Wednesday's Attack

Whenever I get an attack I think of Beethoven. Not that he suffered from migraine; simply that it helps to regard my problem is trivial compared with deafness to a composer. Wednesday's attack (11th April) started at about 2am although my husband later reminded me that I'd been complaining about how bright the light was all Tuesday, sensitivity to light being one of the usual precursors. I also felt particularly good that day; another sign that something's brewing. The headache woke me up, as it usually does, announcing that Wednesday would be very different. I got back to sleep but woke up at 6am with a migraine which would steadily increase in intensity until lunchtime.

This was the first migraine since coming off Amitriptyline (50mg at bedtime), which had reduced the frequency of the attacks and lessened their intensity for a couple of years, and the first since starting a course of Lisinopril (2.5 mg at bedtime) a week ago. I'd also been in the habit of taking 400mg Nurofen and 2 x 500mg Paracetamol's when the headache got bad. These sometimes numb the pain slightly at best, and if they do I sometimes repeat the dose 4 hours later. This is a funny thing really. Even though I know the tablets don't do very much they are a prop which psychologically seems important. Sometimes I take Solpadeine for the same reason and while this sometimes works better, the addictive nature of the codeine content bothers me. If I'm honest, nothing works during an attack, but taking nothing takes more courage than I usually have.

Having had two bad migraine days the week before, and worrying that regular consumption of the Nurofen/Paracetamol mixture to lessen the pain might be causing withdrawal symptoms, I bravely decided to let this one run its course without additional medication. I was immobilised for the rest of the day with one of the worst attacks of headache, nausea and diarrohea for a long time, covered in fleeces and sitting next to a hot radiator on a hot day but still feeling cold and finally going to bed with pain only slightly less intense than on getting up. Why get up? Because it's worse lying down. Why was it so bad? Was it due to the absence of Amitriptylene or the Nurofen/Paracetamol mixture or both?

Wednesday night was disturbed to say the least, but the pain was less by dawn and lessened all day. Thursday night was normal and I woke Friday feeling well. Maybe having had a bad one I could now enjoy a few extra days of normality. But I was forgetting this was Friday 13th.