Dispatch from Migraine Lane: What Really Causes a Headache?

10/22/2009

"I wanna be, your SLEDGEHAMMER!" my husband is belting out over Peter Gabriel in the kitchen. He's in there doing something useful, like caulking, or—I don't know—gluing the windows shut.

Me?

I'm sprawled on the sofa with a headache, feeling beat-up as the Public Option.

So I shouldn't begrudge him the singing, but…

"Oh let me be your SLEDGEHAMMER. This will be my TES-timony...."

Just what you need after a workday has kicked you in the head. And now, of course, the three-year-olds join in.

T-Rex stands on the arm of the sofa, bellows, "Momeeeee, Yucky-Man's gonna get yooooooo!" He's acting out the "Super Heroes vs. Super Villains" episode of the Backyardigans, which is blasting in the background. I knew we were in for this when he mastered the volume button on the remote.

"T-Rex, INSIDE voice please."

"Red alert. Danger! Red alert. Danger!" he screeches, and launches himself at my head.

"Ouch! T-Rex!"

"SLEDGE!" sings my husband.

"Mommeee, I did a poopoo and a peepee," trills Punk from his potty station in front of the TV. Oh fantastic.
 

I get off the sofa to investigate Punk's output, and wish I'd stayed put. On the biohazard index, this is a level five, Code Red, and at this point, so is my headache. Really, this is a job for the EPA, with all their special equipment and stuff.

"Moommeeee, I can help. Yucky-Man to the rescue!" yells T-Rex. He runs over and slams into the potty, very nearly setting off a toxic explosion.

 "SLEDGE!" from the kitchen.

Well this is fun. What I really want to do is let out a primal scream. But that wouldn't be good role-modeling of the inside-voice thing. Just another night on Migraine Lane.

It's all a hazy blur, but we eventually pack the kids off to bed. I crash on the sofa, arm draped over my forehead, and contemplate my headache.

I've got a chicken-or-egg question: Did my headache already exist—in a low-grade way—and then just get massively accelerated by the kids? Or was I susceptible after a long day at work, and them whomp, the kids brought it on?

As a cyberchondriac, I must, of course, look this up. But not right now. Right now, I. Just. Need. To. Sleep…….

The next morning, the headache is still back there, faintly knocking on the inside of my skull. It's what my parents call a "Lurking"—a hint of headache that should promptly be killed with a handful of Advil. Which I proceed to do.

Unfortunately, the Advil just nudges the Lurking a little further back in my head. It's not going away. So I go online. Time to conquer this thing with information.

To sum it up, there are three major headache types:

Tension—More often isolated than chronic, they cause mild to moderate, dispersed pain. The head feels like it's in a vise.

Cluster—Aptly named, they usually stab, like a hot poker, at one side of the face. The eye is often involved, and attacks tend to recur.

Migraine—Severe and chronic, they often herald their arrival with auras, which are flashes of light, blind spots, or limb tingling. Sufferers are sensitive to noise and light.

As far as I can tell, I don't get any one of these. I get a combination of the first and third. Tension headaches but with the noise and light sensitivity. Migraines but without the auras.

And it turns out that my medication of choice, Advil (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID), is recommended for migraines but not tension headaches. In fact, NSAIDs can actually cause tension headaches if overused. ?!

Where the heck does this leave me? I should take Advil but I shouldn't take Advil.
 

Seems to me that my only option here is to stop the headache before it starts. So back to the chicken-or-egg question of cause—click here for a Discovery Health video on the range of triggers.
 

For tension headaches, the origin is largely fatigue, stress and the chemical changes it sets off in the brain. For migraines, the list is longer: stress and fatigue, too, but also hormones (estrogen fluctuations with menstrual cycles, in particular), certain foods or drinks, certain smells or…..(drumroll please) NOISE.

So the answer to the question of headache causation is the chicken and the egg. Stress, hormones, foods—and yes, my boys' noise—can plant the seed of a headache, and they can also make it worse.

But some other key triggers are missing from the list. I'm thinking of petitioning the American Headache Society to add them. These include small boys hurling themselves at your head. Blaring children's programs. Potty incidents that go from bad to worse. Offers of "help" from three-year-olds.

Oh, and the song "Sledgehammer."

Comments

[sng]

Cybermom, there's a simple cure to the headache situation: Take a nap, and stay napping til it's gone. Tell the singing husband he'll have to postpone his kitchen fixins, and head off to bed!

[fey]

I think there's a fourth type of headache: the allergy-related headache. As someone allergic to a wide range of unspecified phenomena, I believe in a taking an over-the-counter anti-allergy pill every day practically year round. For me "a claritin a day keeps the headache away."

[Cyberchondriacmom]

Allergies--right, the sinus headache!
Here's some info on that:
http://health.discovery.com/centers/allergyasthma/allergy/guide/allergy-related-conditions.html

[Cyberchondriacmom]

I think I first realized there was a link between small kids and headaches when I visited my sister once.
If I'm remembering right (which I'm probably not, but anyway), she had a two-year-old boy and an untrained chihuahua.
Turned out the chihuahua had done its business on the rug. While were were chatting, the two-year-old stepped in it, toddled around the room for a while, and ended up jumping on an indoor trampoline while peeing (he was bottomless).
That's when we noticed what was going on.
After I got done laughing, man did my head hurt.

[lil]

That's the thing about kids - they make you laugh a lot and that's ultimately good for one's health - despite a few headaches in between...
On the subject of headache prevention, my big tip of the day is to be sure you drink enough liquids. My husband often arrives home from work with a headache. His work requires him to be on the road a lot and he forgets to stop for drinks. Recently I've taken to filling up a few water bottles with tap water and popping them in his car (or reminding him to do it) and it really seems to help.

[Jemi Fraser]

I'm luckier in the headache department than I used to be. I quit drinking/eating anything with Aspartame (sp??) in it a few years ago. Within days I stopped having headaches on a regular basis. I get the clusters, but not on a regularly - although having twin 3 years olds would probably bring them back on :)

[carma]

I remember when that song first came out and I couldn't figure out what all the buzz was about it. It just drones on in an unpleasant way.

[Cyberchondriacmom]

Jemi, Hadn't even considered the link between aspartame and headaches. But yeah, artificial sweeteners are, for the most part, nasty stuff.

Carma, I'm with you on the song. Just don't get it. Never did. Now "In Your Eyes" I get (mushy though it is).

[topaz]

And then there's the hangover headache - the worst of all headaches because you beat yourself up knowing that you brought it on yourself!

[Dee Manning]

I've heard that cutting a lime in half and rubbing it on your forehead will help get rid of a headache ~ luckily I don't get migraines so have never tried it ~ just passing along the info.

[penny]

Here's another home remedy: Hold a pencil between your top and bottom teeth for a couple of minutes, or tie a scarf around your head, or preferably both at once. It's supposed to be more effective for curing headaches than any pill - according to The Doctors, a TV show that aired on NBC at 2 p.m. today! (Honest to bob, this doctor showed up on the show with a pencil between his teeth and a scarf around his head...)

[Cyberchondriacmom]

Oh how I wish a lime or pencil would cure my headache.
But as if!

A friend of mine is trying to get me to try acupuncture but I still can't get past the idea of those needles.
Yeah, just not getting that.

[Dee Manning]

Penny, I didn't see that show ~ can you describe how the scarf was tied... full on head with the knot at the back of the neck? ...or twisted into a band placed around the forehead and tied at the back of the head?... or some other way? Thanks. Ditto on not being fond of needles ~ I'd donate blood but they have to take it out of you! haha

[penny]

Kinda twisted or folded into a band around the forehead and tied at the back, I think, but it probably doesn't matter as long as you're putting pressure on the forehead. The doc looked a bit like a bike rider wearing a bandanna.

[generic viagra]

In most headaches, which hurt the nerves, blood vessels and muscles that cover the head and neck. Sometimes the muscles or blood vessels swell, tighten, or through other changes that stimulate the surrounding nerves or put pressure on them. These nerves send pain messages to the brain, causing headaches.