Migraine, anyone? No? Hmm.

So, in case not everyone knows this about me, I suffer from severe migraines on occasion.
Sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? Yeah. It's kinda like someone trying to over inflate
a balloon inside my skull while having thousands of photographers all firing their flashes
simultaneously. Oh, yeah. It's quite the party, alright.

I remember the first time I had a migraine. I was about 9 or 10 and it was one of my first sleepovers with my best friend at the time, Chasidy. She only lived about 6 houses down and across the street, but it was super psyched about it! I don't remember much about the whole evening, but I just remember looking at one of her books and not being able to see the whole title. I just thought, "Hm, that doesn't seem right." My parents have both had migraines since they were young. My dad told me that the first time he ever had one was when he was playing peewee football. In the middle of the game, his vision started to go wierd. And then this amazingly horrific headache came. After the game, he said he just layed down on the livingroom floor, still in his full football gear, and stayed still for hours. He honestly thought he had a tumor or something. He later described this to his mom, my grandma, and she explained.

So as I was at this sleepover, I was thinking about my dad and what his experience was and I just knew what this was. It scared me, so I reluctantly said good-bye to Chasidy and had my mom pick me up.

After that night, every once-in-a-while I would get migraine. It always started the same. I would be looking at something or somone, and it just didn't look right. I always tried to suppress the thought, trying to think positive, but it came anyway. Every time it happened, a weird, flashing, crescent shape would appear in my vision. The look of it is hard to describe, but the closest thing I can compare it to is sort of like snow on a tv screen. But so, so, so, much more distracting and annoying. If this happened while I was at home, I would just lie down in a dark, silent room and wait for my vision to return. Sleeping was always the best thing, but not always possible. Anyhoo, after the crescent-shape disappeared, then came the horrible, horrible headache. The balloon analogy still applies, but it's also like my brain is too big for my skull and any movement of my head made the dull, pounding ache increase exponentially. And to make it so much better, the dull ache remains for at least 48 hours following. Awesome, right?

Another way to describe it is having what I would imagine to be the most incredible hangover after a long night of tequila shots or something. Which is exactly why I will never, ever drink. Ever. I mean, why would I want to have that experience if it could be avoided? I wouldn't. Because that would be incredibly stupid.

And on top of the vision thing and the headache, migraines make it so I'm super, super sensitive to light and smells and sounds and everything. I normally have a sensitive nose anyway, but even smells I like or don't notice can almost make me puke. Oh, wait. I haven't mentioned the nausea yet, have I? Well, lets add that to the mix. When I was younger, I pretty much always ended up getting sick after a migraine. But luckily I usually felt better after losing my lunch, or whatever meal it is that applies. Now that I'm older, that doesn't happen so much anymore. To make the nausea at bay, I usually just have to avoid strong smells and breathe evenly and keep my head mostly level. Yeah, that doesn't work so well when I'm at work or something. I actually had one my first day of work when I was working at Provo Canyon School the Summer of '06. I normally try not to show what an invalid I become when this happens until I have at least worked there a few weeks, but alas. It happened on my first day. Now I think that maybe that was a bad omen because that job was terrible. Really, really sucked. Really.

The reason I bring up this whole subject is because I somehow developed one of these said migraines this past Thursday at work. It started at lunch time and I can still feel some of the headache even now. But luckily, I like this job and my boss and co-workers are very understanding, so it's not all bad. I somehow live through it. *sigh*

Well, I guess I should share the good news. I have been taking this medication for a while now that seems to prevent my migraines. That wasn't the prescription's original, purpose, but I'm not complaining. Nowadays, if I ever accidentally miss a day of taking my drugs, I most likely get a migraine, which i obviously try not to let happen because of the aforementioned reasons.

So, that's my goal. NO MORE MIGRAINES!!!

Ahem, so thanks for reading this, if you actually made it all the way through.

p.s. I hope no one else ever finds himself or herself in this situation, but if it ever should happen, at least now you'll know . Right? Right.

Well, it's late. Bon nuit, mon ami.