As good as it gets

Yesterday I brought my kids to a birthday party at the skating rink.  I predicted to my husband before we left that I would probably have a migraine by the end of it.  Sometimes I hate being right.  I guess it is the combination of the loud music, flashing lights, noise, etc.  I have been feeling very sorry for myself lately since I have been having so many headaches again recently.  Yesterday after driving home I took Imitrex and basically glued myself to the couch for the remainder of the day.  For some reason I remembered the line from the movie "As Good as it Gets" when Melvin is in the psychiatrist's office and turns to speak to the patients in the waiting room saying "What if this is as good as it gets?"  I feel the same way.  After all the conventional and unconventional therapies I have tried to get rid of or at least decrease the number of my headaches, I feel like I am trapped in this vicious cycle.  Immediately postop after my stimulator implant life was so much better.  I have slowly slipped back into a cycle of nearly constant headaches.  At first I tried pinning it on things such as the weather (which is still a huge trigger for me), certain foods, even being out in the sun too much.  Sadly, the list keeps getting longer again until I am left doubting the list is actually a list of things causing headaches and is actually a list of things I just happened to be doing on the days I had headaches.  I visited my St. Jude rep to adjust the settings on the stimulator and I was prescribed Imitrex, which actually has aborted 2 of my migraines, which I am still thrilled about.  Unfortunately I am still having headaches!!!  I am going back to my surgeon next month for a followup.  Maybe I should ask about Botox again.  Sometimes I think I would like to go to a deserted island for a week but it would be my luck to be stuck on an island full of noisy tropical birds or screeching monkeys!  I just don't want to be the mommy saying "Shh mommy's head hurts" anymore.  Hopefully soon I will find some type of relief.  I guess it's time to do some more research.

My poor forgotten blog!  I have not updated in so long I am ashamed.  After my surgery I had such wonderful relief!  Unfortunately over the past few months lately I have been having many migraines again.  Gone still are the stabs so that is a huge victory in itself.  I am considerably disappointed from having so many migraines again though.  I am currently on day 7 of a daily migraine.  :-(   My rep from St. Jude is on vacation.  He did leave a number on his voicemail for another rep to call while he was out, but since he is going to be back on Monday I decided to wait and contact him since he knows my history, etc.  Hopefully he can make me some new programs that will zap away these hateful migraines!!  If not, I am afraid it will be back to the drawing board for the migraine portion.  I am NOT saying that my surgery was in vain.  It has been a HUGE blessing.  I do not have daily pain anymore as I did for years.  I have many, many headache free days, which was something I only dreamed of before the stimulator was implanted.  I have tried eliminating "trigger foods" but there are still 2 things that cause a migraine regardless of what I eat, do not eat, get enough exercise and sleep, etc.  They are weather changes such as barometric pressure drops before a storm system and hormonal fluctuations.  Nothing I can do about those two sadly.  Hopefully I will find an answer soon.  I did some research about areas with the most stable barometric pressure.  The 2 US cities with the most stable barometric pressure are Honolulu and San Diego.  I also found that the Atacama desert in Chile gets only about 1 inch of rainfall a year.  I tried to convince hubby we need to relocate but he is unconvinced as of yet.  My daughters on the other hand were very easy to persuade moving to Hawaii could be a good thing for the family!