Recently I have been having issues when I fly. I am having migraines every time I travel by plane. I finally came to the conclusion that it was from flying when I went to California and the migraine was so bad that I begged and pleaded with my stomach to keep my food down and not throw up just several minutes before we had to walk out the door to the race start. Well, sadly, it happened again when I flew to Florida for the Tower of Terror race. I was anxious before I had to get on the plane for that race because I didn’t want to be as sick as I was in Disneyland. I took Tylenol ahead of time and it helped take the edge off, but I was still a sad panda for the first 24 hours of the trip.
After the Disneyland race, I went to my kidney doctor. It had been a long time since I saw him so I figured I needed to check in with him and decide if I can go off my chemo medication. I had been feeling well, hadn’t had any issues with petechia or illnesses. When I was at this appointment I didn’t mention the migraine to him. But when the nurse took my blood pressure it was high. Then when the doctor took it, it was still high. I thought that it was high because I was in the process of interviewing for a new job and waiting for the news of that new job. My doctor and I talked and the plan was to monitor my blood pressure for a week or two and see if it goes down. It did not go down on its own, so he prescribed me some medication to help. That was successful.
We don’t know what is causing the pressure to be high so the next step is to watch my pressure and urine protein levels and make sure nothing crazy is going on with those little kidneys of mine. It’s important to go to your doctor, especially if you have a condition like mine. I tend to neglect my doctor visits because I am busy with the kids and work and don’t want to take more time off for my own visits to the doctor. But now that I have seen the pattern with flying and migraines I am making it a point to figure out what is going on with that. I made an appointment with my GP and she is sending me for a heart bubble test. What the heck is that? Well, she told me you get an IV in your arm and then saline is inserted into your vein and they watch your heart to see if there is a tiny hole where the oxygen may not be getting from one side to the other. Strange…. but I don’t want to deal with these headaches ruining my trips. I mentioned the test to my kidney doctor and said he never heard of it before. He looked it up on his computer and said it’s actually a legit test and to go for it. So I’ll see what comes up of it. I don’t know if I will have my answers before my next trip but I will be proactive again and load up on Tylenol and rest prior to leaving and when I land I’m going to make sure to eat well and get sufficient rest.
I figured that since I train often and run marathons that I am “healthy”, but you never know! Lately I have been hearing about runners who collapse during or just after they finish their races, and sadly I saw it happen at that Happy Haunted 5K race during the Tower of Terror weekend. I saw the medics surround someone at the finish line and they were administering CPS and shocking the runner’s heart. It wasn’t a good scene and really made me realize that I have to take care of myself. My family needs me and I have to be sure all is well, especially when I travel and run these races. Sure I believe that when your time comes that’s it; but if I can do the right thing to take care of my body then I need to do that. So if you have issues you have been ignoring, go see your doctor!
Very good article and advice. I am so sorry to hear about the migraines. I hope they get it figured out soon. My wife suffers from migraines as well. Given that you are a long distance runner, I might recommend magnesium levels too. My wifes doctor recommended that and B2 with an aspirin.
Rev Collins I have battled migraines for many many many years and came to the conclusion that aspartame or champagne was one thing that was an immediate trigger for it. I learned that over 10 years ago. But now I don’t have migraines. I only get them about once a year for no obvious reason at all. Until the flying. Now that you mentioned the magnesium, I wonder about that and am going to start taking it with vitamin B. I read something about Vitamin B and started to take it a few days before my last trip. The flying migraines started the year I was doing my first marathon. So I see a correlation between running and flying. Thank you so much for mentioning that! We could be on to something here! And I have a few weeks before my next flight so I will start these vitamins tomorrow and cross my fingers!