Why I Eat Peanut Butter Sandwiches When I Have a Migraine

Chronic migraines are not sunshine and rainbows, I can tell you that. But there is one symptom that is getting to be problematic for me. Constant, persistent and relentless nausea. Persistent for over a year now. Relentless. I take Zofran all day. I take Gravol all day. And I am still nauseated. Still, no appetite.

First meal of the day is dinner. I eat a small fraction and can’t eat more. I just can’t. The nausea gets to me. But in the evening late at night, with all my meds in me, I feel I can eat a peanut butter and butter sandwich. It sits well. I have tried other things and gotten violently ill. This sits, so I eat it. It has protein and fat, so that is something. It has been the only thing I can eat well, and the one thing that sits well, and I don’t throw it up. It makes me wonder… Can you survive on only peanut butter and butter sandwiches?

Of course not. And, yet, here we are.

I just can’t eat. I have no appetite. I start eating and I get full right away and nauseated and more nauseated. I give up before I get actually to the point of getting sick, which sometimes I fail at.

Sometimes I mix it up. Peanut butter and jam.

The peanut and butter sandwich is saving me from just plain starving. This nausea is hellish.

If we go to a restaurant, the ask, “What do you want?” How about a 1/4 of this dish here? Can you do that? Because I can barely eat. But thanks to the peanut butter and butter sandwich, I am not starving.

Believe me, I have tried other things. I’ve even tried Ensure, which is mostly sugar. Sugar makes me nauseated at the best of times. The next step: Smoothies. Full on liquid diet, aside from my wee supper.

I can say a lot of things about chronic migraines. The pain. The distorted auras. The brain fog. And vertigo. But, this nausea is the worst weight loss plan in existence. You are just saturated in the rolling sensation of it.

Like many migraine symptoms, you may not have it or you may have it occasionally. I used to get nausea and vomiting severely in my 20s. Then it dissipated and I really didn’t have that symptom anymore. I had other digestive issues instead. Then suddenly it was back full force. There’s a lot of unpredictability in migraine symptoms. One could hope someday soon it will just fade away like it once did or just become occasional. Until then, I have to deal with this somehow and that means finding a way to get some proper nutrition.

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Thinkstock Image By: aaboikis