My Grain
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always gotten headaches. They’re not the sort that leave me stranded in a dark room with an ice pack across my eyes OR seeing these delicious sounding auras, but they’re more an irritation, somewhat like a burn. You know, the sort that just always reminds you that “Hey, you have a headache, idiot, isn’t it fun?”
Unless you have a migraine, headaches aren’t something that tends to elicit much sympathy. I should know, as The Daver gets ’em as well. And despite his pleas for sympathy and possible BJ’s to “make them go away,” I never feel particularly sympathetic towards him. They tend to be more an irritation of the highest degree, a thorn in my side, and occasionally a fight-provoking ailment.
Mainly because he tends to get them (in my mind) in order to get out of completing annoying tasks. Am I being a bitch? You be the judge.
He has gotten headaches right before the following tasks (and subsequently having to lay down):
*Packing our loads of crap into boxes before the movers came
*Painting the walls before we put the condo on the market
*Packing our stuff AGAIN before the movers came
*Scooping for Cat Box Crunchies
*Familial birthday parties
*Cleaning before we had guests over
and my personal “you will never live this down so long as you live and I may put it on your grave stone, motherfucker:”
*While I was in labor with Alex.
It’s not that I don’t care that he has a headache, on the contrary, if he got them while we were just farting around the house trying to complete absolutely nothing whatsoever of any importance, I probably wouldn’t say a word. BUT, one’s sympathy dwindles after being in labor for a full 12 hours with the lights down low and the television set to an inaudible frequency WHILE having to worry that no one will hold your leg when you have to push.
That said, I obviously can’t expect to get much sympathy for the headaches I’ve been having with alarming regularity now that I am taking Vitamin Z. They’re not really bad enough to make me want to go to the doctor and demand a different SSRI, because really, the benefit outweighs the cost in terms of my mental health here.
But shit, I just wish I could make them go away for a day or two. The NSAID’s I have don’t touch them, and I don’t have the sort of life that would allow me to just rest and relax them away (I’m not certain it would help anyway).
What do YOU do when you have a headache? Any and all assvice would be highly appreciated.
Seeing as how my steady diet of Pepsi and Carl’s JR. has made me the paragon of physical perfection that I am, I don’t often get migraines/headaches unless they’re precursors to other symptoms. On the other hand, Mrs. Disco gets sinus headaches quite often. My solution is to just let her sit in the corner while I play Xbox…what?
I have had headaches – major – 25 days long headaches, since about the 6th grade. As it turns out, I had some major environmental allergies (I got tested with all those littel shots up and down my arms). So my go to cure has been an antihistamine, up until I got pregnant, and now (still breastfeeding a little bit) it’s 3 Advil. Anyway…yeah – that’s not much help to you I don’t think…
Ooh, my least fave pregnancy side effect, the daily headache.
Facial massage, hot compresses… um, nothing really works so far. My girlfriend recommended this therapy where they put teensy needles in the muscles that makes them contract and then relax, she said it works miracles. I am gonna try it.
I get hormonal migraines. I take a tylenol and an ibuprofen at the FIRST second I get a twinge, and I can usually beat it back. Otherwise, it’s the dark room for three hours.
My husband gets cluster headaches (aka suicide headaches). We are currently on about Day 93 of hairpulling, eye-watering, head-banging agony. He takes high doses of prednisone to reduce the frequency and duration (actually works about 60% of the time, until he tries to wean himself off it and/or gets some other wonderful illness going because the prednisone has suppressed his immune system and he’s gotten pneumonia or something), he huffs pure oxygen when an attack comes on (helpful about 70% of the time, IF he catches it early), and takes Imitrex in injection form (which usually works, but has other serious side effects as well, adn the pill form has NO EFFECT at all.) The repdnisone costs us abotu %100 a month when he’s on it; the oxygen thingie cost us $1200, and the Imitrex injections, with our insurance, are about $30 a shot – and again, we’re into Month Three of AT LEAST one shot a day.)
I’m sorry… I guess I can’t manage to sound real sympathetic today – I AM sympathetic, but I am too tired and heartsick myself to sound that way.
hoo boy do I get headaches. What do I do when I get them? I cry. Which just makes them worse. But then, I am dumb like that.
my headaches are untouchable by otc things. But if I can get it when it’s just a thought of a headache, 800 mgs of ibuprofen will keep it from showing up. Ice also does help. So does the ganja. Or so I hear…
And jesus, I think I’ve exceeded my typo quota for the year there.
I’m with Kristine – I’ve suffered from incredible headaches my whole life which recently turned into migraines over the last few years. I recently found out that I have weird environmental allergies, too, which is most likely the main culprit.
To get rid of them, I do the whole dark room, ice pack thing… I have black sheets from my Goth era that I tack over the windows (which are already curtained BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH DAMMIT) and a cool eye pack that can be frozen or heated – stuff my head under a pillow and just keep my eyes closed for several hours. I can’t sleep, but it feels great to just lay there with closed eyes. I also do a breathing thing – usually a counting exercise, if I’m coherent enough to count – and don’t let any part of my body touch any other part (flat on my back or stomach, legs not touching, arms not touching my sides). Stupid, but it works. A couple times, I’ve had to make myself throw up after a few hours to feel better.
For less severe headaches (definitely not for migraines because the sound of the water might kill you), I’ve found that being in steam can help. I’ve boiled some water, put a towel over the back of my head, and just breathed in the steam for about an hour – which, coincidentally, is awesome for your pores! – or sometimes I just stand in the shower with the water turned as hot as possible and soak up the steam.
These are probably really strange solutions, but, like I said… I’ve had headache troubles for years, so I’ve had a while to find out what works for me. Of course, I also swear by Excedrin Migraine and Imitrex.
And it does sound like The Daver might have some alterior motives! I cannot BELIEVE he pulled out a headache while you were labor. The nerve!!!
I also get headaches that hang around for about 3 days and unfortunately nothing makes them go away. Ibuprofen can dull them quite a bit but they still lurk there in the background making me feel all pukey. My aunt swears by acupuncture and the one thing that can help mine is doing headstands – blood to the head or improved circulation helping? I usually pop pain killers and eat chocolate because I’m feeling miserable.
The Daver’s headaches do sound a little suspect, and ok, you can’t paint if you have a headache but you can definitely pack boxes. The labour story I cannot believe, that’s a very funny story.
I have never heard of the BJ cure.
Oh– I too am a headache getter– I thank my mother for that! She however gets terrible migrains and I do not. I tend to get my worse headaches — that time of the month– however I get stress headaches a lot more frequent that that– I own STOCK in tylenol!
My husband swears by the hot water bottle to the temple cure for his migraines. Mood stabilizers/anticonvulsants (e.g., Neurontin) have also been effective for reducing the frequency of his headaches.
I’ve had chronic headaches for years.. not really bad ones, but they last a few days at a time. i used to down those anti-inflammatory pain relief pills, iboprofen, which worked a treat, but you can’t take them when pregnant or lactating. Yoga has helped when I actually get into doing it, becasue I think they must be related to tension in my neck. Otherwise, the cold face washer over the eyes works quite well too.
I used to get really severe migrain headaches with great regularity. The kind that did cause you to cancel any and all plans, and lay in the dark under a blanket where even breathing was excruciating. I still get these very occassionally, usually when I have not been getting enough regular sleep.
When I get them, tea, darkness and silence are my only remedies.
For milder headaches, I drop advil like M&Ms.
Pills pills and more pills. For the bad ones – sleep is the only thing that helps me.
I also do the dark room thing (if the spousal unit is present to watch the kids, or I suffer until their naptime and do it then) and drink a lot of water.
I would kick Kent’s ever loving ASS if he got a “headache” every time something needed to be done. I suck at the whole being nice to someone just because they are sick. Kent’s got the flu right now and I still make him do the dishes. haha.
Here’s another one – get your eyes checked. I was getting tons of headaches and the new glasses have helped a ton. I know you are on the ‘puter checkin’ zee blogs and whatnot – make sure you see if you need reading glasses – and then get glare protection. It has done wonders for me.
Whatever you do, don’t tell Husband about the BJ cure. I have to massage the muscles in my neck and temples, and that usually helps a little, unless it’s one of those hormone headaches, then I have to take 2 tylenol, 1 aleve, and 2 aspirin…all together.
Mine are mostly the result of not taking allergy medicine. And they string out over weeks. You’d think I’d remember to take the meds, wouldn’t you? I think I had a headache every day when I was pregnant with the Beans. Every.single.day.
What do I do? Cry mostly. And bitch a lot. Besides that? Warm compresses (heated buckwheat), tylenol rapid release, and blue oil from Aveda (I am SO addicted to blue oil — you must try it if you haven’t). And have someone watch the baby; you can’t wallow with a baby in the house.
Well I don’t get headaches regularly. But I tried to
ahem . .. strategically have one, the other night, to not have to partake in doing “the deed.”
However, my husband actually pointed me in the direction of some research that he found on the “net” that says doing “the deed” will actually get rid of headaches.
Damn Internet!
Maybe you should try it! 🙂
I get both nasty, nasty migraines and more frequent sinus headaches. The most effective method for me is a combination of two different pain relievers (typically aspirin and Tylenol) and ONE serving of caffeine. Sit down for 20 minutes and let the pain relievers do their job, then drink lots of water through the rest of the day.
But, really, if the headaches are that constant, you should really talk to your doctor about them.
Don’t know if you’re into the natural thing but homeopathic remedies have done wonders for me. You can usually get them at any natural foods stores. One to try is Gelsemium. Or, Hyland’s makes a Migraine Relief. You can find it at Walgreens. It is all natural and works in like 10 mins! Hyland’s is the same company that makes teething tablets for babies. I cannot sing the praises of this stuff enough.
I get monster migraines. And today is day 15 of a nonstop regular old headache from hell that blossoms into a migraine about every other day. I take 4 Motrin (sometimes 6), drink caffeine, and take sinus medicine. The Motrin uh……plugs me up a bit if you get my drift…so I try not to do this too often. When the aura hits, I know I am screwed, so I will usually have to go to bed with the aforementioned ice pack. I try to avoid corn products, which make things worse. And carbohydrates. And sugar. And high fructose corn syrup.
I am sorry. I don’t really get headaches. But I think Exedrine is what I would go for if I had one. That and cup of coffee.
It can be like pulling teeth for me to actually get around to it, but I have found that yoga is the best at making my headaches truly gone.
That, and drinking extra water.
headaches go away? seriously? when?
hehe i’m just aggravated because it’s monday.
I am so not a headache girl. I only get them if I don’t drink coffee or if my back is out and I don’t’ have my coffee or did I mention I must have coffee? oh and I have to drink water – tons of it!
My hubby on the other hand get them from his allergies to food. He has trouble with milk products especially so if he eats them too often there’s a full blown migraine in store for him:( His mom is the same. He takes buckets of Tylenol which makes waaaaaaaaaaaay more sense than avoiding the ice cream (read with sarcasm!)
my assvice is:
sex! sex! sex!
making your heart pumping blood through, helps extremely, and sex is just the best way to do that!
so, sorry to say, becky, but giving the husband a BJ does do his body good.
next time just be like ” baby, I feel a headache coming on, lets screw.”
Every now and then I feel like someone is driving a railroad spike through the back of my head and into my brain.
Then I lie down in a dark, quiet room and try to go to sleep without moving a muscle. Sometimes I drink a large quantity of water, too. I can’t take aspirin, it makes me ill, and other meds aren’t very friendly, either, so…water, dark room, try to make the world stop spinning for a few minutes until I am asleep, sleep for sometimes 14 hours. All better, usually.
Of course, I can’t do this when I am the only one looking after the Evil Genius – he’s not a very sympathetic kid, yet, being five and all. Then I just whimper and cry until someone can take over the care.
Sorry ’bout the headaches – I hope you feel better soon.
Shade and Sweetwater,
K
I don’t get migraines but I do get lots of horrible sinus headaches and sometimes tension headaches. I take Excedrin Migraine and I put Tiger Balm on my neck and shoulders – it usually works.
Goody’s Headache Powders… they are a wonder drug!
I’m currently on 3 different preventative meds for migraines. Then, should I have a “breakthrough” headache, I have Imitrex, muscle relaxers, Vicodin, and Phenergen. I’m guessing that you’re not to this point yet so I would advise starting with the basics. Eating on a regular schedule, drinking lots of water, and getting enough sleep helps tons. I realize this is a tall order for some, but a small price to pay for others. Beyond that, take OTC Claritin or Benadryl daily. You could always follow one of my dr’s advice and “decrease your stress”. WTF kind of treatment option is that? 😉
I get massaive headaches all the time. I just try to shake it off. When my children and students ask why I get headaches all the time, I tell them it’s because I think too much about their well being. This usually gets me a lot of sympathy. LOL
Like Juli, my husband also gets ‘cluster’ headaches and the only thing that seems to stop them is too get immediate exercise. He will go and run until he can’t breathe and it seems to stop the headache from getting worse. I guess that’s the idea behind taking oxygen but this is free.
This is the first time I have seen your blog and it’s great! I will be back for sure!
RELPAX: get these from a neurologist. 1 tiny pill and its gone. They saved my life.