Headaches are strange, weird sometimes. I get a lot of them because of chronic fatigue syndrome. Not daily but 3-5 each week and the pain directly related to my level of exhaustion. Have scripts for powerful pain relievers, don’t take them, use natural meds. Don’t use herbs very often these days. I’ve learned to live with the pain. Frankly, after 25 years are a part of my life, always there or lurking.
But every once in a while I’ll get a very different kind of headache, a sneaky kind. I think of them as “the creeper” and they hurt, need a shot of morphine kind of hurt! In fact I had a few shots in the ER back when they first started.
Not a sharp pain, there is nothing sharp about them. They are as smooth as silk, like butter melting slowly in the sun. They build gradually over several hours. I usually don’t notice or realize how much pain I’m in until I start yelling at things. Literally, not joking! Had one last friday. I actually cursed my stove out loud! (come on, it is sort of funny
).
My brain was extra foggy that day, couldn’t concentrate enough to even play music. Yet I had a little energy so I cleaned my kitchen slowly, doesn’t require much thought. I got everything clean but the stove.
Rested several hours then tried to fix dinner. I was having trouble making a salad. Couldn’t think, got fixin’s out of the fridge, put them back, got them out again. Couldn’t choose which knife to use... I grew more and more frustrated! Happened to notice the dirty stove. Then the yelling started!
That’s when I realized one had snuck up on me. It wasn’t painful to the point of screaming but it definitely required a verbal response! Grabbed a couple tincture bottles… 20min later it was gone.
I guess my point, I was in that much pain for several hours but did not realize it. Doesn’t seem possible but it’s happened before, many times. Is it reflective of tolerance to pain or something else is going on in my noggin? I had the other symptom, a special kind of confusion that always tags along. Yet my brain somehow didn’t acknowledge or register the pain. The confusion also prevented me from realizing what this type confusion meant or realize I needed tinctures.
These sneaky headaches don’t happen often, had a couple in early december. Noticed one right away but the other made it to yelling level before I noticed.
In the early years I noticed them all!! A couple times I worked on a catscan, finished… then walked over to the er and checked myself in. Got a shot of morphine, slept a few hrs. Once a cardiologist I knew at a clinic drove me to an ER in his car. (the last year I worked I lost 70lbs, obvious to everyone who knew me I had a real problem) (I’m a stubborn cuss! Refused to quit)
(Also… I was working in 4 states at that time. Getting good medical care can be difficult even when you work with doctors everyday. Several doctors had a little piece of a big puzzle so not one could help individually. And my crappy insurance was great in california, just not anywhere else. I lived in tennessee, spent 3wks a month in ga, pa an ohio.)
In those early years I was prescribed all sorts of pain and migraine meds. Ate prescription strength nsaids until I could no longer eat food, stomach was wrecked. I remember one migraine med, $94 a pill. It had a bizarre side effect, I heard at a different rate than I could see. When people spoke the words I heard didn’t match their mouth movements. Freaked me out the first time it happened. Also discovered I get sensitive to light and sound as do many with migraines. For me sound is far more painful than light.
These days I usually take one of two herbs for headaches. I’ve used “sweetleaf” for a decade now. It’s excellent for exhaustion headaches, the ones at the back of my head and upper neck. It doesn’t work like big pharma pain relievers. It’s been a decade and I still can’t put into words how it makes me feel. Most of the pain stops, the rest just doesn’t seem important.
Last fall I discovered another plant that for me will stop a migraine in it’s tracks. One of the verbena species, blue vervain. Wish I’d learned about it 2 decades ago. My headaches aren’t true migraines but are on par pain wise. Vervain will put a big dent in the pain that’s too much for sweetleaf. Makes it manageable so I can still function.
And there are a couple more plants with strength similar to morphine. I rarely touch them because they are so dangerous. One drop to much and they can stop involuntary nerve functions, like breathing. So, I will not name them here. If you experience that kind of pain I suggest talking to a doc/herbalist in you area. Or like me… yelling at a dirty stove helps!
We all get headaches and we all deal with them differently… Share away!
But every once in a while I’ll get a very different kind of headache, a sneaky kind. I think of them as “the creeper” and they hurt, need a shot of morphine kind of hurt! In fact I had a few shots in the ER back when they first started.
Not a sharp pain, there is nothing sharp about them. They are as smooth as silk, like butter melting slowly in the sun. They build gradually over several hours. I usually don’t notice or realize how much pain I’m in until I start yelling at things. Literally, not joking! Had one last friday. I actually cursed my stove out loud! (come on, it is sort of funny
).My brain was extra foggy that day, couldn’t concentrate enough to even play music. Yet I had a little energy so I cleaned my kitchen slowly, doesn’t require much thought. I got everything clean but the stove.
Rested several hours then tried to fix dinner. I was having trouble making a salad. Couldn’t think, got fixin’s out of the fridge, put them back, got them out again. Couldn’t choose which knife to use... I grew more and more frustrated! Happened to notice the dirty stove. Then the yelling started!
That’s when I realized one had snuck up on me. It wasn’t painful to the point of screaming but it definitely required a verbal response! Grabbed a couple tincture bottles… 20min later it was gone.
I guess my point, I was in that much pain for several hours but did not realize it. Doesn’t seem possible but it’s happened before, many times. Is it reflective of tolerance to pain or something else is going on in my noggin? I had the other symptom, a special kind of confusion that always tags along. Yet my brain somehow didn’t acknowledge or register the pain. The confusion also prevented me from realizing what this type confusion meant or realize I needed tinctures.
These sneaky headaches don’t happen often, had a couple in early december. Noticed one right away but the other made it to yelling level before I noticed.
In the early years I noticed them all!! A couple times I worked on a catscan, finished… then walked over to the er and checked myself in. Got a shot of morphine, slept a few hrs. Once a cardiologist I knew at a clinic drove me to an ER in his car. (the last year I worked I lost 70lbs, obvious to everyone who knew me I had a real problem) (I’m a stubborn cuss! Refused to quit)
(Also… I was working in 4 states at that time. Getting good medical care can be difficult even when you work with doctors everyday. Several doctors had a little piece of a big puzzle so not one could help individually. And my crappy insurance was great in california, just not anywhere else. I lived in tennessee, spent 3wks a month in ga, pa an ohio.)
In those early years I was prescribed all sorts of pain and migraine meds. Ate prescription strength nsaids until I could no longer eat food, stomach was wrecked. I remember one migraine med, $94 a pill. It had a bizarre side effect, I heard at a different rate than I could see. When people spoke the words I heard didn’t match their mouth movements. Freaked me out the first time it happened. Also discovered I get sensitive to light and sound as do many with migraines. For me sound is far more painful than light.
These days I usually take one of two herbs for headaches. I’ve used “sweetleaf” for a decade now. It’s excellent for exhaustion headaches, the ones at the back of my head and upper neck. It doesn’t work like big pharma pain relievers. It’s been a decade and I still can’t put into words how it makes me feel. Most of the pain stops, the rest just doesn’t seem important.
Last fall I discovered another plant that for me will stop a migraine in it’s tracks. One of the verbena species, blue vervain. Wish I’d learned about it 2 decades ago. My headaches aren’t true migraines but are on par pain wise. Vervain will put a big dent in the pain that’s too much for sweetleaf. Makes it manageable so I can still function.
And there are a couple more plants with strength similar to morphine. I rarely touch them because they are so dangerous. One drop to much and they can stop involuntary nerve functions, like breathing. So, I will not name them here. If you experience that kind of pain I suggest talking to a doc/herbalist in you area. Or like me… yelling at a dirty stove helps!
We all get headaches and we all deal with them differently… Share away!
. And get your Tincture recipe 
Reason I ask, is here's my 'Anecdote for consideration':
- which was Never diagnosed / suspected, because the "headaches" were so low-key..
