Ain't That a Kick in the Head...

I'm no stranger to headaches. I get them so often/consistently that unless they're really bad, I rarely notice them; they're just always kind of there. And while they're not nearly as frequent, I'm also no stranger to migraines. My dad grew up with headaches/migraines and my cousins on the other side of my family seem to suffer from migraines as well.

Genetics paired with stress and wisdom teeth that decided to make their grand entrance left me with a migraine so bad this morning I fell apart in tears while talking to my supervisor at work. Needless to say, she was more than happy to usher me out the door with a sympathetic smile and well wishes to feel better.

After the hell of driving home with the sun peeking through glaring overcast skies, I immediately climbed into my bed, and threw the comforter over my head with every intention of sleeping it off. I tossed. I turned. I buried my head under the pillows - sleep never came. The tension from the migraine paired with stress had my body wound so tightly that I couldn't relax enough to sleep. So I fought through the pounding in my head and moved on to option B. An option I'm going to call "The Poor (Wo)Man's Homeopathic Migraine Cure".

Now if you have Magic!Migraine pills you can pop or Wonder!Oils you can slather yourself in, this blog is probably not going to do much for you; this is much more of a "Do what you can with what you have" guide - if you even want to call it a guide. (Disclaimer - all but one of these photos were taken post-migraine; if you've had a true migraine, you know it's near impossible to do anything with a headache of that magnitude.) Okay. You may proceed.

Splish Splash

Taking a bath has become my go-to remedy as of late for pretty much everything. I'm normally more of a shower girl, but in the last few years I've started to really appreciate the quiet, relaxing time that taking a bath provides - especially when I'm stressed or not feeling my best. So when I realized I was too wound up for a nap, I opted for a bath. Because I wanted my body to relax, I opted for a very warm/just hot enough bath instead of my usual scalding hot shower.

I'm not super girly about many things, and much as I'd like it to be, our house is not ever going to have a spread in Better Homes and Gardens. That being said, I find little touches, like a candle flickering on the ledge of a bathtub, quite pleasing. Ideally, because the theme here was relaxation, I would've preferred a lavender candle, but because Kristin is allergic to lavender scented things, we don't have much of it around the house. A lot of our candles have some kind of orange/citrus element to them and as much as I love their bright/sunny smell, I know that citrus scents can often help energize - which is the exact opposite of what I needed at the moment. So I settled on a Warm Sands scented candle which has a very light, vanilla/coconut smell.

I also couldn't find any lavender scented bubble bath/body wash but I do have this amazing body wash I got from Target when I was suffering from hardcore allergies. It's made from echinacea and menthol oils and extracts which, as is indicated by the bottle, are usually used as aides in cold and allergy relief, but the scent is so comforting and relaxing, I added a bit - just enough to put a nice layer of bubbles on top of the water. (Side Note:There's a learning curve that comes along with using this body wash/bubble bath - if you use too much, you get out of the tub with your whole body feeling like you bathed in IcyHot. It's an odd sensation that's not entirely comfortable. If you're using it for a cold/allergies, put enough in the water to get the scent, and then use it generously as a body wash across your neck/throat/chest area to help you breathe better.) 

After adding in the bath oil and getting my candle set up, I turned off all of the lights and slipped all the way into the tub - up to my jawline. (the menthol in the bath oil was nice and cooling against my jaw that's been sore from my wisdom teeth pushing through). I was tempted - as I always am - to turn on music, but resisted and found comfort in the silence. I tried to concentrate on nothing other than relaxing my body muscle by muscle - a trick I learned in one of my kinesiology courses in school.

Put on Something That Feels Good...

After a nice twenty minute bath, I could finally feel some of the tension releasing. I slowly got out of the tub and lathered on some of this B&BW sleep lotion - it's one of the few lavender scented things I use in the house, as I only use it before going to bed and I'm on the opposite side of the house as Kristin so there's no chance of it bothering her. I find just the motion of putting lotion on relaxing and this has such a warm, soothing scent to it.

After my body cooled off from the bath, I applied some doTERRA PastTense to my forehead, temples, behind my ears and along my right jawline. My good friend Brooke told me about PastTense for headaches and it really has been such a lifesaver when ibuprofen just isn't getting it done. I've discovered that if I use it right after a bath when my skin is still warm, it tends to burn after I apply it to anywhere other than across my forehead, so I wait ten minutes or so to apply it to my neck/shoulders. I love the way it smells and the way it rolls on like lip gloss from the 1990s. (Please, for the love of god, do not put it on your lips.).

...Or Don't Put on Anything At All!

Okay. This is the part where some people are going to judge. I read an article a few weeks ago about the benefits of sleeping naked - yes, you read that correctly; it can be beneficial! I saw the post on a radio station website (read it here) and while I don't agree with all of it (like the pajama thing - I delight into changing into pj's the second I'm done with my day) and some of the benefits simply don't apply, two of them stuck out to me.

The older I get, the more I realize how lightly I sleep. I feel everything while sleeping - which is why I so rarely can sleep in the cute pajama sets I love to buy. The drawstrings and frills are uncomfortable. When I don't feel well, I'm even more aware of how uncomfortable I am in my bed if there's anything bunched or twisted or askew and it causes more tossing and turning.

Aside from washing makeup off of my face at the end of the day, the concept of my skin needing to breathe didn't ever occur to me. I sleep with 800 blankets on my bed at night, so the added layer of a tshirt probably doesn't make a huge difference when it comes to my skin breathing, but when I'm not feeling well or uncomfortable, the cool sheet on bare skin is a welcomed feeling!

Drink. Breathe. Repeat.

I'm awful at drinking water. Like, terrible. It's not that I don't like the way it taste or anything, I'm just really terrible at remembering that water isn't just used for making coffee. Working at the clinic, I've gotten better about carrying water around with me, mostly because I am often having to encourage my kiddos to drink their water - practice what you preach, right? So I refilled one of my big 'teacher cups' with cool, not cold, water and set it next to my fan where I'd see it and remember.

One of the things my dad has always driven home with me when it comes to headaches is that air circulation is important. Even when I was little, he discouraged me from covering my head with blankets when sleeping, so I've always been in the habit of sleeping with a small fan by my bed so that I had cool, circulating air blowing on my face to breathe in. Now, does this actually help? I don't know, but sometimes comfort items are just as helpful as anything medical might be.

R&R 

I mentioned before I'm not super girly, but I like little aesthetic touches. Because of that, there's been a sleeping eye mask placed just so on my headboard - mostly for decoration. But the last time I had a migraine I couldn't get it dark enough in my room to relax, so I thought I'd try it - oh my gosh! They're actually like, useful. It wasn't nearly as tight and confining as I thought it'd be and it allowed me to close my eyes without any distracting lights or movements. Now it sits on the corner of my headboard for moments like this. I turned my phone on Do Not Disturb (A must. The last thing you want when you have a migraine/headache is to constantly have your phone go off or light up.) and slipped the mask over my eyes and finally, finally could feel my body relaxing.

Slow and Steady

I have a really bad habit of jumping on my phone or computer, or flipping through the channels on the television the second I begin to feel better because, obviously, the world has drastically changed in the few hours I've been separated from social media, right? So when I finally felt the last of the migraine drain from my body , I forced myself to take it slow and easy. I went out to the kitchen and made myself a mug of Irish Breakfast Tea before crawling back into my bed with a book that I could leisurely flip through without having to focus too much on the words or get to into a gripping plot line. (Until, ya know, I hopped on the computer to write the blog.)

So that's my The Poor (Wo)Man's Homeopathic Migraine Cure" guide. This is by no means meant to be a miracle cure for migraines. These are simply the things I had around the house that work for me when I don't have access to Miracle!Meds or a wealth of proven homeopathic methods to choose from.

Do you have any nifty tricks or suggestions for curing/staving off a migraine? Share them in the comment section below!