Migraines

     This is more sort of an entry for me to keep track of how things are going. You can read it if you like, but I won't be offended if you skip this one.

    I've been getting migraines for about fifteen years now. They weren't too bad at first. I'd get one every couple of months. It'd last for a few hours then sort of fade away.  Then I started working a lot during the summers in un-airconditioned theatres and I noticed the heat made them worse. Much, much worse. I started to get one a week. And it'd last for a few days. 

   And they got worse from there. 

They'd calm down a bit in the winter when the weather cooled. I'd still get one if I didn't get enough sleep or if the planets aligned just right or whatever decided to set it off that particular time. As I got older, they got worse. 

There was a two month stretch ending about a two weeks ago where I got them every day. 

About a month ago, I finally got in to see a neurologist. He put me on a new cocktail of meds and vitamins: 100mg of prescription Topomax (once daily, taken before bed,) 400 mg of Magnesium (once daily) and 400 mg vitamin B2/Riboflavin (taken as 200mg twice daily.) 

In addition, I have to make sure I'm eating regular meals. This is surprisingly hard for me. In my childhood, I was a good meal-eater. I rarely skipped breakfast as a kid. I ate lunch at school, dinner with the family. When I was in college, things got a bit off kilter. I started skipping breakfast in favor of a snack around mid-morning. Dinner went by way of a quick something after rehearsals or a show. As an adult, breakfast has been replaced altogether by coffee. And now the Topomax decreases my appetite to the point where I don't think to eat anything until about 3:00 in the afternoon. Evidently, the drop in blood sugar is a contributing factor to the migraines. 

So, regular meals to keep the blood sugar up and regular exercise to keep the sugar-filled blood flowing. The exercise isn't too hard, once derby gets back in season. (In the meantime, if anyone local is looking for a gym buddy, I'm available.) 

My clever, high-tech doctor suggested a couple of fun iPhone apps to track the suckers. So I have yet another anal retentive time suck in my life. 'Cause I needed that like a hole in my head. 

The results so far: Better.  I've improved from migraines every day to one or two a week. They've gone down from lasting two to three days (or more) to a day or so.  

The neurologist says to give the vitamins a good four months to really kick in. I have another appointment with him in April. So we'll see how things stand then. I'm hoping for enough improvement by April where I don't have to change anything.  I'll keep you posted.