Thank God for Extra Strength Excedrin.Saturday morning, I was enjoying a beautiful day and my first opportunity to do some significant house cleaning. After washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, I started clearing off a table that we haven't seen in months. [That squirrel's nest thing.] I was about 1/3 done with the table when I suddenly realized that part of my hand was missing from my vision when I looked past it. Not good, but after so many years, nothing to panic over.
This has become my 'first alert' signal that I might have a "classic migraine with aura" revving up to dominate the next several hours of my life. However, I couldn't tell if it was just visual residue caused by a sun-flash image from looking out the bright sunny window and then turning back to look at an unlighted table. I found that I couldn't tell by just shutting my eyes and looking for the source image, either. So, I had to go to my other stand-by: I use a piece of white paper (or a white wall) with even light across it and look for the visual disturbance. The white makes it easier to 'see' the beginnings of the kaleidoscopic arc that will confirm it for sure. [Waiting for the disturbance to get larger will also confirm it, but tends to make the headache worse for the delay. However, if it was just sun-flash, it would just go away.]
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If you'd like to know what my auras look like, display a white screen on your computer. Dip your finger in some water and draw a fat "C" on the screen (any size). That's pretty similar.
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Once I confirm the signal, I take some medication, find some place to sit down and ride out the process (with the hope that I got the medication in soon enough to head off the bulk of the headache that will follow). I'm really sensitive to medicines so I tend to take less rather than more, so I start with just one Excedrin Extra Strength tablet (or generic equivalent) and then wait. [Typically, just one will allow me to be functional. But I'll take a second one after a few hours if it's bad... like this one was.]
For me, it generally takes about 20 minutes for the aura to 'do its thing' from beginning to end (and the sunny day required me to wear sunglasses the whole time plus a few hours afterwards because of light sensitivity). I can't read or 'see' much of anything until it 'opens up' and moves to my peripheral vision, and eventually goes away completely. Then I get to deal with the headache and the after effects. Because I've never been a drinker, I have no idea what an alcohol hangover feels like. However, I have intimate experience with migraine hangovers. They aren't much fun and can last for days.
Alas, I should have expected it. Friday late-morning at work (thankfully right before my day was done anyway) I was subjected to what I call a "perfume hit". Sometimes I walk into what feels like a solid wall of scent (and I'll reel from it). This time, it was a pair of coworkers (a guy and a girl) who were both saturated with fragrance. When they walked by my work area, the scent hit me like a ton of bricks.
I tried using my fan as a shield first. [Stupid mistake #1 - I should have gone for the mask.]. I went for the mask second. [Stupid mistake #2: Already exposed for too long, I should have abandoned my work area with the first hit.] Then I made stupid mistake #3 and decided to just pack up and leave the office (overtime is only worth so much). Unfortunately, this also kept me ‘in it’ too long. By the time I got a note written and sent to the boss (following protocols), plus getting my machines shut down and my stuff packed up, I was shaky and no longer able to focus on any mental details (just not thinking good). I did have presence of mind on my way out to stop by some coworkers who know about my challenges to wish them a good weekend and to tell someone that I was having ‘perfume issues’ and that I was leaving for the day.
One of the things that I've learned via my neurologist and my experience, my migraines (classic or Bickerstaff's) do not always happen on the same day as the triggers. Little time capsules that can build, diffuse or break at any time.
...and that can be so annoying.
[Side-note: I'm very glad that I have an appointment on May 4th with a neurologist that will get me some professional documentation of the reality of my perfume triggered migraines for my employee records. Whoa, I'd better stop there, or I'll start venting on a story that has forced me to walk-on-eggshells since the beginning of February (to prevent any excuse for further wrongful harassment accusations to be brought against me). I may eventually share some details when/if there is some resolution, but I want my blog to be for sharing things that lift the spirit or educate the curious... not for dispensing personal vitriol.]
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Until we meet again...
Godspeed & God bless
7 comments:
Oh Mrs. S...
you're in my prayers today.
Julie
Thanks very much!
[Big hug!]
Today is a better day at the office. I don't know if my boss talked to those people or not, but I have not had any perfume-hits today. ...and I'm sooooo grateful!
I'll be cautiously optimistic to see what the rest of the week will bring. My boss is out of the office for the whole week and the temperatures are forecast to rise into the high 70's or low 80's this week. That tends to encourage people to wear more fragrances so they don't stink.
Amazing paradox I find. ;)
Honestly, I think most of us are just oblivious.
I went to my cousin's 50th yesterday and was just about to give myself a LIGHT spritz, before walking out the door, and (probably because I've been reading your blog and thinking about it) remembered not to, as my aunt would be there.
But fragrances hide in everything... laundry detergent, deodorant, etc.
Do "natural" smells affect you? Like a rose? Or a fir tree? Or just the artificial "chemical" fragrances?
Typically, I do OK with the completely natural stuff, but if it's really strong I may still have to stop for a moment or two to see if anything is actually going to happen. [I have common environmental allergies to some things like cedar, sage and juniper. But they just make my nose run, they don't cause migraines.]
I did have a shocking moment at the office a few weeks ago when someone walked behind my work area with the strongest smelling cherry lip-gloss I've ever smelled. I didn't actually get a migraine from it, but the strength of it was enough to make me gasp a little.
Yes, chemicals or chemical-like smells will sometimes undo me if they are strong and I can't get away from them - like open cans of gasoline, hairspray or bleach. But nothing sets me off like fragrances. [Which is a pity, because many of them can be very pretty.]
The info attached to my side-link about perfumes shows there is a lot of uncontrolled and untested stuff [and some components are listed as 'hazardous waste'] used in fragrances that could easily be setting me off.
I am glad that Mr. Squirrel is the type of guy that confesses that he doesn't actually like perfumes. It sure made my life easier!
;)
Most guys don't like perfume... sorry, ladies.
:)
~Squirrel
...except for perhaps those fellows who wear MORE than the ladies... Maybe?
Something akin to: He can't tell if he's with the right girl unless her scent is stronger than his?
...or is it some sort of competition perhaps?
Mrs Squirrel,
You don't know me, I happened on you and Mr Squirrel's blogs from Julie's. I know there is more than one kind of migraine headache, so what helps me may not help you. But one time when I had a migraine coming on, my wife suggested I try some cayenne pepper capsules. I couldn't believe it. Within a half hour it was totally gone. A couple of times a year I was getting a migraine that would completely take me out for the day.
Have to take them with water and get them down for sure, because having the capsule dissolve part way down is not fun at all.
Craig
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