It is 6:35 on Thursday morning. I am sitting in my pajamas, an hour of RLS work already under my belt, watching Wimbeldon. Specifically watching Venus Williams on Match Point #5. I am also recovering from a horrendous night sleep. However, this is a horrendous night that I can only blame on myself.
(Venus just won!!!!!)
Anyways, my sleep. I estimate I probably only got a maximum of 2 hours or so of sleep last night. It's why I am up working early. I am going to need a nap break at some point during the day.
JB did some research yesterday on my continual headaches. His thought was that a logical assumption is that they could be due to medication overuse. This is a fairly routine cycle for me. Go off or on hormones, start getting migraines, start taking pain medicine, feel better, keep taking medicines, headaches stop responding to the pain medication and actually begin to be caused by the pain medication.
As I told you yesterday, John had already told me no more Tylenol as that is a huge culprit for rebound headaches. But I had been taking Aleve on a regular basis and occasional Ibuprofen when they became intolerable. Yesterday afternoon, after another horrid migraine that required my second-to-last codeine that I have to ask him for because he's hidden them, and John began doing some research. A few hours later he informed me of the dandy news that I had to try cutting off all pain medication for at least 3-4 days in order to determine whether the cause is the medication overuse. He is confident it is. Sigh ...
So, I ask him what I am supposed to do in the meantime. He says that the only "drug" I can use is caffeine. Because I never drink caffeine (and therefore only get it in small amounts in chocolate), he says the caffeine would be fine to use to take the edge off of a bad headache while I am testing out his theory.
So yesterday I did just that. I drank a Mountain Dew and two Cokes while we hung out with some friends for the Fourth of July. I also had more chocolate than I had had in awhile. The result: I stared at the ceiling for many hours and ultimately moved to the guest room where I could feel comfortable tossing and turning and not fear waking my husband up before another long day of work. Sometimes after 2 a.m. I dozed off, but only off and on between 2 and 4:45. I've been up since 4:45.
When I told JB this morning how much caffeine I inhaled yesterday, he almost started laughing and mumbled something about a holy cow. So three glasses when you are used to zero is a little excessive. Go figure. I think I'd do it again for how headache-free I have been since 5pm yesterday! Besides the fact that I am a walking zombie, I feel great!!!
Hope your Fourth was equally as wonderful everyone.
Time for some more work (and Wimbeldon).
4 comments:
There is a new Pepsi out there with twice or three times the caffiene - Pepsi Max. Maybe you should steer away from that one!
obviously, i'm still half asleep and can't spell...i meant "caffeine"! :-)
I laugh at this story only because I struggle with my own insomnia issues and know all to well the highs and lows of the day. I feel your pain girl! :-)
My doctor told me to quit taking Aleve that it was a "break-through" pain killer and that the headaches will come back worse than before. Also, not to take Tylenol at all due to the effects that it can have on other parts of the body.
maybe drink the caffeine earlier in the day so that you can sleep at night.
What do I know. I have headaches all the time and I can't get rid of them.
Glad to hear that you had a good 4th. We sure do miss you guys. Come help me pack!!
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