there were days i just wanted to throw my head away and find a new one...

i said last week that i'd talk about migraines this week, so here we go

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{probably if you've never had a migraine, this will bore you to death}

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i started getting migraines back when i was a teenager, although i think then, we just thought they were really bad headaches, even though my dad was a migraine sufferer.

into my twenties they kept coming and by my thirties i knew that my hormones played a huge part of how i was feeling. right before and right after my monthly period, WHAM. they would hit with such force that often i was incapacitated.

by forty, i was really keeping track of what was causing the god awful pain and realized there were multiple triggers. 

chocolate, the smell of cologne/perfume, nitrates and hormones {still} 

and

many other things i had to go back and think about

 as i laid in a fetal position, moaning.

"maybe it was the aged cheese" "maybe it was eating too late" "maybe it was just stress"

"maybe it was the bright sun" "maybe it was the change in weather"

i tried many prescription migraine pain relievers and eventually built up a tolerance to the one i lived with the most, midrin. after a few months of acupuncture, the migraines were still there, but my medication in decreased doses, was working again.

then they started again. stronger and more frequently.

i had turned 46 and read that my hormones being all over the place due to peri menopause, was without question, the number one cause of my now, twice a week, migraines.

i was desperate. 

fortunately for me the day i went to see my doctor, she was out, but her nurse practitioner saw me and realized how desperate i truly was. this is not to say that my doctor wouldn't of also seen my desperation, but sometimes i think things happen for a reason.

she said that she truly believed i needed to be put on a preventative and how they can be a tricky thing to prescribe and not everything works for everyone, but that she was going to do her best.

to the rescue.

a drug by the name of amitriptyline. typically used for depression she told me, but in low doses was found to prevent migraines. i said GIVE IT TO ME. she warned me it might not work and that the playing game would begin to find something else that would, but that we'd cross our fingers that this would be my miracle.

and it was.

for five months now, i've been taking 25mg of amitriptyline right before bed every night and have had four migraines during that time, that were bad, but i had the strength to deal with them.

one of the side effects of this medication is that it can make you sleepy. 

to me that's not a side effect, that's a win win situation.

it also causes dry mouth, which i have really noticed. but when you're a migraine sufferer, a side effect like dry mouth, is easy to live with.

to this day, i still have triggers though and perfumes and anything with a florally scent are the number one things that about kill me. 

i have to use unscented laundry detergent. i can't wear perfume unless it's a natural oil based one from aveda and even then i rarely do. my hubby can't wear cologne. 

well he could, but i'd never get close to him and that would suck.

i can't sit near someone who has perfume or cologne on in a plane, or a movie theater or in my car. 

some hand soaps are too strong for me. air fresheners, forget about it.

so for any of you who suffer from migraines, i know your pain. 

and for those of you living with someone who is a migraine sufferer, their pain is real.

don't ever doubt how miserable they feel at any given time.

now with my story out there, i pray that if you are a sufferer and still looking for a cure,

that you can at least try "my drug" and see what happens.

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