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Late one night I was reading a book, when suddenly the words made absolutely no sense. The letters were jumbled, I couldn't read them, I panicked but was told to wait till morning to see if it would work itself out. Later that night I had the most horrible headache I had ever had. This was my first ever migraine. I now see a strange glowing 'crystal' that blocks the middle of my sight, so I can't drive, or even use the phone to call somebody, followed by a painful headache and intense tiredness. The pain is 'cold' and feels like 'bubbles' pushing in the center of my head. Sometimes it feels like someone has cut the top off my head, inserted half a bucket of ice cubes and shut it again. These events are often heralded by smaller purple polka dots and an opaque purple flash, as well as a sudden onrush of spoonerism's (saying words mixed up, like 'hook lear' instead of 'look here'.) I will see people without noses as the middle part of my sight switches off. It just disappears, leaving a smooth closing that I would never have noticed but for the odd missing nose, or four fingered hand. Dyslexia has become a problem as well. And these days I have a permanent black dot floating round in my eyesight, slowly getting bigger and darker as time goes by. More isolated incidences of migraines include these one-off beasties:
The doctor said all these things were caused by Migraines. There appeared to be no trigger (like chocolate, or bananas) and the various drugs we tried, like Sandimigran, Imigran, Periactin and Ergodryl, had little to no discernible effect at stopping/alleviating them. As the years passed the migraines went from once a year events to once a month ones. By 1998 two of every four working days could be affected by migraine. After the initial onset and odd visuals, the pain could last from one to four days. As migraines go I have found out I am damn lucky. I get tired and can sleep through one with no pain, if I go to bed early enough ie at disappearing noses time J. (To see what my migraines look like, hop on over to My Migraines Page.) Often I get what I call a migraine hangover effect after wards (just like a real hangover, without the fun first bit), which again is mild to what others get. Lot's of people are worse off. If only I didn't get so many of the little blighters K Other people can be so helpful, insisting that my migraines are because of my diet and offering their prognosis and 'cure'. The day these caring souls get their medical certificates is the day I'll start listening to them. Honestly, do people really think I haven't tried to find out the cause of the migraines? I have gone 6 months cutting out coke, chocolate, XS energy drinks etc. Another 6 cutting out wheat, milk, nuts etc. This is not about diet, not for me, not for many other sufferers. So go be helpful somewhere else ya doctor wanna-be's. Stop making me feel like this is my fault. It's not. And anyone else being fed this line of bull shit, it's not your fault either. Try their ridiculous diets if you like, but if you want to stop, do. Our lives can be hard enough without denying ourselves that energy pick-up drink, or the comfort of that chocolate bar. With roast almonds. Mmm, I'm gonna go have one right now! |
Migraines 
