Migraines - Tumblr Posts
As long as Costco exists, my hatred for it will burn bright and hot enough to eclipse the rising sun. If ever I am forced to enter such a place, sweat will bead on my forehead, and you can know that my mortal flesh has stopped the formation of our solar system’s second star.
the lights at costco are bright enough to replace the sun. we no longer need our own sun.
We need like “unclench your jaw” posts but for eye strain. Like
Go look at something 20ft away for 20 seconds.
Okay I’m currently furious that migraines are often so blindly easy to treat and I had to find this out myself at the age of 26 when I’ve been to a neurologist since I was 11 lol so I’m about to teach you two neat and fast little tricks to deal with pain!
The first is the sternocleidomastoid muscle, or the SCM muscle.
This big red section is responsible for pain around the eye, cheekbone, and jaw, as well as some temple pain. Literally all you have to do is angle your head down a little, angle it away from the side that hurts, and then you can gently pinch and rub that muscle. I find it best to start at the bottom and travel upwards. The relief is so immediate! You can increase pressure as you feel comfortable doing so.
Here is a short and easy video showing this in action
The second is a fast and easy stretch that soothes your vagus nerve, which is the nerve responsible for calming you down. The vagus nerve, for those unfamiliar, is stimulated by deep breathing such as yawning, sighing, singing, or taking a deep breath to calm your anger in a tense situation.
You can stretch this out by sitting up as straight as possible (this does not have to be perfect to work) and interlacing your fingers. Put your hands on the back of your head with your thumbs going down the sides of your neck and, while keeping your face forward, look all the way to one side with just your eyes. Hold that until you feel the urge to breathe deeply or yawn, or until you can tell there’s a change. Then do the same thing on the other side. When you put your arms down, you should clearly be able to turn your head farther in both directions. If the first session doesn’t get rid of your migraine, rest and repeat as many times as necessary. I even get a little fancy with it and roll my eyes up and down along the outer edge sometimes to stretch as much as I can.
If you need a visual here’s a good video on it. I know some of the language they use seems questionable but this is real and simple science and should not be discarded because it’s been adopted by the trendy wellness crowd!
I seriously cannot believe I didn’t hear a word of this from any doctor in my life. Additionally, if you get frequent recurring migraines, you may want to see a dietician. Migraines can be caused by foods containing histamines, lectin, etc. and can also be caused by high blood pressure in specific situations such as exercise, stress, and even sex.
If any of this information helps you I’d love to hear it btw! It’s so so fast and easy to do. Good luck!
Okay I’m currently furious that migraines are often so blindly easy to treat and I had to find this out myself at the age of 26 when I’ve been to a neurologist since I was 11 lol so I’m about to teach you two neat and fast little tricks to deal with pain!
The first is the sternocleidomastoid muscle, or the SCM muscle.
This big red section is responsible for pain around the eye, cheekbone, and jaw, as well as some temple pain. Literally all you have to do is angle your head down a little, angle it away from the side that hurts, and then you can gently pinch and rub that muscle. I find it best to start at the bottom and travel upwards. The relief is so immediate! You can increase pressure as you feel comfortable doing so.
Here is a short and easy video showing this in action
The second is a fast and easy stretch that soothes your vagus nerve, which is the nerve responsible for calming you down. The vagus nerve, for those unfamiliar, is stimulated by deep breathing such as yawning, sighing, singing, or taking a deep breath to calm your anger in a tense situation.
You can stretch this out by sitting up as straight as possible (this does not have to be perfect to work) and interlacing your fingers. Put your hands on the back of your head with your thumbs going down the sides of your neck and, while keeping your face forward, look all the way to one side with just your eyes. Hold that until you feel the urge to breathe deeply or yawn, or until you can tell there’s a change. Then do the same thing on the other side. When you put your arms down, you should clearly be able to turn your head farther in both directions. If the first session doesn’t get rid of your migraine, rest and repeat as many times as necessary. I even get a little fancy with it and roll my eyes up and down along the outer edge sometimes to stretch as much as I can.
If you need a visual here’s a good video on it. I know some of the language they use seems questionable but this is real and simple science and should not be discarded because it’s been adopted by the trendy wellness crowd!
I seriously cannot believe I didn’t hear a word of this from any doctor in my life. Additionally, if you get frequent recurring migraines, you may want to see a dietician. Migraines can be caused by foods containing histamines, lectin, etc. and can also be caused by high blood pressure in specific situations such as exercise, stress, and even sex.
If any of this information helps you I’d love to hear it btw! It’s so so fast and easy to do. Good luck!
Okay I’m currently furious that migraines are often so blindly easy to treat and I had to find this out myself at the age of 26 when I’ve been to a neurologist since I was 11 lol so I’m about to teach you two neat and fast little tricks to deal with pain!
The first is the sternocleidomastoid muscle, or the SCM muscle.
This big red section is responsible for pain around the eye, cheekbone, and jaw, as well as some temple pain. Literally all you have to do is angle your head down a little, angle it away from the side that hurts, and then you can gently pinch and rub that muscle. I find it best to start at the bottom and travel upwards. The relief is so immediate! You can increase pressure as you feel comfortable doing so.
Here is a short and easy video showing this in action
The second is a fast and easy stretch that soothes your vagus nerve, which is the nerve responsible for calming you down. The vagus nerve, for those unfamiliar, is stimulated by deep breathing such as yawning, sighing, singing, or taking a deep breath to calm your anger in a tense situation.
You can stretch this out by sitting up as straight as possible (this does not have to be perfect to work) and interlacing your fingers. Put your hands on the back of your head with your thumbs going down the sides of your neck and, while keeping your face forward, look all the way to one side with just your eyes. Hold that until you feel the urge to breathe deeply or yawn, or until you can tell there’s a change. Then do the same thing on the other side. When you put your arms down, you should clearly be able to turn your head farther in both directions. If the first session doesn’t get rid of your migraine, rest and repeat as many times as necessary. I even get a little fancy with it and roll my eyes up and down along the outer edge sometimes to stretch as much as I can.
If you need a visual here’s a good video on it. I know some of the language they use seems questionable but this is real and simple science and should not be discarded because it’s been adopted by the trendy wellness crowd!
I seriously cannot believe I didn’t hear a word of this from any doctor in my life. Additionally, if you get frequent recurring migraines, you may want to see a dietician. Migraines can be caused by foods containing histamines, lectin, etc. and can also be caused by high blood pressure in specific situations such as exercise, stress, and even sex.
If any of this information helps you I’d love to hear it btw! It’s so so fast and easy to do. Good luck!
I hope OP doesn’t mind me reblogging and adding on, but I thought a little variation in experience might help the anon, too. My family has a long history of migraines, and both my little sister and I experience them around the same time (though with different symptoms).
Migraine attacks are typically divided into four stages: prodrome, aura, pain, and postdrome (x). The length and intensity of the stages differs between individuals; for instance, I tend to have a long prodrome and aura, but the pain and postdrome are luckily very short, and my sister has a vary short-to-nonexistant prodrome but a long and excruciating pain stage.
The prodrome itself has a variety of symptoms involved, such as depression, anxiety, sensitivity to light/sound/smell/etc., fatigue, rapidly changing mood, difficulty concentrating, etc. In my case, the prodrome is the worst stage for me--the depression is unrelenting, and I usually am so dizzy and lightheaded that doing anything is nearly impossible (assuming I can string thoughts together long enough to do more than the most basic tasks in the first place, which doesn’t happen often during the prodrome). This is all before the pain starts, and once I get my first wave of depression, I know it’s only a matter of time (and usually get annoyed because I wish it would just start so I could get it over with already).
Aura is a fascinating (though annoying) part of migraine attacks, though not everybody experiences it (basically what OP described above). Some people see light or color, but I think you can also experience other senses. For me, it’s little waves of... something that disturb my line of sight. They’re not exactly shadows, but they’re not light, either. Sometimes I pick up on little sounds and they turn into music (which is the closest thing to a ‘favorite symptom’ I have).
The pain itself is just as described above. It can last between 24 and 72 hours (mine usually between 24 and 36; same with my sister).
The postdrome is usually the “recovery” stage. Here, people are generally weak, still having trouble concentrating, and probably act like they just got thrown off a truck in the middle of the interstate (believe me, at this point, you would’ve preferred it). For me, I usually have to spend a few hours napping or doing mindless tasks (I often try to use the postdrome to catch up on missed household chores since they don’t take a whole lot of concentration, though I generally have to take long breaks between each task). My sister will get something to eat, and she acts very subdued for the few hours following the pain.
My sister and I vary most in terms of migraine onset. For me, I generally know I’m going to get a migraine 24-48 hours ahead of the actual pain. It often starts with depression, though I’m lightheaded and have difficulty concentrating shortly after. I’m never surprised by the pain--it just slowly builds, getting worse and worse until all I can manage is to grab a cold washcloth and collapse in bed with it over my eyes until the pain recedes again (sometimes pain meds help... sometimes). Then, it’s just a little bit of recovery, and I can typically jump back into life. My biggest problem is that from the first symptom of the prodrome, I’m virtually incapacitated. I lose two to three days out of the week, which isn’t good for holding a job or keeping up with work, especially if I’m having a particularly hard time and experiencing multiple migraines a month (which... is so much fun hahah ah a ha).
My sister, on the other hand, doesn’t have much of a prodrome. She wakes up in agony, and it’s so bad she typically vomits. The pain almost always recedes in the early afternoon, though, and she rarely (if ever) loses more than a day to the migraine (though that’s still a problem, obviously). For her, it’s sudden and intense, and she typically doesn’t get more than a few hours warning (assuming she doesn’t sleep through the prodrome, which she often does).
My point is, you could play around with symptoms and effects for your character. Depending on treatments and pain relief, you might actually have a character who faces little disruption in their life (I’m writing this through a migraine treated with Excedrin Migraine, caffeine, and a shitton of water... and if the organization of this is really bad, that’s why lol), so it’s not technically impossible to function with a migraine (just difficult and Not Recommended). If your character is trying to function through a migraine, they’ll probably have difficulty thinking things through (like, almost comically so), will be horribly miserable, and will be very easily overwhelmed (e.g. earlier today, I got annoyed and snapped at my cat because he wouldn’t stop meowing--usually, I love when my cats are chatty, but each noise just built and built until I lost my patience, raised my voice at him, and locked him out of the room, which went over about as well as you might expect).
Hope this helps!
Hey...how do you write someone who was a splitting headache or a migraine? I’m having trouble with that... ;w; Thank you
They are slightly different. Everyone has had a bad headache at least once, but most people never get migraines.
For both, loud noises or constant noises increase the suffering. The sufferer wants to lie down or sit down somewhere peaceful. Sufferers sometimes put pressure on or cushion the part of their head that hurts to alleviate pain. They can get short tempered if pain makes them cranky. If it’s a caffeine headache (caffeine withdrawal for an addict) having a drink of soda, coffee, or tea can relax it. If it’s heat-induced, a.k.a. heat exhaustion, the sufferer should sit down somewhere cool immediately and drink lots of water.
With a migraine any noise, light, temperature change, or movement can drastically aggravate the pain. When I or a family member gets a migraine, we go to bed with a cloth over our eyes and the curtains closed while the whole household stays quiet for 4-6 hours. Nausea/vomiting can accompany a migraine as well as a constant aura in the corner of your vision. Flashes of light are another symptom of a migraine, usually preceding the actual pain. Thankfully, migraine meds are extreme pain relievers that often put you to sleep and/or relieve nausea.
TL;DR—One can generally continue functioning with a splitting headache, but a true migraine is temporary hell.
Prompt 117
Jaskier's head often hurts. He doesn't always tell Geralt, but Geralt catches him putting a hand to his forehead and wincing in pain. Jaskier will sometimes lose days of songwriting inspiration, or time for hobbies, because when he and Geralt aren't moving down the path, Jaskier will lay in his bedroll writhing in pain and groaning at how unfair life is. Geralt at first thought Jaskier was exaggerating his pain, as Jaskier tended to be dramatic. When Geralt hinted at this though, Jaskier looked at him with such a hurt expression that Geralt panicked his way into somehow saving the conversation. The very next winter, Geralt asks Lambert, who is much better with potions and the like, to help him make some sort of pain remedy. They test and experiment all winter, before they finally make on they're both happy enough with to send off that spring. Geralt and Jaskier have been reunited for two weeks when Jaskier reaches a hand up and rubs one side of his face, with particular amounts of pressure and care given to his eye and brow. Geralt fishes around in his bags before holding it out to Jaskier. "...What is this?" "The only potion I have safe for humans. Ask me for it, never dig it out yourself, it looks similar to some of the others." "What does it do, Geralt?" "It should help. With... With the pain." Jaskier shoots out sad scents. That wasn't what Geralt expected from his gift. "I'm sorry, Geralt! I didn't mean to slow us down so much! I can work through it! i can keep walking!" Geralt explains he doesn't want Jaskier to "work through it", he wants Jaskier to not be in pain and to be happy. Jaskier, growing up as a busy young viscount, apparently was told to push through and continue with his schoolwork and duties, no matter how bad the migraine. Geralt assures his bard that all Geralt wants is Jaskier's happiness, and Jaskier drinks the potion. Merely twenty minutes later and Jaskier was bouncing around and singing again. He liked seeing his bard not be in pain.
Okay I’m currently furious that migraines are often so blindly easy to treat and I had to find this out myself at the age of 26 when I’ve been to a neurologist since I was 11 lol so I’m about to teach you two neat and fast little tricks to deal with pain!
The first is the sternocleidomastoid muscle, or the SCM muscle.
This big red section is responsible for pain around the eye, cheekbone, and jaw, as well as some temple pain. Literally all you have to do is angle your head down a little, angle it away from the side that hurts, and then you can gently pinch and rub that muscle. I find it best to start at the bottom and travel upwards. The relief is so immediate! You can increase pressure as you feel comfortable doing so.
Here is a short and easy video showing this in action
The second is a fast and easy stretch that soothes your vagus nerve, which is the nerve responsible for calming you down. The vagus nerve, for those unfamiliar, is stimulated by deep breathing such as yawning, sighing, singing, or taking a deep breath to calm your anger in a tense situation.
You can stretch this out by sitting up as straight as possible (this does not have to be perfect to work) and interlacing your fingers. Put your hands on the back of your head with your thumbs going down the sides of your neck and, while keeping your face forward, look all the way to one side with just your eyes. Hold that until you feel the urge to breathe deeply or yawn, or until you can tell there’s a change. Then do the same thing on the other side. When you put your arms down, you should clearly be able to turn your head farther in both directions. If the first session doesn’t get rid of your migraine, rest and repeat as many times as necessary. I even get a little fancy with it and roll my eyes up and down along the outer edge sometimes to stretch as much as I can.
If you need a visual here’s a good video on it. I know some of the language they use seems questionable but this is real and simple science and should not be discarded because it’s been adopted by the trendy wellness crowd!
I seriously cannot believe I didn’t hear a word of this from any doctor in my life. Additionally, if you get frequent recurring migraines, you may want to see a dietician. Migraines can be caused by foods containing histamines, lectin, etc. and can also be caused by high blood pressure in specific situations such as exercise, stress, and even sex.
If any of this information helps you I’d love to hear it btw! It’s so so fast and easy to do. Good luck!
I can’t believe I did this instead of writing a very important paper
Resonance
Hello hello and welcome to this week’s six sentence story, based on the word frequency. True to form, this one is dark, sad, and weirdly based on the fact my fridge is full and yet I don’t seem to have any food in it. For me this is because I managed to by all but one ingredient for about 5 different recipes, but for our unnamed narrator, things have taken a much sadder turn, and well, read to…
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Okay I’m currently furious that migraines are often so blindly easy to treat and I had to find this out myself at the age of 26 when I’ve been to a neurologist since I was 11 lol so I’m about to teach you two neat and fast little tricks to deal with pain!
The first is the sternocleidomastoid muscle, or the SCM muscle.
This big red section is responsible for pain around the eye, cheekbone, and jaw, as well as some temple pain. Literally all you have to do is angle your head down a little, angle it away from the side that hurts, and then you can gently pinch and rub that muscle. I find it best to start at the bottom and travel upwards. The relief is so immediate! You can increase pressure as you feel comfortable doing so.
Here is a short and easy video showing this in action
The second is a fast and easy stretch that soothes your vagus nerve, which is the nerve responsible for calming you down. The vagus nerve, for those unfamiliar, is stimulated by deep breathing such as yawning, sighing, singing, or taking a deep breath to calm your anger in a tense situation.
You can stretch this out by sitting up as straight as possible (this does not have to be perfect to work) and interlacing your fingers. Put your hands on the back of your head with your thumbs going down the sides of your neck and, while keeping your face forward, look all the way to one side with just your eyes. Hold that until you feel the urge to breathe deeply or yawn, or until you can tell there’s a change. Then do the same thing on the other side. When you put your arms down, you should clearly be able to turn your head farther in both directions. If the first session doesn’t get rid of your migraine, rest and repeat as many times as necessary. I even get a little fancy with it and roll my eyes up and down along the outer edge sometimes to stretch as much as I can.
If you need a visual here’s a good video on it. I know some of the language they use seems questionable but this is real and simple science and should not be discarded because it’s been adopted by the trendy wellness crowd!
I seriously cannot believe I didn’t hear a word of this from any doctor in my life. Additionally, if you get frequent recurring migraines, you may want to see a dietician. Migraines can be caused by foods containing histamines, lectin, etc. and can also be caused by high blood pressure in specific situations such as exercise, stress, and even sex.
If any of this information helps you I’d love to hear it btw! It’s so so fast and easy to do. Good luck!
Sooooooooo... I was toying with maybe starting my own hurt/comfort side blog, but not exactly sure where to start. This is just a little piece I wrote the other day when thinking about a character who suffers with migraines calling their lover from work to come pick them up. I'd really appreciate it if you could give it a read and let me know what you think? Only if you have the time though! I'd hate to impose.
---
It is barely midday when A had to excuse themselves to stumble away from their meeting. B had been right. B had been so right to beg them to stay home today, but A had no idea it would get to be this bad. It had only been a slight headache this morning. Just a little headache, maybe a little bit of nausea in their gut if they focused on it. But of course, B had seen straight through them.
A staggers down the hall as the world tilts and wavers around them. There’s no doubt about it – this is a full-blown migraine. Every little step they take sends an echoing thud through their aching head and the threat of nausea has their throat squeezing coldly at every corner turned. They’re sure they were making their way to the bathroom, but every corridor is merging together at this point and the piercing lights in their vision is making reading the room numbers nigh impossible. Everything aches. Everything.
They do finally make it there, somehow. A opens the door to find it empty and feels like they could cry with happiness, if they had the energy to do so. Instead, they stumble over to the farthest sink, away from the door where every sound that echoes from beyond sends a spike of pain through their skull.
They can’t go on like this. They know they can’t, so they reach into their pocket and pull out their phone, their hands trembling so much that they almost drop it. The light from it is searing. It sends another wave of pain through their head and they can’t help hunching over with a whimper. God, they feel so useless. They can barely see to scroll through their contacts, but when they come across the one they need, they recognise it instantly.
B picks up on the second ring, but A’s head is pounding so much they can barely make out B’s greeting across the tinny phone, let alone reply. All they can do is let out another quiet whimper. They feel awful. They feel so awful they want to cry, but they’re in a public toilet at work for God’s sake. Not at home, where they’d so much rather be.
B picks up on the noise immediately. A strains to hear them, and thankfully is able to make out some of it this time. ‘A? A? What’s going on, love? Are you okay?’
A takes a deep breath to calm themselves, but when they do speak, it comes out as a raw, choked sob. ‘No.’ They admit finally, trying desperately to ignore the burning at the back of their eyes. ‘Can you come pick me up, please?’
‘Oh, sweetheart.’ B replies gently, and A has to stop their breath from hitching more than it already is. ‘I’d do it in a heartbeat. But the car’s in the garage at the moment, remember?’
Of course. Through the fuzziness clouding A’s brain, they vaguely recall B telling them that they were getting the engine fixed today. Of course. They had been so stupid. A grips the phone tightly, almost dropping it with how clammy and shaky their hands are, and a few more sobs slip out against their will. ‘O-oh. Yeah, of course. I’m sorry for bothering you, I’ll just-‘
‘I’ll get a cab.’ B says firmly, and A blinks. They want to argue. Money’s already tight for the two of them, and the traffic’s bound to be bad this time of day… but their head is killing them and they can’t stop shaking and they can’t help but be fiercely, fiercely glad that they can go home. They want nothing more than to curl up under the blankets in their misery, the sweet release of sleep from the aching of their body and cold clutch of nausea in their gut their only desire at this point. And maybe to cuddle up to B too… but they would hate to bother them by asking.
‘Ok.’ A breathes eventually. ‘I’m sorry for-‘
‘It’s no trouble at all.’ B interrupts them. It was almost like they could read A’s mind sometimes. ‘I’ll get a hot water bottle ready. And some meds, and some blankets, and then we can cuddle on the couch or the bed and watch dumb movies until you feel better. How does that sound, love?’
‘Good.’ A whispers back, because it does. It really does.
They can hear B’s soft smile down the phone when they speak again. ‘Ok, sweetheart. Just hang on, alright? I’ll get you home.’
okay I am in favor of your starting a whump blog because this is FANTASTIC 😭😍🤩
seriously, your descriptions are so good and you perfectly capture the angst and comfort elements so well. and the dialogue is amazing???
all in favor of anon starting their own blog raise their hands because this is some great stuff 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Believe it or not, I didn't know chronic migraines were considered or could be considered a disability until today. I've watched my mum have the most horrendous, disabling migraines my whole life, yet it never occurred to me to think of migraines as anything serious. They were always just treated like a particularly horrible headache in my house.
I'm researching them now as I've recently realized that part of my inability to sit up is migraine related, and it's kind of blowing my mind.
I'd love to know how many other people are/were in the same boat as me.