✍️ Day 20: 40 Days of Thankfulness

I hope I’m not jinxing myself but today I am thankful that I haven’t had any migraines for a while.

 

It’s not “just” not having migraines, but the fact that, should I get one, there’s nothing I can do about them anymore.

 

I used to get migraines quite often, a hormone thing probably. I spent lots of hours in a completely dark room, blocking out sound, trying to keep my head from pounding.

 

There was a long period of time that I had a migraine 6 days out of the week for several weeks. By accident, a friend asked me on a Monday if I had one that day and that started me thinking – why do I have them every day except Mondays? I figured out that it wasn’t a migraine at all but an allergy headache – I was allergic to the bath oil I was using Monday-Saturday. I gave that to my Mom and those headaches went away.

 

I still often get allergy headaches. Since my Cushing’s transsphenoidal pituitary surgery, I can’t smell things very well and I often don’t know if there’s a scent that is going to trigger an allergic reaction. In church and elsewhere, my Mom will be my “Royal Sniffer” and if someone is wearing perfume or something scented, she’ll let me know and we’ll move to a new location.

 

There’s a double whammy here – since my kidney cancer surgery, my doctor won’t let me take NSAIDs, aspirin, Tylenol, any of the meds that might help a headache go away. If I absolutely MUST take something, it has to be a small amount of Tylenol only. My only hope would be that coffee from Day Thirteen. And that’s definitely not usually enough to get rid of one of these monsters.

 

So, I am very thankful that, for the moment, I am headache/migraine free!

 

 

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Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) patients United States
This is a 5-minute survey for a medical history platform, compensation is a $25 gift card

Crohn’s Disease, Diabetes, Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ulcerative Colitis caregivers of children in Philadelphia, PA United States
75-minute in-person interviews, compensation is $225

Crohn’s Disease Male Non-Caucasian Patients United States
90-minute web-assisted phone interview, compensation is $175 ($150 for the interview and $25 for confirmation of diagnosis)

Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis patients United States
15-minute online survey, compensation is $30

Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD), Idiopathic Short Stature (ISS), Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), Small for Gestational Age (SGA), Turner Syndrome patients or caregivers in Boston, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Orlando United States
3-hour in-person interview

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Online surveys over a 6-10 week period, compensation is $325 to $585

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60-minute in-person interview, compensation is $180

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45-60 minute web-assisted phone interview, compensation is 50 GBP

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