Most everyone has had a headache, maybe even a horrible headache, a headache to end all headaches (sometimes known as a hangover.) But a headache is to a migraine like a bruise is to a spiral fracture; other than affecting the same body part, there is little comparison.
I had some terrible headaches when I was in high school, but I didn't have my first migraine until I was nineteen. Had I known anything about migraines I would have realized that I had some warning about what was about to happen -- I was part of the 20% of migraine sufferers that have an aura.
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An aura is a sensory symptom that happens between ten to thirty minutes before the headache. And the first time it happens, it can be frightening. I was working at a bookstore, doing a little reading while between customer. Then suddenly, I went blind. Well, sorta blind, but only in a large circle directly in front of me. I could still see peripherally but even that was distorted. Beyond the black dot was wavy, like heat waves off a car baking in the desert sun. My boss walked up as I was holding my hand in front of my face and wondering why I couldn't see it past my wrist. She asked if I had a headache. I didn't but she told me I probably would and kindly sent me home. That was a relief -- it wasn't sudden onset of a brain tumor and I just got the afternoon off.
Erm, not so much. My vision returned to normal about 15 minutes later, then the headache began. It lasted about 24 hours. Sound hurt; light was worse. Any movement was painful; walking felt like my brain was shattering. I was nauseous, then vomiting. All I could do was lie in the dark and hope to sleep. Or die. The morning brought no relief and I spent the entire day pretty much as the day before: in the dark, in the quiet and hoping to sleep again. When I woke from my nap, the headache was completely gone.
I never had another aura but I had many more headaches, although none as bad as that one. At the first sign of a headache, I popped a number of Advil, turned off all the lights and went to bed. If that was impossible (and it usually was) I popped a few more Advil and continued about my life. This happened about one or two times, maybe four times a week. (I bought Advil in 500-count size four times a year.) I'm not sure why, but I never mentioned headaches when I went to the doctor and the doctor never asked. I was in my forties before I had a standardized form asking if I ever suffered from the following... and I marked off headaches. Okay, here's the irony -- in my desire to stave off migraine pain, I was actually bringing about another painful condition: rebound headaches, which comes from overuse of medication. Oops. It was a very, very hard month when I tried to go Advil free, but it worked. My headaches went down to a more reasonable level of a couple a week rather than a couple of headaches every day. Soon I had headache free months. And now that I'm in my early fifties, I dare to say I've had headache free years -- my 100-count Advil may reach its expiration date before I finish it.
I've often heard the joke you either get headaches or you give them. I apparently do both... My daughter is now suffering from aura migraines. I know, I know... It does seem to be hereditary. My mother suffered for over 30 years (one or two migraines a month) and more than a few lasted for three days at a time. So I probably should have warned Kgirl1 about the ins-and-outs of managing migraines. But she was adopted, so I didn't think it necessary. But wow, does she suffer...
At dinner on her 11th birthday, her nose began to bleed. She said it had been happening all week for no apparent reason. Then she mentioned that there was a flash of light across her left eye whenever she opened her eyes. I watched and waited. The nosebleeds subsided, but the flash of light progressed to pain around the eye and a sharp pain through the eye. We saw the pediatrician. We were sent to an ophthalmologist. Neither could explain her pain. Over the next ten weeks, the symptoms began to multiply. After having her eyes dilated, her vision in her left eye never returned to normal. The occasional headache was now every night. The minor headache was now painful. Her left ear began to hurt. The pediatrician thought it could be the beginning of migraines which often start around this age. She referred us to the Headache Clinic at Children’s Hospital.
Kgirl1 had an MRI (thankyougod, no brain tumor) and a spinal tap, detecting nothing. Then as suddenly as the headaches started, it ended. Change in weather? The end of golf season and no more exposure to lawn chemicals? The asthma diagnosis and a new inhaler? I have no idea.
The headaches returned last summer, but without the weird flashes of light. And then this summer, nothing. I thought maybe she outgrew her headaches, but no such luck. This fall, I had a message from the school nurse that Kgirl1 had come by because her left eye was "seeing all strange". The left side of her face was numb. The fingers on her left hand were all tingly. The nurse deemed her fine and sent her back to class. Kgirl1 returned to the nurse's office with an excruciating headache, but the other nurse apparently thought she was making up. She took one Tylenol, rested for a half hour, then was sent back to class. I cannot imagine sitting through class, nor riding a school bus home with a migraine, but she somehow managed it. Yikes. Kgirl1 had FIVE migraines in 12 days. (She's only 13, so I give her a tiny bit of room to be a drama queen, like when her sister asked for some help and she said "I can't. I'm still recouping from a migraine..." Hah!) Thankfully the spate of headaches has ended for now.
It's been a while since I've thought about the agony of migraines, but watching my daughter has brought it all back. Whenever anyone asks about the pain, I explain it's bad enough that Kgirl1 has actually given up chocolate because it's a migraine trigger. And that says it all...
Migraine Fact Sheet