Monday, August 16, 2010

Hurling Contest

Revenge of The Headache

Thursday night, The Headache tried to come to life.  I suffered through Friday with brain fog, but the stimulator kept most of the pain away.  Friday night the pain got worse as did the nausea, so I took 2mg of dilaudid at about midnight along with phenergan.  This got me through Friday night.  Saturday was marathon flying day, so The Headache decided to be extra pesky.  I took 2mg of dilaudid and phenergan, yet the pain and nausea kept increasing - I didn't have time to sit and rest and ice down my head  - so the vomiting commenced. 

I have vomited a lot of places over the years, because that has always been a part of bad headaches for me - projectile Linda Blair in the Exorcist type hurling.  I sorta expect my head to spin around too as the pain gets worse as I hurl and after I hurl.  I know I am in a bad way when I erupt in public toilets.  Putting your face downward towards the bowl that has held the excrement from thousands of butts is not my idea of a good time.  Thinking about it is about enough to make me vomit again!  I threw up twice before I got on my first flight, then I threw up in the airflight barf bag, THEN I threw up in the airplane bathroom/toilet.  Oh. My. God.  The odor of that thing.  My sense of smell is terribly heightened when The Headache is active, and I felt like I couldn't even breathe in that little stinky closet of a bathroom.  The plane was still climbing and banking so I had to brace my self so I didn't just blast vomit from one side of the thing to the other.  The flight attendant brought me a cold cloth from the ice chest and I just sat in my seat leaning over my lap wishing I was home already.  I was able to sleep through most of the flight which was a blessing.

I ate a little bit at an airport restaurant in Denver with my co-workers, but the noise and the odors were too much for me, and I skedaddled before they were finished.  I was able to keep my food down but had a minimum of fluids since The Headache really doesn't like a sloshy belly.  I slept most of the way home on the second flight, drove home, and slept for hours.  Yesterday I woke up and The Headache was still there - building up in the background.

I changed my stimulator settings, I drank caffeine, I iced my head, I used heat packs, I took benedryl, vistaryl, and phenergan.  Nothing worked, and the pain kept building.  At 1 am  this morning I took 4 mg of dilaudid and some phenergan.  It was that or call an ambulance.  I managed to keep the meds down, but have been up all night in pain.  The dilaudid did decrease the pain levels from a 9+ to an 8, but the pain is climbing again.  Not sure what I am going to do - I need to be at work, but I am afraid to drive and get caught with The Headache at full blown fury.  I don't think the travel agreed with It, and It is making me pay!

I'm gonna take a hot bath to see if I can get The Headache to calm down so I can go to work, even if I'm late getting there.  A rainstorm went through Saturday night which I am sure aggravated The Headache also.  I did practice my biofeedback skills last night as I fought the nausea and the itchiness from the dilaudid and The Headache pain  and nausea at the same time.  At least I got through the night without having to call an ambulance - that's an expensive headache when that happens. 

Attaching a picture of the lobby of a neat old hotel we ate at while I was away for work - it was quite unexpectedly elegant with Tiffany stained glass skylights and windows, marble colums and gilt decoration. You do get to see neat things when you travel, but I don't think my body is capapble of keeping itself workable on the road anymore.

6 comments:

  1. I did not realize you had a stimulator. Although I probably should of since when I look to the left of writing this..your occipital nerve stimulation articles are staring me in the face! Does it work well? Obviously you still get "The Headache" though?? My dr has discussed doing that with me. The RFL hasn't done squat to help! I think it's made me worse!!!

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  2. Oh my gosh - What an awful weekend! I'm glad you were able to avoid the ambulance - but gosh I hope you are feeling much better now.

    Hugs!

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  3. Wow, gorgeous hotel.

    Does ginger help your nausea at all? And have you ever tried the acupressure points on the inside of the wrist? I've found those to be very helpful when I'm suffering bouts of (admittedly mild) nausea.

    Hopefully with some rest your body will start being nicer to you. Good thoughts, coming at you.

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  4. Jessica: The occipital stimulator (I was fortunate to get it in a clinical study) has reduced my daily pain levels from a 7-8 range to a 1-3 range. I have a few days each month where it doesn't work so well with my headache type (hemicrania continua) but one ER visit or highly medicated day a month compared to injections/ER visits every 3-4 days is sooo much better. I am getting back as best I can to full time work (I was down to about 5 hours a week there for awhile) - thank heavens I think I have the best bosses in the world.

    Migrainista: Better today....much better!!! Didn't end up at work yesterday, just as well.

    Steph: Ginger (candied ginger) and Ginger Ale help, but phenergan is my life saver, Zofran doen't do anything but make me more sick. The phenergan w/benedryl mixture (I took it yesterday) helps with my midrange pain levels.

    Not so good with the accupressure points - have tried it - don't know if I'm just reeeally bad at it, or just not strong enough. There is another pressure point I used to use for migraines - a nerve notch on the outer edge of your eyebrows you can put pressure on it hard for about 3 seconds and for me it helped the pain.

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  5. Yeah..phenergan is my life saver too, however, it knocks me way out...so I rarely want to take it. I suffer from severe nausea daily. =(

    I am not sure I am at the point of wanting to go the ONS route. I want to be pain free...but for some reason the ONS freaks me out!

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  6. They make you take a psych eval before even getting a trial implant - apparently that means an implant freaks ALOT of people out!

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