#9 ~ Al Ain: Miserable Migraines / Peaceful Primary / Kahoots

Primary girls sending a video to me explaining  how to help my headache get better! Zuri had on  slippers like mine ~ told me to stay warm 😉!

Wed, 4/8/26 ~ full blown migraine, then headaches nonstop for the next 4 weeks. I had another migraine, Sun, 4/26/26 at 1:30 after church ~ what the heck? And then between these 2 migraines I got 3 vision migraines; Thur 16th, 17th & 18th. What's even crazier is that for the last 5 years, right before a migraine and right before my head starts pounding, I smell "cotton candy" ~ like real yummy cotton candy (not every time but many)!  Sometimes with aura and sometimes without. No one else can smell it, just me, but then 💥 the headache begins. I've got less than 10 minutes to get some meds into me. 

I had finally gone into a clinic in the morning and was seen by the GP then a Specialist and was hooked up to an IV then ended up going to the hospital to a neurologist that night and was hooked up again with fluids, and a stronger pain killer.  After 45 minutes the neurologist came back in and said, "your headache is all gone." not a question but a statement.  I said, 'No, not really".  He said, "ok, 80%." I thought, "ok, time for a different neurologist". He sent me home with a week's worth of painkillers that I was to take everyday, which I did, which did not help my headaches, at all.

It had been a week since I used my own migraine meds and on the 26th, knowing this 2nd migraine was going to be a doozy, I took my own medicine. His medicine only lasted less than 2 hours for my daily headaches and only made them a little better but I knew my meds would at least stop the full blown migraine, vision, nausea and exploding headache.  

I'll have to check out all the new and different Migraine meds that are available. Marcie takes Ubrelvy along with a daily pill but hopefully mine won't get that consistent.

The Branch, our kids and everyone  (fasted and) prayed for me and then a little miracle happened. After we came home from seeing the GP to get a referral for the 2nd neurologist ~ I actually had 1 hour, around 2pm, where, all of a sudden, I had no pain whatsoever - it was as sooooo weird and wonderful 😳😦😄. I thought, "maybe I don't need to go back for my 5pm appt cuz my headaches are completely gone", but I think Heavenly Father was giving me a glimpse of how it will be soon and not give up and have hope and to know once again how much the prayer of others work. 

Everyone's prayers were heard and were answered. 

One hour, just all of a sudden, no headache ~ nothing, pain free, just for a little over an hour. It was amazing. Then after an hour full blown headache again. If that's not a miracle I don't know what is. I hadn't taken any pain killers for the last 4 days before that (and just got one a couple hours after at the hospital). 

But, regardless, we still felt we should go to the neurologist and I'm glad we did. 

In the meantime, life went on (just did it with miserable daily headaches).  On the brightside we found a new favorite market right by our home.  It is a bit more expensive but has everything we need, even some dried fish for snacks 😜.  Billy also found a pretty good foot, shoulder, neck and head massage place for me but it's $70 for an hour . We thought maybe it would help with my headaches and I did like it but my shoulder hurt for a week afterwards when it hadn't before 🤔. Billy discovered a Carl's Jr but it was really a Hardees, who knew we would be Hardee's fans! Last but not least, a member from the Abu Dhabi Ward, Charlie, had an interview here in Al Ain so we had our first sleepover guest!   

I was in bed with my migraine so I didn't get to meet him but Billy said he was really great and hopes he gets the job and is able to move to our little Branch!

We have to leave early to go to Dubai tomorrow to get our car exchanged cuz something sounds weird. They'll fix it and give us a loner. Unbeknownst to us, even though I asked the guy as we were leaving, this SUV only had 5 seats not 7 like he said there were, which caused a real issue at our next 2 big activities 😏; making Billy make 3 runs picking up everyone instead of the regular two. 

We need to get a bus or move to a villa that's closer to one of the malls (which I am sure neither will happen)!

Such a fun Primary class today ~ I usually keep them pretty busy for about an hour and a half; we just have too many fun things to talk about, color and do! Today we talked about the many trials Joseph went through, then glued the scriptures onto his coat to make it many colors. After that we colored a separate coat then on the back side we used some foam clay art and made another beautiful coat for Joseph. I do love Primary and these little bundles of joy!

The girls' Mom, Victoria (top middle), arrives around 5:30 and then they all hang around for a bit. Charm, in the middle, and Jenny center bottom, come with the girls and usually take a nap in the living room.

Status Migrainosus

Back to the hospital we went to see my 2nd neurologist (again) and they pumped me up with oxygen, steroids and a little codeine/tylenol. They've prescribed some heavier meds: Nurtex; every other night for a month, Codeine; as needed and sleeping pills for a week. I was hoping this would take care of the migraines and the daily headaches 🤔.  The weirdest thing about this whole situation is that I have never had continual daily headaches after my initial migraine, nor have I had so many migraines in one months time. I think what might have happened is that when I start getting a migraine, I pop in my medicine and it takes care of it.  But what my body is needing is for me to slow down, rest and just turn off my brain and regroup.  But since my medicine had always worked so well (with just a baby residue headache after the migraine) I just kept going 110%.  With the worry and stress that I have for our little Branch and all their many problems I just didn't take a moment off to regroup, reset and rest my body and brain.  I think the Lord has helped me my whole life in shutting my body down and resting (because I wouldn't do it for myself).  In HS it was cramping once a month where I literally was in bed for a day and a half, then migraines after I had my 2nd baby where I had to stop because I was pregnant or nursing for 11 more years and couldn't take medicine, then when I got migraine meds and wouldn't slow down, I jumped into 2 separate depressions in my 30's that knocked me out for a few months. After my bouts with depression I actually began slowing down. but I'm afraid that I obviously forgot when we arrived here in Al Ain. So I am grateful that Heavenly Father is more aware of my needs than I am.  It truly has been a blessing and hopefully I'll be better at taking care of myself from here on out.

Soooo, yes, that combination seems to have done the trick and I'm doing much better today! I've got a bucket load of meds by my bed which I won't end up using. One interesting thing was that the 2nd neurologist told me not to take my migraine medicine during the aura phase (or cotton candy phase, whichever it might be) but wait until my head starts hurting 🤪, but I know what happens when I don't take it immediately and I was not going there. Doctors are sometimes "interesting". Sometimes I think that when they are doing their internship someone needs to hit their head with a mallet and ask them to not take any medicine until they can see clearly 🤣🤣🤯!

As many of you know, whenever I have surgery or any major medical thing going on, it isn't too far behind that Billy goes in for something 😝! So here we are at Billy's dermatologist appointments; he has had 4 spots cut off and sent for a biopsy and then a zillion frozen off. We've gone to Billy's dermatologist 6 times; I'm not sure why the doctor didn't just remove all 4 spots at the same time? He would remove one then a week later he would take out the stitches and remove another, etc.  It's not like they were making a lot of money since we were only being charged less than $5 each time 🤔.  Anyhoooo, everything looks good now 😅!

~ KAHOOTS ~

Our little Branch had a kick playing Kahoots on Zoom with all the women in the Abu Dhabi Stake (all in the UAE - roughly the size of South Carolina).  It was so fun to see everyone that is still in the UAE at our Stake Activity and some joining us from the US. Carla, from our Branch here in Al Ain, took 3rd place out of 40 ~ we were so proud of her (she said her boys were helping her 😜). I've already been embarrassed by this game but the good thing is it didn't show all the scores, just the top five.  I think that I was 28th out of 40, but I'm hoping no one else noticed!

I hope you are doing well and life hasn't thrown you too many curve balls ~ if so, remember these two wonderful scriptures and have hope and faith just like I tried to practice this last month 😉!

"Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” Psalm 55:22

"All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” D&C 122:7