Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Literally... Inside My Head.

This morning I woke up at 5am with the worst headache in the whole world. After about 20 minutes of trying my very best to ignore it, I got up and headed downstairs in search of headache relief. I took a few tension headache tyenols and lay down with an ice pack on the couch. My headache became increasingly worse. Tension spilled out of my bones. Even my hair ached, and I felt nauseous to boot.

I tried throwing up, but that only increased the pain. I rocked back and forth holding my aching head and tried to relax, but it was impossible. In tears, I finally started a steamy hot bath. I poured in Epson salts, turned off all the lights, and submerged myself in the water. After soaking for a few minutes, the pain subsided to a dull pounding. I closed my eyes and counted the heartbeats in my head, concentrating on nothing else. I let my hands unclench, slackened my jaw, and let go through my shoulders.

And finally, relief came. Within short order, Spongebob Squarpants was somersaulting through my head in a wedding dress. I guess that is what I think about when I'm relaxed? I climbed back into bed and counted my heartbeats until my breathing was slow and even. I didn't go back to sleep, but I fell into a meditation of sorts that felt really refreshing.

I guess my tension comes out in my sleep. In the daytime, I've been just fine. It's at night that I begin to cry out and flinch. Aaron has to wake me up several times because I start shaking, squeezing my fists tight and grinding my jaw. I wonder why.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

My heart breaks when I read your posts. I hope you can find the peace you need. Have you thought about buying some relaxation or guided hypnosis mp3s to fall asleep to?

Anonymous said...

if you have dental coverage, go to the dentist and ask about getting a night guard... i grind my teeth and can wake up with the worst tension/jaw headaches that just radiate through my whole face and neck... the night guard helps.

i have seen some you can buy over the counter but i have never tried them. they'd probably be better than nothing! :)

Angel Renee said...

Thank you!! I think peace is coming more recently... I'm putting up a post tomorrow that shows what I've been discovering the past week and it may help a LOT.

I had never considered the relaxation mp3s before, until right after that headache. Gloria directed me to Julie Peltzer, who does different techniques to bring healing, relaxation, etc. I listened to that the past few nights and slept deeper and more peacefully than I have in possibly years. Yay!!!

I tried the night guard you get over the counter, but it made me gag and I ended up throwing it across the room somewhere! Broseph. I have a wisdom tooth coming in, so I'm gonna have to visit the dentist anyway... I'm going to ask them about a mouth guard. I had TMJ when I was eleven from grinding and severe stress. Eleven!! Isn't that sad?

Thanks for the suggestions! I appreciate all the feedback I get, positive and negative both.

Bessie said...

halloo... I read your other blog and wanted to comment on the "Narcissist" poem but could not get the comment form to work. Just wanted to say - that really sums it up!

Gloria said...

Oh, good! I keep on forgetting to ask you how that's been for you. :) I finally put the tracks on my phone- I should play them when I go to bed. :)

Anonymous said...

What you've just described is classic migraine. It throbs, right? The nausea is a migraine symptom. Migraines are hereditary (my mom and daughter both had them).

http://www.migraines.org/

Try a migraine over the counter formula. Migraines are different than tension headaches. The arteries are dilated and inflamed during a migraine. Caffeine in your pain medication can help. There are also really good medications like imitrex.

They can be triggered by a number of things from certain foods to the low pressure that comes with storms, to hormones. Some have them rarely; others have them quite often.

I take migrelief which has magnesium, feverfew and riboflavin to help with my hormonal-cycle migraines. It reduces the number and severity.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I should add not everyone has nausea with every migraine. There are lots of variations in the other symptoms of migraine but most people who get them do experience the pain phase.

They used to think if you didn't see auras you didn't have migraines. Migraines are also mis-diagnosed as sinus headache for those who often have sinus and allergy symptoms. For years they thought both my mom and I had sinus infections and problems when it was usually migraine.