Well, this interesting. I looked up naproxen & it’s sold as
Aleve here. It’s an over-the-counter medicine. I always have it in the house for one thing or another (it recently helped me prior to my root canal), but no way would I take it for a migraine. Over here, it’s only an alternative aspirin type of thing.
Cannot believe a neuro wrote a scrip for this. Surely Boots sells Aleve?
Well, that’s the thing.
The neurologist’s quite famous in select circles of sufferers. The senior coworker who recommended him is the one suffering from cluster headaches and thus we commiserate with each other on a regular basis. He’s been seeing the guy for years and so has his entire family (another grim proof that the blasted thing for sure is hereditary; kids, beware!), they all say he’s very good.
I suppose he doesn’t understand how serious it is because I’m not one to overstate things; perhaps I should have. Thing is, that’s an effort too, and I just didn’t have it in me at the time (still don’t). He asked what I’d been taking; I listed a bunch of stuff. Nothing has been working this time ‘round, I’m still not all there, dizzy, etc. Sumatriptan is prescription-only here and they only give you 2 (!!!) pills in a pack. Instructions advise you shouldn’t really take them both during the same attack, but if you must, wait for 4 hours.
Well, I was alone when it hit me, in relative isolation, geographically speaking, and I thought I was going to die before I’d get the chance to call the ambulance. I took both, half-expecting an overdose, and it did… nothing. Nada. Didn’t even help with nausea.
Went to see the Shard guy on Monday, he gave me the prescription for this naproxen thing. Anyway, long story short, called him today and demanded an MRI, seeing him again on Tuesday. Not ideal, but at least he’s trying, and to get an MRI with Covid and everything at such short notice even at a private hospital is better than nothing.
Went to work today (because we’re dealing with the biggest High Court litigation case of the year and I can’t keep slacking off) and nearly passed out in the street. It was like some cheesy version of
Notorious where someone’s being slowly poisoned. I went down on my knees in the middle of Victoria Street and now to top it all off I have raw bloody knees with red, red, red, red welts and have been nursing them in between meetings. To quote Hank Schrader, maybe the universe is trying to tell me something.
Re: migraine films, what came to my mind (though not sure it was in the films, I’m only remembering it from the books) is Harry Potter’s headaches when Voldemort was trying to get into his head or vice versa, whatever it was. I’m looking for a representation that at least attempts to capture how awful it is. On the plus side, have done a ton of reading on migraines this morning (instead of the Particulars of Claim, that was, but I don’t think anyone expects me to work just yet) and it’s fascinating just how misrepresented they usually are. Kind of what I suspected, but still. As one article says, the typical portrayal of a migraine is a woman giving a theatrical wave and excusing herself to ‘lie down’ (usually because the party has upset her or her husband is a jerk). Tragicomic, that, in light of my weekend. Also quite curious to see men hardly ever get migraines in films.