All My Ducks in a Row

 Soooo back in like .... May? Yah May. 

I finally got all my ducks in a row from like two years of crazy (and maybe beyond that) to actually go to see a Doctor about my Migraines. 

Mostly because they had gotten much more worse and much more constant.

Like literally I was getting a daily headache it felt like.

Though it was hard to tell if it an actually headache or like irritation at work with the radio chatter.

Regardless. I was getting headaches nearly daily. 

And the nuclear migraines were reaching the point where I was throwing up nearly every time I had a nuclear one. 

And the nuclear ones had reached a pain scale that Excedrin was NOT touching.

Like I literally burned myself on my neck from taking too many showers in a row/putting heat packs on my neck to try and soothe the ache away.

Which if I'm hurting myself...that's a bad sign.

But finally in May I had the time off from work and all the other crises in my life settled to the point where I could tackle the migraines issue.

Since the migraines I've been dealing with since like...what?? High School? It's a well known beast I've had to deal with. So dealing with it has been on the back burner for a long time.

I figured the best way to start out would to get my blood work done.

Since I haven't had an official panel done in like.....ever. 

Just to see if there were any visible issues/deficiencies going on that I could tackle.

Especially since I had two family members recently diagnosed with Anemia. I figured that more than likely I was low on iron in my blood and that I would need to fix that.

So I finally got to the doctor.

Got blood work done.

But also got a CT and MRI scan done as well.

Good news the CT and MRI came back normal so woot! Nothing wrong there. 

But my blood work?

Good news is my iron levels were normal.

Which is impressive because like...I don't eat a lot of red meat. So I've always kinda thought I'd be low on them.

But I wasn't!

I was low on a couple other Vitamins though. 

In a bad way. 

I was low on my Vitamin B12. Being at 143 ....when the normal low side of low is like 213.... 

And I was very stupid low on my Vitamin D. 

The normal low side of low is 30.

My levels when I did the blood test.....showed that I was at 8.

EIGHT. 

Yeesh.

And surprise surprise. Being low in EITHER ONE can contribute to more headaches. *shakes head*

So my doctor told me to get some vitamins for the D and B12 and start taking a specific dose daily to get those levels up.

But also prescribed me a Migraine preventative medicine. Topiramate. To also take to see if that could stop the migraines from coming or being as bad. 

Which good news!

It has helped a lot! 

With the combination of vitamins and meds my minor headaches have all but vanished and if they do occur they tend to be over and done with within a couple of hours. 

It's been amazing. Like I've encountered so many situations at work where I keep thinking "Wow. I'm annoyed. If this had been before I took my RX meds I would have had a migraine by now...but I don't have a migraine. I can be annoyed without getting a migraine. This is great!!" 

And if I do get a migraine...the pain levels have usually been half strength of what they have been. Which considering how much pain I've been in has been great!

It has been weird though because with the RX med, Excedrin doesn't play nice with it. So no more Excedrin for me.

Which is so crazy considering that was like my main 'go to' for trying to stop the headaches.

and now I can't take it because it doesn't interact well with it.

In any case.

I was trialing through all that the past couple of months. 

And had a recheck last month to see how I was doing.

Had another blood test to check my D and B12 

And good news! My D is back in the normal range! Woot!

But my B12? Oof. It went from being too low to stupid high. 

Like the result read >2000 

:S :S :S 

Which lead me to wonder....

As in the couple of weeks leading up to the recheck appointment...my headaches had started increasing again. 

I'd first chalked it up to being off routine. Because I'd had a Family Reunion I was in charge of, Daddoo was in town visiting, a couple days on work and then another long weekend off for my birthday.

So like my normal schedule was all screwed up. So I figured that may have contributed to the headaches.

But with the high B12? Yah...maybe that was the cause.

As I've been off the B12 for almost a month now and the headaches have once again decreased again.

So definitely need to watch how much B12 I'm taking to make sure my levels don't get too high again.

But with that recheck I also learned something else. 

Because with headaches if they're normal headaches...they should go away if you take Tylenol or Advil.....

But if they don't....then it's a Migraine and I need different meds to get rid of those.

So the doctor this time gave me a couple trial meds to try....

And I ended up getting a RX for one called Nurtec.

And oh wow is that RX AWESOME.

Like I've used it a handful of times now for those migraines that will JUST NOT GO AWAY.

And it literally will get rid of the migraine within the Hour. 

It's been just....wow. 

Like Today.

I ended up with one of those nuclear feeling migraines last night. The ache behind the left eye the tension in the neck. One that would leave me miserable for hours on end and recovering for another two days afterwards.

And while the pain was lesser at a 5-6 scale.

It was much stronger than the 1-2 pain scale I've been dealing with.

And like. The Nurtec took it from a 6 to a 0 in like an hour.

I had ENERGY.

I could go out and DO THINGS.

Which considering I had to go to work at 5 am this morning....it was really good that it took effect before we opened for the day so that I could focus at my job and then go do things after work.

And I'm just grateful.

And kicking myself for taking so long to go get checked out to see what's been going on with me.

Because it's exhilarating to be able to take medicine for a migraine and have it actually WORK and for me to be FUNCTIONAL soon after it takes effect. 

I'm sure there's still going to be tweaks down the road as we continue to figure out how everything is working.

But I've been much happier and have found much more energy this past handful of months than it's felt like I've had in years.

Which is probably half the reason why I've started blogging again honestly.

I actually have the energy to WANT to write and BE ABLE to write a bit again. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi