#migraines

Hard working kitty! Lewis alerts for migraines. I didn't realize that the changes in your body pre migraine are noticeable by service animals hours before the symptoms/pain affect you

Like this applies to all “invisible” disabilities in the sense that just bc you can’t see what’s wrong doesn’t mean nothing is wrong or they aren’t disabled but it’s especially the case for chronic migraines

Migraines are NOT just headaches. It’s not just “oof ow my head hurt :(”, Migraines are WHOLE body affair. It’s getting weepy and irritable hours before the pain hits, it’s starting to get clumsy and feeling body aches just before the pain starts, it’s getting stiff because of the aches and sensitive to light and sound because of how heightened senses get.

And when the pain gets, sometimes it is the general image of someone locked in a dark room in bed, which is genuinely awful bc you can’t do anything. You just have to lay there and stew in your pain and no medicine touches it and everything hurts, worst of all your head and there is nothing to focus on other than the pain because any light hurts and any sound hurts.

But sometimes the pain isn’t bad enough for that, or sometimes you have to work or go to school with nails in your head and it’s impossible to focus. Your depth perception gets wonky, you’re clumsy, you slur or stumble over your words because so much of your brain is occupied only by pain. You can’t miss another day of work, you can’t miss the money, but you’re messing up orders or you’re misunderstanding instructions.

And then there’s the after. Postdrome, the migraine hangover. Where the emotional and irritability returns, and you have issues with your stomach, very often leaving you unable to eat or drink without puking. Your neck is stiff, your head feels heavy, your brain is so fogged up that you can barely string together a coherent sentence. Your body aches much worse than before, and you’re exhausted, fatigued to hell and back, and that lasts for 1-3 days after the actual migraine.

Migraines are a multi-day condition that affects EVERY aspect of your fucking life. And medicines that treat the pain very often only lessen the symptoms that occur before and after.

The first is the sternocleidomastoid muscle, or the SCM muscle.

This big red section is responsible for pain around the eye, cheekbone, and jaw, as well as some temple pain. Literally all you have to do is angle your head down a little, angle it away from the side that hurts, and then you can gently pinch and rub that muscle. I find it best to start at the bottom and travel upwards. The relief is so immediate! You can increase pressure as you feel comfortable doing so.

Here is a short and easy video showing this in action

The second is a fast and easy stretch that soothes your vagus nerve, which is the nerve responsible for calming you down. The vagus nerve, for those unfamiliar, is stimulated by deep breathing such as yawning, sighing, singing, or taking a deep breath to calm your anger in a tense situation.

You can stretch this out by sitting up as straight as possible (this does not have to be perfect to work) and interlacing your fingers. Put your hands on the back of your head with your thumbs going down the sides of your neck and, while keeping your face forward, look all the way to one side with just your eyes. Hold that until you feel the urge to breathe deeply or yawn, or until you can tell there’s a change. Then do the same thing on the other side. When you put your arms down, you should clearly be able to turn your head farther in both directions. If the first session doesn’t get rid of your migraine, rest and repeat as many times as necessary. I even get a little fancy with it and roll my eyes up and down along the outer edge sometimes to stretch as much as I can.

If you need a visual here’s a good video on it. I know some of the language they use seems questionable but this is real and simple science and should not be discarded because it’s been adopted by the trendy wellness crowd!

I seriously cannot believe I didn’t hear a word of this from any doctor in my life. Additionally, if you get frequent recurring migraines, you may want to see a dietician. Migraines can be caused by foods containing histamines, lectin, etc. and can also be caused by high blood pressure in specific situations such as exercise, stress, and even sex.

You are literally allowed to walk out of a doctor's office and never come back. You're allowed to self advocate and say "I don't know why you think that's acceptable to say to a patient". You can say "I'm not going to take this"

Which I know is probably obvious and also, extremely difficult to do on the spot. And if you paid a copay, it's even harder because it feels like a waste of money. I think if you're paying to be treated like shit that's not getting your money's worth.

I'm talking about like, genuine disrespect, neglect, malpractice, or true discomfort. Including but not limited to:

Inappropriate comments or demeanor. Ofc there's the obvious crazy "holy shit a doctor just said that?" Comments but I also mean "Well MAYBE if you lost weight you wouldn't have to be on heart medication 😒" "Kinda funny how everyone claims to have POTS lately..."

Poor bedside manner. "I doubt you're in that much pain all the time" "Sometimes in life you need to suck it up. It's not a scary procedure" "It's just a shot, you're not 4 calm down"

Treating you like an addict for needing/requesting a controlled substance. Not like "hey I'm concerned, do you need addiction resources or are you good?" But interrogating you or denying you something that would improve your quality of life on the basis that they are suspicious of your intentions. Some doctors just don't feel comfortable prescribing some things in general and that's one thing, your gp probably won't give you anxiety meds but if they give you an attitude and act like you're trying to fool them, they're an asshole.

Assuming you're lying about your symptoms/conditions. Not as in, you didn't meet the criteria and didn't get diagnosed (you're allowed to get a second opinion) but "Yeah lately everyone seems to think they have chronic fatigue syndrome" "if you truly had (condition) you'd be doubled over in pain right now" "Do you know how rare that actually is? I've met like, 3 patients with it"

Being way out of their lane. Your rheumatologist should not be saying "Is there an actual reason you're depressed? It doesn't look like you've tried every option"

That "I'm the one with the degree so stop talking and listen" attitude. Iykyk.

Not following protocol or respecting your comfort or needs.

Being clearly ignorant when it comes to the issue you're there for. Things like a therapist that tells you dissociative disorders aren't real, that personality disorders are a reflection of your character, or "yeah I can tell by how you're talking to me right now, you're clearly not autistic"