Where I talk about headaches and mention my period

 This has been a hard month for me.  It started with snow.  We didn't get a lot of snow thankfully and it was weird because two days previous it had been 101 degrees and then two days later it was in the 90's again.  Anyway, this isn't about snow.  

I have an Arnold Chiari Malformation, which is a big source of the headaches I've had since I was little.  I remember being at least 11 and having migraines, though, at the time I didn't know that was what I was experiencing.  My headaches are worse during times of hormone changes.  The worst that I can remember (besides recently) was right after Will was born.  The headaches were terrible and one night I honestly thought I was dying and laid on the kitchen floor with my cheek on the cold floor.  Mike took me to the ER and I promptly projectile vomited all over the waiting room restroom.  They did a cat scan, gave me morphine and I followed up with my Neurologist, who gave me medicine to prevent more headaches.  I took that daily for months until my hormones leveled out and then I didn't need the medicine anymore.  

I also experienced horrible migraines and daily headaches after each miscarriage.  More recently, I have been experiencing headaches the week following my period.  I either get a migraine and then have a bad headache the rest of the week, or, I just get a throbbing headache that lasts all week without the migraine.  I am not a caffeine drinker so I manage my headaches by drinking caffeine that week, taking tylenol and Ibuprofen, and using other helps like peppermint oil or ice on the forehead.  I am lucky enough to get migraine auras so I can usually detect when it is coming and then I jump to action and manage the headache for that week.  

This month my period started and before it ended my head started hurting.  I thought it was weird to start that early and expected it to be gone a week later, like normal.  Sadly, the week passed and another week passed and none of my headache managing tricks worked.  Literally nothing worked.  Caffeine would take the edge off but nothing actually took the headache away.  By day 12 I was feeling really worried and starting to get concerned.  Mike gave me a blessing and I waited each day to wake up to no headache but each day my head continued to throb.  There were days where I would practice mindfulness and gratitude and would make it an hour or two before I was in my room crying and praying and then repeating mindfulness and gratitude to get me through the next few hours.  I am not a big crier and I cried a lot that last week.  I finally got a phone doctors appointment and my doctor ordered Imitrex for me and Naproxen.  Unfortunately, there was a mixup with the pharmacy and I wasn't able to get the medicine for two more days.  After experiencing migraine level headaches for almost 20 days, I finally got medicine to help take the headaches away.  It took a few doses of medicine before it helped and the following few days I had awful neck and shoulder soreness from all the tension.  

Sadly, my little tale is not quite over.  Felicity started getting sick two days before I was able to get my medicine and she passed the sickness on to all of us but Will.  As soon as the headaches went away, I woke up with a sore throat, a low-grade fever, so many boogers, sneezing, etc.  We are all on the mend and I hope we will all be better by the middle of the week.  

It has been a rough month.  The cold (maybe Covid?) hasn't been fun but it hasn't been that bad compared to the headaches.  I feel so tired and so ready to be healthy again.  I have tried to be positive and view this as temporary and try to learn what I can from this but I have had some low moments.  My period is due to start again any day now and therefore, the headaches will begin again soon and I feel depressed by that thought.  I am going to the endocrinologist in October and I hope I can get some answers for the headaches.