Medicinal Use
Of all of the wonderful things I got from my parents—low cholesterol, low blood pressure, graceful aging—I somehow managed to also get a fair amount of the crappy bits. One such crappy bit I got from my lovely mother was migraines. I've been getting them for years, usually once every 6 weeks or so. When asked I usually tell people, "frequently" or "persistent". It sucks, but you learn to adjust and just deal with them.
Unfortunately, there is little that can be done for migraines, and depending on the doctor, they'll just throw pain medications at you and tell you to live with it. The last doctor I went to gave me some stuff that is part barbituate and part caffeine. As you can guess sometimes I'm rather high, and other times I just fall asleep. The problem is, I never know how I'm going to react, so I like to avoid taking them as much as possible, unless I can just lie in bed.
I have found that the medication helps a bit, but what really helps the most is getting a massage (to lessen the tension in my shoulders and neck) or going to the chiropractor. These are great solutions, but at the price tag they have attached I like to avoid those options as much as possible.
Recently, I've had a migraine for 3 weeks. The most frustrating bit is it will subside for quite a while, then come back in full force. As a result, I've been popping pills like they are going out of style. Today I took one right before work, which (surprisingly) didn't have much of an effect on me, and barely nudged the migraine. I took another one at lunch, and now I'm struggling to keep my eyes propped open, and be productive. I don't know how well I'm succeeding at either one. With my luck, MyBoss will walk in my office in an hour or so and find me drooling on the keyboard with this entry still open. That would be just dandy. Don't you think?
My favorite bit is, my dentist says I have TMJ, the TMJ specialist agrees (so, I guess I do), and he recommends braces to fix that problem (YUCK), but says that the TMJ is contributing to the migraines (and since my jaw has been aching almost as long as I've had this migraine I'm prone to agree). I think I'm going to curl up and die, now.
Unfortunately, there is little that can be done for migraines, and depending on the doctor, they'll just throw pain medications at you and tell you to live with it. The last doctor I went to gave me some stuff that is part barbituate and part caffeine. As you can guess sometimes I'm rather high, and other times I just fall asleep. The problem is, I never know how I'm going to react, so I like to avoid taking them as much as possible, unless I can just lie in bed.
I have found that the medication helps a bit, but what really helps the most is getting a massage (to lessen the tension in my shoulders and neck) or going to the chiropractor. These are great solutions, but at the price tag they have attached I like to avoid those options as much as possible.
Recently, I've had a migraine for 3 weeks. The most frustrating bit is it will subside for quite a while, then come back in full force. As a result, I've been popping pills like they are going out of style. Today I took one right before work, which (surprisingly) didn't have much of an effect on me, and barely nudged the migraine. I took another one at lunch, and now I'm struggling to keep my eyes propped open, and be productive. I don't know how well I'm succeeding at either one. With my luck, MyBoss will walk in my office in an hour or so and find me drooling on the keyboard with this entry still open. That would be just dandy. Don't you think?
My favorite bit is, my dentist says I have TMJ, the TMJ specialist agrees (so, I guess I do), and he recommends braces to fix that problem (YUCK), but says that the TMJ is contributing to the migraines (and since my jaw has been aching almost as long as I've had this migraine I'm prone to agree). I think I'm going to curl up and die, now.
posted by granola girl at 1:37 pm
4 Comments:
What's TMJ? No, no - let me guess - you're on a Transcental Meditation Jag? You have a Tired Mouth caused by Jawing all day? You've been eating Tibetan Made Jelly? Ok, I give up.
As a cop-out, you can check out this site or I can just tell you here. Basically, your lower jaw is suspended from your upper jaw thanks to a whole lot of blah, blah, blah. Anyway, there is a disk that sits between your upper and lower jaw muscles (like those in your back). If the jaw doesn't sit exactly so, said disk gets inflamed and very sore, or you get popping in the jaw. All of it is too plesant for words.
My problem used to be the popping now I have the swelling, oh, and I can't open my mouth all the way anymore.
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Should I tell Mumsy that her comments are emailed to me, so I get to see them even if she deletes them? Bwauahahahaha
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