u/Kahlua_Martini

Hi! For a bit of background, I eat almost anything and enjoy most flavors, and pickles are one of my favorite things to eat!! My partner, on the other hand, has ARFID, and has always hated pickles until yesterday. We got food from a local cafe, and my meal came with the crunchiest dill pickle I’ve ever had in my life, and my partner asked for a bite. They genuinely really enjoyed it! They said the crunch was just so perfect texturally, and the flavor was great! They’ve always really enjoyed things with a vinegary flavor, but the lack of consistency in pickles texture-wise has always discouraged them from eating pickles. I was wondering what everyone’s favorite brand of pickle was so that when I do buy pickles and my partner wants a bite, I’ll have some that are texturally pleasant for them to bite into :)

Hello,

For a bit of background, I am an actress, and I just got home in Indiana two weeks ago from a contract in Michigan. I knew coming home that I had another gig to perform that weekend, as a theatre in my hometown does an annual cabaret, and I’ve been a part of it for the past four years. I was feeling completely fine until the Saturday performance on June 20th. My partner and I were performing Take Me or Leave Me from Rent together, and about mid song, I got the absolute worst headache of my life. I think it was a thunderclap headache. Like, mallet to the head over and over, matching the tempo of my pulse. I don’t even know how I made it through the rest of the song. As soon as it was over, I got backstage as fast as I could, and just curled up into a ball while pressing my fingers into my temples to try and make it stop. My partner took me to the ER, and I ended up vomiting on the way there. They did a CT scan on me and gave me Benadryl and Reglan. CT was clear, and the meds gave me temporary relief, but I’ve been having mild headaches everyday since then. The pain is right at the base of my skull on both sides, and radiates over the top of the skull to my temples. Nothing super concerning pain scale wise, but it definitely gets annoying, and I’m just so tired all the time. It’s also hard to sing because, well, it makes the headache worse, which is really inconvenient and upsetting because singing is everything to me. I feel I’ve done everything I can to get the pain to stop, but nothing has worked. I’ve drank so much water, taken ibuprofen/tylenol, tried to get 8 hours of sleep, gotten a neck massage, and started amitriptyline per doctor’s orders, but it’s still there.

I don’t know if any of this is true cause for concern. I hesitate when asking these kinds of questions because I don’t want to freak myself out over something that’s likely nothing, but I’ve never experienced something like this before to this extent and I’m worried that it could be something more. In case it applies here, I’ve been a T1D for 15 years, and my A1C was 5.9 when I last went to the endo. I’ve also been singing for over a decade now with years of training, and I don’t believe this is being caused by improper singing form, but I’ve been wrong before. Does anyone have any advice? Are these common symptoms for migraines? Any ideas as to what’s triggering these headaches? Whether it’s advice on pain relief or just the situation itself, I’ll be grateful. I’m just so sick of feeling this way.

TL;DR: I sang, had what I believe was a thunderclap headache, and now have had a persistent headache for nine days.