Migraines

I got my first migraine two years ago--two days before Thanksgiving. Don't ask me how I remember that day; I have a freakish memory about these things.

I had never had a migraine before that. At the time I was going through the most incredibly stressful period of my life, and I'm amazed that my physical health didn't start falling apart before that. But it had come out of the blue, and quite frankly, it terrified me. I remember the front of my head being in pain, as if someone was squeezing my brain tightly, then releasing it slowly, only to quickly squeeze it again. And I remember the nausea. I kept leaning over the toilet, wanting to vomit, but it never came.

I was so scared by the intensity of the pain and nausea that I nearly drove myself to the hospital. Or rather, called 911. But I decided to lay on the couch and see how things were.

It was 6:30 PM. One minute, I was listening to Brian Williams deliver the news, the next moment it was 5:30 AM, and time for me to go to work. I had slept eleven hours straight.

I remember waking up, getting up off the couch, and feeling bewildered. My headache was gone, but I kept waiting for it to come back.

That morning, my car got a flat on the way to work. Later that day I took it to the dealer to have the tire patched (and ended up needing four new tires...but that's another story), and while I was waiting for my car to get fixed, I started chatting with another woman in the waiting room. It turns out that this woman was a medical assistant. I told her my story of what happened the night before, and her eyes widened. She knew exactly what I had--a frontal lobe migraine, and my symptoms were "classic."

Since then I've had several migraines, but not a lot--one or two a year, at most. Thank God! I have friends who have had to go on Imitrex and other migraine meds on a daily basis. I have been fortunate not to have had to walk that path.

I've found that my migraines are usually tension-related, sinus-related, or both. 98% of the time they're sinus related. 2% of the time it's stress. Today, it was both. I had a rough week at work, and even though I had to run some errands on the way home, I drove straight home today. No sooner did I walk in the door than I removed my coat, took the blanket off the couch, and laid down. It was 3:15 PM, and I slept till 5.

I woke up, and about a half hour later, started blowing my nose like mad.

I'm feeling better now. The pressure behind my eye sockets still remains, but will be gone by tomorrow morning. All I need is a good night's sleep. The only way I can personally get rid of a migraine is to sleep. Tylenol just doesn't do it for me.

And sleeping is not such a bad thing. At all.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...