headache/migraine

I just had surgery on Monday the 13th (yay!). The pain has been mild, the worst being my shoulder/gas pain which is all gone now. My problem right now is that starting yesterday morning I had a headache, I am prone to migraines so I took it easy, took some liquid tylenol,  but by last night I had a full blown migraine. I ended up taking one of my migraine pills, which made it go away. I woke up this morning feeling fine, took some pain meds and had a nap. When I woke up my headache was back. I am worried that it is working it's way to being another migraine. Have any of you experienced this? It is a rare occasion that I have back to back days with migraines, and I haven't had one for probably about a month until yesterday.  ? If it gets worse in the next half hour, I'll call my dr. but just curiouse if anyone had this happen.

Hi Jennay,

Congratulations on your surgery and joining the loosers bench.  I had my RNY surgery on May 21st.  I had headaches for the first weeks at least.  I didn't have that much pain from the surgery - lucky I guess, but did have lots of naseau and vomiting from all the meds in the hospital.  The headache**** when I came home.  I didn't take any pain meds at home, because they made me sicker and my pain wasn't bad.  The nurse told me headaches were most likely a result of anesthia withdrawal and also from pain killer withdrawal from in the hospital - and also from not getting in enough liquid.  I still have problems getting in enough liquid.  I used to get blinding migraines years ago, and the headaches I got after coming home from surgery were similiar - yet different. 

Hope you feel better real soon!  I'm glad you are able to take some pain meds for it to get some relief.

Hang in there,
Donna

thank you so much for your reply- I'm pretty sure I didn't get enough liquid in yesterday and that contributed. I worked very hard to day to get more than my fair share of liquids in and my headache is getting better. I hope it goes away all together tonight and doesn't come back!

I'm prone to migraines too, but have noticed that many who get them post op are dehydrated. I had a migraine for almost a month post-op, as I was having such a hard time getting enough fluid right after surgery. As soon as I could drink more, the head ache immediately left.

It's hard to drink a lot when you are freshly post-op, but it's important for many reasons, like flushing the toxins out that are releasing rapidly from the fat cells.

my migraine did not come back, so I think you and Donna were right about dehydration. I am feeling much better!

I started my migraine journey with 21/month botox got them down to about 11/month and then generic Zanflex (every night) took them down to about 2/month. Migraine increase after WLS was a huge concern of mine, it is even logical, you are eating less (trigger for migraine), dehydration is common (trigger for migraine) and as you start shredding the weight your fat cells dump the stored homrones into your body (huge migraine trigger), i have been fortunate this last month i have had slightly more then normal but i have been more dehydrated and really losing weight quickly, i havent been getting proper sleep and stress levels are too high. Still, they are only at about 3-4/mo.
Trtiptans dont work well for me (imitrex, maxalt etc etc), my neurologist has me take percocet. Before WLS i would take 1 and 2 if it was really really bad but now i take 1/2 tab and gone! I have a back up of IM toradol (but as you know that is an NSAID). Dr srikanth said it was ok since i only use it about once every 3 months AND that its not oral, its IM...I will trust him.

My neurologist was concerned about WLS increasing my migraines but i did research and there was a pretty large study in Isreal that showed improvement at 3-6 months post RNY...so have hope.
an old trick of mine is ice on the head, heat on the feet. I also buy "biofreeze" and lather my neck.shoulders with it and "Headon" on my temples, sides of nose and jaw.

wow, thanks for your reply. So much good info.
I'm so lucky not to have suffered like you have, I think the worst it has been for me is 4/month. I am certain mine are stress or diet related(like you said dehydration or not eating as much). I am pretty sure it was dehydration that did me in right after surgery. Usually when I get a headache (even if it isn't a migraine) I ice my head. I'll definitely try heat on th efeet with that and see how it goes. I hope you continue to do better. I also read that weight loss can reduce the number/intesity of migraines. I sure hope so- for both of us!