For all sorts of reasons I won’t go into, I woke last week a sinus headache. A real nasty one and it’s a toss up whether I would have rather woken up with a migraine. For the same reasons I won’t go into, I chose not to disturb my brilliant, kind, sympathetic, firm and above all, reassuring doctor, and instead waited to see if I could make it through a weekend without drugs, migraines, auras or fevers.
My other half, as fantastic as he has been for a past several weeks, went out for pharmaceutical relief and advice. And I was stuck at home, nursing a bitchin’ sinus headache and a vomiting, feverish, whining kid.
I was irritable and desperate, so I looked for some kind of quick relief remedy online – cold flannel, heat pack, lemon tea, you know the kind of thing, and I found a video on Shiatsu relief for sinus headaches which could also be used for migraines.
Okay, I’m not sold on Shiatsu, but sometimes massage provides relief from neck, shoulder and head pain, even if only temporarily. It made a layman’s kind of sense that massaging might bring relief for a sinus headache too.
So I tried it. Briefly.
And everything I did increased the pain.
Then my other half walked through the door with the pharmaceutical relief I’d been waiting for. It contained an ingredient that worked better than pixie dust does in fairytales.
Pseudoephedrine hydrochloride is, as far as I have been able to find out, a decongestant that acts on the alpha receptors in the blood vessels lining the nasal passages and sinuses.
And, oh my, was it ever magic!
Long story short? My flirtation with Shiatsu was resolved by a revival of my long term love affair with chemical treatments.
Filed under: Medical Science | Tagged: Migraine, Pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, Shiatsu, Sinus Headache
