My rotten migraine is back – ugh. It is absolutely so ridiculous. I walked Patrick outside to wait for his bus this morning at 7am, and while I was standing on the front porch, I attempted to look up at the sky. Yes – attempted – only. That’s it. It was that simple.

Upon tilting my head up and sending my eyes upward, I instantly realized that that was a bad idea, and averted my eyes, and returned my head to its normal position.

And now I have a migraine. Poo. You see, in the morning, the first few hours that I am awake, is when I am most susceptible to my headache triggers. And it was bright in a glary kind of way this morning, and the clouds were probably moving. I’m not sure, I just know that I immediately felt discomfort and put my head back down. So between the glare, and the movement of the clouds, my day is blown.

And you see, what is really tricky about all of this, is that – like I’ve stated before, I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. And living with chronic pain and having to take medicine for it is a tricky operation. It’s a bit like walking into the lion’s den and not getting bitten. You know you’ve got to go in there, often daily – but, be careful! You don’t want those buggers biting you!

Prescription drug addiction, I think, can often be the trickiest to deal with, recover from, or to even admit, because, you see – “The doctor ordered these for me!” “I’m in chronic pain!”

Which is often, if not always, true. And which gives a recovering drug addict – basically – a hall pass!

It is definitely a slippery slope!

Over the years, dealing with these rotten migraines, I’ve tried a lot of different treatment options. One of them was $100 for SIX PILLS!! I am not kidding you! Isn’t that crazy?! Uh, yeah – we had to stop buying that. Duh!

A new thing that doctors have been prescribing is Tegretol, or Carbamazepine, and I just happen to already be on that for bipolar disorder. So my doc says it’s ok for me to every now and then take extra for my headaches. That is working – fairly well. The thing is with these dang headaches, often the treatment actually perpetuates the headaches, along with offering relief! And that often happens with the Tegretol. And several years back, the same thing was happening with Excedrin Migraine. Like – I’m in pain – I need help now, so I have to take something – but, often what I take will help the headache remain in the background, only to resurface the next day! Grrr!

It’s a terrible cycle! I’ve often thought of trying a completely different prescription, just for the headaches. The description for Fioricet says that it takes care of upper back and shoulder pain, and that is often where my headaches get their start, so maybe that would be a good one to try.

I don’t know – I sometimes just wish I could trade heads with someone! I say that a lot, don’t I?

I don’t have a ‘headache’ so far today, but, I sure as heck have the migraine hangover!

I actually went back to bed after the kids left for school. (There’s something so glorious about their taking the bus to school! heeeee) I slept until 11am!! And I didn’t want to get up then! I knew if I didn’t, though, that I would regret it. I would have way less time alone before the kids came home, of which I’d already lost quite a bit. And I might wake up really groggy if I slept anymore – and I could have trouble sleeping tonight. So I made myself get up – it was painful, though, let me tell you – I was uber comfortable in that bed!! (It’s probably unbecoming for a 36 year old woman to say uber, but, you know what? I like it!)

I missed my daughter’s recorder concert, but, she didn’t seem upset by it at all. She said, “No, Mom, it’s ok, I know you don’t have a car.” I probably would’ve gotten a ride, or just walked up there – heck, it’s only a mile – if it hadn’t been for the headache from hell!

The kids have, however, now arrived home from school and are quite noisy when they first get here, especially because next week is Spring Break and they are all excited about that! So there was screaming, screeching, fighting, and singing – and it was a bit too noisy for my hungover head. So the pain is trying to come back. Some days I wish I could trade heads with someone. Heck, John Travolta got to trade faces in Face Off…. heh.

You know what’s really terrible, though? One of my daughter’s friends gets migraines. She is in the sixth grade – UGH! That is so very not fair! I mean, I complain a lot about my migraines, but, no way should a kid have to go through this – no way! She got one last weekend when we took her with us to my brother-in-law’s house. I could see the progression of it in her actions and in her face. It was eerily familiar – especially being on a sweet child’s face. We were 20 miles away from home, and I knew 20 miles in the car was the last thing she needed!! So I put her to bed in my BIL’s bed, and let her sleep it off for a while before I dared to put her in the car!

A few years ago, I was scheduled to have hernia surgery, and it got canceled because the doctor had an emergency surgery. I always get my migraines when I have surgery because of the stupid (I know, it’s necessary) ‘no eating, no medication, no coffee’ prep. So I had to ride home just about 20 miles, and it was not pretty! My mother had to pull over three times for me to vomit on the side of the road! In the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, on major freeways in Dallas – so not pretty! So yeah, the car is the last place to put me when I’m in the throes of the monstrous menace that is in my head!

Oh, speaking of my mom, she sent me these cool things for Christmas for my headaches. And actually, they really are cool – they are cooling migraine pads. Quite a funny, but, oh so perfect Christmas present! And I guess I’ve been quite lucky, because I haven’t had to use one yet, and dang! This is already March – that’s pretty dang good! My head’s been nice to me lately! Anyway, I used one last night and it made a BIG DIFFERENCE! So, Mother, if you’re reading – THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

She sent me four boxes of those things – the kids and I were laughing so hard – they were in my stocking, but, I was so excited to get them!!

That’s not a sign of getting old, is it?

Heh.

Oh man! I’ve got a doozy of a migraine tonight! I sat down with a fresh pot of coffee, ready to blog my little heart out – and my head decided that I was just going to get a few posts in. I visited some really neat blogs tonight, that I wanted to comment on, too – but, I just couldn’t do it – this post is probably gonna be blah-jibberish. I just wanted people to know if I visited you tonight and didn’t comment – that’s why!

Dang me! I haven’t had one this bad in a while!

And what splendiforous timing – Sammie has a recorder concert tomorrow at noon. Yes, that’s right recorders – whistly, shrill recorders. She said that the whole fourth grade is playing at one time – that is six classes of about 24 kids, all playing at once.

This headache is so bad, that I know it will at least still be here somewhat, if not worse, by noon tomorrow. And then after five million kids whistly whistling at me – oh my!

There is, of course, the little issue of getting a ride there – we are a one car family now, and Mark is working pretty far away tomorrow.

Hopefully I can get a ride, and hopefully, I don’t need a ride to the ER when it’s done.

I was all set to blog on all my blogs tonight, too – and go blog-visiting and commenting.

Doesn’t life always seem to get in the way of your life? It does mine!