Written by Kimberly
I wasn’t prone to headaches till about five or six years ago. Before that the only time I had aching in my head was if I caught the flu or something like that. Even in my party days, I didn’t get the dreaded headache that accompanied a hangover. Actually, I didn’t get hangovers.
When I became an adult (and I say that lightly) I had a couple of children and then it began…HEADACHES! They would spring out of nowhere (my kids and the headaches). As my children grew older, my headaches became increasingly worse. Is this a direct correlation between the stress that children experience as they approach teen years and the stress that parents experience trying to help them work through it?
I have two children that are very talented at tag-teaming! Just when I think one of them is settled down the other one picks up where the other left off. Sometimes I think they have an unspoken pact. Let’s see who can be the first to get Mom’s face to turn blotchy red and her eyes to bulge! They are both equally skilled in this area. I do believe one of them made steam come out of ears once.
Well this was one of those weeks where they had me spinning till POW’ – migraine, cluster, headache…help, help, help.
The heat begins in my right eyeball. It kind of feels like someone is roasting marshmallows in my socket. Which reminds me that my appetite disappears immediately (which is a very rare occurrence). Then the fire spreads to half my face and skull. The pain quickly intensifies as if someone is driving a fire poker in my eye and twisting it. A nagging ache begins to warm the right side of my neck (this gives a whole new meaning to ‘pain in the neck’). Now my eye is loosing vision and tears are involuntarily leaking from it.
These symptoms present themselves within a half hour. I take some medication, although I know it will not do any good. I pull all the curtains, turn off all noise makers (TVs, radio, bathroom fan), and retreat to my bed pulling the covers over my head to lock out light. This will be a long three days…as it always is.
“If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: “Take two aspirin” and “Keep away from children”.”
The migraine ended. I was exhausted. It will take me a while to get my energy back, but I will get it back in time for the next teenage/parent heated debate.
My children were away for the weekend. I was grateful I didn’t have to say “please, I’m begging you, be quiet.” I was also happy that they weren’t affected by my debilitating weekend issue. Even though they are loosely to blame (the verdict is still out on that one), I love them so much. They are good kids. They just like to express themselves from time to time. They like to keep me on my toes. If they had been with me during my migraine, they would have taken care of me.
Dr. Marek Gawel, Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Migraine Association of Canada, has stated that an estimated 240 million people world-wide suffer about 1.4 billion migraines annually. Are you one of them? We want to hear from you. How do you deal with them?
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6 Responses to Oh My Head!
Those teenager years. They will do it to you every time. LOL. Mine are in their mid to late twenties and they can still do it to me.
I have experienced migraine headaches, but very rarely and I can’t say they are related to my kids. For the most part I have pretty much nailed my down to not eating properly while being under stress. Caffeine withdrawal is another thing that sets mine off.
Both of my headache inducers are avoidable if I would just take better care of myself. Unfortunately Kimberly, I don’t believe you can avoid your children.
Oh, poor Kimberly. I occasionally get migraines, and they are the worst. I don’t even think mine are *that* bad compared to what chronic migraine sufferers go through; I just know that if I get a sinus headache (I have those all the time) and it doesn’t go away no matter what I throw at it medication-wise, by late afternoon I’m nauseated and sensitive to light and exhausted and light-headed. But I usually do recover after a few hours of rest. The isolation from light and sound are absolutely essential, in my experience.
Migralief is wonderful! You get it at the Health Food store. It says on the bottle not to expect results for 4-8 weeks. It took me about 3 weeks and then my headaches were gone. So wonderful. Peppermint oil on the forehead and back of the neck works very nicely too.
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Like Jennie, I am prone to a form of migrane – sinus headaches. The symptoms aren’t nearly as severe, but I think I probably have them more often – anywhere from 1-2x a week, during a bad period.
I have a good friend who suffers the full-blown migranes and looking from the outside, it appears her headaches might well be tied to “outside” and stress-inducing events (she is recovering from a divorce). I can easily imagine children being the cause too!
I have heard that Peppermint oil is good. Sometimes I think our bodies are telling us to relax, so I can see why a dark and quiet room might be good. I have also tried netti pots and cold gel eye masks with some positive results. Unfortunately, these probably won’t help those suffering from true migranes/cluster headaches.
Kimberly, I feel for you. I know like most headache sufferers you try and keep going, but it’s hard to be 100% when you have a pounding head and are feeling sick.
Kimberly,I started getting them after childbirth. Mine are not stress related though. Horrible pain but not like your pain. No pain in eyes or face but bad head pain, almost vomiting, heightened sense of smell. In bed all day type of pain. Took me years of going to doctors to find my own solution. I find it increases as soon as we put the Christmas tree up (mold). Crisp, cold air is good for me, but not wind. Humidity kills me. Anyway, I take 1 tylenol sinus/1 extra strength tylenol, drink coke to settle my stomache and put a cold compress on the back of my neck. It helps a lot.A few years ago I started to lose the vision in one eye to the point I could not see. It quickly spread to the other eye. It was like jagged things cutting off my vision. It lasted about 20 minutes. Very scary. Luckily I was at home and not driving. I ran to my dr. who said it was an optic migraine. I have never had another but it was one of the scariest things to ever happen to me. I had to have a bunch of tests because these things are also related to MS but nothing showed up. I have recently read that migraines are now being said to be early warning signs of stroke. Something else to look forward to…….Good luck.
Thank you everyone for your comments. I love reading them. I want you to know that I’m not looking for pity…when I wrote this piece I was ranting…something I do well. When something is on my mind (in this case it was a bad head) I blog or write about it. Also, I hope you know I’m not really blaming all my headaches on my kids. Now I will tell you that they can do a number on my head but it’s a variety of things that come into play when I get these cluster/migraines. Stress I believe is the biggest one…cheesies too!! Thankfully today I am headache free and am staying away from cheesies.