A.S.A.P.

Thursday evening when I gave myself the shot it went from bad to worse, so I was a little nervous. I had a fitting for a mouth guard @ 12:40 that I didn't want to cancel, but I had to take the chance and shoot up the DHE. I was confident that if the pain got bad that I could take the anti-anxiety medicine to help cope with the pain, and have someone take me to the doctor for an I.V. if I needed it. My hubs was sick with the flu today but I have a lot of friends who've offered to drive me when I'm unable.

First I took the compazine (anti-nausea med) because DHE can tend to make you nauseous. I waited 20 min. and prepared my syringe. When I was doing it I began to wonder if I even got the medicine in on Thursday afternoon.

Finally I psyched myself up and stuck the hurking 3 in. long needle into my thigh and slowly pushed the medicine in. I'm quite a good shot taker since as a child I spent seven years getting weekly allergy injections. It's just a little different shooting up yourself!

I know to keep your muscles relaxed or you can have a lot of muscle pain @ the site, and I am really good @ doing that even though I'm nervous. I probably gave myself about a 100 imitrex injections before. But as the medicine went in it really hurt and I had to just keep pushing it in. Fortunately it's only 1 ml. of medicine.

Almost immediately my thigh hurt so bad. I probably limped around for an hour. This helped me determine that I absolutely did not give myself a proper injection Thursday. It didn't hurt at all.

It's really no surprise I had difficulty Thursday as my pain was so high. Even when my pain is half that my thinking starts to really get impaired and slowed down. It takes me a long time to concentrate and think about something. This was what it was like when I was getting the syringe ready that day, but not today.

Also, about an hour after the shot my back by my shoulder blades was having a lot of pressure. Almost like someone was sitting on me. Then it would radiate to the front. I read the information that came with the medicine and it said if you have these symptoms to notify the doctor, advice nurse or pharmacist. I e-mailed my doctor but never heard anything back.

My side effects from the shot, except for that, were minimal. I mean, I'm not trying to downplay those symptoms, because they were distressing. If this is what it will always be like when I take the DHE it won't be like I can feel better and resume regular activity in an hour. It took about an hour for my head to feel good and then about 3 hours for the rest of my body to feel good. I took 2 Aleve which helped my back and chest immensely.

I was able to make my dental appointment and go for a short walk. Again, I didn't want to overdo it as I'm really gearing up for tomorrow. Especially with my husband sick now it is very important to me that I feel good to run the kids around tomorrow night. They will accept going along with someone else, but I know that my daughter especially will be disappointed if I am not able to go, and especially if my husband isn't able to go either.

Only time will tell though...

the calm before the storm...

Today started off as a great day. I went to a counseling appt. that was quite helpful, and then made dinner for my neighbors: baked chicken, spanish rice, homemade creamed corn and coffee cake. I felt great and was able to make time for a walk around the lake before going to the nurse treatment station to learn how to give myself a DHE injection.

While I was walking around the lake I was thinking about the fear I have about the frequency of my headaches and the pain level. I was thinking about the scripture in the Bible that says that the faith of a mustard seed can move mountains. I thought it funny that some Christians, including myself sometimes, criticize ourselves and others for not having lots of faith, for not having the faith of a mountain.

But then some quiet voice inside me said that's the exact opposite of what we are supposed to have. The Bible says it takes the faith of a mustard seed, a tiny little seed. I thought to myself how I feel like my faith has been stripped to an absolute bare minimum, to where there's just a tiny bit left. Sort of like being stripped back to the basics. Yet I know that I have just a tiny bit of faith, a mustard seed. A feeling of satisfaction came over me as I realized that that's all I needed. I felt joy and hope and breathed in the fresh air and soaked up the beautiful colors as golden leaves were blowing out of the sky all around me like rain.

When I was about 3/4 of the way done I felt the first tiny bits of pressure in my right temple. I rubbed some tiger balm on it and continued on. I was a bit sad that another was returning so soon and interrupting my terrific afternoon. As I reached the last intersection before the end of my walk I thought of my Grandmother who passed away a year ago. I thought about how much she cared/cares for me and how sad she would be to see how much I am struggling and I could feel her love for me and compassion for my circumstance.

By the time I reached the doctor's office my pain was increasing steadily to about a 3-4. I was definitely uncomfortable and not able to ignore it. I learned how to give myself the shot and should have taken one right then, but I was hoping to get home and at least get my daughter off to her soccer game and had no idea how quickly the pain was going to progress.

I got home w/in an hour of my appointment and my pain had skyrocketed to an 8. I could only talk in a whisper and it was a burning pain, the kind associated with my menstrual cycle, so I knew that this was the time I needed a DHE shot.

I struggled to concentrate as I prepared the shot as my thinking was so slow. I thought I had done everything right and injected the shot after psyching myself up. Within a 1/2 hour my pain was not improving and I began getting extremely nauseous and vomiting. With this happening, my pain reached a 10 and I laid on the bathroom floor near the toilet wriggling on the floor trying to get some relief.

My husband left our daughter's soccer game and found me on the bathroom floor. He hurried to get our boys ready who were starting to get rambunctious (which makes me want to scream obscenities when I am just wanting to curl up and die!) and we took them to my parent's house. Then he took me to Urgent Care where they gave me an I.V. so I could get benadryl, reglan and another DHE shot. After this series my pain did not improve and I was feeling anxious and like I was going to crawl out of my skin. It was horrible. They gave me a shot of Torredol, put me in a wheelchair and sent me home. This is the quick version. The long version would include an incredibly compassionate nurse who has now I.V.'d me at least three times and is recognizing me as soon as she sees me. I like her but not enough to see her again under circumstances like that!

By the time I get home and settle in for an hour my pain diminishes to a 2 and I top myself off w/ 2 aleve to hopefully get the inflammation down in my brain. I would sleep very soundly....