Fast forward almost fourteen years and the headaches seem to be getting more persistent and the bad ones worse. Just for clarification I classify my headaches as: will go away shortly, I might need to take something for that one, and bad. The first two I can work through – pretty much live normally. The bad ones, well, they tend to knock me down for the day: quiet room, curled up in bed or on the couch, sometimes it needs to be a dark room, and sometimes it is for more than a day.
After much prompting by my family, I complained about my headaches to the doctor. The doctor, after listening suggested not taking any non-aspirin or Excedrin or anything for the headaches for a week just to see if the headaches I was experiencing were rebound headaches (caused by an over use of the over the counter medicines). So I stopped taking the non-aspirin and the Excedrin for three weeks (I figured three weeks would be a better indicator than one week – and I liked the challenge). The first week, pretty much a headache every day. The second week, fewer headaches, the third was pretty good, very few headaches – till the end when I got a bad one that went on for almost two days.
Another year goes by. The headaches come and go and the bad ones seem to start hitting more often, though thankfully only on the weekends, so at least I’m not missing work. After more prompting by my family, I complain yet again to the doctor about the headaches…this time they schedule me to see a doctor at a Headache Clinic – a Headache Clinic that can’t fit me in for almost three months since they are so busy.
My appointment finally rolls around. I’ve gotten myself worked up as, yeah the bad ones are getting worse, but the daily ones, I’m used to those. So what if a headache every day isn’t normal for most people? For me, it’s just the way it is. The bad ones though – does that mean I have a tumor? Some nasty cancer? A misfiring in the brain?
I meet with the doctor and he listens to my headache history and asks lots of questions. He runs me through a series of test: close your eyes – what does this smell like? What does this feel like? Touch your finger to your nose with your eyes closed. Walk down the hall away from me, now towards me. Stand on one foot. He tested my reflexes – checked for tension in my neck and jaw. And a few other tests, including an eye sight check.
At the end of all the tests he sat me down and told me that I have Episodic Migraines. I have the one kind that doesn’t require further testing (whew!). He also said that Episodic Migraines are hereditary and that someone else in my family gets quite a few headaches, and that every headache I get, is a migraine – no matter the strength level. He told me no more putting poisons into my body; poison is what he calls the non-aspirin and Excedrin I’ve been taking to get rid of the headaches. He also tells me that he’s giving me homework: a calendar for the next couple of months to record the days I get a headache, the strength of the headache (Mild, Moderate, and Severe) and if I take any of the prescription drugs he’s giving me for the headache. He also gives me the title of a book to read and tells me that I will see a lot of myself in the book.
I haven’t finished the book: Conquering Headache Fifth Edition by Drs Alan Rapoport, Fred Sheftell, and Stewart Tepper yet, but what I have read I have found very interesting. Chapter 3 Types of Headache was very informative and I am quite happy that I do not have cluster headaches! (My doctor stressed that the book should be at least fifth edition, if not sixth. I had a hard time finding either, but finally found a fifth that wasn’t so highly ridiculously priced.)
One thing that I do not like though, is the recording of my headaches on the calendar. It is a bit disturbing to see all those days filled in with an M for Mild or Moderate. Thankfully there are only two S’s for Severe, but still, all those M’s… I liked much better my delusion that a headache every day – or almost – was an exaggeration, not a reality.
I am sure that the doctor, when I see him at the end of the month, is going to wonder at why so many of those M days do not have any medications listed under them. But that is the other thing I don’t like, I much prefer the belief that over the counter meds are “healthier” for me than the prescription medicines. I mean, they are prescription medicines! That right there sounds worse than wandering the aisle and picking non-aspirin off the shelf…and I have been having a hard time getting myself to take the prescription medicines as often as I probably should. It just seems to scream dependency to me, even though I probably would have taken non-aspirin or Excedrin for a lot of these headaches, which is a dependency too, but for an odd reason doesn’t seem as bad to me.
I am sure that over time, the dependency on these new prescription meds will become second hand and may in the end relieve me of all those dreaded M’s on the calendar…
