Posted 8/18/2007 9:47 AM (GMT 0)
Hi there!!
I am usually on the chronic pain board, and we've chatted there before, I think!!!
I think you're a RN too, right??
Anyway, I saw this post of yours and had to reply. I have the same hyper sense of smell. In fact, after I got pregnant with my daughter in 2000, I have had smell-induced migraines. I've always been sensitive to smell, but now, it's terrible. When I used to work, I would react when the maintenance guys waxed the floor. UGH. Talk about migraine city!!! My roommate who I live with is Asian, and when she cooks her food, I want to die. It is simply unbearable. I wish people would understand how much it makes me ill. After smelling her food, I will have to leave the house it is so bad. Why should I have to leave my own house?! I will be miserable for hours, if not days, after smelling something that triggers a migraine. I am sensitive to chemicals for cleaning, food, perfumes, body soaps/sprays (I hate bath&body works...), candles, etc. I hate going to a store when someone walks by who has bathed in cologne or perfume. It sets me off every time.
I haven't had much success lately with my migraines. I have started to also track the weather, as I know barometric pressure is a trigger. I have been on all types of preventatives with no success: Depakote, Verapamil, Topamax (that doped me up terrible), and others I can't remember. I've also tried all the abortives: Midrin (old-school, terrible), Axert, Imitrex (all forms), relpax, maxalt (i can't stand the melt form, the peppermint makes me vomit), etc. I usually try the Maxalt tabs...but even those make me shaky, feel funny, sleepy. I seemed to always get a migraine at work as well, and I used to work afternoons and 3p to 3am. I don't know if it was the stress, or the environment (fluorescent lights) or what, but I swear, nearly every day I went to work, BAM. Axert seemed to be the best triptan out there that didn't make me sleepy at work, but my insurance won't cover it, and I can only get samples occasionally.
I wish I had some answers for you, but I don't. I have suffered from migraines since I was a little girl. But since I had my daughter, something changed and they are very frequent now. I have a headache nearly every day. Sometimes I get lucky and go a few days without one. I am lucky in the fact that not every migraine is a full-blown, 10/10 pain scale migraine. If they get too bad, I find the best treatment is a liter of NS!!! I guess cause I get so dehydrated from vomiting, that getting a fluid bolus makes me feel much better. My BP is usually low as well, during a migraine. I wish I could control the smells around me, cause it is very hard to live a full life when you avoid going out just cause you know it will trigger a horrible migraine. I have so many medical issues as it is, that migraine is just one more on the list.
I suffer from chronic pain in my lower back, for which I am on morphine every 8 hours and PRN. I found that when I first started on opiate therapy, PRN morphine always gave me a massive migraine. I took Oxycontin, Duragesic, and other opiates and they all tended to give me migraines sometimes, but morphine was the worst. When I first started taking it, I had a headache for almost 2 weeks (I should say a migraine). It was rough to adjust to it, even though I was already opiate-tolerant. Years ago, when I first had migraines bad enough to go to the ER, I was given Dilaudid IV. That seemed to be the one thing that took my migraine away (along with the NS IV). I tried to get just a few PO Dilaudid for at home, emergency use, but no one was willing to do that. I swear, the look on my doc's face when I asked him about it was one of shock. I swear, he told me he would never give me something so potent, etc. Now, I am on 400mg of MSo4 QD, for chronic back pain from a different doc. I never understood why some docs are so UNWILLING to treat pain. I have never abused pain meds, ever, but no one cares. Some docs are so in the dark ages when it comes to management of pain. I wish I had some magic cure for those of us who suffer with migraines, cause they are so hard to control (especially the barometric triggered ones), and it can be so hard to work and live life to the fullest when you have migraines all the time. I hated being at work when I had one, cause it never failed that someone would say, "Oh, it's just a headache!!! Snap out of it and get back to work"!!!
I sometimes wish I could get rid of my sense of smell!!! I sure hope you're feeling better. I see you were in the ER on Monday, but I didn't catch this till Saturday morning. Take care.