Pain v's Pain

Here is an interesting question to put to you.  Which is your best type of pain?  And yes, I know that the first answer will be "the type we don't get", but I'm sorry as that just isn't an option.  Way back when, I wrote about how being ill stops my migraines from appearing (http://anothermigraine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/migraines-vs-being-ill.html).  It hasn't happened for a while, but last week, whilst on holiday, I got a familiar twinge in my right foot.  My other arch nemesis arthritis was threatening to make an unwelcome reappearance.  I haven't had a bad attack for a good two years so didn't think to take my meds with me.

Lesson learned.

The hard way.

Have you ever tried pushing a pram containing an exhausted nearly 3 year old up a steep hill at the Zoo after having walked all day on a foot which sends pain searing up your leg every time you put it down?  But did you hear me complain dear reader?  Complain?  Me?  Ok I did a bit but it reeeaaally hurt.

But it wasn't all bad.  No, not at all.  The good news was that my migraines disappeared.  Four blissful days with no migraine and with no background pain.  I haven't had such a luxury for over 6 months.  Reading back at my previous post I said that I preferred the migraine pain to any other pain.  Is it too late to take that back?  Oh go on, please let me.  So to answer my original question... give me excruciating foot pain any day of the week over migraines!

Why?  Well, foot pain is just foot pain.  It hurts and you limp a bit.  Whereas with migraines, you get the pain and the sick feeling, and maybe get a bit grumpy due to the chemical imbalance in your head, can't concentrate, light hurts, I'm sure that I don't need to go on as you will have experienced these and many more in the past.

Sadly the foot meds have kicked in (ehem) and my foot is slightly better.  I say "sadly" because this means that the migs are back again.  So now I have two areas of pain to occupy my poor befuddled mind.  Sometime you feel that you just can't win whatever you do.

Still, my next Botox appointment is just one week away and I am rather looking forward to it... If you can look forward to being pierced 35 times with a needle.  Um, someone remind me why I am doing this again?   Oh yes, it will cure my migs.  Ok now say it like you believe it.... it WILL get rid of my migraines.

Migraines v's being ill

There is a constant search for the elusive trigger for your migraines.  What causes them, what makes them worse and more importantly, what makes them better.

It was with some surprise that I stumbled upon this preventative, if preventative is the right word for it.  I've not heard of anyone else reporting that and when talking to some people from Migraine Action, they raised their eyebrows in surprised interest when I told them.  The problem is that it's  not really a preventative which I would advise anybody to take.  I mean, it works, but it's not something that you can get from your doctors.  It's called being ill.  No really, stay with me here because this really happens.  I rarely get a migraine when I am not well.  Just to re-cap, my migraines normally appear every 2 to 3 days.  Here are 3 examples of what I mean:

1-  During the recent round of colds, I had quite a bad cough and runny nose that lasted for about 5 weeks (ok, so stop the man-flu comments.  I can hear you out there.  As it happened, my darling wife kept on complaining that I didn't go to the doctors quickly enough and that I needed to accept that I really wasn't well rather than trying to push through.  You just can't win sometimes!)  Anyhoo, rant over.  During that time, I didn't get a single migraine.  The first one hit about 4 weeks into the cold.  It was at that point that I knew that the cold was going.  Strange but true huh?  But, it doesn't end there.  

2- I have a habit of cricking my back by pulling a muscle, or trapping a nerve.  Whilst the pain of the back and the immobility of my shoulder remains, the migraines stay away.  

3- I have recently been diagnosed with Arthritis in my foot.  I am still not sure which type it is other than R negative.  The foot pain comes and goes, and even this makes my migraines disappear.  That is, until the pain in the foot has been around for a while at which point the migraines make an unwelcome comeback.

 

To be honest, I think that I prefer the migraines because they are, most of the time, treatable.  I really wouldn't want to go through 2 weeks of neck pain just to avoid having a mig.  But, the illness and the lack of migraines has to be connected somehow?  Right?  It can't be my body just being kind to me by not wanting to subject itself to too much pain in one go?  Clearly not.  But what the link is, I have no idea.  I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this.  Do you find that migraines lesson when you are ill?  Do you have a theory as to why?  Let me know.