Sunday 1 September 2013

Month in Review - August 2013

I'm not sad to see the back of August.  This month has felt like a few steps backwards.


The month got off to a bad start when I had to leave work at lunchtime as the migraine was coming and there was no way it would hold off until the end of the work day (as they often do) before debilitating me.  Sadly my meds didn't abort it and it returned the following day which meant riding it out without anymore meds and a full day of work missed the following day.

A very painful right-sided headache on the following Monday (5th) felt like it was going to head into a migraine but thankfully it didn't and I enjoyed a pain-free day the following day which was just as well as I needed to dye my hair pink that evening (or rather, my lovely housemate Lali dyed it for me) and sort out all my packing for LeakyCon, which I hadn't intended to leave until the last minute but pain had prevented me over the weekend and the day before!

LeakyCon felt like it was going to be the big test for me, with travelling down to London on the Wednesday (7th), spending hours in Leavesden Studios on my feet, then 4 days of the conference itself was all a recipe for Migraine as far as I was concerned.  Although I suffered with pain throughout, worst of the first day of the conference, I used everything in my power to mitigate the migraine risk, with eating little and often, drinking almost continuously, taking breaks and missing programming when I felt I just needed a rest, and not making it to any of the evening events, I managed to survive it without a migraine which felt like an absolute miracle (especially considering how things there seemed to be against me).

Getting through something like LeakyCon without a migraine and with the previous migraine (which started on 1st August) happening a massive 11 days after the one before it, I was starting to feel invincible!

I knew August was going to be a challenging month though, with not only LeakyCon to survive but with an extremely busy and stressful month at work, the biggest day of which was planned to be on the 20th, so having made it through LeakyCon without a migraine, I was then hoping I could make it through the work stress to come without the accompanying migraines.

All through the week at work after LeakyCon I was expecting to be hit with a migraine.  It had been so long since the last one and I had done so much in that time too.  It held off until the Friday though (16th).  It built up very slowly through the day and by the time my prevention meds knocked me out at 9pm, it still hadn't reached the window where I should be taking my meds.
By 1:3am the agonising pain had woken me up and I was able to take my attack meds.  They didn't take effect until about 4am as I had missed the right window to take the meds in.  Consequently, the migraine returned the following day making my whole weekend a complete write-off.  On the Sunday I genuinely felt like I was dying and I had to wonder if the longer gap between the migraines makes more a more intense migraine.  If that is indeed the trade-off, then I'd choose the less frequent and more intense migraines as I get a little of my life back in between them when the gap is longer.

I was battling pain on the Monday then, the day before The Big Day at work but I was coping.  The Big Day (20th) arrived and I suffered throughout it pretty badly but I made it through.  I continued suffering a lot with pain for the rest of the week, though it lessened a bit towards the end, but it couldn't last and on the Friday it came on a LOT quicker than they normally do - normally they take many hours to slowly build but this time it was more like 30 mins.  I managed to drive myself home but it took everything I had and I couldn't even get myself from the car to the door on my own.  I dosed up on my meds but I was very worried about the plans I'd made the following day (24th) to see my Mum who was going to be in York.  I reduced the plans to just meeting her for lunch but the 90mins of that was enough to re-trigger the migraine and wrote off the rest of my weekend.

Daily headache has been back in full force for the past week following that migraine without any let up and when Friday came I could feel the migraine building in the afternoon.  Once again I was scuppered by my preventative meds knocking me out by 9pm meaning that I slept right through the window for me to take my attack meds and the pain woke me shortly after midnight.  The fact that the meds then took several hours to work indicated that I'd missed the window and once again, another weekend written off to the full three days of migraine.

I knew August was going to be a tough month but it felt worse because July had been such a good month.  A lot of the problems with August have been the return of daily headache causing a real problem for me and none of my migraines being properly aborted at the start of the migraine.

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