When in pain, would you rather be around dogs or people?

Are Dogs more intuitive than people when it comes to migraine? 

Or do they just respond better to conditioning? 

Let me explain my thinking...

 
The steady stream of migraines continue this week.  This morning, I had  a whopper, though I must give the dogs credit.  We have four large dogs who are usually quite excited to see me get up in the morning.  The usual routine is that the minute I make a single noise that signifies that I'm awake, they take their cue that the day can begin.  The excitement begins immediately and they run about, full of energy, jockeying for position to be the first to say hello, generally making lots of noise and bouncing me all around.  However, dogs, like most animals are extremely intuitive and most dogs seem to pick up on cues that many humans choose to overlook, which is why when something is wrong or when someone is ill, all bets are off, which is why the behavior of my dogs instantly changes when I get up in the mornings with a migraine.

Dogs take their cues from their people and I assume they notice quite quickly that something is obviously wrong on these mornings.  I'm sure my body language in general tells them that it's not play time -  I know that I walk much softer, my head is usually held at a different angle and usually held gripped in my hands, and perhaps the fact that I rise quite slowly and don't greet the dogs at all is also a tip off.

Another possibility exists in combination with body language and that is conditioning.  Two of these dogs have been with us for a year, the other two for about two years or more.  Over that period of time, there have been a lot of migraines in this house.  Perhaps these dogs have simply learned what cues mean play and which ones mean "steer clear"!

I'm sure it's a combination of the two, conditioning and body language, but either way, this is where the credit comes in and I have to admit (today at least) that we have some pretty good dogs.  I woke in the middle of the night with one of those migraines that hurt so bad that I knew I needed to get up to take care of it, but it hurt so bad I simply couldn't... so it just continued to get worse.  Finally, when I got up this morning to get up and headed to a steaming hot shower, my first thought was, "Please don't let the dogs get in my way".  I love my dogs, but a combined total of three hundred pounds of furry pups blocking my progress with sixteen bouncing paws is the last thing I want when I am trying to make a beeline for migraine relief.  I slowly pulled back my comforter, put my feet on the floor, and then looked over at the dogs.  All four were laying on their beds, looking at me tentatively, but not moving a muscle toward me.  I walked past them, gave them a cursory "good dogs" as I passed, and then walked straight into the bathroom, closing the door behind me.  The last thing I  heard as I closed the door was a heavy sigh from one of the dogs as if they were thinking, "darn... no fun for us this morning."  Of course, after Imitrex, after my shower, after a bit of coffee and after the passage of time, the dogs are their old selves again. As I begin to feel better, they once again sense that all is well.

I couldn't help but think about this today.   I work from home now, but I can remember times when I was in the workforce with excruciating migraines.  I rarely missed work due to migraines.  Unless I was in the emergency room or too nauseous to work, I worked through the pain.  Frankly, I never felt I had a choice - my migraines were too many and if I stopped for a migraine, I never would have been at work!  Plus, just like many other migrainers out there, I had to battle the attitude of my coworkers (and a few of my bosses) who thought a "headache" was an excuse to get out of work and there was  no way I was going to let them put that label on me. 

Now don't get me wrong, I never wanted people to fawn over me or my headaches and I wasn't looking for sympathy, but there were times when a little compassion would have been nice.  Such as a choice to NOT test a drill or another loud tool right next to me at this particular moment, or perhaps to NOT scream in my ear for someone down the hall as opposed to picking up the phone.  Common sense, respect, compassion... I've always been taught that all of those things should come into play when someone is feeling poorly for any reason, but when someone is hanging on by their fingernails with a migraine, any one of those things would be appreciated.  It always seemed that those with hangovers always warranted more allowances and special treatment than those of us with legitimate, non-self-induced pain.  And yet, despite what I wanted to say, I would never say a word.

Frankly, in the workforce, I could be in excruciating pain and very few people would actually notice or realize it.  Too often, people don't look outside of themselves or their own little world to recognize that the person next to them might need just a touch of kindness.  Even though I wouldn't tell people about my migraines, some could tell and the ones that did would usually say they could "see it in my eyes".  Funny, my mother used to say the same thing. 

I know this will make me sound cynical, but I just can't help but think... Isn't it amazing that my dogs -four domesticated animals whose combined ages still don't reach the age age of ten, can show a form of consideration to me when I am in pain and yet, there are still people around us who always seem oblivious to the pain of others? Cynical or not, at least for today, I'm enjoying the company of my dogs... ;-)