WFMW June 14

My headache protocol

I get headaches on a nearly daily basis. In fact, I've just been diagnosed with atypical migraine.

Here is my headache protocol that I use every time to nip these boogers in the bud. It doesn't always work, or work right away, but it gets me to a point where I can function, and that's something.

1. Drink a big glass of water or 2; wait about 10-15 minutes to see if it goes away. Many headaches have their root in dehydration, so I always do this to ensure that I'm not taking medicine for something that just needs water.

2. If possible, lay down and rest in a dark room for 15-20 minutes.

3. Sniff some lavendar essential oil. Something about this relaxes me and often helps relieve my headaches.

4. Take apple cider vinegar tablets. I don't know, but something about this also helps sometimes.

5. Now we are at the medicine point. Sometimes, er, usually, I have to take medicine to help, even though I don't like it. Usually by this point, it's a pounder, so I take 2 tylenol together with 2 aspirin, and I try to make sure to drink something caffeinated with it (aka Amy's mock Excedrin). This will normally do the trick.

6. In the rare case that the above protocols don't work, I will take 2 liquid-filled ibuprofen gel-caps about 2 hours after I've taken the mock Excedrin combo.

***NOTE*** I've been told by my doc, however, that as soon as I feel the migraine coming, I should take medicine and prevent a day of misery. Sometimes I'm not that smart, and sometimes I am. If it feels particularly bad, I have a prescription (Relpax) that I can take that will stop it dead in its tracks. I prefer to do things naturally, but this drug works and it works well, which is something that I've not found with any of my natural remedies. For the first time in years, I can be virtually pain-free when I want to be (meaning when I'm not trying to go days between taking the drug)!