Shameless plug: Advil Migraine
Today, for the first time in a long time, I've lost the better part of the day to a migraine. I've been suffering from these headaches since grade 4, and the routine is always the same: The headaches start slowly, but eventually make me hypersensitive first to light, then to sound, then to touch and movement. Along the way, I get an "aura", which means adding nausea and speech slurring to the fun, too.
Dealing with a migraine, as I did today, involves spending a few hours trying to get to sleep through the pain, then staying asleep usually from 8-12 hours. Sadly, that isn't the end of it - the next day is also a write-off, spent in a zombie-like state; my thought process is slower and I'm physically weak. (Which explains why it's taken me over an hour to write these two paragraphs!)
Last year, I was introduced by a similarly-afflicted coworker to Advil Migraine, which I now refer to as "the miracle pill." Basically, if I can take the pill in the window between the beginning of the headache and before the aura-induced nausea starts, the Advil skips right over the hypersensitivity and sickness, and takes me right into the zombie state "postdrome."* The effect of the postdrome doesn't seem to last as long, either - by the next mid-day I'm usually back to 100%.
I don't claim this will work for every migraineur, but it's worth trying. For me, it's been life-changing.
Why did I suffer the full migraine today, you ask? Headaches in the winter present a Russian-roulette decision for me: Do I take the migraine pill or the sinus pill? Today, to paraphrase an Indiana Jones film, I chose poorly... *Sigh*
*Non-migraineurs might not see the benefit, but then they also don't seem to grasp the concept of "migraine" in the first place. Here's an anecdote, then, that might explain what it's like: A friend's brother had his first migraine at the age of 34. He was so overwhelmed with the pain, he checked himself into hospital, and they'd done a barrage of tests - including a spinal tap - before coming to the final diagnosis.
2 Comments:
Just be careful with the dosage - it has wicked bad withdrawal symptoms. I steer clear of it now. You know you can't spell Devil without Advil (sorta).
Good luck
Thanks for the warning! My migraines only show up about once every month and a half now (a simple pair of sunglasses, believe it or not, cut them down from one a week), and I'm not much of a pill-popper, so I only take one when the need arises. Apart from the zombie-full next day, I haven't yet had any negative symptoms from the Advil. My understanding is that some people will suffer from "rebound" migraines the day after taking an analgesic, but this hasn't happened to me.
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