Stress and migraines

I don't believe that stress causes migraines. My neurological disease causes them, and for me it's not even that much of a trigger. But, if I have a migraine it can make it increase in severity like nothing else. I winder why, since it doesn't usually bother me, BOOM, a 5 headache is an 8 in less than 15 minutes.

My head has been bad all week, we've had a lot of weather changes some severe. Yesterday we had sunshine and I had my post migraine hangover. I slept for about 16 hours though out the afternoon, evening and night. Something I seldom do.

Today the mold cleaning chemicals at work set me off again. Even with meds I could only bring it down to a 5. Not great but tolerable. Then I opened the mail. My insurance company said that a CT Scan I had in April would not be covered because it was not properly certified. Wow...really? The mailed me a pre certification letter giving me the go ahead. So I called the insurance company and the woman told me that I needed to be certified by NIH not them. I asked then why is their number on my card as the pre-certification number and who in the world is NIH???? She just kept repeating that I was not properly pre certified. Hang up the phone and have a meltdown.

I don't have an extra $3500.

So I dig out my pre certification letter just to make sure I had read it right and there wasn't anything about NIH on it. Nope. So I call back.

I got a wonderful woman named Gloria. I apologized off the bat for crying and explained I knew it wasn't her fault. She started by saying, "let's take deep breaths together...come on sweetie, take another one". She looked at everything and said "there's no reason this wasn't paid for, you were pre-certified, it's on the record in front of me". She apologized for the company and for her co-worker and said she would take care of it. Gloria is my angel for the day.

However, now I am stuck at an 8 for a headache. Was it the stress? The crying? Now that the problem resolved why won't my head settle down? I've used my toradol injections several times this week already and am limited to four a month.

And of course there are four wheelers going back and forth on our road. We live way out in the country, no traffic and usually I have a "live and let live" attitude about it. Right now I feel like standing at my window with a BB gun. Just a little sting...wouldn't come close to what the noise is doing to my head.

Thanks friends for listening.

When it rains, it pours, eh?

You sure had a sucky day, Charlotte.
I wish I was there so I could give you at least a big soft hug.

Some people probably have a tiny brain that allows only a mindless repetition of a certain sentence,
such as "not properly pre certified".
That's it, one more world in that sentence and the tiny brain would fry instantly.

Then there are Gloria-s, as the name implies they are glorious angles sent in place
of the "one short sentence only" dolts to actually help move things forward.
Thank heavens she was there for you that day!

As for how stress factors in it - well, the latest theory says stress is an exacerbating factor for everything else,
a catalyst,
so when our immune system is weakened, stress will make everything else attack stronger xxx-fold.

Makes a perfect sense to me, Char - once your were stressed out, you weren't as resistant as normally you are
to everyday tension and triggers.

It's like when we are stressed out, our weakened immune system lets us catch viral or other infections
easier than it would normally do.
Same with M triggers.
Had you been your regular sunshiny disposition, you'd handle triggers way better, too.

Does that make sense?

Risa