Back in February Emile asked if I'd take her to the doctor about some issues she was dealing with. The appointment went very well and she was put on a medication... she was instructed to start at a minimal dose for one week after which she was supposed to begin taking the full prescribed dose. The first week went just fine, however, the very day she moved to the full dose, she began getting severe headaches. I figured it was her body adjusting to the medication. The headaches seemed to be getting worse and after another week I called the doctor and explained the situation. Em was given the option of dropping back down to a half dosage to see what happened. We talked it over and considering how much better she was feeling (except for her headaches) she decided to try and ride it out a little longer.
Needless to say, things didn't work out as Emile was hoping. By the end of March, the headaches had escalated to the point where she was unable to function. Several times she called me to come pick her up because she couldn't stand the light or was in so much pain she was afraid to drive. She stopped taking the medication all together, thinking that would solve the problem. No change. The only thing that seemed to bring relief was when she was sleeping. From the minute she woke until she went back to sleep, she was in pain. After 10 more days of taking over the counter headache formula pain relievers with no noticeable improvement, I realized we had a problem that wasn't going to resolve on its own. On Friday, April 8th, I took Em back to the doctor. Dr. K asked Em to describe the type of pain she was feeling, where the pain was originating, how frequently she was getting headaches, and for how long. Then he asked me questions about whether or not I had trouble with headaches. I used to, but when I began using a CPAP, I stopped getting headaches at all. When all was said and done, Dr. K told Em that she was suffering from migraine headaches, which often begin around her age. It just happened that this was the same time she was beginning a new medication. Because of how long she'd had them ongoing, he had her stop taking over the counter headache meds, and begin taking Treximet. In addition, he told to to restart the medication she was prescribed in February at half strength for four days, then move up to full dosage. By using the medications together for a few days, the headaches should go away. So far so good. She hasn't had to take the Treximet for a week now. Yay!!
One interesting side note. Often migraines are associated with visual disturbances or "aura's." When Dr. K asked Em about this, she responded that she had not experienced. When I was doing some research about migraines I came across this picture....
This is an example of a migraine aura. Here's what's amazing. I discovered that you can have migraine aura's without having any head pain at all. They start as a pin-point dot in your field of vision and over a period of 10-20 minutes the dot grows until your vision is distorted with prisms or kaleidoscope shaped "things." There is no pain, just the visual change. After a *peak* of the size and type of disturbance, the entire aura slowly shrinks and finally disappears.
How do I know this? Because I've had them for years now. I just always thought it was because of my blood pressure or stress. I've actually had to pull off the road a few times until the aura disappeared. The girls have witnessed when it's happening to me. So, luckily for me I have no pain... unfortunately for Emile, she does have the pain but not the aura. I wish I could take the pain away from her. At least we know what's going on now.
No comments:
Post a Comment