# My brain hurts..... aka migraines



## Miss Vickie (Oct 5, 2007)

Anybody but me get 'em? I've had a few hellacious headaches in my life, but have only had three of what would be considered true migraines, complete with aura.

The first one happened when I was mid-pregnancy with my son. I woke up unable to form words and my right arm was numb. We went to the hospital, sure I was having a stroke but after doing a neuro exam they determined that I was having a migraine and would... at any time... get the headache. And yeah, I sure did.

The second time I was in nursing school and midway through a class I got a weird aura. It looked like I was peering through the lens of a camera, with the two halves of the circle that you try to line up, somewhat darker than the area around it. Sure I had a brain tumor (nursing school, remember?) I rushed home, called my eye doctor who said it was a migraine and that I'd probably get a headache soon. Sure enough... SLAM!!!! 

This last time was on Tuesday shortly after being shown a good time by Burtimus. I got this weird thing in front of my vision.... a HUGE, princess cut crystal with lots of facets. It filled my field of vision and lasted about 20 minutes. I thought, "Oh crap. Not another migraine." And hoped it was just one of those weird spots you get from looking into the sun. But nope, same pattern as before. Just as it was fading the headache from hell hit. I happened to be scheduled to see my massage therapist and chiropractor and they took care of it -- I didn't even have to take any percocet.

What's different this time, though, is that I feel like I've been kind of post ictal since (like what people experience after a seizure). A little spacey and the headache remains right below the surface, ready to resurface at any time.

Care to share your experiences with headaches, migraines or otherwise? How long do they last? Do you get nauseous? (I don't). Photophobic? (I do). And what meds or other treatments work for you.


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## Kimberleigh (Oct 5, 2007)

I've only had one migraine - full blown aura, barfing and crying and photophobic as hell. At one point, someone wanted to look at my pupils with one of those little penlights - I honestly thought my brain was on fire. 
Almost 7 hours in the ER, culminated in a spinal tap, to make sure I didn't have meningitis. I had 3 shots of Demerol.
They gave me an anti-nausea script and some painkillers to go home with.

I'd crawl butt naked over a mile of razor blades and ground glass not to have that experience again.

Maybe you should talk to your doc about the weird post feelings though...I would.


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## love dubh (Oct 5, 2007)

When I was a youngin' (hey, hey! ssh!), I had wicked, ceaseless headaches. They thought I had a tumor, or something wrong there, so I got an MRI and ruled that out. When I first got my period, I would get hellacious headaches in lieu of cramps (that's thankfully changed; hellacious cramps > hellacious headaches). I would tie a hankerchief around my head and that calmed the pain a bit. No idea why, but it did. 

And tons of water.


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## Tina (Oct 5, 2007)

Vick, please get thee to the doc, okay? I am sure you are sick of doctors, but having a hangover like that doesn't seem normal. Is it? Now I am officially worried about you.


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## Paul (Oct 5, 2007)

I have had migraines since the age of 10. Now my father is a doctor, When I was 10 0r 11 I had a severe migraine complete with the aura, photophbia and massive headache. All I wanted to do was lie down in my darkened room and attempt to sleep,. The pain was so bad that I would not have objected to someone had offered to shoot me with a gun to put me out of my misery.

Well to make a long story short my mother was concerned and had phoned my father at the hospital who came home with another doctor a woman pediatrician. Guess what the two of them proceeded to do to me? You guessed it. Both of them pulled out their opthalmascope (an instrument with a light and a lens for viewing into the eye. Both my father and the pediatrician began to shine their lights into my eyes! I could of screamed. I was suffering from photophobia (light sensitivity) and they wanted to shine their lights in my eyes. This made my headache, already a 12 out of 10 on the pain scale reach a 15! I almost threw up, and at the time I wanted to toss my cookies on the pediatrician for her light abuse. She and my father meant well. By viewing the back of my eyes they could tell whether the headache was caused by a tumor, but I could have killed the two of them. Fortunately I did not have a tumor, but a severe migraine.

Since then I have had one or two migraines a year, sometimes so severe I had to go to the emergency room for a shot of Demerol. As I got older the migraines have decreased in frequency and now I only suffer with a short period of photophobia without the headache--hopefully I am slowly outgrowing them.

My father was surprised I could drink red wine and eat cheddar cheese since these are common triggers for migraines. My migraines were triggered by bright light (such as bight sunlight shinning/pulsing through trees when driving by in a car), or by stress.

My father wrongly thought the pain of one of my migraines could be stopped with a 222 Aspirin (an extrra strong aspirin with codeine). When I am suffering from a severe migraine the only relief I have found is a shot of Demerol which I can only obtain at a hospital emergency room.

Fortunately I have not had a very severe migraine for over 5 years. Now I only suffer the photophobia which only lasts about 30 mins to an hour.

I feel for anyone who suffers igraines with the full blown headache. I remember when I too psychology in University the psyc textbook listed various levels of pain a person can feel. Migraine pain was either #1 or #2. It is the worst pain I have ever felt!

Paul.


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## Santaclear (Oct 5, 2007)

The character/type etc. of my headaches has really changed throughout my life.

I used to get really, really wicked headaches all thru my youth up until my late teens. Only a few were migraines, I realized later once I DID start to get regular migraines. The first migraine I can remember came during an all-day standardized test in 7th or 8th grade and it totally ruined the test because I could hardly see. (I didn't complain tho 'cos I was very stoic about pain then.) I figured then it was because of stress but in retrospect I'd say no, it was just a migraine, way more severe (and with visual stuff which I normally didn't get) than the usual 3 or 4 normal headaches I got a week.

I had one more in my senior year which was more like one of yours, Vickie, first the visual stuff, followed by nausea and crippling head pain and sensitivity to light. (Luckily I was student council president so I could just collapse in my office under a table for the rest of the day.)

From then on they occurred about once a year. For the first few in my young adult life I got nauseous but then that (the nausea part) went away. My "regular" headaches got to be fewer and fewer too, to the point where now, at 52, I rarely have them.

What's weird is now I'm getting migraines way more than ever, at least five times a week, but with no head pain, no nausea......only the visual stuff. And even these used to last longer but now they only last about ten minutes. I'll see ripples and broken vibrating lines like the after-image from staring into a dozen lightbulbs and have to put the pieces together so I can continue doing whatever I'm doing. I had the worst one of my life just the other night at 3:30 AM, seeing shimmering, static-y rainbows along with the other vibrating stuff. I wondered if it was a brain tumor or if the sleep deprivation had finally ruined the visual part of my brain, but it went away after ten minutes. 

Nothing's ever helped me for them, but remedies never seem to do anything for me. The only other thing I can add is make sure you're drinking enough water. Dehydration was one cause (of the "regular" headaches, not the migraines) of them for me.


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## GenericGeek (Oct 6, 2007)

Vickie,

Years before my brain tumor was finally diagnosed (and removed), I used to get headaches that I *thought *were migraines, on a fairly regular basis. It turns out that they were dural headaches -- brought on by the hydrocephalus that the tumor was causing. The pain level is pretty comparable -- bloody *excruciating*, in other words! 

Given the choice between the most painful experiences of my life -- broken pelvis, kidney stones, and those infernal headaches -- I'd take the first two, any day. Because if you go to the ER complaining of "headache", you can just *hear *them thinking, _"Oh, just another junkie loser engaging in drug seeking behavior."_ If I *must *be in agony, give me something that shows up on X-Ray or CT scans, so I can get some relief! *NOW!*

Anyway, a few things helped at least a little -- massive amounts of caffeine (vasoconstrictor -- slam those scalp blood vessels shut!), aspirin, steering clear of ETOH, staying in bed with the lights out & the drapes shut tight. And this might sound crazy, but I honestly think I learned to drift off to sleep *despite *the pain, in order to escape it. (Sure wish I could still do that!)

Stress -- sometimes, even *good *stress, like having fun at a party -- was definitely a trigger, even though the underlying cause was the tumor. 

I still get bad tension headaches, ironically *because *of my tumor surgery. CN VI (controls the lateral rectus muscle, allows the eyes to converge) got clobbered during the surgery, and I get some pretty king-hell eyestrain headaches as a result. Butalbital APAP w/ caffeine (generic Fioricet) works pretty well.

(Oh, and from what I've read, post-coital headaches are actually pretty common. Although they sure put a damper on an otherwise joyous occasion, they're usually harmless.)

Anyway, I have to agree with Tina: get yourself checked out, grrl! We love you!


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## Friday (Oct 6, 2007)

Vickie, get thee to a doctor post haste. Hell, just worrying about it could be helping to bring them on.

Mine always started with Fourth of July type sparklies in my left eye that progressed to bright red flushing and itching like mad on the left side of my body from the top of my head down to about my waist. Thought I was having a stroke the first time (I was 45 or 46). They didn't start heralding those nauseous headaches until I'd been getting them for almost a year. Fortunately one of the side effects of my hysterectomy was that the migraines went away. No more seesawing hormones to bring them on.


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## moore2me (Oct 6, 2007)

Miss Vickie said:


> Anybody but me get 'em? I've had a few hellacious headaches in my life, but have only had three of what would be considered true migraines, complete with aura.
> 
> What's different this time, though, is that I feel like I've been kind of post ictal since (like what people experience after a seizure). A little spacey and the headache remains right below the surface, ready to resurface at any time.
> 
> Care to share your experiences with headaches, migraines or otherwise? How long do they last? Do you get nauseous? (I don't). Photophobic? (I do). And what meds or other treatments work for you.



Miss Vickie,

I have been suffering from mild migrane headaches for years now. They are controlled by a drug called Topamax. I take 50 mg twice a day. The drug also controls seizures, so it may help with the post ictal feeling. I have been treated by a neurologist for over 10 years now and I have had multiple brain MRIs (including contrast ones) and other fancy brain tests. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis - but, had the headaches before the major MS symptoms surfaced.

Anyway, the Topamax seems to work for me. (Exception - sometimes, sinus infections cause pressure in my sinuses or dental work causes mouth pain that my mind classifies as a "headache" too.)


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## BBWTexan (Oct 6, 2007)

I can totally relate to the misery of the migraine. As a child I had them on such a regular basis that you could set your watch to them. Fortunately as I got older, they became less and less frequent - to the point of where now, at 33, I get a really bad one only a couple times a year.

As a child I was prescribed Tylenol with Codeine, but the only thing that really helps is to somehow become completely relaxed. For me this is either to have someone scratch my back until I fall asleep in a completely dark room or to literally lay in the shower and let the hot water beat down on me. My migraines are always accompanied by extreme nausea and I generally feel a bit better once I finally do throw up. The only problem for me is that I don't easily vomit, so it takes a lot before I actually do. 

Migraines are awful, but you should see a doctor to make sure it isn't something worse. At minimum, you'll receive treatment for the migraines.

Best of luck with everything, Vickie!


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## Miss Vickie (Oct 8, 2007)

Thanks for the commiseration, suggestions and concerns. I'm doing *much* better now; it eased over the next 24 to 48 hours until right now I'm totally fine although I'm still a little hypersensitive to noise and light, but then I tend to be that way, anyway. 

I did see a doctor, in a manner of speaking -- I talked to one of our gynies when I was at work that night and asked her, "Hey, is it weird to be kind of post ictal for a couple of days after a migraine? To feel kind of spacey and detached and like the headache's just waiting to come back?" She said, "Yep,, the little guy with the ice pick is just waiting, right under the surface, right?" Which is exactly how I felt. She said it was normal and I don't have any other neurological symptoms so I'm good to go.

I wish I could understand what triggered it but I think part of it was a magnesium deficiency. I already was experiencing those symptoms and it can do weird things to blood vessels if you're very deficient. 

Still, though, the aura was awful purdy.  Too bad the headache sucked soooo badly.

Thanks again for all of your responses. I think having this thread around will help others, since it seems that migraines are, sadly, too common.


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## ChubbyBlackSista (Oct 14, 2007)

Migraines are so terrible but you should take Tylenol PM it takes away anything you're feeling pain related


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## Paul (Oct 14, 2007)

I am glad you have found something that works for you. I have found Tylenol of any formulation to be useless for pain. From my experience Tylenol does not work for some people. Whenever a doctor has prescribed tylenol for pain, I have always asked for an alternative and have never been refused another prescription. One doctore confirmed what I though that there is a percentage of persons for whom Tylenol will not work as a pain reliever. I always ask the doctor if I can be prescribed an NSAD (i.e. asa) instead. NNSADs work very well for me, and will deal with any inflamation causing pain, which tylenol is unable to do.


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## Spanky (Jun 16, 2008)

Ugh!

I got my first full-blown migraine in over ten years. 

It presented completely differently than any other in my life. I used to know the onset of clamping headaches (stress headaches) where I cannot lie horizontally, and work it out with Aleve (naproxin sodium) and about 20 minutes of milder pain. Migraines used to come in slowly over a few hours but with the light sensitivity, waviness in my sight and even loss of sight in spots. I would use Darvoset and in a real pinch, Tylenol 3 (codeine). Saturday night I got the pain so quick and so fast, it presented like a milder stress headache and right after swallowing the (2) Aleve, I was about screaming to my poor wife for the stash of Tylenol 3. 

God the pain was terrible. I ended up even throwing up while in the misery of a clamp on my head. About 40 minutes AFTER taking the tylenol, I remember finally lying down and I must have passed out as soon as the pain subsided because the next thing I knew, I woke up 9 hours later. 

Has anyone seen migraines present differently as they got older?? I heard they subside with age but gadzooks, I may have to better prep myself with Imitrex or something. I think of myself as having a higher level threshold for pain, but this last episode really put me up to the edge.


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## Jack Skellington (Jun 18, 2008)

Miss Vickie said:


> Care to share your experiences with headaches, migraines or otherwise? How long do they last? Do you get nauseous? (I don't). Photophobic? (I do). And what meds or other treatments work for you.



I've had chronic migraines since I was very little. I'm actually fighting one right now. They can last from anywhere from several hours to several days. Sometimes they've even lasted weeks where I'd be pain free off and on for only a few hours at a time. 

I occasionally get nauseous from them and sometimes it makes it hard to concentrate. But it depends on where them pain is. Sometimes my entire head hurts or throbs and other times it feel like jagged knife is being pulled in and out of my eye. 

Nothing works for me and I am allergic to pretty much everything anyways. So I just have to wait them out. 

My Mom tried Imitrex for her Migraines years ago but the rebound headaches side effects where worse than the original Migraines. Now she just waits them out same as me.


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## Friday (Jun 18, 2008)

I have a couple of friends that the Imitrex works well for Spanky, but after the first couple times they really didn't do diddly for me and the little beggars are horrendously expensive. See if the Doc can get you a couple samples first.


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## Angel (Jun 18, 2008)

Jack Skellington said:


> I've had chronic migraines since I was very little. I'm actually fighting one right now.



*gentle hugs*



Jack Skellington said:


> Nothing works for me and I am allergic to pretty much everything anyways. So I just have to wait them out.




Are you allergic to me?  

Remember what I told you to imagine? Try that.


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## southernfa (Jun 18, 2008)

Miss Vickie said:


> I did see a doctor, in a manner of speaking -- I talked to one of our gynies when I was at work that night and asked her, "Hey, is it weird to be kind of post ictal for a couple of days after a migraine? To feel kind of spacey and detached and like the headache's just waiting to come back?" She said, "Yep,, the little guy with the ice pick is just waiting, right under the surface, right?" Which is exactly how I felt. She said it was normal and I don't have any other neurological symptoms so I'm good to go.



That's good to hear.  
I don't get migraines but have a damaged neck. The joint between the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae gets inflamed and seizes up and apparently cramps down on a blood vessel that feeds the back of the brain. The symptoms are a simply charming cocktail of upper neck pain, migraine-like headache, drowsiness/inability to concentrate and flu-like symptoms (hot and cold etc). Voltaren tablets relieve the inflammation and thus the symptoms but the kicker is that when I have an "attack" the impaired blood flow seems to retard the brain (even more if that is possible  ) and I can sit there in a sort of painful stupor for hours until I realise I need the tablet. After that, it is a mere 3-4 hours before I get relief.
I guess the good news is that compared to some migraine sufferers I do have a successful treatment available and regular exercise (swimming) is a helpful preventative measure.


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## Ruby Ripples (Jun 18, 2008)

I think i might have posted this before, but I do think it's worth posting again, if it even helps one migraine sufferer. 

My best friend suffered from Migraines about once a month for many years. The type Spanky wrote about here, so bad she would vomit - nothing helped properly. I would take her kids to my house so she could just be on her own while she had the attacks. Then we heard on the radio one day about the "caffeine cure" and she said she would try it next time she felt one starting. Sure enough, she did, and for the first time in nearly 30 yrs, her migraine didn't develop into a full blown attack, instead it disappeared. She has been doing this ever since and hasn't once had a migraine develop any further after she takes the caffeine, it's almost unbelievable. 

What you do is, as soon as you feel your first signs of a migraine coming, make half a cup of black coffee, but with about four or five heaped teaspoons of instant coffee. Hold your nose if need be, and knock it back. That's it. 

Apologies if you all already know and have tried this, but might be worthwhile trying if you haven't yet.


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## Spanky (Jun 18, 2008)

Ruby Ripples said:


> I think i might have posted this before, but I do think it's worth posting again, if it even helps one migraine sufferer.
> 
> My best friend suffered from Migraines about once a month for many years. The type Spanky wrote about here, so bad she would vomit - nothing helped properly. I would take her kids to my house so she could just be on her own while she had the attacks. Then we heard on the radio one day about the "caffeine cure" and she said she would try it next time she felt one starting. Sure enough, she did, and for the first time in nearly 30 yrs, her migraine didn't develop into a full blown attack, instead it disappeared. She has been doing this ever since and hasn't once had a migraine develop any further after she takes the caffeine, it's almost unbelievable.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the suggestions, guys! :bow:

I guess in the end, migraines are as different as the shape of our skulls and how the brain fits in each one. I have used caffeine with lower grade migraines with a decent result. I guess when feeling nauseous at 11PM, I really didn't consider the caffeine solution. I think I was far too gone at that point. 

The speed and severity of the attack was what surprised me. I was a soccer games all day in cool but June sunny weather. I got some sun, maybe a mild reddening in the face, but a few friends asked if it would be bad enough to trigger that migraine event over 8 hours later. I kind of doubted it. 

Jack, I can't image going through a migraine sans some pain relief. I am sorry you have to deal with that . 

I honestly once used my wife's breathing techniques from Lamaze classes to try and ease the pain. I still try to relax and almost meditate and clear my mind. Thinking even hurts it seems. 

I really appreciate the ideas and input.


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## largenlovely (Jun 20, 2008)

oh oh oh ...i'm so glad i read this thread.

two days ago i got this horrible headache..worst i've ever had. It was mostly on the left side of my head and then i started noticing vision problems with my right eye. I've never gotten headaches before like that in my life... a couple hours later i started my period and had these god awful cramps that even a muscle relaxer almost wouldn't take care of (of course i usually only take a quarter of a pill for aches and pains everywhere else, but i wound up having to take a half of one for all of this). Finally after that and a couple tylenol i was able to stop everything from hurting so i could get to sleep. I wondered if it was related to my period as well, but had never heard of anything like that.



missaf said:


> But I've had several menstrual-time migraines, especially if I drink caffeine, have chocolate, or soda. My eyeballs hurt, and my fingers tingle. It's definitely no fun.


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## Sugar (Jun 22, 2008)

I've had migraines since puberty. Mine are mostly sleep & scent triggered. Channel No. 5 is one of the biggies. I have a small benign tumor on my pituitary gland that they found about a year of barfing 1-2 times a week at school from the migraines. Turns out my teacher wore Channel No. 5. Eventually they took me out of English all together and I got private teaching because she declined to stop wearing the purfume. She was really there teaching for the right reasons.  I was put on caffergot. It is mainly caffeine. It didn't work at all and made me jittery. For me personally caffeine is a horrible choice.

Anyway, as I got older my headaches have spaced themselves out. They come randomly. Sometimes I won't have one for a year and then I'll have a cluster of them over a few weeks. I never have "aura" but I'm a puker when I have a migraine and I'm ultra sound & light sensitive. 

I would suggest for those who suffer, take a good look at what you eat, your sleeping habits, and for women your cycle. 

I'm kinda on a strict list food wise between wls and the headache thing like no overly processed meat like bologna. I have to stay away from too much coffee or tea, no aspertame either (splenda has been a life saver). If I don't get enough sleep around my cycle I'll get one. Also, I make it clear to people who bathe in perfume that if they could cut down around me or steer clear I would really appreciate it. 

Medication wise only something heavy duty and/or sleep will get rid of mine. I tried the non-drowsy drugs like Imitrex pills and I found they worked for that day but the next day I'd have a migraine so that didn't work for work. Now I just try to go to sleep. For the especially bad ones I take some vicoden and plan for 12 hours sleep.


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## Elfcat (Jun 23, 2008)

It's interesting that SantaClear has his thumbnail pic with a Borg-like piece, because one of my own comments is that I suspect that the people who have thought up the Borg and various other implant-inflicted characters must be fellow migraineurs.

My migraines are very Borg-like. I don't get the visual hallucinations some describe, just a pressure around my left eyeball that just steadily grows until I feel a crushing feeling all around it, becoming a field of numbness on the left side of my face punctuated by sharp flares of pain. I feel like my powers of mathematical thought are slowed greatly, and I stumble around with this resigned feeling. "Resistance is futile" indeed.

There was another character in Babylon 5, Bester's girlfriend, a runaway telepath who'd been captured and implanted by the Shadows. When the B5 crew gets her back to the base along with several other telepaths who met the same fate, she has a nightmarish flash of memory of what was done to her, and the next thing you know she has pulled cables out of the ceiling and wrapped them around her, and she is moaning, "They are here, in my mind. I am the machine. We join, we fight. Help me, help stop them from screaming in my mind!"

Fortunately, Imitrex and its cousin Maxalt seem to work really well for my headaches, and can put them down in a couple of hours, and the only side effect is a little sour stomach and sometimes drowsiness, especially if the headache was triggered by erratic sleep. That, rapid changes in temperature like those happening now as the seasons change, and the rapid stopping of stressful activity after having done it for a long time, and chocolate on an empty stomach are the triggers I've identified so far.


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## Paul (Jun 26, 2008)

You might find this article interesting:

Migraine zapping device shows promise, study finds

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/06/26/migraine-zap.html


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## JayInBuff (Jun 26, 2008)

My wife has had really bad migraines. She started taking Inderal and she almost never gets them anymore. It's a daily pill so you have to remember to take them every day. Any time she stopped she would get them again. She had to stop when she was pregnant and couldn't wait to start again after our daughter was born.


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