[InactionMan]

Like any self respecting male I like to think that I have a very high pain threshold and for certain things I do. But was it comes to headaches I am a complete pussy. I get them pretty often but I think most of them are self-induced, generally stemming from my cursed cigarette habit.

So, my dear ANers, how often are inflicted with the dreaded headache? And how do you deal with it. Advil? Bag of frozen peas? Morphine drip? Blunt force trauma?

[torifile]

I usually just wait it out. I hate taking medicine.

[Kickaha]

I rarely get headaches, and usually it's because there's too much blood in my caffeine stream. A cuppajoe takes care of that.

[InactionMan]

I voted in my own poll. Is that wrong? Seems kind of like voting for yourself for class president.

Caffeine usually works for me as well. But when that doesn't work I usually end up popping whatever pills I've got laying around. Not the best strategy.

[NosferaDrew]

Never, thankfully.

I have a friend that gets blinding migraines. So bad that she sometimes has to leave work.
It looks very painful and I'm so glad that ain't me!

[torifile]

Originally Posted by NosferaDrew Never, thankfully. I have a friend that gets blinding migraines. So bad that she sometimes has to leave work. It looks very painful and I'm so glad that ain't me!

Her acting headachy is reinforced by her leaving work. She's a faker.

[_Ω_]

When I was a little whipper snapper I had toxoplasmosis (sp?).

One of the symptoms was headaches. It was great, I was allowed to leave class and go home whenever I felt like it!

I did however get used to eating those effervescent tablets (I am big pussy as far as swallowing pills is concerned). Every put one of those in your mouth and start to chew. It's like an asplotion in your mouth!

Other than that, never.

[ast3r3x]

I get headaches from lack of water...and occasionally from stress. It's very odd because most of the time I am a stress free person. They suck so bad, the stress ones can be so painful that I just have to lay in my bed hoping for relief.

I will take medicine, but I never feel that it does anything. I believe it's all mostly a placebo affect anyways with the doses they recommend.

[Ebby]

I get severe migraines from certain preservatives used in foods. Within seconds of eating/smelling some processed foods, it feels like my eyeballs flipped 180 and are ready to explode. I'll be taking pain relief for the rest of the day. For example, that Lemon/Pepper seasoning from Costco. I can not be in the same house as that crap.

[709]

I hardly ever get headaches. The only times I know I'm going to get one is if a) I'm forced to drink any swill along the lines of Bud or Miller, or b) I run out of smokes and have to buy the wretched Camels or Marlboros to tide me over.

I'm a vice snob.

[alcimedes]

i used to get amazing migraines. haven't had one in years now. man, those sucked though.

[thuh Freak]

i dont get em very often. every couple of weeks, usually coupled with a whole hangover. i've learned my constraints, wrt alcohol though, so they are less frequent. and if i do go too much, and excessive shots and such, i take a pill before sleeping and wake up fine.

pretty rarely, i get em at work. i just half-ass the job that day.

every once in a while, i get one out of nowhere. if it persists for an hour, then i take a pill. usually it'll get worse just after that; but it then goes away about an hour after the pill tho.

[Koodari]

I have had a couple migraines. Thankfully it has been more than five years from the last one. I get headaches maybe once a month. It can happen after I sleep for a very long time (!) and after I haven't eaten for a whole day. I don't get bad ones... the migraines were bad.

I usually won't have a headache after drinking. In the worst hangover I ever had, I did have a headache too, but it was just a cherry on top.

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by torifile I usually just wait it out. I hate taking medicine.

I'm also not a fan of taking headache pills. Thankfully, though, I hardly ever get headaches. When I have, it has usually been as a result of sun stroke, so I'm aware of that now and act to prevent it.

Wait a tick - I did take some headache pills a few years ago, but that was when I tore my corneas off. Now that was a headache!
(... but also another story)

[nomorewindows]

Used to get lots of migraines, sometimes one or two a week. Imagine a little man in your head, stabbing your eyeballs from the back, while you're barfing your guts out. Noise, smells, motion make it worse. Hardly ever get any kind of headache now, but when I do I down Advil like candy. I hoard my Tylenol with codeine left over from surgery, though you can buy it OTC in Canada. Any other kind of pain, no problem. Had my tear glands put back in the right place while I was wide awake and completely aware. But a headache? Total wuss, that's me!

[curiousuburb]

[SonOfSylvanus]

I never get headaches unless I'm otherwise ill with a cold or something, which is very rare, or I have a severe hangover, which is also very rare. Even when I do get a headache, it's almost always a dull, fuzzy sort, rather than a sharp, splitting one.

I'm lucky.

[Mister Black]

I only get headaches when I smoke pipe resin..

http://www.bcpowder.com/

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by Mac+ when I tore my corneas off. (... but also another story)

OMG!

Please tell us that story, Mac+!!!!

Pleeeeaze......



Re headaches: I don't really get headaches anymore, but I used to. The only kind of remedy that worked was aspirin with caffeine in it. It's amazing, because plain old 'aspirin' did absolutely *nothing*.

I guess Excedrin has caffeine in it.

I don't really get hangovers either - not that I drink that much or that often. But even when I do drink a 'bit' much, no hangover. Thank god!

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by Ebby I get severe migraines from certain preservatives used in foods. Within seconds of eating/smelling some processed foods, it feels like my eyeballs flipped 180 and are ready to explode. I'll be taking pain relief for the rest of the day. For example, that Lemon/Pepper seasoning from Costco. I can not be in the same house as that crap.

Wow. That's a shame, Ebby.

A few years ago, I remember reading a news story about a couple honeymooning in Jamaica, or somewhere. She was allergic to shellfish.

At dinner, a waiter walked past their table with a plate of sizzling shellfish of some kind. She went into shock and died within minutes.

I keep thinking that her new husband might have even been a doctor, but maybe that's my imagination adding even more drama to the scenario.

[nomorewindows]

That x-ray OMFG. That's what I call a bad day!

[InactionMan]

Originally Posted by Ebby I get severe migraines from certain preservatives used in foods. Within seconds of eating/smelling some processed foods, it feels like my eyeballs flipped 180 and are ready to explode. I'll be taking pain relief for the rest of the day. For example, that Lemon/Pepper seasoning from Costco. I can not be in the same house as that crap.

I've gotten cluster migraines the past few years and whenever I have I'll spend far too much time trying to figure out what I did to bring it on. No clue yet. And whenever I go a few weeks without a headache I'll try to figure out what I have done to NOT get one. Freaking sucks ass.

Someone suggested something called Tanacet to stop migraines when I feel one coming on. I think it's just some crappy herbal thing but it's worked a few times so I keep a bottle handy all the time now.

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by Carol OMG! Please tell us that story, Mac+!!!! Pleeeeaze...... ... snip ...

OK.

It was Melbourne Cup Day (first Tuesday in November - public holiday in Victoria) and I had gone into school to work on some reports. (Oh joy )

That night I was going to have dinner at my parents' place, as they live close to the school where I worked. I had also planned to stay the night since we'd probably have a few drinks with friends and I did not want to risk driving back to my place. To this end, I brought along a change of clothes and my toiletries - which included some contact cleaning solution. (Can you guess how I did it yet?)

Anyway, my office was in the Creative Arts Building. There were a few other staff members at school, but nobody else was in this building with me. After about half an hour of working my eyes felt a little tired and itchy, so I thought to myself, "I may as well take the contacts out now."

I walked up the hallway to the staff bathroom and proceeded to remove my contacts. First one out - no probs, cleanse, rinse, put away. Second one out - repeat procedure. Now my eyes and the surrounding area began to feel a little hot. I figured "No biggie" and I splashed some cold water onto my face and the eye sockets before returning to my office.

I get to the office only to find that I can't really see the computer screen properly. It's all a bit fuzzy and I have to tilt my head back and squint - looking down my nose to get some sort of focus happening. This was not good - there was no way I could continue report writing like that (any excuse to get out of them sometimes ). At about this stage, my eyes began to feel *really* itchy. I decided to go back to the bathroom for another cold water splash.

When I walked into the bathroom and turned on the flourescent light, I had to squint like crazy. I looked into the mirror as best I could and my eyes were beginning to weep profusely. My sockets and cheek bones looked red and flushed too. Again I splashed some water on - temporary relief. Thought all was good - so I headed back to the office.

Walking down the hallway, pain starts to hit me. I shrug it off and sit back in front of the computer. Still cannot focus. Frustrated, I call my fiancée and ask her to bring over some eye drops on the way to my folks' place. "Sure - no worries. Be there soon."

This is where it really kicks in. The next half hour was probably the most excrutiating headache pain I have ever experienced. I did not know what was going on - all I knew was that my eyes hurt, bright light in the room was a killer and my head (cliché ahead) felt like it was going to explode.

I stumbled my way back to the bathroom for some more cold water once again, but by now it did nothing. At this point my eyesight was really shot and I had to feel my way back to the office along the corridor wall. Upon entering, I turned the lights off and just sat there motionless. My head was a mess - really intense heat and throbbing pain. I know I eneded up lying on the ground in a last ditch effort just to relax my body. I waited for my s.o. to turn up but it took ages. I gave her another call (by this stage, I was feeling my way around the office and using the keypad by touch) after about half an hour. No answer - so I left a voice mail message along the lines of, "Don't worry about the eye drops - I think you're going to have to drive me home." There was nothing I could do now except go and wait near the front door of the Creative Arts Building so I could hear her knock when she arrived. (Being a public hoiliday - the school was shut down and the security system was on.) I remember that this seemed to take an eternity.

When I finally heard her knock I felt my way to the front entrance and she thought I was joking as she peered through the glass doors to the building. When she saw me close up she realised that I wasn't and took me to my parents' place.

That night my sister (a nurse) tried to flush my eyes out with saline solution. Looking back, that was "less than ideal", but at that point none of us knew exactly what I had done. Talk about pain! My family knows I am not a headach tablet taker, but they pretty much insisted I take some Panadeine Forte (and I happily complied actually) just so I could get some rest.

Next day, woke up - still could not see a thing. Thought to myself: "Great - good one ... are you happy? You've managed to blind yourself!" First thing in the morning I was taken to the local optometrist. That trip in the car revealed a phenomenon I was not aware of previously. I could not sit with the sun glare on my forehead. I had to put jackets over my head because I was experiencing some type of hyper-photo sensitivity. It sort of creeps in above the forehead and just basically hurts - sort of like an ice-cream headache, but more intense. I still experience it a bit these days - but nowhere near as much as I did then.

Unfortunately, the optometrist could do nothing for me. His advice was to get me to the Eye and Ear Hospital. I have to say that the staff at the E&E were fantastic. I was rushed to the top of the queue and my first stop was a small examining room. I had some anaesthetic drops administered to my eyes and was then directed to a small stool and told to read a chart on the opposite wall. To which I replied, "What chart?" Then I remember glancing down at myself (my hands were resting on my knees) only to discover that I could not see my hands. What I could see was the faint outline of a blue jumper I was wearing, yet the sleeves seemed to disolve halfway between my elbows and wrist. This freaked me out a bit. I slowly raised my right palm and when it was about three centimetres away from my nose, I was heard to utter "Ah - there it is." (Not feeling too "up" at this point.)

Next stop - further eye examination. It turns out that I had torn the outer layer of my cornea: the epithelial layer. Forunately it is regenerative tissue. You know when you sometimes get a speck of dust in your eye and your eyes water for a bit before you can see clearly again? Well, that's the epithelial layer working it's magic. It is continually sloughing off dead cells and replacing them with new ones. Takes mayabe a minute or two? Well, my eyes took about a week.

So what actually happened? When I removed my contact lenses my eyes had lost their moisture that lets the lenses glide over the eyeball - thus they were suctioned to my eyes. As I took them out I also managed to rip off a "big" chunk of my epithelial layer. These days I use a clear gel to lubricate my eye when they are feeling dry. I'm now actuely aware of that feeling - lack of sleep and airconditioned places such as offices or airplace cabins are the primary cause of this condition for me. Chlorine water is not good either - swimming without goggles is a no-no.

Looking back, I have to say that the week I spent recuperating was one of the most peaceful weeks of my life. I spent it in bed (lying on my back) in a completely darkened room with painkillers, eye patches and some eye gel that my Mum administered every two hours to prevent infection. My eyes continually weeped for about four days straight and I remember my head resting on a towel over the pillow.

Funny (tragic?) anecdote on a Sunday afternoon when I was just beginning to get some vision back. I could not read with direct light coming onto my face, but I knew that new PowerBooks were due that week. So, when my now wife came over to visit I asked her to cursor over to "the other site" and then the Apple web pages to read me the specs of the new PowerBooks. I know, I know "For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, through all manifestations of Apple geekdom ..."

Actually, that's quite sad - now that I think about it.

[Moogs]

Usually only when I have bad sinus problem or I'm badly dehydrated.