Alright, I dropped the ball on this for a bit there due to being OMG busy, but I picked it back up today.  I saw my primary care to discuss options.

I flat out told him that while they are tension headaches, pain meds aren’t consistently doing enough for me to rely on them, and I’m sick of taking as many as I have to take to get even a little relief.  I have a 9+ year history of these headaches that aren’t budgets or affected by: diet changed, sleep pattern changes, caffeine intake changes, or exercise/activity changes.  I’m sick of treating them as they happen, I want to look into preventing them.

He agreed I seem to be doing all I can to prevent triggers, considering the full 9 year history of them.  So meds where the next step.  The options were mental health meds or blood pressure meds.  I told him with my mental health issues, and the fact med changes there have never affected my headaches, I wanted to stay away from those and leave that to my meds doc.  But that I walked in there knowing I’d probably be put on a BP med and I was prepared and ok with that.

So, that is what we are doing.  I will be on a lower dose and we’ll see how it goes.  I go back in early April.  So cross fingers it’s to report good news.

Bottom line?  These headaches are debilitating.  It is hard to function as a mother/teller/person when it feels like the jaws of death are squeezing the back of your skull 24/7.