I used to get migraines. Not much helped. I found open heart surgery really seemed to fix it :/ No migraines since.

I hope you're feeling better soon.

And 16 year old Naproxen at that! w00t for the weird stuff from decades past in our medicine cabinets.

Hey, it's in Midol. Go figure!

Well, there's that evidence-based bugaboo again, about correlation vs. causation. "Appears to have worked" would be the correct description.

I will not challenge whether or not anyone on this blog truly suffers from migraines. That's between them and their physician.

However, I do note as someone employed in the healthcare industry, that "migraine" is an overused term.

For instance, if someone comes into my massage room and says, "Oh, I have such a migraine." I understand that to mean that they have a headache that's bothering them. If what they were experiencing were truly a migraine, they would not be so composed as they tell me about it. They probably wouldn't be in my room at all.

Migraines aren't merely bothersome headaches. They're excruciating to the point of being debilitating. It's pain so severe that it's nauseating. Migraine sufferers tend to lock themselves in their rooms with the lights off, insulating themselves against all light and sound, literally able to almost nothing until the pain subsides.

I always thought migraines were supposed to be debilitating too. Until a neurologist checking me out for something else suggested the headaches I get that have a stabbing pain behind my ear could be migraines. I don't think it matters too much what you call them, I don't get them frequently enough to warrant any migraine specific treatment.

Meanwhile, travellers to the U.S. from abroad are facing some headaches of their own. Tourists visiting Downtown D.C. will be pretty hosed this week.

But hey -- it's all good. If you can't make it to D.C., there's a tour operator in the U.K. who can hook you up with Pyongyang. Really.

I love Naproxin. Mine is fresher though.

Asked my doctor if the levels I consume were safe. He said yes. But warned me about Tylenol.

People think that it is safe which leads them to take way more than they should, especially since it it a very poor acting pain reliever in adults. In sufficient quantities it will destroy your liver and kill you. Very dangerous drug.

I have had a migraine only twice in my life. Both times after consuming drinks with rum in them. Bad ju ju.

Well, there's that evidence-based bugaboo again, about correlation vs. causation. "Appears to have worked" would be the correct description.

Wrong -- it worked. I've had enough experience with this -- impenetrable and horrible headaches that last all day -- to realize that when one is suddenly gone, it most likely didn't just pop and disappear.

And no, I'm not making a headache into a migraine. I know what migraines are. They're debilitating headaches that make me throw up, that are excruciatingly painful, that will not go away with aspirin, even if I take a lot, and that I can't sleep off.

I've gotten them to back off before with three tablespoons of coconut oil in three big mugs of tea, but I just couldn't do #3 because I'd done two in short order. I could have waited to take another and just stayed in bed all night but Gregg was back from Detroit and coming over and I hadn't seen him in a week.

These headaches don't just go away. The Naproxen got mine to back off to the point where I could get out of bed (in my dark bedroom with an airline blindfold on, yes), take off the cold pack on my head, and have dinner with Gregg. It was amazing. Unfortunately, taking it in the evening seems to cause me insomnia.

CAUSE me insomnia? Yes. I can sleep, even nap, just by lying down and breathing more slowly, even during the day. I was exhausted yesterday and tossed and turned until 1 am. It was awful.

I assumed you weren't making a headache into a migraine, Amy. You never struck me as a person given to self-diagnosis, throwing out whatever medical buzzwords are fashionable these days.

For instance, one girl was forever telling me that she had migraines. Then I massaged her suboccipitals. Miraculously, the pain vanished.

She had a muscle tension headache, not a migraine. Basically, the tiny muscles just below the back of her cranium (the suboccipitals) get tense, the nerves that run through get irritated, resulting in a headache. Bothersome, yes. Debilitating, no.

She thought I was performing miracles. "He can cure migraines!" she told the doctor, who just smiled and shook his head.

I can alleviate a migraine with massage, but it would take way more work than what I was doing for her.

"Migraineville: Jimmy Buffet Will Never Write A Song About It"

Might have been the B-side to "Margaritaville." Or it should have been, anyway.

This is what I do:

1) Vomit. If it doesn't happen on it's own, I do the finger down the throat routine. Brush teeth.
2) Hot, hot shower, focusing stream on nape of neck as that's my ouch spot.
3) Take pill of some sort, Tylenol migraine or whatever pain relievers are on hand. Drink coke.
4) Bed in a dark room

Interesting, Nicole. I'd always heard that soaking your feet in water as hot as you can stand it, without scalding yourself, obviously. The theory is that it draws the blood away from your head and promotes relief.

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My preferred treatments: stay on Enbrel shots. Don't know why twice weekly enteracept shots work 98% of the time, but they do.

For the other 2%: take a drug cocktail we developed over the last 17 years, stay in my bedroom that has 3 sets of darkening curtains to keep out any stray light, put in ear plugs, cover my eyes, put a large bag of frozen peas on my head, and pray that someone takes the ice pick out of my left eye socket and the axe blade from my head.

"...to realize that when one is suddenly gone, it most likely didn't just pop and disappear."

There you go: "most likely". That is the correct, disciplined description as stated in Logicville. The discipline of reason does not get turned off just because of a personal anecdote. "I took this pill and it seems to have worked for me," would be perfectly fine, especially given your own uncertainty about the apparent age of the pill.

Of course this is a nit. That's what evidence-based reasoning requires!