During this week's migraine I noticed two things about my migrainey self, which I hadn't been aware of before. As with my other blog posts, the purpose of this one if to create a record for myself since I have a bad memory at the best of times, let alone when I have a migraine.
Firstly, I noticed that when I have one of those migraines that doesn't respond to medications, I often take a large number of drugs anyway. I think this is because I take some, then two or three hours later I'm still feeling terrible so I take something else, then another two or three hour later I'm not feeling any better so I try another pharmaceutical option. By bedtime I realised that, in my desperation, I would have taken the maximum dose of paracetamol, ibuprofen, aspirin, codeine and/or any other drugs I have on hand. Hopefully now that I'm aware of this I won't fall into the same pattern of sending good medication after bad, as it were.
Secondly, I was feeling very lonely during this week's migraine: alone in my suffering, ill-equipped to deal with it, and in need of genuine empathy and encouragement. Often during a migraine I'll wish my mum was with me. This time I needed something stronger, more effective. I went online to see if I could find a migraine support group or forum to join. I came across three likely-looking options. Once I started reading, I noticed that mostly they were filled with comments about all the different drugs people had tried and how crap migraines are. None of the people commenting seemed to have anything proactive or helpful to say. Even when sufferers posted questions (like where to find a good doctor), the commenters didn't address the question and only mentioned their own struggles. Maybe we're all selfish, us migraineurs; maybe that's understandable, but I don't think it's helpful. Now I'm looking for any support groups in my area that I could attend. Will a group of us in person be more supportive?
