Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Headache Update...

I went to the clinic yesterday because the headaches were kind of starting to scare me. While I know that seeing sparks and vertigo aren't uncommon migraine symptoms, the suddenly constant dizziness was starting to make me feel a little panicked. The local clinic was able to get me in two hours after I called (yay! It's nice to be going some place down the street, instead of an hour and a half's drive away!) and I'm considerably calmer after talking with the PA.

The biggest red flag apparently came from the orthostatic test. They had me lay down and took my blood pressure. It was 100 over 60. Sitting up it was 98 over 58. And standing it was 96 over 56. Nothing dramatic there. But my pulse went from 56 laying down to 80 sitting up to 88 standing. Apparently that means that I'm really dehydrated, despite the water bottle I carry around and am constantly sipping from. That means that I'm now drinking water pretty much non-stop all day to make up for the fact that I'm nursing and it's been in the triple digits almost everyday for the past several weeks.

However that doesn't explain why the migraines are a daily occurrence now. So I'm going back in next week to see if being really hydrated helps. Hopefully it does, because I really don't like any of the "migraine controlling" medication options. I'm hoping that these just-had-a-baby-hormones settle down (that's what I think is the cause) and they go back to being a monthly, rather than daily occurrence. Now to get some sleep so I follow the "drink lots of water and rest" part of the instructions.

"And rest?" There definitely isn't much resting going on around here! Who can rest with a toddler?

6 comments:

  1. Hopefully they go away soon! I think it's funny when doctors tell moms to rest. My idea of resting is sleeping past 6 am these days.

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  2. I hope being hydrated helps you. Migraines are no fun. I couldn't imagine dealing with them on a daily basis.

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  3. My brother has been plagued with terrible migraines all his life. He sees flashing lights, gets dizzy, and throws up. He has to go into a dark room and lay down to compensate. He now is on some medication and as soon as he sees flashing lights, he takes it and it stops the progression. We have found that his migraines are brought about from stress.

    Take care ((hugs)).

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  4. i hope you start feeling better soon!

    and a couple of questions: is that a moby wrap? do you like it? how big of a child would you carry in that (i have a 14 lb. 3 month old boy who likes to be carried everywhere). hope i don't add to your headache!!

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  5. I hope that the hydration helps; the terrible heat certainly doesn't help anything.

    My older (29) daughter has had migraines for years. They crop up like clockwork in times of stress, at certain times of her cycle, and - always - when she is excited about something. The one thing that has helped her is Excedrin Migraine (basically aspirin and caffeine, I think). I'm not sure about how it would affect a nursing mother, but I'll at least throw it out there.

    God bless, and I hope you get relief (and rest!) soon.

    Marie

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  6. It is the moby wrap and I love it! It's actually the fourth carrier that I've used and it's my favorite (actually, I've been thinking about writing a post on it soon!). It's perfect right now for carrying Maggie (she weighed in at 12 lbs 15 oz). The sack it came in says that it goes up to 35 lbs. When Sadie was around 30 lbs I was carrying her in a wrap I made (that was very similar) and while it was tough (just because of the weight) it was definitely more comfortable than anything else we tried!

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