Yesterday’s post only captured part of my day. These days my mood fluctuates dramatically depending on how my migraines are going. I woke up in a good mood, had a migraine come on around 9:30 a.m., during which time I wrote that post. Once I took a two-hour nap, the pain decreased substantially and I was no longer sensitive to touch, lightheaded, fatigued or nauseated. The energy level that I’ve come to adore when I feel good was back for the rest of the day.
Before that it seemed like the migraine was here to stay for days, weeks or months, depending on how forgiving it chose to be. If it is here for a while, at least its being generous with low-impact moments.
I’ve been on the watch for increasing depression. How awesome I feel during my good times convinces me that the sadness and frustration are just part of my migraine symptoms these days. Considering that I had a migraine nearly every night from October to May (with some relief in December), it isn’t surprising that I’m fed up.
I feel great right now, but am forcing myself to take it easy. Seattle is supposed to be outrageously hot for the next few days. If I’m not careful, I’ll have a migraine and heat sickness. I’m such a delicate flower.
Thanks for the quick answer. I just read your “prodrome” post – some of the details were different, but on the whole it sounded very familiar. I am often more talkative than usual when I’m about to have a migraine – but this is hard to measure, because I’m always talkative. The difference is that, during the prodrome, I a) know I’m being more talkative than usual, and I even wonder if it’s annoying my husband, but I can’t stop myself, and b) feel that all this talking is kind of tiring (even though I feel otherwise quite cheerful), but I can’t stop myself.
I wouldn’t say that my normal self is morose, but I am easily annoyed and given to ranting about whatever is happened to me during the day. Being straightforwardly cheerful and positive isn’t me – it’s like someone else has taken over my head.
Migraine is a very weird disease, isn’t it? Not only do you get pain, you get auras (well, some of us do). Not only do you get auras, you get cravings. Not only do you get cravings, you get personality changes. Not only do you get personality changes, you get bizarre physical symptoms that, on the surface, seem to have nothing to do with your head. It would be fascinating if it weren’t so painful – it’s almost like I want to observe someone else experiencing migraine. Except I wouldn’t wish it on any real person. Maybe I want to observe it in some character in a book – except if I weren’t a migraine sufferer I’d never believe anyone could go through something so strange.
Kerrie – just curious. That good mood you experienced right before your migraine? Is this a pattern for you? I swear that, pre-inderal (which is working well, thank goodness), I could tell when a migraine was coming on because I’d feel uncommonly cheerful, affectionate, and playful. Then within hours – boom – aura time! Just wondering if this has ever happened to you.
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Yes! It has happened a lot. It’s a fairly common symptom, although most people don’t know about it.
I wrote a post about it when I first realized what was happening:
http://www.thedailyheadache.com/2005/07/prodrome.html
The energy that I feel then is more like I have to shake my arms and run around or scream. When I’m low-migraine, it is simply getting closer to the energy level I had years ago. I want to do things like cook, organize the house, go out to dinner, etc. “Normal” stuff.
There’s a qualitative difference I can feel, but can’t describe very well.
Kerrie