Brain Freeze! If only!

Aaaa, the dang awesomeness that has been my bane for the over a year now, is migraines. I went in to the doctor's over a year ago because I had a migraine for a whole month. Not a migraine everday, or everyother, but one big solid migraine, all day, all night, for a whole month. Some nights the pain was so intense, I would wake up crying at night, Mark would pick me up, put me of the sofa, and put in a Disney move (one I've seen a million and three times so I don't have to pay attention really, if it's a new movie I pay attention to every detail, Disney movies, I know all the words to, and what is happening and when it's happenening, without having to watch it, just listen.) I have gone thru the loops and hoops and around the track with trying to figure out what is going on. The doctors are limited on what they can do because of my heart. I have been to eye doctors, heart doctors, nerve doctors, respiratory doctors, pediatricians (sound funny, but I am technically still in the Peds because of my heart condition, there are no doctors for adults yet...), chiropractors, you name it, I've seen em. I feel like we have tried almost everything to no avail. And it seems to me, like the doctors aren't really trying hard anymore, to find out what's going on. It feels like these headaches are just something I am going to deal with. Which sucks, because the migraines are getting to a point of my not being able to function really. I used to be able to work right thru them, or I'd take an Excedrine and it would knock out the migraine enough for me to do my work and get on with my tasks. Now, the Excedrine doesn't even TOUCH my migraines. (I have tried almost everything on the PAIN RELIEF shelf at Wal-Mart, not sure where to go next.)

Medical - I went in to the Dr's to find the cause of the migraines. They did all kinds of tests, MRI's, CT scans, bubble study, echoes, and they found 2 holes in my heart in October of last year, and I went in for Open Heart surgery in February. The surgery eased the migraines for a few months, then they came back in full force. Pretty sure I am also going to stop taking Excedrine, no more of that. At least I am going to try. I read on a Migraine Blog that sometimes over the counter mediactions can cause headaches rather than relieve them. So I'm going to try that for a bit.


Emotional -Next thing I am going to try is a fitness club, I'm going to try yoga and see if that works for the stress. I think stress could be causing my headaches and eating me apart. It doesn't seem like I have alot of stress, but I know it's there. I think I need to concentrate on relieving the stress and relaxing, for real relaxing, no fake relaxing for 10 minutes. I really do think it is stress, and I'm not sure how to get rid of the stress, because I'm my mind, I'm not stressed about anything. We took care of our money stress, now that's gone, and I really have nothing else to stress or worry about!

Physical - I've been trying to exercise a bit, like take the Bandit for a walk and get up and get out of the house for a bit. So far all it has been is a theory. But I'm going to try taking him out for walks hopefully everyday. I've just gotta put forth the effort. But, now it's getting cold, and we all know how much I lOVE the cold! HA! Not at all! So, we're still working on this one!


Mental - It could just be in my head, all made up, and just a state of being that I can't seem to get over. I really hope that's not the case, but it could be. I've tried to listen to different music, change my attitude, change my way of thinking, nothing seems to work. I've been trying to be more optimistic, and more forward thinking, more positive. (Some days, it's pretty dang hard tho!) Mark has been helping me be positive about it, and I try really hard not to complain. I've been trying to keep my mind off of the headaches and the pain. At work, sometimes it's easy to block out the pain, I listen to Books-on-CD, and that usually works, plus if I'm working on things, that does the trick too. :) At home, it's a different story, at home, we sit there and relax, when I'm just sitting there, that's when they hit the hardest, so lately, I have been crafting my little heart out (LOL!) and that keeps my mind on other thing, so I don't think about the pain. As you can see in my other posts, the crafting has really taken off!

So, we are still talking to doctors and we're still in the process of figuring out what is causing my dang headaches. But I really am at a point where I'm not sure where to turn next, what to try next. So, we've just been trying to do the things we're supposed to be doing, and go from there. We're just trying to do the things that have worked so far. :)


love to all - bry and mark