March Headache and Migraine Disease Blog Carnival

Life Hacks: Tweaking Work and Life to Deal with Migraines

Great entries this month on how we live and cope with headache disorders.  Diana Lee has helped me gather the entries this month, and had a great suggestion for an addition.  Nancy Bonk has asked for a call to action from migraineurs concerning the problems we have getting taken seriously by healthcare professionals.  Please read her post Migraines, Stigma, Suicide - Stop! and give this subject serious thought.

Nancy has another great post This is How Migraines Have Tweaked My Life with some hints on how she makes it through each day with debilitating headaches.

A taste of South America spices up Betsy's migraine journey, described in La Migrana! at MigraineJourney.  Glad there are those of us who are able to have adventures in different countries!  A beautiful photo makes it look warm and sunshiney.  Sigh.

Teri Roberts at Putting Our Heads Together has some great info in Migraine Life Hacks: Dealing With Migraines. Terri has some great tips on managing migraine disease and triggers with some extra tips on using technology to leverage your day and some links to extra resources. 

While Tweaking Life for Migraines Migrainista has learned to be more flexible and innovative in dealing with migraines and their effect on her life.  Kelly at Fly with Hope has a great post about how chronic illness and migraines have changed relationships in her life.  I think we can all relate to Friendships Within and Outside of the Chronic Illness Community.

Kathy from Australia gives some great tips on how she is able to get around town using her trusty backpack!  I'm thinking I may have to invest in a sturdy backpack and a barometer myself after reading her post Sydney by Backpack and Barometer.  Gretchen at There Be Migraines Here has some great analogies in her Life Hacks post.  I will never be able to shake up a Coke again without thinking of this post and my head!

Diana Lee at Somebody Heal Me lets us know some easy tricks about looking good in her post Simplify Life with Migraines & Chronic Illness: Beauty.  Some very practical ideas and some recommended products that she has found helpful. 

More Than a Little Tweaking Required is the entry from Sue at InnerDorothy.  Sue lets us know how she manages her pain on a daily basis while still maintaining an active work life.  I love her comment "I relegate pain to a low place on my day to day priorities of living"  That's putting pain in its place!!!

I write a little about tweaking life and work environments in my post Taming Headaches.  Hope you find something useful in my entry!

This has been a great bunch of posts, and a great response to Diana Lee's blog carnival.  I found something new to me that I could use in every post.  Join Diana Lee in April for the next carnival!

Blog Carnival at Somebody Heal Me

Theme this Month : Food!!!

At last a theme dear to my heart, food!!  Diana Lee at Somebody Heal Me has done a marvelous job again editing her monthly Headache Blog Carnival.  This month's entries are about Food, Glorious Food!!  I recycled an older entry about brewer's yeast allergies, and there are some wonderful entries that cover the spectrum of food and its relation to headache.

I especially liked the link to Natural Pain Relievers: 20 Herbs that Work.  Found a few I didn't know about! 

If you are a Facebook fan, hook up to Diana Lee on Facebook - she posts some bonus articles that are great to share!

April Headache Blog Carnival Now Published

This month Diana Lee had assistance with her monthly Headache Blog Carnival, with Teri Robert hosting at Healthcentral.  The theme this month was Migraines in Literature, which was a pretty tough subject to write about.  A very interesting post about Harry Potter and headaches, and as always great miscellaneous posts dealing with headache disorders.

Also Healthcentral has published the results of the 2010 Putting Our Heads Together Poetry contest.  Some very thought provoking works! One of the Honorable Mentions was  Migraine Medication Change written by Migraine Puppet, whose writings have inspired me over the months!  Anyone who has changed meds to no avail will understand the longing expressed in this poem.

I even entered a poem of my own, the first I had written in probably thirty years.  It wasn't bad for someone as rusty as myself at writing anything but prose, and generally business writing at that!  Stretched my mind a little bit and expanded my horizons, but it was very difficult work for me.  I think I probably should practice more at poetry, but not sure if I have the right amount of connectivity to the right side (creative side) of my brain.  Maybe I could get rewired?? 

Here's my little poem below with references because for whatever odd reason I went all Greek pantheon with this....

Hemicrania Continues.... 

Spawn of Hephaestus
Burning ganglion eruption
Burrowing deep to forge another
Twisting turning barb wired spear for
Promethean sport.

The Algea dance maypole madness
Winding hypothalamic strands
Of cascading neuronal darkness
Straightjacket tight
Extinguishing all thought.

Achelois attends blessed by Lethe
Needle driven tonics flow
Down the Phlegethon torrent;
Saved once more from Tartarus
Deimos weeps.

The key to the terms:

Hephaestus: God of Fire and Metalworking
Prometheus: God of Forethought, Stole fire from Hephaestus and was tortured for it
Algea: Spirits of suffering, pain, tears, and distress
Achelois: Moon goddess of Pain Relief
Lethe:  The spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion
Phlegethon:  The underworld river of fire and pain
Tartarus: Hell, the place of ultimate punishment
Deimos: God of dread and fear

Did I get metaphysical or what??  Pretty bad when you need a scorecard to keep track of the deities.  Makes me laugh!! I had a good time doing it, and that's what counts!!! Thank you Migraine Puppet for inspiring me to try!

Scientific Proof of Photophobia Link with Migraine

Not Surprising to Migraineurs

Read an article today that gives a scientific explanation for the pain that light creates for many migraine sufferers. Those of us who have photophobia know that the problem exists, we just don't know how to stay away from light on a permanent basis.

The article entitled "Why Bright Light Worsens Migraine Headache Pain" at http://www.sphere.com/ states that a study was done with blind migraine sufferers, some of whom could sense or see light, and some of whom could not. The migraine patients who could not see light had no difference in pain when exposed to light, while the patients who could sense light had increased pain on light exposure. The resulting theory is that the optic nerve itself and its functioning and connectivity is related to photophobia. The author states:

They tested out these ideas in a lab, by injecting dyes into the eyes of rats with migraine headaches. By following the dyes, the researchers traced the path of the melanopsin retinal cells through the optic nerve to the brain, where they found a group of brain cells that became electrically active during migraines.

"When small electrodes were inserted into these 'migraine neurons,' we discovered that light was triggering a flow of electrical signals that was converging on these very cells," Burstein said. "This increased their activity within seconds."

And even when the light was removed, Burstein said, these neurons remained activated. "This helps explain why patients say that their headache intensifies within seconds after exposure to light, and improves 20 to 30 minutes after being in the dark."

I hope physicians that are skeptical about the light dodging habits of frequent migraine and other primary headache sufferers read this. We aren't imagining that light can trigger headache pain, and that light can make headache pain worse. We are experiencing an electrical storm that is either ignited by light exposure or incited to greater levels by light exposure, and that this storm doesn't stop the instant that light levels are lowered. Hoping that this research can either lead to a way to stop light from triggering or worsening migraines, or a medication that can assist in gaining light tolerance.

Maybe designers of emergency rooms could take note also, and have an area with dim lighting for headache patients to wait in. Migraine patients are already in a lot of pain before they ever hit the emergency room, because no headache patient willingly goes into that environment of noise, light, and odor unless they have no other alternative for pain management. A quiet dark area where you could wait your turn would be a welcome change from the normal bright fluorscent light.

Diana Lee at Somebody Heal Me has coordinated and published the January Headache Blog Carnival. The subject this month was "Healthy Habits for the New Year." As always there are a variety of submissions, with my favorite being about how behavior can increase or decrease pain tolerance. Please drop by and check out this month's offerings!!!

December Blog Carnival

Dianna Lee has done it again!

The December Headache Blog Carnival has been posted. Terri Roberts is this months hostee (or is that hostess?), with help from the ever organized Dianna Lee.

The theme this month is Advice on and experiences with reducing holiday season stress. There is plenty of interesting reading and helpful hints, so click on the link and enjoy!

November Headache Blog Carnival Published

Thanks Again Diana Lee!

Diana Lee at Somebody Heal Me has done it again. Another edition of the Headache Blog Carnival is out, this time on Migraine Triggers. Diana takes the time to do this, even when she is busy battling her own headache demons.

Diana contributed a great article from her archives on headache hygene, and James Cottrill has some fantastic tips on how to read food labels. I did not realize there were so many different ways to label MSG. I knew it was often a hidden ingredient but never figured it could be labeled with all those descriptions. I managed to sneak my entry on triggers vs. symptoms in this month.

Not included in the blog carnival, but still relevant, is the blog entry on the discovery of a new food trigger by Chrissy at Through The Words of Chronic Pain. This is what inspired me to write about triggers also!

I will be leaving in the wee hours of the morning to go to KC tomorrow. About an hour and half sleep last night, and already sleepless tonight. Can't medicate because of the drive. Big Sigh!!