Migraine Cure

Recently Gary went to the NP at the neurologist's office to see if he can get some relief with his migraine. He came back and reported:

• The NP is sick with covid
• The neurologist is not available for three months
• There were remarkably few cars in the lot because, as Gary surmised, Covid

There has a been a 50% increase in daily cases the last week.  I think he intends to have a telemedicine visit with the NP in a few weeks, but in the meantime he needs to get relief through non-scientific Gary methods.

I have never had a migraine, but Gary tells me that these things make his migraine lessen:

• Cold lemon yogurt
• Aggression

According to him, being angry and yelling really helps his migraine. I left the room four times one night. I don't know if this is a common migraine cure. I suppose it might redirect the serotonin. All I know is that I don’t need to be around when he is taking the aggression cure. 

Comments

[KC]

Has he tried swapping to green light? If his has a lot of light sensitivity, using green LEDs makes everything look like you're in a recording being shown on the X-Files, but green LEDs poke the brain less than (at least most) other light colors.

(I also would not be around for any of the aggression cure. Just. No.)

[KC]

(there are gobs of other "you can try this!" things out there, but the green light was key for me. Green light, no backlit screens, no strong mental effort = no vomiting and *also* no days silent and alone in the dark doing nothing, which degenerates into a sequence of nightmare naps, which then makes *night* also a sequence of nightmare naps.)(before I had joint injuries I used to knit my way through nightmares with cotton dishcloths, because you can feel the cotton yarn and the needles and do it blind. Then: joint injuries = knitting limits. So. )(Green light was a real sanity assistant here; even though tasks were absurdly limited in nature, they were at least *something*)

A friend with longer-term migraines has a full-on collection of things that, layered one on top of each other, usually beats the continual migraine down to a tolerable level. E-ink screens! green light! forehead-zappy thing! medications! migraine-specific botox! sound-mitigation things! etc. So there are a lot of possibilities out there, both medical and consumer-grade.

And there's always the "dark chocolate is good for migraines" theory. :-) (it does not noticeably help mine. But it's tasty, anyway, and it helps some people.)

[theQueen]

KC - he hasn't tried green light; I'll tell him. Right now he's focusing of which sleep sweatpants give him the most relief, which is frustrating. Well, to be fair, he's also hydrating a lot more.

[KC]

Hydrating is good!

I literally just taped a green LED onto a coin cell battery for my mini green light to do things by, but there are more precise and more official products available.

Sleep *is* important but... yeah. Hydrating might get him a wee bit farther than sweatpants...

[theQueen]

kC - Thank you! i just got him a green light version of his favorite flashlight.

[theQueen]

KC - so I did get him a green light version of the headlamp he likes. He uses it to read books. He says the glare off the green light is better than the glare off his old white headlamp.
I didn't notice at the time I bought it, but it is technically a Green Light Grow Room Headlight, for, one assumes, growing pot. So perhaps that could be a new hobby.

[KC]

I saw one "plant light" green light bulb ages ago that had a " *does not contribute to plant growth, product is only to improve the appearance of houseplants" sort of qualifier footnote on it. At the time, I was looking for grow lights for tomato plants and not pot; apparently plants mostly want red and blue, which makes sense since they're reflecting the green light back at you - they don't much want it? So if he does want to take up a new hobby, he'll need more equipment, which will probably not make him sad, him being Gary and all that.

(aha! I might have found the headlamp? " The Grow1 LED Head Light makes multi-tasking in the greenhouse easier than ever, as it requires no hands to hold! The head light features 19 high-intensity, green LED bulbs (which will not disrupt plant growth cycles), a tilting light mount, adjustable head straps, and four light settings. This head light is sure to brighten any evening!" - so, yes, a light for people growing things but one that will not stimulate plants.)

(which, given that in theory the brain is less stimulated by green light than by other types of light: does that mean we're all mostly in a persistently vegetative state?)

[KC]

(also, a migraine friend swears by the Allay green light lamp specifically, and also good-quality blue light glasses [they filter out blue light; they do not produce blue light][note: blue light is, for most people, an important part of their circadian rhythm, just, eh, if you've got a migraine, circadian rhythm is not your biggest problem, and besides, most of us are getting blue light way past the late-afternoon blue-light-ought-to-end-for-circadian-rhythm-purposes cutoff anyway). Mileage may vary, though, and if what you've got is good enough, then eh. :-) )

[KC]

(friend gave me a no-time-limits promo code for the Allay lamp if you ever end up buying one, incidentally. Let me know if Gary does end up wanting some more specific green light than the headlamp and I can email the code to you.)

[theQueen]

KC - This was the VIVOSUN headlamp, but probably much the same. I will give him the Allay info, and then wait for him to discover it on his own so it is his idea. I wouldn't hang on to the promo code, because a) he refuses all discounts and coupons, and b) If I suggest it directly to him he will reject it, so there's a delay.

[KC]

You are a living model of "accept the things we cannot change."

It's not a limited-use promo code, so let me know if things ever do somehow change, though. ;-)

[theQueen]

KC - thanks