Thursday, March 1, 2018

After?

When I had my allergic reaction in the fall, I definitely felt like life was a before and after.  It turns out I was right.

After October 7th, I had a headache almost every day.  I'm not even exaggerating.  I think between October and February I had a TOTAL of 10 days without a headache.

Do you know what a literal and figurative pain that is?

There were lots of days that I came home from work, slept for two hours then got up to have dinner with my boys.  There were days that I went to work and don't remember what I did there.  My memory was definitely not great during this time.  I had trouble remembering everything. I went places without a coat.  I sometimes had to pause mid-sentence to remember the word I wanted to say next. 

My doctor put me on some medication and I started tracking the headaches.  One was three times a day "maintenance" medicine and the other was a pain reliever.  I found that I could go the longest between headaches if I took them both at the same time.  That's a lot of medicine.  At my follow up, the doctor was not happy about that.  Plus it didn't really help anyway, I was still getting the headaches. 

My doctor decided that we would try Botox therapy.  She had to fill out a bunch of paperwork to send into the insurance company.  Together we went through my entire medical history as a grown up.  Neither of us realized that she's been treating me for headaches since 1996.  Of course, none of them lasted from October to February but still, it's been a long time since 1996. 

I had my first therapy last Tuesday.  It was strange, something like 30 injections - in my shoulders, the base of my neck, my scalp, in my scalp on each side of my head and along my forehead.  I felt a little weird afterward. My face felt heavy.  But that could have been in my head because they told me not to lay down or keep my head down.

Wednesday and Thursday I still felt a little off.  I had headaches but not as bad as usual. 

Friday was the day, though! I had no headache at all on Friday.  It was awesome! And I haven't had one since.  I still feel like I'm coming out of a fog.  My memory is still not great but hopefully it will improve the more pain free days I can string together.

I'll have it again in 11 weeks then again 12 weeks after that before we decide if it's a successful therapy.  I'm praying that the Botox will work.  I'm not a big fan of taking medicine everyday so this could really be an answered prayer!


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