You ever get a migraine? I am talking about a real migraine with auras and light disturbance, nausea as well as pain, not just a really bad headache. I ususally get a couple of them a month.
I still haven’t identified a trigger, a why these stupid things happen but my best guesses are fatigue and stress. The worst part about those is that it seems to be a cumulative effect; like today, I was cooking some breakfast. No stress, I actually slept a bit more than usual and WHAM! The aura that looks like a too bright camera flash that obsures vision and shimmers like the setting sun off of a lake. I can’t say why or how but hey just another migraine. I can only hope my hand and face don’t go numb.
I have been having migraines since I was a teenager. Good grief that is over 20 years now. Back then I didn’t know what they were, I just thought it was some sort of food poisoning. I would wake up with the visual aura that would progress to nausea and vomiting, until it passed. It was incapacitating back then, many times starting with a numbness “sphere” about the size of a baseball, starting in my left hand and creeping up my arm, through my neck, over my face, (numb lips, tongue, and teeth are incredibly creepy) and finally creeping down my right arm. It really bothered me and I just thought I was sickly. Looking back I am sure it was stress from my family and the constant pressure from my Father.
It wasn’t until I was dating my wife who was in Nursing School that I even knew that these were migraines. I was having a bad one at work one day and then another later at home. She recognized some of the issues and took me to the emergency room for an injection. Holy Crap there was medicine for this that all but took away the symptoms! I never knew. Later talking with my doctor he said it was all of the classic signs of migraine, and here is a perscription for an overpriced but effective medication against migraines. Of course my dad says “It takes years to diagnose migraines” I read that as “you are a whiny little baby who is now flawed and one step above worthless” That is another blog though.
Well with medication it is better. There was a period of almost 2 years where I only had like 1 episode. Even with my daughter in kidney failure and on dialysis there were not too many. I have even began to realize a type of aura 1-2 days ahead of time that I can guess will result in a migraine. Didn’t today but hey can’t be all knowing. I hve even began to realize that I have migraines on both sides of my head but not at the same time. The ones on the right side are more severe and last longer. They just plain hurt more and even with medication the only real relief is sleep. Hard to do when you have things to do and people counting on you to make sure your 3 year old isn’t playing with knives or falling down the stairs. The ones on the right side, like today, are more mild but really make me groggy for a few hours like I am spinning through jello.
all in all migraines just suck. It is not even the headache that is the worst part, for me it is the uncontrol and the not being able to see. I would be a terrible blind man.
until the muse strikes again,
Justin
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