I'm one of those people who gets headaches. My first headache (that I can remember) was on the first day of first grade. I remember sitting in Miss Boyle's classroom and just wanting to either cry or put my head down on my desk to nap. I'm sure the headache was caused by the excitement and anxiety of the first day of school as well as the hot classroom (I didn't go to school with air conditioning until 9th grade) and the first full day of structured education in my life. Since then, I've had many headaches.
I don't remember any specific headaches during middle school; however, during high school I had more days with a headache than without. My headaches in high school were most likely due to dehydration. I refused to use the bathrooms at school because they were scary and smelled like smoke. Plus we only had three minutes in between classes, which is not enough time to take care of business. To prevent me from having to go to the bathroom, I didn't drink during school hours. Once I got to college and had an abundant supply of beverages in the cafeteria and time to actually go to the bathroom, I stayed hydrated throughout the day and rarely had a headache.
Post-college, my headaches have been few and far between. Most of the time they are brought on by dehydration or stress. This past December and January I had two of the worst headaches of my life. The second one was so bad that my doctor sent me to the ER to be sure I didn't have something (like brain tumor) causing my headaches. Two CT scans later, it was determined that my brain is healthy. The cause of my crazy-bad headaches is undetermined.
Yesterday afternoon I felt a headache coming on (probably the result of the thousands of hormones running feeling in my body). I decided to feed my headache when I got home from school (meaning I ate some cereal and had several glasses of water). That just made things worse. My headache became increasingly worse. By 6:00pm I was in bed; at 7:00pm I resorted to a little caffeine (to open my blood vessels); and then I slept. At 9:00pm I woke up feeling slightly better and eager to drink some more water. I was asleep again by 10:00pm and didn't get up until this morning. My headache is gone. However, I do have a headache-hangover, which a yucky feeling (from head to toe) from feeling so crappy yesterday.
So, what causes headaches? And how can they be prevented? Or how can you lessen the pain once a headache has settled in? Any home-remedies? Anything a pregnant lady should or should not do in the midst of a killer headache?
4 comments:
I used to regularly have very severe headaches from when I was a baby through about middle school. My mom took me to the dr and she gave me this green medicine to take when I felt one coming on. I've since grown out of them. But when I get one today, I pop an excedrin and drink a cup of coffee. That usually takes care of it.
What to do? David should def. give you special treatment.
Beck, SUCKS about the headaches. Have you seen a neurologist? Do they think they're migraines (unilateral, light sensitivity, nausea) or just regular headaches? We give pregnant women a medicine called Midrin for really bad ones. You can't take Excedrin when you're prego. I'm sorry you feel so yuck. Blah.
Oops, that previous comment was from me. My friend used my computer and didn't sign out.
Becky-
I was about to email you because Carla told me you are pregnant! Congratulations! Sorry to hear about the headaches, and that I don't have any advice. I don't know how I am going to get through pregnancy someday because I don't know if I can deal with not being able to take all the things that make you feel better!
Post a Comment