'We had our breakfasts – whatever happens in a house, robbery or migraine, it doesn't matter, you must have your breakfast.' – The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

I was thinking of ten migraine-friendly treats for the holiday season. These ones fit within my particular list of allergies/known triggers, but you may have to adapt it for your own needs.

1. Eat your cereal with eggnog.
2. Sit by the fire and talk with a friend.
3. Give someone else's child an unexpected (non-electronic) gift and watch them open it.
4. Read a picture book with a small child.
5. Try on your stockings (the ones you hang for Santa).
6. Go for a walk somewhere where there are no shops.
7. Tie a ribbon on your cat's tail (it's a game, they'll chase it, it's cute). If you have a dog, tie a ribbon on their collar and take them on your walk (number 7), teach the dog to strut.
8. Do a book exchange with a friend – choose three books to borrow from their shelf, and they choose three from your shelf (not really holiday specific, but you might have more time to read if you're on forced leave until January).
9. Decorate a tree or bush in your yard or neighbourhood – in secret, at night.
10. Sing Christmas carols in the shower.

If you have other ideas that you've tried or want to try, please share.

‘Tis the season to be migrainey, fa-la-la-la-la--la-la-la-la.’

It’s a quiet Saturday before the major holiday hullabaloo begins and I’m trying to remember what’s worked, and not worked in the past, for getting through without falling prey to an ongoing migraine. It’s not whether I’ll get a migraine, it’s how long it will last and how severe it will be – that’s probably the first important thing to acknowledge. It won’t be my fault; it’s not because I’m weak or self-sabotaging; I have a chronic, neurological condition. 

So, some friendly advice for the holiday season for myself (and you, if you want it).

Do: spend time with friends and family, but also make time to rest.

Do: maintain routines when possible like normal sleeping patterns, exercise and meditation.

Do: indulge a little bit (or a lot, you know yourself and what’s allowable).

Do: drink lots of water.

Do: take medication with you everywhere.

Do: book a massage (or some other form of recovery and relaxation) when you get to your destination if you’re traveling by plane. 

I can’t think of anything else, and that seems like enough for now. Maybe I’ll write more after the holidays to help next holiday season. If anyone reading this wants to add to the list in the comment section, that would be appreciated.

Happy Hullabaloo! 

'The migraine is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.' – Paradise Lost by John Milton)

Yesterday was a good day for me migraine-wise, even though I had one. It was prophesied from the moment I woke up by that cruel trick of the migraine: feeling great. This is a new symptom that I didn't know about until my chiropractor pointed it out a few months ago. Before many of my migraines hit, I feel manic, like I can do anything, totally unstoppable. I think it's sadistically ironic that this euphoric feeling comes before all hell breaks loose brain-wise. I'm slowly learning to tell the difference between feeling unnaturally wonderful and feeling normally healthy. I missed the signal yesterday, but the bonus was that I enjoyed a day out and about with my husband on a mini-roadtrip.

Before we left, I spent some time on Huffington Post researching news about migraines, watching interviews with fellow migraineurs and reading about surprising triggers. This was unexpectedly useful. The ladies in the interview, particularly Nancy Girvin, told similar stories to mine. I don't like to wallow and I'm naturally optimistic, but this reminded me that sometimes it is good to commiserate. None of my friends or family experience chronic migraines. They are wonderfully sympathetic and tolerant when I get one, but it's not the same as listening or talking to someone who goes through them.

On Huffington Post I also found an article about '10 Surprising Culprits'. I don't know why, but I compulsively read these types of lists of triggers. Maybe I'm searching for the something I'm missing that I could avoid to be miraculously cured. (Did I mention I'm an unrealistic optimist?) Several of the items of the Huffington Post list validated triggers I already knew for myself, but have never seen mentioned anywhere else. It was nice to have my wheat allergy validated (first time ever). Unfortunately the other triggers mentioned were unavoidables: rain (I've known for a while that stormy weather makes me more prone to migraines), oestrogen (I like being a woman) and other people's strong perfume or loud noises (makes sense, I will deal with this later).

To cap off my great day of driving and discoveries, I got a migraine. I was making dinner and some of the cauliflower fell out of my hand on the way to the pot. Then the onions leapt off the counter. Next I noticed that I felt like I was losing my mind. I think I tell myself that when I feel the weird migraine disassociation coming on. At that point I took a Maxalt wafer. Afterwards, I felt so calm, mindful and at peace. In the new year I'll have to see if I can get similar positive effects without the pharmaceuticals.  

'I know not all the migraines that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.' – Moby Dick by Herman Melville

We have entered the season of decisions: which Christmas party to go to during the week; how much, if any, alcohol to drink; which foods to indulge in because "it's the holidays"; whether to travel or have people over. These and countless other decisions will affect those of us who suffer from migraine for the next month or so.

My first dilemma came to a head last night. I had two nights of school end-of-year student performances on. I have been working at this college for less than a year so I have no previous experience of this school community's ways of celebrating; I had really wanted to go to both. Because I had been feeling good for several weeks, I thought that I would be able to. I went to the first night – student short films being screened. It was excellent, but it meant a late night with no proper dinner. I learned my lesson. I made time to go home for dinner before the second night's ceremony started. That's when the headache, lethargy and self-doubt set in. I didn't make it back out; I was in bed and asleep by about 9pm.

I feel disappointed that I didn't get to see some particular students' music performances. I also feel relieved that I've had the reminder, in the form of a not-too-severe migraine, that I can't do it all. That is part of the reason I'm writing this. I am very good at forgetting, shoving aside the memories of times I didn't cope, the next time a series of back-to-back opportunities arise. The lesson I'm taking from this week is: when in doubt go to the first event. The films I saw were excellent (not that the music on the second night wouldn't have been) and you don't know what will happen by the second night. Also, this is a reminder that as important as it is to be there for the students (or spouse, kids, parents, colleagues etc.), I have to take care myself too.

‘Migraine, the mother of fear and mystery, was coming upon me.’ – The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

I thought I should share my migraine credentials. I started getting migraines when I was 17 (about half my lifetime ago). I would wake up every Friday in the middle of the night. After a trip to the bathroom to be sick, I would go back to bed and usually be ok by the next day. For weeks it happened like clockwork. Then in university the migraines would flair up during exam times, sometimes lasting for a week. I got through it, became a teacher and continued getting them during stressful times like camp and report-writing weeks at the end of each term. Throughout this period, I relied on painkillers and rest, although somehow I rarely took sick days.

Then during one summer break in my twenties things changed. I don’t know what triggered it, and my doctors didn’t seem interested in helping me find out. For weeks I got migraines every two to three days. I would be recovering from one when the next one would hit. I feel immense gratitude that I wasn’t working at the time because I would not have been able to continue. I saw GPs and a neurologist, who gave me stronger painkillers and the first of my daily, chronic migraine medications. Since I didn’t like the idea of being on drugs that could be doing who-knew-what to my brain, I began exploring alternative treatments.

Today I have gone on and off many daily, preventative medications with varying results and side-effects. I’ve visited many alternative, non-Western, traditional (whatever you want to call them) practitioners also with varying results and side-effects. I think I’ve been given advice from every medical and non-medical person I’ve met, whether I asked for it or not. This blog will be my chance to document some of that and (hopefully) explore some new or untried options so that I don’t need to rely on the current brain-chemistry altering medications forever.

‘Shall I compare thee to a migraine? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.’ – Sonnet 18, Shakespeare

This quote came to me at 4am, when I wasn't sleeping for the fourth night in a row. I was worrying about getting a migraine from my disrupted sleep patterns, then inspiration struck. I've learned to recognise its zap and, low-and-behold, here is a new blog.

The meaning of the quote for me is that I am more than my migraines. So let me introduce myself: I am a teacher and writer, who lives in a large coastal city in Australia. I have a cat and a husband, who I love and appreciate particularly knowing that my migraines affect his quality of life as well. When I'm not reading or writing, I like to play tennis, cook and travel. I have a sweet tooth and a weakness for dark chocolate. On my CV it says I'm organised (a worrier and an over-planner, really), passionate (read: enthusiastic to the point of wearing myself out) and creative (head often zinging with ideas, getting in the way of sleep or housework).

Aside from inspiration, another reason I'm starting this now is that I can. I am teaching part-time and writing part-time. Also, the chronic-ness of my migraines is pretty manageable at the moment. I've come to know that it's important to do what I can, especially prevention-wise, when I can rather than waiting until it's necessary (but too late). This blog itself may not be a prevention tool (wouldn't that be great if a few hundred words into a computer program would cure a migraine!), but over the next several months I'm planning (and hoping and wishing and dreaming…) to go off the daily anti-epileptics I'm currently on. I want to try once again to manage my migraines without medication.

I have some ideas of alternatives (lifestyle, medical and herbal) that I can try. Plus if I run out of ideas, I just have to mention that I get migraines to someone, anyone, and they'll invariably say, 'I know ___, who gets migraines, and s/he does ___ to get rid of them.' It's like that joke: how do you get rescued from a deserted island? (Play solitaire.)

P.S. If you're interested in my other writing you can find it here, on my writing website.