Over President’s Day weekend, Georgia got a migraine. That damn thing lasted almost two full days. The first day was the worst. Especially because the last 2 she has gotten have started around 5 o’clock in the evening. This would be great if she would just go to bed and sleep all night, but no. She sleeps until about 9:30pm and then is up every 20-25 minutes to throw up. I end up staying in her bed with her because it’s easier than running down the hall every time I hear her start to cough. Not to mention I don’t want to miss the throwing up, because that means more work for me what with changing sheets and bathing her at 2AM. A task I’m no stranger to, but is not something I enjoy. As you can imagine sleeping in 20 min intervals is not so refreshing for the next day. Didn’t Kramer once try that on Seinfeld? I seem to recall it not working out for him so well either. Yeah, there is a reason we sleep for a solid block of time at night.
The next morning when I finally decided it was time to be awake for the day and not just to hold the bucket for two minutes, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. The good news was that unlike other times she’s gotten a migraine, we had nothing going on that day. We could just chill at home while she slept and threw up. Andy took the other two out to do some things so they weren’t cooped up all day.
When she gets a migraine, this is what happens: As the day goes on and the throwing up starts to subside, she will get hungry and thirsty. Then I start to try and get her stomach back to normal by giving her spoonfuls of coke and salty crackers of some sort. Now before you give me crap about the coke, I normally do not let my kids have soda ever. Even when they do have soda it is usually something caffeine free. But for some reason the coke helps to get her body back to where it needs to be. Go figure. Also good advice for stomach bugs that won't go away.
The salt in the crackers is the other thing she needs. Last time the final thing that worked to get her back to normal was McDonald’s french fries. I know, I know also not something my kids ever eat, but damn did it work. Just a side note: Why is it that two of the worse things you can put in your body are two of the best things to get her body back to being good? I don't get it. Anyway-the bigger problem is keeping these things down. Her little body get so thrown off with the constant purging of nutrients, that it doesn't want to hold on to anything even once the migraine is gone. So then she will throw up if it's to much to soon, which depletes her body further which can lead to her being dizzy again. It's a vicious cycle. I'm still trying to figure it out. Then when I think I do, it changes again.
So this time she was in my bed watching TV as I was cleaning or putting clothes away, or one of the other 100 things I can never get done. She was not feeling dizzy at that point and I had given her a bowl of crackers to try and keep down. She had only nibbled on a couple and I walked over to her to see how she was doing.
"How are you feeling? Still dizzy?" I asked.
"No," she replied.
"Well, you should try and eat some more crackers then," I told her as I picked one up.
"I had a little bit," she said.
"Try and have some more," I encouraged and popped the cracker in my mouth.
"Well, I licked da salt off of one," she said looking at me.
"Which one?" I asked munching on the ritz.
"Da one you just put in your mouth," she smirked at me.
I can't even begin to tell you how much she reminded me of Andy in that moment. I doubt she had really licked any of them and even if she had, there was no way she knew exactly which one it was. She did it purely to mess with me. Even in the midst of feeling so crappy, she was able to do it. So looking forward to having two of them like that in this house.
Last Wednesday we took our yearly holiday trip to Disneyland. I know, I know. It’s not quite the holidays yet. Or at least it wasn’t then. Usually we go the week after Thanksgiving, but this year Melinda needed us to go the week before because she is going home early for Christmas. Since she is our free way in the park (Thanks Mel!) we decided to go when she wanted to. It really didn’t matter to us, as long as we got to go. Although we prefer to go when it wasn’t going to be wall to wall people. Hence the week before.
As it turned out, the week before Thanksgiving might be even better than the week after. We didn’t wait more than ten minutes for any ride. It might have helped that it was a cloudy day and there was a threat of rain, but it was perfect for us.
I realized during this trip that every time we go to Disney it is always a completely different experience. It used to be that when we went we only rode a couple of the more tame rides like Small World, Dumbo or the carousal. Then we spent the better part of the day tracking down and taking pictures with Mickey and the gang. As the girls get older and taller, however, things are starting to turn in a new direction.
From the moment we entered the park, maybe even the tram, all Sonya could talk about was wanting to ride Indiana Jones. She was tall enough and had heard from a couple of her friends how much fun it was, so she was all for it. It is farther into the park so I kept telling her we would get there eventually, but let’s ride Star Tours and Space Mountain and a few things in Fantasy Land before we head over in that direction. She would settle down about it for a bit, but after riding another ride or two she would start asking about Indiana Jones again. Finally around 2:30 in the afternoon we decided to head toward the ride she was so anxious to get on. Indiana Jones is right next to the Jungle Cruise and we though we should all ride that one first since it was for everyone. After we got off Andy took the little girls to walk around while Melinda and I took Sonya next door to Indiana Jones. The wait wasn’t more than fifteen minutes, but Sonya was nervous the whole time. I’m not sure what she was expecting.
If you’ve never been on Indiana Jones the best way I can describe it is that it’s a wild off roading ride. You are in an big jeep kind of car and it twists and turns and is a bit fast. If you are the type to get carsick, this would probably put you over the edge. I love it though. Of course it has all the elements of the Indiana Jones movies with fake snakes and a big boulder that comes oh so close to crushing your car. It's all very Disney, but possibly scary to little kids. Especially if they are my kids.
We got on the ride, got buckled and I turned to Sonya who was now close to a panic. The ride she was so excited for was now making her extremely anxious. I kept telling her "it’s a ride, it’s all pretend and it’ll be fun." That didn’t stop her from clinging to me with her head down and her eyes closed almost the entire time. That’s where the problem started. About 20 seconds into the ride she yelled,
“I’m gonna be sick!”
“No you’re not!” I said. “Pick your head up and look around.”
She did for about five seconds, but got scared again so she squeezed her eyes shut and put her head back down. I was petrified of being puked on for the next 45 seconds. When we finally got to the end of the ride she looked shell shocked. We started walking out the exit and she said to me,
“Mom, my eyes feel small and weird.”
Huh?
“You’re okay, just keep walking.” I told her.
But as soon as we walked all the way out and back into the park she started freaking out,
“I don’t feel good!!! I feel like I’m going to be sick!!!”
I tried to calm her down while I frantically searched for Andy. We found him and the little girls across from Pirates of the Caribbean. I quickly told him the situation then left with Sonya in search of a bathroom. She continued to yell out that she was going to be sick. God only know what kind of looks I was getting from other park goers. I had no time to worry about that. I needed a bathroom before she puked in front of Big Thunder Mountain.
We finally found a bathroom. She did get sick a bit, but it wasn’t enough to make her feel better, so we found an empty bench where she laid down with her head on my lap. I texted Andy where we were (how did people find each other in parks before cell phones?) and they came to find us.
I thought for sure she would get better shortly. Usually when people get motion sickness they feel better after the motion stops and/or they get sick. She napped on the bench next to Andy for about 20 minutes while I took the little girls to pick out a prize. When I came back out she used one of the plastic bags we had just gotten with Georgia’s prize, for a barf bag. She looked better after that episode, so I thought we were in the clear. Phew! It was time for our dinner reservation at the Big Thunder BBQ-best place to eat in Disney. Glad that was over! Yeeeaaahhhh…except for the part that it wasn’t.
I spent all of dinner running back and forth with her to the bathroom to get sick. She didn’t really have anything left to throw up after a while, but every twenty minutes or so she would feel the need to puke.
After dinner we walked around a bit, which seemed to be better for her than sitting because she wanted to pass out when she sat, which then led to more puking. We kept thinking she was going to get better. I mean how could motion sickness last this long? It seemed weird that she kept feeling sick every 20 minutes or so. The funny thing was she was acting just like Georgia does when she gets her migraines...yup. That’s when it hit me.
“Sonya-when you said earlier that your eyes were small and weird, what did you mean?” I asked.
“Everything just kept getting bigger and smaller in front of me,” she said.
Then I remembered something Georgia’s neurologist had told me about migraines. Some kids will see things very big or very small right before an impending migraine. That was when I came to the conclusion that what she had wasn’t motion sickness but a migraine which was most likely triggered by the motion sickness. Fan-freaking-tastic.
It was at that point that I thought perhaps she needed to leave. Yeah look at me being mother of the year and forcing my daughter to walk around Disneyland for two hours with a migraine. You know you’re kid isn’t doing well when you ask if they want to leave Disney and they tell you yes.
Unfortunately, the fireworks were less than an hour away, but she had no interest. I didn’t want to ruin the little girls’ time, so I decided to take Sonya back to the car and they could stay and watch the fireworks. This way at least she could rest in the car and we wouln’t be there more than an hour before they came. So she and I walked back to the car while she puked every few hundred feet. Good thing it gets dark early! And that Disney has lots of shrubbery. And that she wasn’t really throwing up more than just foam. Sorry. Gross, I know. She could have cared less that she missed out on getting ice cream or that we left before fireworks. All she wanted was to lay down. I felt so badly for her.
The good news was, where our car was parked was right near a set of stairs and we could see the fireworks perfectly, between her puking. No we didn’t get the holiday ambiance like the music and “snow” that happens in the park, but it was better than nothing.
Once she was in the car with her PJs on and teeth brushed, she started feeling much better. Thankfully, there was no more vomiting. We weren’t back at the car for very long before the others got there and we were on our way home.
So it appears that Georgia is not the only one who suffers from migraines in our family. What wonderful news right? Well at least we can pinpoint the cause of Sonya’s. Suffice it to say she will not be riding on Indiana Jones anytime soon...or ever. We can just add it to the list next to the tea cups.
A few months back my girls were asked to be flower girls in a wedding for a couple of our friends, Courtney and Mark. ( Hi guys!! They are avid readers of this blog and I hope they are enjoying their honeymoon right now.) The girls were thrilled to be in a wedding and they've been counting down the months, then the weeks. Two weeks ago, they started counting down the days until this past Saturday. They couldn't wait. I was also counting down the weeks and the days for something else to happen. Then it did. At 4am on Friday morning, the day we were to drive to Santa Barbara for the wedding rehearsal, I woke up to Georgia standing next to my bed whining,
"Mooommmyy...I don't feel good. I'm dizzy!"
NOOOOOOOOOO!!! SHIT, SHIT, SHIIIIIIT!!!
Yes, this is yet ANOTHER post about that poor kid's migraines. Sorry. I know I mention it every what- oh 7-9 weeks, but when it disrupts your life like this, it makes for good writing.
She was getting her migraines every seven weeks, like clockwork, for ten months. Then, the doctor put her on new medication this summer and the time extended to eight weeks in August. This time she got it in the ninth week. Of course it happened to be at the worst time possible. Why not, right? It's happened before.
Whenever she comes into my room, and says she's dizzy, I think "maybe this will go away if she sleeps some more." It never does, but none the less I put her next to me in bed encouraging her to sleep. She did for a couple hours only to wake up and "frow up" in the bucket. I tried giving her Benadryl, because her doctor said sometimes that can help the nausea and vertigo. Unfortunately, that dose of medicine immediately left her body. So I did the only thing I could do, let her sleep and throw up for the next five hours, while I finished getting us ready to leave for the weekend.
The good news was, the wedding was the next day and hopefully she'd be better by then. The bad news was, we had a two hour car ride, a wedding rehearsal and dinner to go to that day.
By the time we were supposed to leave she was still getting sick. So I packed up a Tupperware container and a bucket to make sure puke didn't end up in my van or her carseat. She slept on and off most of the way up, got sick a couple of times, but by the time we got to the hotel it was almost completely done. She was acting more like herself and hadn't mentioned being dizzy in a while. I thought we were out of the woods. We were good to go! The worst was over!! I'm a mom, I should know better.
This migraine thing is constantly changing in her. Much like a baby's sleep pattern. Just when you get used to them taking two naps, they decide to move to one. The migraine does the same thing, just when I think I have it figured out it changes. It used to be it would last half a day, she would come out of it, but then it would come back the next morning. The last two times, however, it is bad for half the day. Then she kinda comes out of it, but gets dizzy on and off the rest of the day. BUT it is only for ONE day. Which is kinda better. Except for this day.
We went to the rehearsal and she was fine for most of it. She learned what she was supposed to do, but toward the end she got dizzy again and I had to hold her until it was time to leave. Good thing I still had a bucket in the car! We got back to the hotel and she threw up again. Then she was immediately better and hungry. Poor kid kept bringing everything back up that she put in her body. I gave her some apples, and they stayed down. It was over... we were good? I wasn't trusting it. Stupid sneaky migraine. By the time we were leaving for the dinner, I knew better than to think this was completely over. I grabbed a little Ziploc baggie, knowing I couldn't walk around with a bucket at the dinner. Well, I guess I could, but people might talk. I stuck the little baggie in my purse.
Georgia was great for a while. She scarfed down some pizza and other appetizers. Except by the time we were to sit down at dinner, her vertigo was back. I spent most of the dinner walking in and out. We would go outside to sit and get some air, she would feel better, we would go back inside. This happened at least three times, once we even went to the bathroom when she claimed she was going to "frow up", but she never got sick.
The last time it happened was at the end of dinner. I told Andy we needed to leave in five minutes, as she sat on my lap with her head on my chest and her eyes closed. He looked at her and agreed. Then Courtney and Mark came over to talk to me. Courtney asked about Georgia, and I told her she had a migraine all day, which is what she had suspected. She has suffered from them herself since she was a child, so she recognized the signs.
Then as we were talking, Georgia picked her head up and looked at me with THAT look. (Fair warning-if you're eating put down that sandwich right about now.)
"Mommy, I gonna frow...."
And then, yup. She did indeed throw up all over me. It went down my shirt and pooled in my bra. I know, super gross. Unlike the rest of the throw up all day, this was one was for real. Most of the other times, she had nothing in her stomach so after a while it is just harmless oderless bile. Not this one! NOPE!! She had been eating pizza, so I will just let you imagine what that smell was like. BLECH! YUCK! GROSS! Sorry, sorry sorry!!
Earlier in the night I had taken out the Ziploc baggie I had brought with me out of my purse. I didn't have any pockets, so at one point I just stuck it inside my bra to have it if I needed it quickly. So as she was getting sick on me, I discreetly took the baggie out of my bra, opened it and let her finish getting sick into there. So at least it wasn't ALL on me.
Courtney tried to help clean me up, Andy ran over and disposed of the baggie o puke and I sat there looking around to see who might have caught the incident. Most people were already up and out of their seats milling about, so luckily we didn't have a big audience. But the smell was, well, it was throw up. So we did the only thing we could do. We left without saying goodbye to anyone. We would see them the next day at the wedding, after all, and I promise at that point, nobody would have wanted to come near me anyway.
On the ride back to the hotel Andy and I were talking about how fun it was having our child throw up at a wedding rehearsal dinner. Then he looks at me and says,
"Where did the baggie come from??"
I shrugged and said, "My bra."
He looked at me questioningly.
"What?" I said. "I'm a mom! Always gotta be prepared, baby!"
Fortunately, that was the last time Georgia got sick. We went back to the hotel and took a shower, and then I got acquainted with Marriott's laundry room. I was so happy they had one. I did not want THOSE clothes sitting around all weekend.
Happy ending to this part of the story though, the next day, the wedding day, Georgia claimed to be dizzy only twice in the morning. However, all her food stayed down and she was great all day. The wedding was....well, I will wait until the next post to tell you about that. All I can promise you is that it was a day entirely throw up free!
Last week on my bi-monthly Target trip (I'm trying to cut down), I stopped in the candle aisle to look for something for the house and for gifts. Usually we only burn Yankee candles around the holidays, but on those days when the house reeks from me making fish, or the trash hasn't been taken out in a timely manner, I need something to help cut down the smelliness. So as I was smelling every candle in Target, Lana and Georgia were right beside me taking their own wiffs.
After a couple minutes, this started to make me nervous because one false sniff of the wrong strong scent and Georgia might be thrown into a migraine. As of this point, she hasn't had one since the doctor put her on the medication. She is due for one, so I'm grateful that it hasn't happened yet and keep hoping it's because of the medication. However, I am wondering if it just isn't time for one yet. It's hard to tell. I wasn't really wanting to tempt fate by having a bunch of different scents surrounding her, so I asked them to please stop smelling the candles, for Georgia's sake. Yeah, right. I realized I had to get out of the aisle. I quickly chose what I wanted and we left, before any damage was done.
Georgia seemed to be fine afterward and talked about how "da smells could make her dizzy", but she wasn't dizzy, so it seemed that test was passed. It's nice to know this medicine really seems to be doing it's job. On the way home in the car, she and Lana started to talk about smelling the candles again. Georgia said,
"I smelled dem and day didn't make me dizzy!"
"I know," I told her, "but you just have to be careful, okay?"
"Yeah," she agreed. "Cuz I don wanna get dizzy and frow up."
"No, you don't," I said.
"Yeah, because wememba yast year when I frowed up in da bucket?" She told me.
Well, it was only two months ago, but it might as well be last year to her. "I do remember," I told her.
"Yup!" She said. "Cuz dats what being sick is ALL about!"
"Throwing up in bucket?" I asked.
"Yeah, and being dizzy," she reminded me.
Well, I guess to her that IS what being sick is all about. Hopefully not anymore, or at least not for a while.
I've posted on here before about Georgia's ongoing problem with migraines. Well, in the past year, they have changed a bit and I became concerned that it was something more. Because you know, well maybe you don't, but I tend to be a tiny bit of a hypochondriac. I am WAY better than I used to be, but I am one of those people who always goes to worse case scenario. Pain in my head=tumor. Pain in my chest=heart attack. Never mind that I work out six days a week, eat fairly well, and have low cholesterol. It's a heart attack. Pain in my upper back=breast cancer. I was a lot worse in my late 20s. I've gotten over it for the most part, but I still tend to think doom and gloom when something seems off. So, when Georgia's migraines started to change, I worried a bit that perhaps they weren't migraines at all, but something far worse. Before I knew it, in my head, I had us checking into L.A.'s Children's Hospital. Since I didn't want to go to far down crazy road, I decided to be rational and go back to the neurologist who diagnosed her a year and a half ago.
As I said, the reason I was worried was because the symptoms themselves changed. When she first got them, out of nowhere, she would say she didn't feel good, moved to- she was going to "frow up", followed by- actual "frowing up" for about 5 hours, and ending with- her passing out for the night. This used to happen about once every 5-6 months. Over the summer it started to change. Now she will wake up any given morning and complain of being dizzy. If she has gotten out of bed, she will lay down halfway down the hall to our room and whine that she is too dizzy to walk. I will pick her up and she immediately puts her head down on my shoulder, with her eyes closed, clinging to me for dear life, until I lay her down in bed or on the couch. Within a few minutes the threat of "frowing up" starts. Sometimes it takes a couple false alarms, but eventually she starts the cycle of ridding anything that may be left in her stomach from the night before. She is pale, clammy and can't move or really keep her eyes open. Now, instead of lasting all day, this will end sometime in the early afternoon. Better, right? Yeah, except that it happens all over again the next two mornings, although each subsequent day it ends sooner than it did the day before. Also, instead of getting them every 5-6 months, she now gets them every 6-8 weeks. Oh yeah, fun times I tell ya! It takes us out of whatever we were supposed to do for now almost 3 days. When she gets these I can't go anywhere, besides to pick up or drop off the other girls, and I NEED to make my Target runs every week. So you can see why this much of a change had me a bit worried.
I do feel so bad for her every time she gets hit with one too. She is miserable and feels terrible. So let me take a minute to have a tiny tangent and address two types of people out there. The true migraine sufferers and the ones who claim to have a migraine. Those of you who say you have a migraine and are still walking around talking, eating, going about your day, let me re diagnose you. You have a HEADACHE. If you had a true migraine, you wouldn't be doing ANY of those things. Take a couple of Motrin and shut up about it. I never quite got it before, because I myself have never experienced a migraine. In fact, I rarely get headaches at all, except when I'm sick. However, seeing my child go through it so often, I get it now. So for those of you who truly get migraines and can't leave the house for a day, I am so sorry and I apologize for any doubt you get from those around you, or perhaps even from me in the past. I can see how horrible an experience it is. Okay-end of tangent.
So anyway, I had briefly talked to my sister Megan, the nurse, about what was going on and she encouraged me to go get her checked out again. She mentioned that there was a chance she might need an MRI, but she didn't know for sure, because this was not her area of expertise. That idea freaked me and Andy out, but we wanted to do what needed to be done.
So last week, off we went to Pasadena to visit Dr. Michelle. I love this woman. She is no nonsense, yet sensitive enough to understand a parents worry. Perhaps it's because she's a parent herself. I told her everything that was happening and how much had changed. She asked me a few questions, like if she was sweaty, or complained of head pain. Yes sweaty, no head pain, just the dizzies. Then she let me know that they don't usually complain of head pain until seven or eight. Oh yay! Something to look forward to in 4 years! She did a brief exam on Georgia, checked out her eyes, ears, reflexes, made her hop on one foot, that kind of thing. When all was said and done the diagnosis was... still migraines. This is apparently how they change as the sufferer gets older.
"Sooo, the way it's changed into how it is now, all that is normal?" I asked.
"Oh yeah. She is a textbook case of toddler migraines," she assured me. "I'm not surprised you came back."
"And the fact that she gets them a few days in a row?" I asked.
"Clusters," she said matter of fact. This I understood, because my mom suffered from cluster headaches in her 30s.
Then she told me the plan was to put her on a prescription antihistamine for two months. Antihistamine! Who knew?! It has something in it that helps block the migraines from starting at all. The only side effect was that it might make her a little sleepy, so I am to give it to her before bedtime. Side effect? Making her fall asleep quicker when I put her to bed so she doesn't get up ten times? That's not a side effect, that a plus in my book. So, we go back in two months to meet with her and assess the situation. If it works, then she takes her off of it and she can go up to a year without having a migraine. I'm not really sure how taking medication for only two months keeps her from getting a migraine for a year, but if it works, I'll take it!
Before she left the room, I just had to make sure,
"So she still doesn't need an MRI to check anything out?"
"Oh no!" She told me again, "This is a textbook case of how the migraines develop. No need to put her through an MRI."
That made me breathe a sigh of relief in more than one way. First of all, no MRI. I mean who wants their tiny three year old in one of those gigantic loud machines? Secondly, I LOVE the fact that she used the word "textbook" case. There was no question of what it could be, or that this sounds weird, or that doesn't look right, just that she fits right into the migraine category. The way it looks, she probably always will. Don't get me wrong, it's not awesome that she gets these, but at least a migraine is a thousand times better than where my worst case scenario head goes.
Yesterday was one of those days I had all these things planned to do and got pretty much none of it accomplished. The reason was because in the morning Georgia came down with a migraine. I know some of you just looked at your computer cross eyed and thought WHHHAAAA?? Yes, Georgia suffers from migraines at the ripe old age of 2. I thought I had mentioned that on here before, but after researching my back blogs, I didn't see anything. We discovered it over the summer. Here's the quick back story.
Georgia would have these episodes when she would, out of nowhere, start to cry and whine that she was going to "frow up". Then she would. Every 15-20 minutes until there was nothing left in her stomach. Afterward she would pass out cold for a nap or for the night if it was close to bed time. I kept thinking she had a stomach bug, but when she would wake up she'd be completely fine, ready to eat anything and never developed a fever. When I took her for her two year check up in June I mentioned these symptoms to the Pediatrician. He wasn't extremely worried, but thought it best to refer me to a neurologist, just to check things out.
A few weeks later we went to see a very sweet and extremely informative neurologist, who deals with kids and adults. After relaying all of Georgia's symptoms, she did a quick check up on her. I also informed her of our family history (migraine candidates on BOTH sides of the family). She came to the very certain conclusion that what GG was displaying was the kid version of a migraine. Apparently, they can get them as young as SIX MONTHS OLD! Instead of the normal headache migraine that adults get, they do this throw up and then pass out thing. I guess some adults get that too. The sleeping is what resets their brains and gets rid of the migraine. Other than sleep there is not really any medication or anything to be given to kids this young. Trying to prevent the migraines, by learning Georgia's triggers is probably the best way to help her. It's figuring out the triggers that's the tricky part. It can be anything from certain foods (chocolate, sugar) to lack of rest. Plus, everyone has different triggers. Up until yesterday she hadn't had and episode since June, before we even saw the doctor. I was even beginning to think maybe she didn't suffer from migraines, until yesterday happened.
First of all, I partially blame Andy for the one yesterday. Just five days ago, when he was on the computer with his parents, he mentioned to them how Georgia hadn't had an episode in a while. Does he not know that the universe targets people who say such things like that? Does he not know you're supposed to knock on wood or something if you're going to say such a thing OUT LOUD?? Have I taught him NOTHING?! I guess not. On the plus side, I did discover one of her triggers yesterday.
Thursday mornings is my alone time with Georgia. I usually run errands with her that day, because it's so nice just having one kid to worry about and she loves all the attention. She's usually really good, because she's alone with me. I had plans to go to the bank, post office, get the car washed. That kind of thing. Originally the car wash was last on my list, but for some reason I decided to make it first. Regretted THAT decision later. It was the only thing I got to do yesterday. For those of you who live in Los Angeles, you know there are car washes everywhere. Nobody really ever washes their own car here. Maybe during the summer on a hot day for fun, but it's so much easier to just go get it done, and it's not that expensive. Since my in-laws are coming this Sunday, I thought it best to have someone get rid of the goldfish, cheerio, pretzel infestation on the floor of my car. So we went to the car wash down the street and I decided which wash package I wanted. Some of the packages include an air freshener spritz. Sometimes I get it sometimes not, depends on how much money I feel like spending. Yesterday I did. THIS was my downfall. I chose vanilla scent. Also probably a bad idea.
Most of the time the scent is not overpowering, but someone went a little crazy with the spritz yesterday, and the smell hit me in the face as soon as I climbed in the car. Georgia commented on it immediately too,
"It smell like I eat in he-a."
I kinda got what she was saying. The vanilla smell is reminiscent of a vanilla cake baking, but more perfumy. So at first she kinda liked it, until 30 seconds later when she didn't.
"I gonna frow up! I gonna frow up!" She started to whine.
What? She was fine two minutes ago. We were having fun at the car wash with the cute doggie, someone let us pet, and the gumball I bought her. Now, all of a sudden, she was going to throw up?? I was confused. We stopped at the post office on our way home and I got her out of the car. She was pale and listless, but seemed better outside of the car. Then we got back in to go home and she was right back to,
"I gonna frow up!"
Then I realized it must be the scent. Could strong scents trigger migraines? I had no idea, because I don't suffer from them myself. I got her home without "frowing up". I laid her down on the couch with her blankie
Then I Googled migraine triggers and strong scents was indeed on that list. Son of a BITCH! I found a trigger for Georgia! Suddenly I realized, Oh crap. I had to put her back in the car to pick Sonya up from school at 1:20. So I rolled down all the windows, but that didn't seem to be getting the smell out fast enough. Then I remembered how coffee beans cancel out strong smells, so I put a bowl of beans in the car. An hour later I went to see how it smelled. Well, the good news was the vanilla scent was dissipating. The bad news was my car smelled like a vanilla latte now. I felt like I was driving inside a Starbucks for the rest of the day.
Unfortunately, I had to wake Georgia to pick up Sonya from school, which was not a good thing to do. Her brain had not reset entirely and I could tell she was still in migraine mode as soon as I picked her up. She was very pale, very weak and still claiming she had to "frow up".
Then she did.
In the van.
The one I just had washed.
She did, thankfully, manage to keep it contained to her blankie and car seat, so it wasn't everywhere. But once the vomiting starts, it just keeps going until nothing is left. Every twenty minutes or so she would whimper and cry and I'd bring her the bucket until eventually, her stomach was empty. She would still cry every so often, but nothing would really happen. Poor thing. I felt so bad for her. She layed on the couch all day, looking like death's door.
I tried to get her to sleep again, but she couldn't. Then we got to a time where it was just to late for her to go to sleep unless I wanted her up at 3am. No thanks. So we waited it out. I was just aiming to get to 6pm to put her down, but somewhere around 4:30, she sat up and started acting more lifelike. Then she said,
"I going to go pway now."
She got down and went to play with her sisters for the next hour. She ate her entire dinner later on too. The migraine had apparently disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared earlier in the day. It was as if nothing had ever happened. It was just... weird.
My youngest sister, Megan, has suffered from migraines in the past and when I told her this story none of it surprised her like it did me. Strong scents will trigger her migraines too. She also told me how terribly awful you feel when you have one and when it's gone, it's just gone. Like it never happened. Usually, it happens after you sleep though. That's what threw me off with Georgia yesterday, because she never slept again before it went away. It was like a light switch just flipped off in her head. Like I said, weird.
So, while it's true I didn't get much accomplished yesterday, it wasn't a total loss. I did learn to keep Georgia away from strong scents, particularly the car freshener spritz. Well, at least I'll save a little money next time I get my van washed.
