My History of Headaches

As I was randomly going through Pinterest one day, I came across a pin titled "To The Wife with Migraines." Naturally, I had to click on it to see what the article said.  It's a really great article that I'd suggest to read if you also suffer from migraines.

If you don't know, I also have the unfortunate pleasure of having migraines. I had headaches throughout high school and during my time at Longwood, but February 2012, during my last semester at Longwood, that's when they really started getting bad.

After many, many doctors appointments, referrals and MRI scan since August 2013 (or technically, December 2012), my migraines are almost managed. *for the most part.* Do I still get annoying headaches often? Yes. But not only that....the entire side of my head and face hurt, and my eye throbs. The best part is, the next time I have one, it's on the opposite side...and so on with every other headache.

For several months, I kept a detailed headache journal, including when I took medicine--was it one of the prescriptions? was it just Advil? how many did I take? did it work?-- the Pain Level of the headache, what I ate that day, and sometimes I included any exercise for that day.  Over Christmas break, I really slacked off on this, since I was keeping my headache journal on my work computer, where I was spending most of my time.  Now, I'm back to keeping the headache journal, always including every detail about the above topics.

There are many nights when I fall asleep with a bag of ice across my face.  Or, the other lovely nights, where I have to wake Matt because I can't get up and I desperately need medicine and/or ice.  I'm EXTREMELY thankful for him on those nights, and the nights where he makes wonderful dinners (no different than any other night), but I'm so blah and nauseous that I can barely eat or even smell the food. No beuno.

So, after reading this article, I myself decided to make a list of tips for myself, if you will, for dealing with these stupid headaches:

-Enjoy the time when I DON'T have a headache. Like, reeeeeally enjoy the time. Even for something as simple as making the bed when I wake up.  If I wake up with a headache, I don't make the bed, simply because bending over, tucking the sheets in and what not, and then standing back up sends this huge rush to my head, making me feel dizzy, and all these other random symptoms that I don't want to feel bright and early in the morning.

-Don't think that things won't get better, because they will. Even though I still have these obnoxious headaches, at least we're on the way to really getting a hold of them. I have a preventative medication for them that I take daily, as well as another to take as soon as a headache starts. If that doesn't work, I take another after x amount of hours.

-Don't NOT take medicine. I used to not take medicine and let my headache go away on it's own. Now, I'm much better about taking medicine when a headache starts, or as soon as I'm able to!

-Keep telling myself this: Mallory, you have an ice pack on half of your face. Stop trying to watch the end of that show, text someone, or check Facebook. Just lay there and do nothing...for once! haha

And, because a post would be really dull without a picture, here's a picture I sent my sister one day during one of these fabulous headaches. I've spent many a day/night in bed like this -ice pack on my face and all- waiting for a headache to leave me alone! At this point, I don't even care how ridiculous I look in this picture, because hey, I document everything in my life, I might as well share it all: the good, the bad, and the pathetic looking.