Migraine

My hubby gets a lot of headaches. We thought it was related to his high blood pressure. I also felt it has a lot to do with food, like when he needs to eat, or after he eats. Both his parents are diabetic, so I was wondering if he was starting to show signs himself.

But thankfully, his BP is doing better, and last checked, his glucose tests came back normal. His DR thinks it is tension headaches. So now another type of headache to study up a bit about LOL


Tawsha

More head pain, Tawsha? Just what your family needs. (NOT ) May as well get started learning about it:

Tension-Type Headaches - The Basics

Take care of yourselves, Tawsha.

Tee Hee Nutcracker NO kidding! He has had these for several years, and we thought it was due to high blood pressure. But I had mentioned TTH to him, and he talked to his dr.. and she eliminated other reasons and... well here we are! Thankfully a codine or even a few Ibuprofen helps him. The best coctail I have found for him has been 1 Tylenol w/codine and 3 Ibuprofen. Knocks it in its tracks for him. Well that and a nice neck and scalp massage..

He helps me so much through all my migraines especially the HM ones.. its the least I can do for him!

Thanks for the link!

Tawsha

Really, enough is enough for you guys!!

Yes, enough is enough! Glad DH has meds that work for him, at least!

You guys just seem to be fans of head pain, huh? Seriously though, I'm glad he got to the doctor and got diagnosed, so now he can get proper treatment!

Interesting tidbit of information, those with high blood pressure are less inclined to have headaches. We have an article about that HERE.

Aw ty yall! My DH is the type of guy who totally ignores illnesses and pain. He's gotta be pretty uncomfortable before he says anything! So sometimes I dont know if he has one or not. Usually I can tell, even though he is reaaaaly good at hiding it!

For the most part for him its more of a nusence than a problem. It doesnt affect any daily things for him usually.

MJ too funny! Thats an interesting article! And here his old dr. (not his current one) said that high BP can cause a headache! I honestly was more worried about it being diabetic headaches than BP though. It too is a heredetary disease, along with the Parkinsons his dad has.. and the MS his sister has... Lets just say his family isnt particularly blessed in the genetic diseases pool!

Anyway ty for yalls support! What would we do without yall??

Tawsha Blaine and TJ
(p.s. teee heee I have my DH saying "yall" after all these years... )

Darn, Tawsha!! I'm really sorry to see this thread.

How frequent are his headaches? The definition of chronic TTH would be 15 or more days a month. If that's the case, how often is he taking this cocktail? I don't think I have to tell you about medication overuse headache / rebound, but you might need to explain it to DH.

You mention his neck. Does his pain start in his neck or lower back of his head? That's where my TTH usually starts. If his do, you and he might ask his doctor about trying a TENS unit. If I apply my tens unit to my upper shoulders and the back of my neck when I feel a TTH starting, it usually stops it withOUT my having to resort to meds. Just a thought.

Please, keep us posted and let us know if we can help in any way?

quote:

Originally posted by momsbreak9:
Tee Hee Nutcracker NO kidding! He has had these for several years, and we thought it was due to high blood pressure. But I had mentioned TTH to him, and he talked to his dr.. and she eliminated other reasons and... well here we are! Thankfully a codine or even a few Ibuprofen helps him. The best coctail I have found for him has been 1 Tylenol w/codine and 3 Ibuprofen. Knocks it in its tracks for him. Well that and a nice neck and scalp massage..

He helps me so much through all my migraines especially the HM ones.. its the least I can do for him!

Thanks for the link!

Tawsha

I found a nutty thing for scalp massage. It's called the tingler. You can do a search for it or click here
for a description. It was a great gift.

quote:

Originally posted by momsbreak9:
. . . and a nice neck and scalp massage..
Tawsha

Aw! Sorry to hear this Tawsha!

Also muscle relaxers can sometimes help me - I take Skelaxin....

Also Midrin is used for TTH as well...I'm looking into it next neuro visit!

What a bummer! But at least he has a diagnosis.

There are preventives for TTH. Teri was having them while she was writing her book, and Dr. K prescribed Zonegran, which knocked them out. I think I'm remembering this right?

Gretchen in Mississippi

Thanks yall

Terri, I would say he is frequent TTH not chronic. He will have 10 or so a month. Like I said, He tries to ignore it most of the time, and doesnt take that many meds for it. Usually he will take something 1-2 times a week tops.

Yes his pain starts in the back of his neck and head! Thats exactly where he has the most trouble. He tried a TENS unit once and said it felt SO great! I am going to have to bring it up with his Dr. I think it would work great with his chronically tight back too!

I will also ask about a muscle relaxer too! That would help tremendously if he doesnt have to work...


Tawsha

Tawsha,

My goodness, your poor DH! I'm glad it's not related to diabetes. My DH has Type 1 and it's no fun to watch him take his insulin everyday.

A muscle relaxer sounds like a good idea to bring up with the doctor along with a TENS unit.

Big hugs to you both and take care of each other

Hi Tawsha,

I don't think we've really talked all that much, but I thought I'd share a few things. I've been lucky enough to find this board in my efforts to learn about migraines, although I don't know for sure if that's what I'm experiencing yet. Before I started researching migraines, I learned everything I could get my grimy little fingers on about tension headaches, and I just thought I'd post about a few things that we don't tend to chat much about on this board, since they aren't that effective for migraines...

I don't know what your DH does physically most of the time, but I find that most people don't have the best posture, and it can make a huge difference. If you can swing it with your doctor, a round of physical therapy might make a huge difference. I was shocked at what a few weeks of ab workouts changed in my daily hip pain, just strengthening some of those muscles and changing the way I held myself. My PT also has IF treatments, like a huge TENS unit, but a little bit more gentle and with heat--VERY relaxing.

I've also found that trigger point therapy is usually really effective for most people's tension headaches. You have to be consistent with it if it's a really stubborn one though. This is again something that I've had great results with other areas of my body (just not the head!) This is a book that I use regularly, although there are lots of people doing this stuff...
http://www.triggerpointbook.com/headache.htm

Best of luck to you guys--I hope he finds a routine and some good self-care that works well for him. I totally hear you, guys can be so stubborn sometimes in refusing to take care of themselves until they're just miserable!

...ps. if you look at the trigger point book at all, you'll have excuse their ignorance concerning migraines among many other things--they sincerely believe that pretty much everything is misdiagnosed and really caused by trigger points. I just ignore those parts of the book and appreciate the fact that my carpel tunnel symptoms went away after working my trigger points!