For What I'm Thankful

Good afternoon -

Occasional reader/first time poster, and I just came across this entry of yours. Not that I know more about migraines than you (by a long shot, it would seem), but I get them occasionally myself - inherited from my grandfather, who gets them badly enough that part of his face goes paralyzed; happily mine aren’t nearly that bad - and so, years ago, began taking either the pill form or the loose-in-a-teaball form of Feverfew. I thought you may want to give it a shot. It can be found (at least up here in Toronto) in health food stores and some larger pharmacies.

I find that if I get a migraine or feel one coming on (generally triggered by low pressure, it would seem), I pop one of those and it does the trick. Unfortunately, the pill forms can take half an hour or more to soak in (an eternity with the pain I’ve endured, and it sounds like yours are worse), but it does deal with it when nothing else may. And while the loose form to make tea from may well work faster, who wants to putter around in the kitchen making tea when any noise or light increases the pain that much more?

In any case, I hope they clear up for you. And meanwhile, keep up the excellent work on the site.

All the best.

• Reay (“Ray”), Toronto

Oh, I know that caffeine detox all too well. It’s my least favorite detox.

And as someone who is currently sweating the last traces of Malboro out of my system, for the fifth time this year, I know all about withdrawal!

But, have you reached that point in life yet where the list of things you’ve had to give up, is longer than the vices left?

That’s a sobering moment, I can tell you!

Glad the migraines are under control though, that can’t have been fun.

Reay:

Tried it. :) Actually, what I was trying was this stuff called Migrelief, which contains feverfew and some vitamins.

Did nothing for me.

Clive:

Well, I’ve been there with the Marlboros too. Quit cold turkey a little over 10 years ago, and haven’t had a cig since. The Mazin Secret to quitting cigarettes?

Three steps.

One: understand you may never smoke one single cigarette ever again for the rest of your life.

Two: quit cold turkey. Hurts for a few days, but it makes step three possible, and step three is the crucial one.

Three: you’re not quitting. You’ve quit. It’s over. Done. You’ve won. Whatever pain you’re feeling now is not part of a process toward something. It’s the dying aftermath of a final, irreversible decision.

Well, Craig, first of all, congratulations! It sounds like you were in hell and came back!

I was kind of worried at the end of your post, the reason: I adore coffee. I drink about four espressos per day (also a writer, usually working at home). Did you drink more than that? Do you advice me to start quitting caffeine already?

My mom also was a coffee drinker, she also had to switch to decaf after some terrible trigeminal nerve pain…

Thanks for this post (and each and everyone you posted during this year). Wish a happy thanksgiving to anyone reading this blog.

God, you REALLY have something to be thankful for, don’t you? Enjoy a great dinner with family and friends and rejoice.

It sounds like you’re in the minority and found your cure — but for me, and I hear, most, migraine sufferers, the headaches are a result of bruxism — grinding your teeth at night. I’m a huge grinder and, as well as wearing a night guard which saved my teeth but only makes the headaches worse, I did learn and collect a few physical therapy exercises to stop nocturnal grinding — just stretching and exercising the jaw so that it won’t clench on autopilot all night —

— and my grinding and migraines stopped. Changed my life as well — so much so, I’m thinking of writing my own book. The fact that yours happen in the morning made them seem like they might be grinding — but if the caffeine detox worked, hallelujah. I don’t drink much coffee, rarely have more than a Mountain Dew caffeine-wise, but as said…big grinder.

What a relief it must be.

Well done, Craig! Like you, I’ve had severe migraines for most of my life. I eventually arrived at the same conclusion you did, albeit by a different route.

I gave up caffeine totally a few years ago, with the exception of some decaffeinated (i.e. low dosage) green tea I drink every day, and discovered that was the only way for me to break the vicious migraine cycle. I still get them from time to time (I guess you know by now that chocolate, a weakness with me, also has caffeine in it!) but not nearly as often, and nowhere near as severe.

It’s no secret that caffeine is widely considered a ‘trigger’ for migraines, but the dramatic decrease in migraines I experienced after giving it up made me wonder if caffeine was more than just one of many triggers. Could it be that, with some but not all migraine sufferers, caffeine somehow creates the underlying condition that leads to recurring migraines? A couple of years ago I sent an e-mail to a migraine researcher, Professor Roland Griffiths (coincidentally, like the author of your book, from Johns Hopkins) asking if my crackpot theory made any sense to him. His reply: “Although this phenomenon is not widely recognized, I’m increasingly hearing of cases like yours and believe there may be something of importance to explore. I will look into it further.”

I hope he does.

BTW, you might consider keeping some Amerge, the next generation after Imitrex, on hand in case your migraines reoccur occasionally. Less side effects…

Craig, thanks for this - my lady gets frightful migraines and is always looking for possible solutions … I’m getting the book right away …

Daniel:

That’s a lot of caffeine you’re drinking. If you get headaches, then yes, I think it’s probably a good idea to cut back or quit entirely.

Chris:

Yes, bruxism. Tried that too. :) Got one of these custom made, in fact. Didn’t work. I do believe some people have bruxism-related migraines (sounds like you did), but I sure didn’t. Interestly, Buchholtz doesn’t give much credence to the bruxism theory, which surprised me.

Gary:

You know, it’s certainly possible, although I remember getting a few wallbangers when I was very young, possibly triggered by a large dose of MSG. Seems like I was born with a predilection, and steady caffeine use finally pushed me into chronic migraine disease.

I have used Amerge, and it worked just as well as Imitrex. In fact, Amerge was the very first triptan I used. My doc switched me to Imitrex because his sense was that it was less strong than Amerge. Either way, I didn’t notice any difference in efficacy between the two, and Imitrex is the only triptan that comes as an injectible (which reeeeeally works well).

Joshua:

Tell her I wish her the best. Buchholtz’s dietary restriction are, IMO, a little nutty, but he sure was dead on about caffeine. If your missus drinks colas or coffee or tea, that should be step one.

Glad you found your trigger. I don’t drink coffee, soda or eat chocolate. I’m still looking for my triggers. Just finished a 90 day study in which I eliminated all the food triggers known, and no relief. Imitrex is my only help also. 1/2 tablet when a migraine begins helps, unless I wake up about 4 a.m. with a huge migraine and my stomach has shut down, then I take an injection. I really don’t believe Imitrex causes rebounds as my migraines are cyclic… there’s a reason out there somewhere! I don’t grind my teeth. My only conclusion is that migraine is inherited. My grandmothers on both sides had migraines, and my Mom has abdominal migraine.

Ouch. I wonder why migraines can go different directions like that. I usually get one every couple of months or so, and until a few years ago just suffered through them. Then had one that wouldn’t quit and so saw doc and got some Zomig (which I believe is like Imitrex). So far so good - still get a migraine occasionally but find the Zomig take them out pretty fast and effectively.

Great blog sir - may the cleansing work.

When you are in pain, you will try practically ANYTHING to stop it. Medicines, gadgets, chants. It doesn’t really matter what it is, because you will try it if your condition is bad enough.

I know I have, because at some level you have nothing to lose except for some money.

Unfortunately, many people know this, and as a result there is no shortage of companies wanting to sell you quick-fix solutions that don’t do much. It’s a mine field.

Way to go, soldier. Tenacity is the key to personal healthcare and you’ve got it. Way to go. Glad you’re feeling better!

Right the last year of college, I started suffering from these rapid-onset totally debilitating headaches which would first manifest as a fluttering in one ear, followed by congestion, some tear production, and then WHAM— it felt like someone had a spear inside my head and was determined to very slo-o-o-wly yet forecefully push that spear out just my eyebrow.

The pain is so intense that literally all I could do was curl into a fetal ball, cower in a bed in the dark and whimper for 90 minutes or so when suddenly… this pain would just lift and disappear. Gone.

For 24 hours. And then… WHAM. Back into 90 minutes of hell. This cycle of daily agony would continue for a week, maybe 10 days, and then… it would stop. No more headaches. Yay! Right?

Except 12-18 months later, they’d come back for another week’s stay in my life.

This cycle repeated for moe than ten years — one week of daily pain so bad that I would punch and kick and scream trying to escape its clutches — followed by a remission cycle of a year or more.

I assumed it was migraines— hyperintense bouts of headache pain is migraines, right? I started trying to reduce my caffeine, my salt, my nitrates— anything that might effect my blood pressure. The remission periods grew longer.

When the internet became useful (mid-90s) I strted looking for more info, and it turns out that what I have is not migraines, but a more rare and nasty beastie called “cluster headaches.” Migraines are awful (or so sufferers concur), but doctors call cluster headaches “suicide headaches,” ‘cuz when you are in their grip, you literally would be willing to just in front of a bus if it will JUST MAKE THE PAIN STOP. There are videos of sufferers (men in 80+% of the diagnosed cases, BTW) flailing and screaming as if possessed, sometimes with friends trying to hug/wrestle them to stillness so they don;t harm themselves as they flail and fight the invisible demon tearing their brain into confetti. It’s scary stuff, made more so by the knowledge that I am one of those poor tortured bastards.

And here’s the really fun part— where Imitrex can kick a migraine’s ass, in trials that same drug has no discernible effect on cluster headaches. Oxygen therapy (hyperventilating with an oxygen bottle) helps in some cases, but in my own case the best “treatment” seems to be (like you) to minimize my caffeine intake, drink LOADS of water when the attack starts, and then walk briskly (ALONE!) when the pain is peaking, as the air and exercise seems to lessen the intensity and duration of the attacks.

Now my cycle seems to be remission period of more than two years, and the attacks last less than a week when they do appear, and given that I have at least some vague arsenal of tools to fight back, I’m not as crippled as I used to be.

But it still ain’t fun.

You have my congrats and my envy for having found something that works

Brett:

Yeah, those are classic cluster headaches you’re describing. I’ve never had one, and thank God for that. You might want to see a neurologist if you haven’t, if only to explore some of the possible medical treatments (I think low does of lithium have been shown to reduce frequency of cluster attacks).

Pash:

Are you a woman? If so, maybe your migraines are tied to your cycle. If you’re a guy, I got nothin’ for ya. :)

Thanks for putting this out there, and I’m glad you’re feeling better. Knock on wood, I’m lucky so far and have never had migraine problems.

It amazes me that, before they performed surgery on you, no one suggested trying to give up caffeine. Though I guess info like this is still coming out, and it sounds like there are a wide range of possible causes for people.

Congrats, Craig. So, you were able to write while experiencing migraines? And, write comedy? Damn.

Oh, I sooooo feel your pain. As in, right now. This very moment.

The headaches just started a few weeks ago. They almost always come on the weekends. Why? Because I’m not chained to my desk 20 hours a day, with a caffeine IV drip jabbed in my jugular.

My particular poison is Mountain Dew. I drink it straight from the 2-liter, warm and flat, all day long. About 2 liters per day.

And then there’s the coffee. A 6-cup pot at midnight, to get me over that pesky midnight to 4AM writing hump.

The coffee is a recent development. I hate it. Tastes like battery acid. But by midnight my blood is glowing yellow from Mountain Dew, and the soda has no effect. So a few months ago, I started with 2 cups of coffee at midnight.

And dozed off anyway.

I upped it to four cups. That worked for a few weeks. Then …. zzzzzzzz. So I upped it to 6 cups. When that stopped working, I decided to stop the madness rather than push it to 8 cups.

Hence, the migraines.

It’s a catch 22. I stopped the caffeine and was crippled by migraines. Not only that, but my productivity dropped by half — I was losing those extra 4-5 hours of writing a day.

I had to start with the caffeine again — minus the midnight coffee (so far) — just to be able to function. I wish I could wean myself completely, but I just can’t afford to lose all that writing time.

However, I’m also concerned about getting so strung out that I end up in Craig’s situation. So my question is this: How much caffeine were you drinking, and how often, to get to the point where 8 hours sleep sends you into withdrawal?

I’d like to moderate my levels to juuuuust below that point. :-)

I’m glad you found something that works. I hadn’t thought about the caffeine trigger, but in the 18 months I had to give up caffeine (pregnancy and breastfeeding), I got a migraine only once.

It’s amazing how something which seems so inconsequential and natural to daily existance can cause such grief - It’s great to know that it’s working out for you.

I’ve never suffered from migraines but a few years ago I was under the influence of terrible bouts of nausea and lethargy. I went through the whole desperate rigmorole of testing and trying various remedies (this is usually the most desperate phase; after the western approach you tend to revert to gypsy tears, yak piss and then transcendetal dance), a lot of time and effort, not to mention money went into the search but nothing really changed. It was only after I started experimenting with deductive dieting that the symptoms, almost over night, gradually alleviated. The culprit: sugar.

I was having six or seven cups of tea a day, seven days a week, with two teaspoons of sugar (49 every seven days), that’s on top of all the hidden sugars in practically every else I ate. It turns out table sugar is inherently confusing to the digestive system as it’s only been in existance for two hundred years or so and becuase the body hasn’t evolved with it, it actually poisons most of the vital organs (in my case the brain and the adrenal glands)
So yeah, I’m behind you completely, it seems most of the cures for modern living lie in elliminating most of the perks of modern living, it’s tough but you generally feel the benefits in days, even if you aren’t sick.

Dougal

ps. Craig, the caffeine tremors are cruel, you have my sincerest sympathies - I gave up a few years ago and have reverted to drinking Mate De Coca as a substitute, it’s one of the most incredible stimulants known to humanity, I can’t recommend it enough. I’d never want to get you out of the frying pan and into the fire, it’ll be worth researching whether it has anything which might be detrimental to you in it, the stuff I drink contains absolutely no cafeinne but it does contain 0.001% of cocaine, an entirely harmless amount.

Mate de coca

It’ll get you jumpin’ and contains a lot of medicinally good things to boot, might be worth a try.

Agahno:

Is refined sugar poisonous to the vital organs?

Of course not. Plenty of quacks will exaggerate claims like this, when the simple fact is that the word “poison” is best left for substances that can really make you sick or die…like arsenic, ricin or perhaps polonium.

However, refined sugar does stimulate a quick and significant release of insulin into the bloodstream. Sometimes, this leads to an overproduction of insulin, which then causes a low level of blood-sugar, aka hypoglycemia. And what are the symptoms of mild to moderate hypoglycemia?

Mild hypoglycemia can cause nausea, a jittery or nervous feeling, cold and clammy skin, and a rapid heartbeat.

Moderate hypoglycemia often makes you feel irritable, anxious, or confused. You may have blurred vision, feel unsteady, and have difficulty walking.

It’s this hyperproduction of insulin that eventually causes Type II diabetes. The insulin-producing cells in the pancreas just burn out from overuse.

In short, take heart. Sugar isn’t a poison. You can have a little bit every now and again. It’s the steady sugar-loading that causes your hypoglycemia and the ensuing nausea and lethargy.

On the other hand, if the Cocaine Tea is making you happy, why change? Besides, Splenda is a pretty good sugar substitute, I find.

I’m studying undergraduate Anthropology at the School of Oriental & African Studies in London and we’ve just entered into the ethnography of Eastern Africa; it’s fascinating, I’ve opted for a module on the cultural value of sweet food products, the significance and ritualisation of honey within tribal communities and all that stuff, it’s very interesting - one thing which struck me in a recent lecture was an analogy made between the heavy ritualisation of tribal men entering the “hunting zones” to forage for honey, a rare and wonderful experience as the rest of their diet consists of mainly bland substances; and the present state of a mass-produced consumerist experience in which sugar is not only individually added to countless food types but is also “hidden” in many others. In essence, we’ve lost a very direct and important link with what it is that we’re actually eating, not only scientifically but also as an “experience”. I’m gonna get shot down for saying something like that but before you take aim, factor into account I’m also reading a lot of Jean-Jaques Rousseau, it’s having a strange effect on me.

I know you’re a big fan of Freddy Nietzsche Craig and I’m not sure if you’ve read any Oswald Spengler but the way I feel about much of these things is that our bodies are usually the best advocates of what we should and shouldn’t eat, a natural course if you like - I’ve almost made it a matter of religiousness to know exactly what it is that I’m eating, if I have no idea then I cut it out; crisps (potato chips), candy, processed foods, microwavable junk and fast foods I’ve stopped eating them all, call me a new age radical but if I can’t identify it I’m not eating it. I think that goes doubly for sugar, I really take your point, quacks make a fortune out of telling us what is and what isn’t good and I, granted through sembiotics, was basing my judgment on this article: http://www.ghchealth.com/refined-sugar-the-sweetest-poison-of-all.html as well as others, but I think you’re point is just as valid, it’s like Sidartha said “the middle way is golden”, and I stick by that, moderation in both senses of the word is key.

D.

ps. The Mazin three-step Marlboro programme, gold-dust, I’ll definitely be implementing that in the new year - the biggest issues I’ve had in the past is my brain “tricking me”, it’s time to put my foot down.

Postscript: I missed your comment on Polonium, it’s ironic you say that as I live in the same borough as the Japanese restaurant in which he was poisoned, the whole area was quarantined, it was pretty scary stuff. I’m interested as to what’s going to develop now between England and Russia, especially as a few months ago Putin and his government passed a bill giving the secret police the right to kill suspects on foreign soil, and strangely enough an ex-KGB agent is murdered with a nuclear agent in Mayfair a few weeks later. I can think of better ways to assasinate someone.

35 g of sugar per day, max. That’s the official reccomendation, according to yesterday’s newspaper. Not entirely sure how much that is — roughly 3 or 4 teaspoons?

There’s no doubt we consume far too much sugar. God knows I have.

I’m glad you’ve found relief, Craig. I’ve suffered from migraines all of my life. But, over the years, I found my triggers (caffeine, cheese, chocolate, red wine, cold cuts, muscle stress) and have learned to either avoid them, or indulge in them with medication on hand, knowing that, very soon, I will be on my knees over the toilet, vomitting….for three days.

Sometimes, a Mars bar or Quiznos sub is just worth the pain.

My son has major nerve pain issues. Some of them are headaches. I took him off all the fun foods and he wasn’t cured. I found out he needed to eat a carb, a juice or even candy, every two hours and forty five mins. Never fast more than three hours. He takes high doses per his doc. of L carnitor, Co-q 10. B-50 and Lyrica for nerve pain. We’ve done studies and he’s having partial onset seisures or irregular electrical activities in the frontal lobe. So maybe he is having two different types of headaches. He has not needed the Imetrex since he has gotten food more often, and the supplements. He is also allowed to rest when he is tired. Just for TLC I do rub the mint and lavendar migrastick on his temples. I have never had to deal with these headaches but I remember my mom closing all of the curtains and cringing when we spoke above a whisper. It lasted for three days.

A lot of migraine stories here.

Either migraines is much more common than I thought it was or Craig’s blog, for some obscure reason, attracts migraine sufferers.

I practically never get headaches. On the extremely, and I mean extremely, rare occation I get a get a headache it’s something very fleeting. And never severe. I’ve never in my life taken a painkiller because of a headache.

Evidently I’m really fortunate. And I never even knew it.

Anonymous:

Writers and migraines tend to go hand in hand.

Jennifer:

Most neurologists now agree that migraine and seizure are closely related phenomena. That’s why, for instance, many migraineurs respond positively to prophylactic doses of Depakote or Topamax (both anti-convulsants).

If your son has some form of seizure disorder and you’ve noticed a dietary connection, you should check out my friend Jim Abrahams’ site… The Charlie Foundation. It’s mostly for younger children with seizure disorder, but hey, I figured it would be worth passing on.

Head On!

Apply directly to the forehead.

Craig,

I feel your pain, literally. I have suffered with migraines for 27 years.

Nothing compares with the debilitating pain of a migraine. I have broken my nose twice, broken my collar bone, dislocated my kneecap and my knee (reconstructive surgery), and I’ve been blessed with numerous stitches over my entire body. The only pain I have experienced that is in the same ballpark is appendicitis.

I believe that the pain is made all the worse because you can’t escape it. It’s all in your head. You can’t separate yourself from the pain.

I don’t drink coffee and my soda consumption is not extreme. I don’t know of any triggers that I may have, except for the Head On commercials. I don’t get the aura that many people describe. I don’t have a sensitivity to sound, but light just kills me. I do get the nausea, the vomiting, and I, also, get a strange taste of paint.

I have been in law enforcement for the past ten years and I thank God, and the pharmaceutical companies, for Imitrex. The doctors started me on MaxAlt, which is another great fix, about six years ago, then switched me to Imitrex. I call them my Golden Pills, because the cost is about the same in weight as gold, but worth much more to me.

I used to buy Excedrin by the 250 count bottles. I would experience terrible indigestion and acid reflux. It was a vicious cycle. Excedrin, Tums, Excedrin, Pepto-Bismol, Excedrin.

Thank you for the post and the book recommendation.

RJ

I’ve been blogging about migraines sporadically. I use the Imitrex nasal spray. It works faster than the pills, and I’m not brave enough to stick a needle into my flesh. I find the Imitrex works about 50% of the time, so I also have a prescription to mega painkillers. Fortunately, I don’t have an addictive personality or metabolism.

I kept a food diary for awhile, and found no relation with diet. My migraines started before I became a coffee drinker, so I wonder if caffeine plays a role. Even now, I drink at most only two cups a day.

I do get caffeine headaches, but those are distinct in pain and head location. My migraines usually start off feeling like a tension headache before it moves inside and starts to feel like it will explode my head apart and pop out my eyeballs. It feels like a little man has some expander worm gears and is slowly cranking my head apart.

No aura, though - except once. That was marvelous, a pink and powder blue paisley design that slowly changed shape.

Webs:

The needle rocks hard, and it comes in a cool pen thingy, so all you have to do is push the pen against your arm, then push a button, and sproing! A needle. You don’t have to slowly push the needle into your arm or anything.

I would definitely try and eliminate all caffeine. And remember, for those of you who use Excedrin, it also contains caffeine…a typical dose being the equivalent of a pretty strong cup of coffee.

Great post, Craig. I started with dibilitating cluster headaches 10 years ago (22 days out of the month) after an accident and have almost resurrected myself. Lately, I have benifitted from Mangosteen Juice. If you haven’t tried it, it’s worth a try. One brand is Xango and there are several others, but I would suggest simply picking up a bottle at Costco to see if it has any value for you.

To add to the list of things to watch for, add contact lens solution. I’ve always been inclined to headaches. About two years ago, all the contact lens solution makers made a formulary change and, at about that same time, my headaches turned into full-blown migraines.

At the suggestion of my ever-observant husband, I switched to 3% hydrogen peroxide as a cleanser and unadulterated saline solution (avoid any polyquad-etc. additives) and my problems have abated dramatically.

I am glad to hear you are doing better, Craig. Thanks for posting this.

I never drink coffee. Very happy with that. But people who work with me don’t really understand.

And now, when I read your story, I’m VERY happy not to drink coffee. I don’t need that to be tired after my (at least) 10 hours of sleeping. Ok, They are not migrains. And it doesn’t hurt. But it p* me off.

Hail to the Craig ! ;-)

Great that you’ve beaten the headaches. But I have one question:

I was waking up with migraines because eight hours of sleep meant eight hours without caffeine.

If you were getting 8 hours of sleep at night, then why were you drinking so much coffee? ;)

I know it is not much help now but as you get older the migraine just fade away. I’m just 62 and have not had one in 3 years. Not much help for anyone not 60 – but hope at the end of the tunnel.

may I ask where you found that illustration of exposed-brain guy with the knives a-jabbing? i kinda like it.

glad you’re feeling better.

My story exactly. I went years with few migraines as long as I laid off the caffeine and took Imitrix only when I absolutely had to. Then I got old and surprise! There are certain migraine triggers that are unique to aging females.

That gives you one more thing to be thankful for.

Crymes: “When you are in pain, you will try practically ANYTHING to stop it. Medicines, gadgets, chants. It doesn’t really matter what it is, because you will try it if your condition is bad enough.”

Yes, but I think that a LOT of people aren’t very proactive when it comes to various painful cronic conditions. They put all their trust in their doctor(s). And eventually learn to live with pain or acute discomfort when meds don’t work all that well.

I really admire the asthma-sufferer who travelled to Cameroon to walk barefoot in human excrement for days or weeks in order to get relief, cure even. That’s going to lenghts!

The purpose of his trip was to infest himself with hookworm, an intestinal parasite that doesn’t exist in the developed countries anymore. The whole thing is poorly understood but apparently parasites secrete substances that suppress some specific aspect of the host’s immune system — if they didn’t the host’s body would turn against such vermin and destroy it. Hookworms happen to suppress the whatever-it-is that triggers asthma attacks. Amazingly hookworm infestation also “cures” other auto-immune diseases like IBD and Cohn’s Disease.

Hookworms are relatively benign because they die off within weeks or months — unless the host gets re-infected.

So this guy has a little hookworm farm now, in his home in the US, so he can re-infect himself periodically and maintain the proper infestation level in his body. Too many hookworms and he gets aenemic (the little critters have to eat), too few and his asthma symptoms reoccur.

It’s really like something out of the movies.

This is off-topic Craig (for this post, anyway), but I was wondering if you saw this article in the LA Weekly LA Weekly - Screenwriters in the Shit and what your take on it is, on the business side of screenwriter, if it’s factual, what it means, all that.

Glad things are working better, Craig. Had the sinus surgery in August. For the most part, it’s been a big improvement. However, while on location in Wisconsin this past October to produce Witches’ Night I sometimes felt as if I had a fire raging in there. Doubled me over a few times.

Like you, I have an adverse effect to caffeine so avoid it.

Regards, Michael Lent

I have suffered with Migraine Equivalent since age 5. You might think I am fortunate to almost never experience the actual pain (most of the time). But the truth is the visuals and loss of vision has been so debilitating,. It has affected every aspect of my life. It effects driving, balance, walking, any thing that you need your vision for is disrupted by these horrible “headaches” Rarely do I get the actual pain, but I can sympathize with those who do, because I have ( for some reason been getting some of the (PAIN) headaches lately. The aura begins, ,,Extreme light sensitivity, then the nausea, and off and on stomach pain, then a one sided Fiery poker pircing my left eye. tingling all over, chills, panic, loss of vision in that eye, and then sometimes the other eye, dizziness. And a feeling of that eye being “underwater”and numb. Then I will wait for my vision to return to normal again. I cannot even wear my glasses prescription for hours because it changes during all this. It will sometimes take 5 to 10 hours to return to normal. Now my question … On this last episode, which was the aura of all auras, The aura has not fully and completely disappeared. And I am waking every day with this neon line across my left eye, as if it is permanent. I went to my opthamalogist ,just to make sure it’s ok with my eyes . And it’s fine . My next stop is a neurologist. But I’m wondering if any one knows if it is normal to keep a visual after effect this long? Or might it just be a continuous daily migraine keeping this wavy line there. (and maybe it never has time disappear .)It has been with me for 3 weeks. If ANYONE can help I would appreciate it so much. I have given up chocolate, I have given up caffiene, And almost everything else I adore. I’m living the life of a vampire because I cannot tolerate the sunlight. Migraine’s suck!~V~ ~v~