Do You Need A Jacket Today?

I do, do you?

12:15:41 PM     Comments? []

Preconceived Notion

 

On Tuesday, Dave and I had a friend over to dinner.  At some point and for some unknown reason, we started talking about migraine headaches.  Dave and I have both had them; for Dave, his last one was 10 years ago, my last one was 3 years ago.  They are rare for us, but we both know when they are coming and what is going to happen next.

 

So yesterday, imagine my surprise when after walking Conor around the neighborhood I started to get the fuzzy spots in my vision.  Sometimes, I get them and nothing happens.  But by the time I walked from the beginning to the end of my driveway, I could no longer see in the lower left quadrant of my vision. 

 

Now, the good news is that my doctor wrote me a prescription for Imitrex the last time I went.  The bad news is that I remember from being pregnant I was definitely not supposed to take it.  But what about bfing?

 

I called Dave who started a web search for information.  I called our pharmacist, Tom, who knows Dave and me very well.  I called Conor’s pediatrician to find out what they had to say.  I’d like to add, at this point, that finding these numbers and actually dialing them was quite challenging!  I couldn’t read the numbers if I was looking directly at them and I couldn’t see the phone I was dialing.  By this time the whole left half of my vision was gone and the right half wasn’t too stable. 

 

The scoop from everyone was this:  Imitrex is secreted in breastmilk.  However, it is considered a moderately safe drug for breastfeeding.  The best option would be to give Conor a bottle and pump while the drug was in my system.  But how long would the blood be in my system?  This is where my clever husband above all others was helpful.  He found that Imitrex gets in the blood stream very, very fast (12 minutes for an injection, 30 minutes or so for a pill??) and that it has a very short half life in the blood.  So apparently it gets in quickly, does its thing and then leaves.  We figured one bottle after I’d taken the drug and then back to the boob and we should be ok.

 

So I fed Conor best I could with not seeing him and then took the pill.  Unfortunately, by the time I was able to take the pill my vision was coming back.  That’s a bad thing because it means the headache is on the way.  I took the pill and Dave came home from work.  I started becoming sensitive to light and it felt like someone was slicing the top of my head off. 

 

Unfortunately for me, last night was the last night available for Dave to put the windows in the garage and finish off that part.  We had lined up some help and Dave needed to do some work before our friend/neighbor came over.  I told him I would look after the baby for an hour and then I could take a second pill because the first one wasn’t really working.  Dave went out to work, but 20 minutes later I called him back.  I couldn’t stay upright and I couldn’t open my eyes in the light.  And even whispering stories to the baby was too much noise. 

 

Dave got the baby and I went to bed.  Three hours later, I emerged.  The baby had been fed and put to bed, the garage windows had been installed and my headache was mostly gone.  Dave fixed dinner and we went (back) to bed. 

 

Today I feel better.  I still have a migraine hangover.  It still hurts but it’s not throbbing.  I wonder if I had taken the medicine in time if I could have stopped it.  If I’d been awake I would have taken the second dose, but I slept through that opportunity and with the exploding boobs wanted to feed the baby. 

 

Did my conversation on Tuesday night remind my body that it has another option for expressing stress???  How lame is that??  I’m sure Dave thinks I’m a faker from not having a migraine in 3 years and then “all of a sudden” I’ve got a bad one!  Pathetic!

 

But it’s mostly over and I’m mostly better.  How freakin’ bizarre. 

 

10:12:44 AM     Comments? []