A no candle day
Ughhhhhh, I was up at 3:00 am today with a bad headache. Again. This happened to me Friday night, and a few other times in the past month.
My first thought was, “NO! I have tickets to Pacific Rim Uprising tonight! This headache HAS to go away!” Ha. Priorities.
I took medicine and laid in bed with my ice pack, and it got worse. I did some soothing self talk to get through the pain (I know, I’m being so dramatic!): “you feel fine, Kim,” “it’s going to go away,” “you’ll get to workout today, and go to the movies!” Ha. Ha ha.
I finally fell asleep and woke up feeling better. But today is definitely going to be a day of avoiding headache irritants: scents (hence the title*), bright lights, noise (uh, minus the movie?), sugar, and too much screen time (not sure how that one works with working…).
When I was talking to Steven about it this morning, he said he bet my headache was from a pressure change, and that he had one too, before going to bed. He pulled up a pressure map from our weather station and asked what dates I had headaches on, to see if they corresponded to pressure changes.
Headaches on February 26, March 6, March 23, and March 27
Gosh, it sure looks like they do to me! The headache on February 26th was after a pressure increase (and a drink the night before), the one on March 6th was after a pressure drop (and hormonal), and then today’s was after a drop. The March 23rd one seems more random.
I don’t know why it feels so satisfactory to have this confirmed on a chart, when I’ve been aware of this pressure/headache correlation for some time. But maybe now that it is, I will GET BETTER about paying attention to upcoming weather changes and make sure to hydrate super well the day before and take medicine when I go to bed that evening. I knew it was going to be warmer and rainy today – I should have thought about this! Duh!
(However better I get about the weather portion of this, I am going to keep tracking my headaches, to watch their patterns and figure out other ways to avoid them.)
*I have a candle going 99% of the time when I work from home! I’ll burn one scent for a few hours, then blow that one out and burn another, then go back and forth like that all day!
Themocracy
That is such an interesting connection! Does it make you feel better knowing why something is happening? It always does for me, even if I can’t prevent it, at least I know why!
Yes, I do feel better knowing why – makes me feel more in control, even if I really am not!
My mom has always said this is a trigger for her migraines! I usually only notice the link myself if it’s a big shift (like before storms). Hope they go away soon.
It affects so many people! Ugh! Thanks, I hope so too.
Oh wow, this is interesting. I never really thought about pressure changes. Is that information is available in advance, like a weather forecast?
I looked at the app I use and only see the day’s pressure. I wonder if a different app would show it for the next day – that’s a good idea for something to look in to!
Ahh, http://www.wunderground.com shows it when you go to 10 day view! Woo hoo. Thanks for suggesting I look!
I hope you feel better in time for tonight! That’s really great that you potentially identified what’s causing these headaches to happen, though. Hopefully that’ll help in the future!
Thanks, me too! I ended up taking the day off cause it came back. UGH. I hope it helps too. I looked at http://www.wunderground.com and can see future pressure changes there, so I could look ahead!
I’ve always suspected that pressure changes give me headaches, but I’ve never thought to track it. (Why??? Probably because all the advice I read was about syncing it with everything you’ve eaten that day, and that vaguely sounded like too much work.) This is a good idea; I’ll write down when I have one again and sync it with the weather.
I’m sorry you have a headache though! I hope you are able to enjoy the movie!!
Anything involving remembering what I ate during the day sounds like WAY too much work to me, too. Ha! I added a calendar to google to track mine, and compare to the weather, when I think of it. Let me know what you find out.
Thanks, I hope so too 🙁 I’ve been anxious to see so we can discuss!
Oh no!! Sorry you’ve been struggling with headaches, that is frustrating and painful.
Thanks! It sure is frustrating, especially when I have stuff to get done that day (ha, every day, for most people!).
I get those kind of headaches and that’s when I break out the Sudafed (the little meth-red pills that you have to surrender your driver’s license to get). Somehow that amount of decongestant seems to help with the pressure headache.
Oh interesting! I will have to try that; that’s a good idea!