Late Sunday night I was felled by yet another migraine. I’ve spent most of the time since on the sofa in a quivering lump of misery.
I’m not sure what’s the worst part: the pain, the nausea, the inability to handle even the tiniest amount of light, or the way every noise above a whisper seems like it’s ripping my head apart.
Last night, I reached the point where I was weighing the effectiveness of amputation as a cure when I decided to try taking a different kind of pill. No, I didn’t ask my doctor about Maxalt, but I did find the remnants of a prescription for codeine that delivered near-instantaneous relief.
Of course, I still felt like a quivering lump after taking it, but at least it got rid of the pain.
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007, 11:17 am | 
My Venomous Life | 
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October 16, 2007 at 7:01 pm
yep, codeine helps me too. In fact my doctor prescribes me a little bit of Vicodin just for those headaches, that I can’t get over with on the migraine pill. He did this when I came in 3/4 of the way through the migraine 4 days after it started. Hubby had to drive me to the doctor office as I cradled the bucket in my lap and wore sunglasses and kept my eyes closed holding my head the pain was so bad I hoped they would just amputate it when I got there. I was in my early 30′s at the time well 10 plus years later I still have the migraines but I seem to be able to judge when I need the extra kick from the codeine.
Also I am an allergy sufferer and some of the sinus headaches are just as excruciating as the migraines. Trying to judge whether it is migraine or sinus can sometimes be tricky if, the migraine med doesn’t work it is sinus. Unfortunately sometimes I have been into the migraine too long before i figured it out thinking it was a sinus headache, the codeine helps take away some of the pain in this instance and all i can do is kick myself in the hiney for not seeing the difference right away. “I am hard on myself”. But the worst is not being able to do anything and having your children see you in such pain. The look of worry on Expat Daughters face and I see the same on Son’s face now that he is older when I get these headaches is the worst. It makes me want to cry.
On top of that Expat Son suffers from really bad sinus headaches due to his allergies. He vomits from the mucous and needs to just sleep.. It hits him just as hard as any of my headaches and that just bites. It kills me to see a child hit so young with pain like that from a sinus headache. I am sympathetic as I know the real extent of that pain.
My headaches started when I was in my teens both the migraines and the sinus related ones. Some of them are also brought on by weather change as well. Sounds funny I know, but I can actually predict the weather with my headaches here in China.
October 16, 2007 at 8:02 pm
…I cradled the bucket in my lap and wore sunglasses and kept my eyes closed holding my head…
That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for 2 days now, Tai-Tai. Like you, I have a hard time differentiating when they’re sinus headaches and when they’re migraines, and I kind of think this last time the latter triggered the former. Autumn just arrived here with a frigid “bang” last week, and I’ve had more days of head pain since than not.
The codeine worked wonders, but as soon as it wore off the pain was back. I hate the thought of staying doped up, so I’m putting off the next dose until bedtime. But I have a feeling bedtime’s coming early tonight… even without the help of Mr. Riesling.
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October 16, 2007 at 2:02 pm