Living with Migraines
For anyone who has ever had a migraine, I feel your pain (literally) as, I too, am unfortunate enough to suffer with them. I had my first one when I was 11 and have had them ever since. There have been times when I would get one or two a month and there have been times when it would be so bad that it would be 3 or 4 a week. When I saw a neurologist years ago (just to check it wasn’t anything more sinister than migraines) he confirmed that I have classic migraine symptoms but, according to him, unless you’re having them every day, they are not classed as severe! Try telling that to a fellow migrainer! (I know that’s not a word, but I think it should be).
Over the years I have tried everything to manage them. I have tried elimination diets, migraine journals, tracking my sleep, my water consumption, how much exercise I am doing, what food I am eating, what the weather is doing (eye roll) etc etc, all in a bid to try and keep the beast at bay. Just when I think I’ve cracked it and have finally figured out what works for me, bam! another one hits and takes me completely by surprise. No rhyme or reason, just a random attack. It’s so disheartening.
My symptoms vary but I tend to get two main types
I lose my vision and along with this I am also lucky enough to lose the feeling in my left arm and hand (just in case being partially sighted isn’t enough ha!). The vision loss/numbness thing lasts for about 30 minutes and then the almighty headache and sickness comes.
I start off with a headache and then this get worse and worse until the nausea and vomiting starts. This can build up over a few hours, so I have a better chance at stopping it.
When I say “I lose my vision”, I’m being a bit dramatic - it’s not complete blindness, but parts are missing. It’s a bit difficult to explain because it starts off with blotches (a bit like if you were to stare at a bright light and then look away, you would have splodges in front of your eyes – well it’s a bit like that) and then they get bigger but you can still make out shapes and parts of objects. Sometimes the blotches are flashing…it’s all very exciting! The first kind is better than the second because at least I know that once the 30 minutes are up I’ll be able to see again, but the headache/sickness is now imminent so it’s a race against the clock to get that under control (the success of which is hit and miss) or admit defeat and go home. It can be quite awkward really to explain to others (particularly at work) “I can’t see but don’t worry I’ll be able to in about half an hour” … weirdo!!! Thankfully, this hasn’t happened at work too often and when it has I’ve been able to just sit still and wait for it to pass. I’m also grateful that it hasn’t happened whilst doing a presentation or in an important meeting (and fingers crossed that day will never come). However, I have had this happen to me whilst I was driving and I had to pull over and wait for it to pass because (obviously!!) it would be incredibly dangerous to drive whilst not being able to see the full picture. Other times I’ve delayed and delayed going home from work because I don’t want to have to get on a tube, which inevitably has made the journey considerably longer and generally quite a painful process!
Over the years there has been lots of trial and error in figuring out what triggers the migraines, or makes them worse, or cures one in its midst. Sleep patterns, stressful situations, flying, sunlight, caffeine, cheese, gluten, chocolate (!!), hydration (too much, too little), exercise (too much, too little), the weather (!), strong smells (I apologise to all the millions of Chanel fans out there, but as far as I am concerned there is one Chanel perfume that to me is a vomit-inducing potion - I just can’t stand it and quite regularly have to move away from people as soon as I catch a whiff of it!) all of these things have had an impact on how often and how badly the migraines show up.
So it’s because of this that I have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how perfect I try to be to do everything right, I am still going to get them and I need to accept this and move on. And that is how being “beautifully balanced not practically perfect” came into being. (not just for migraines, but in all parts of life, but it certainly fits in here). If I am going to struggle, restrict, limit and deprive myself on a daily basis (ie basically be a miserable robot) and yet still after everything I will get a random migraine attack anyway, then wouldn’t it be better to be kinder to myself as a whole to say yes to things that make me happy, knowing that of course I may or may not have a migraine?
And by this I don’t mean “I don’t care so I’m going to gorge on chocolate all day”, because that would certainly be a sure fire way to invite a migraine to appear. What I mean is that I’m not going to completely eliminate something I absolutely love just in case I might get one. No, I’m going to have it when I fancy it and not let it become a big deal. However, I do try to be a little bit sensible about it, for example, if I have chocolate at one meal, I probably won’t have it again for a couple of days (NB Easter and Christmas is a free for all, all bets are off! Ha!).
So that being said, is there anything we can do to at least try to make things better? Well, these are my tried and tested natural remedies that work (I use the word loosely) for me:-
Preventative:-
Salt – If I don’t get enough salt in my day then this can be a big trigger. When I first read about adding in salt I couldn’t understand how this could be beneficial as common table salt is incredibly dehydrating to the body (cue that super thirsty feeling you get when you eat take away pizza…) but sea salt and Himalayan pink salt (they both work in the same way) give your body a boost of electrolytes which it needs in order to absorb all the water that we drink. I start my day every morning with a big glass (almost 1 litre) of warm water with fresh lemon juice and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt. I know it sounds like it would be revolting, but it’s actually quite nice. I also use this concoction again if I feel a migraine coming on, and on some occasions this has stopped it in its tracks. Citrus doesn’t appear to bother me, but I know that for some people this is a major trigger, so if that’s the case obviously this one won’t be for you.
A regular sleep pattern – Migraines LOVE routine. Anything out of the ordinary and they will get angry and attack. I therefore try to aim for 8 hours a night, but obviously this isn’t always possible and quite often during the week it’s more like 6.5 or 7. BUT If I sleep for too long or not enough then this will be a trigger. What I don’t now do (which I always did before) is try to “catch up” on sleep at the weekend, as this will almost certainly guarantee a migraine on the Sunday.
Drink enough water (but not too much – I know, I’m not kidding, I think you have to be a genius to even try and figure out all the permutations).
Bone broth – Again, another lovely sounding item! (It’s the name that puts people off, I swear it’s just like chicken stock). I have this most days for its healthy gut properties (I’ll do a separate post on this) and I don’t know if it works the same way as the salt, or if it’s the other nutrients it contains, but this has become a staple in my diet.
Everything in moderation – not too much of anything (chocolate, gluten, cheese, cow’s milk dairy, eggs, bananas) but, as I mention above, I no longer cut out all of this completely, I just have things in a more balanced way. There is one exception to this rule and that is artificial sweetener. I can’t tolerate this AT ALL, plus I don’t like the artificial taste, so I avoid this completely. Unfortunately, this is becoming harder and harder to avoid in everyday foods as manufacturers seem to have an obsession with chucking aspartame (or some other chemical equivalent) in just about everything, sweet or savoury. Thankfully I don’t eat a lot of processed foods and tend to mainly eat homemade food, or at least foods that contain an ingredient list that I can understand.
Break up the amount of screen time I have. I work in an office so I make sure to take regular breaks from my computer when I’m at work, and to go for a walk at lunchtime to get some fresh air. When I am at home I try to limit my screen/phone time in an evening so that I’m not looking at them all night.
What to do when a migraine hits:
Sleep – Preferably in a quiet, dark, cold room (my lavender filled eyemask helps with this if it happens to be during daylight hours). Sleep is my number 1 remedy (great in theory, but not so great if (a) you’re in the middle of a big meeting at work - it’s not like you can say, “don’t mind me, I’m just going to crawl under the desk and have a little snooze” or (b) you’ve left it too long and your head actually hurts to touch the pillow or (3) the worst is if you wake up in the morning to find you have a migraine – well sleep isn’t going to work, otherwise you would not have got it in the first place- argh!!!!! It’s so frustrating!
·Peppermint oil rubbed on my temples. Yes, you will smell like a polo mint/everyone will ask you for a chewing gum, but this does actually work. There’s something about the cooling sensation and the fresh smell that work together to ease the banging head pain and nausea.
Sometimes you literally can’t stomach anything, but if you can get anything down these have helped me in the past:-
- Ice cold Coke and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps (but not ones with sweetener – see above)! Trust me, this has worked for me! The healthier version of this (or perhaps the more grown-up version is salted coconut chips and coconut water or watermelon for a quick shot of electrolytes and hydration.
- Ginger biscuits or ginger chews.
- Salty crackers or rice cakes
(I know it just sounds like I’m giving you an excuse to eat rubbish, but if it works, it works)
- Lemonade drink (lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup (or some other sweetener like honey or blackstrap molasses) ground ginger, ground cinnamon and water). There is something about this combination that really quashes the nausea.
Cold, fresh air (I know you can’t control the temperature of the air outside, but I live in England, so cold air is not a thing we are usually in short supply of!).
Aspirin – When I first started with migraines when I was 11 I would take Migraleve but I could never keep it down and so it became really pointless to even try that. Then as I got older and I was more aware of what I was putting in my body I was reluctant to take any conventional medicine at all and would always try to find a more natural alternative, so for a very long time I would avoid avoid avoid taking any medicine (even a paracetamol) and the headaches would get past a point of no return and then I’d be bed-bound for 1 to 2 days. Fairly recently I’ve been trying an aspirin if all of the above have had no effect (that’s if I can catch it before the sickness starts, otherwise after that I’ve had it!) and this seems to take the edge off.
If you are a fellow migrainer (there it is again) and you have tried everything in your power to figure out what is causing them and you still get an attack, then maybe try some of the above remedies and see if they will work for you. In any event, it might be time to accept that this is just something that we get and to try and find a happy medium between living like a robot and having a completely care-free (and migraine filled) life. It’s a ThreeSixFiveLife after all.
[Sorry this post is so lengthy (can you tell it’s a subject that is close to my heart!).]
L x
What are your triggers? What are your magic tricks for surviving a migraine? Let me know in the comments below.