My Brain Hurts...

I grew up watching Monty Python shows because my dad watched them. Each episode I would wait patiently for the animated sequences because when I was younger, that was all I found funny, it took a few years to grow up and get the humor of the live sketches.

One phrase (of many that my mother is sick of hearing) is from one of their "gumby" sketches. Mr. Gumby was always this guy wearing a handkerchief on his head, with a little brush mustache who talked funny. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound funny when I describe it, but it is. I always liked the one sketch where the gumby guy said "My brain hurts."



Unfortunately for me, sometimes my brain does hurt, I guess that's why that phrase always stuck with me. I've had migraines since I was 17 years old. They started after a car accident I was in where I had a head injury. Tests showed no reason for the headaches, but I've had them ever since.

My special triggers seem to be irregular sleep schedule, dehydration, hormones and stress. I manage the sleep schedule pretty well. I screw up on the dehydration one if I have too much fun drinking alcohol and don't get enough water. Or if I skip a meal and don't get enough to drink during the day. Hormones? Well, that's one reason to look forward to menopause I guess!!! Stress? Not so easy to manage. I left my last job because my stress was through the roof, for years. My current job is wonderful, but we do have an intense project coming up in the next few months that I think has given me some small flashbacks to the old days at the previous job. So maybe I am a little more stressed than usual.

Oh, and I forgot to mention barometric pressure! Apparently I am sensitive to sudden drops in barometric pressure. I don't think that doctors officially accept that yet, or at least there's not well-documented studies out there, but I don't need that, I know it's true. Also, abrupt changes in weather, like a sudden heat/humidity wave will get me. Oh, and sinus pressure. Oh, and when it's sunny, and also when it rains. :-D

I don't get the aura that lots of people with migraines get, I get sensitive to sound and all irritable (yes, more than usual, haha). That's how I know one is coming. You know those scenes in movies or shows where like, there's a drip from the faucet and the camera starts to slowly zoom in on the drip hitting a pan in the sink and it gets louder and louder like it's beating a drum? That's what I get like with sounds around me, I cannot abide rhythmic sounds like that when I'm pre-headachy. And for some reason I try to act all normal and live my life and that takes SO MUCH ENERGY because I try to save the medication for when I actually have a headache so as not to waste it, when really, after 8 decades of living through this I should just take the damn pill when I know one is coming. But that's how a brain works I guess!

So yes, I've got a medication that works for me, and has for several years now. But of course the insurance companies only pay for nine pills per month, so there's always that fear. Also, in the past few years I find that after I take the pills I tend to get weepy. Weepy is the best word for it because it's that special kind of girl-weepy where girl movies or those commercials that show shelter animals where what's-her-name that sings the sad songs tells you about all these poor animals makes you just SOB like your best friend, dog, parents, and siblings all simultaneously passed away just after telling you that you were adopted and they never really liked you. It's really wallowing, trust me.

It's been on my mind lately because I seem to be going through a phase where I'm getting them a lot. It occurred to me today that I might actually have a sinus infection that just doesn't have a lot of symptoms so I guess I should go to the doctor...

I remember years ago one of my doctors telling me that they just don't know for sure what goes on with a migraine and blah blah blah and what it comes down to is that for whatever reason, my nervous system is more sensitive to stimuli. Kind of like how an asthmatic is more sensitive to air quality I guess.

The point of this post today? No point I guess, just blogging about what's on my mind. I haven't had a lot of energy for genealogy research or genealogy bloggings while struggling the past few weeks and I miss it. Hopefully I can pull my crap together here and get over this particular phase. Oh, and it would be cool too if the migraines would just go away completely. That would be awesome! I promise, I would use my new found time and energy only for good. :-)

Meanwhile, I can't bring up Monty Python and not show my favorite song: