Not Today, I Have a Headache
I am an infrequent sufferer of migraine headaches. The last one I suffered was in February or March of 2003, until today.
And normally I wouldn't be able to pinpoint that closely the date of a migraine headache, but a co-worker was a contestant on the short-lived television program "Are You Hot?" and I happened to get a migraine the day his episode aired on TV. There was no way I could make it to the party, and I didn't get ABC at the time, so I missed that moment.
As illnesses go, migraines are something I can almost deal with. It might have something to do with the fact that I average a migraine 1-2 times a year. It's easy to recognize the symptoms coming on, and there's a window of opportunity to make it to a dark, quiet place where I can sleep it off. The worst issues are the timing, because often they come on when I really can't afford to drop out of consciousness for 4-5 hours, and the cat, because he kicks into snuggle mode, which means he wants to curl up with me and purr his little heart out. When you have a migraine a purring cat is one of the most painful experiences known, and you don't have the energy to throw him across the room.
I can even, if I choose, manage the timing of a migraine to some extent. When I can feel the symptoms coming on I've got a window of opportunity available to me. If, within that window, I get myself a couple of Excederin Migraine and a liter of Diet Coke to chug down then I can remain conscious for the duration. I'm just going to be a wee bit of a space cadet for a day. There are times when I think it's going to be a standard issue headache, and take appropriate medication, and then after the fact realize that it's going to be a migraine. That's what happened last time around. Then I've just got to deal with it.
The first migraine I ever had was the worst. I was working in an office of two people at the time, and the other person was out of town at a conference. So I was running the office. I started getting the symptoms. It's hard to describe, but there's a weird tingling feeling in your brain, and the quality of your vision changes noticably (at least in my migraines). I had heard about these maybe being symptoms of migraines, so went online to do a little research. Best as I could tell it quite likely was a migraine, and if it was a migraine I was going to be feeling like hell very, very soon. I made an executive decision to close up the office early and go home. At the time I didn't care if I lost my job over it, alleving the pain was the primary goal. I was taking the bus to work those days. Thankfuly it was a bus that ran fairly often, and I hit the bus stop at just the right time. About 2 blocks from home was where the full-force migraine hit. Thankfully, the remainder of the walk was downhill and I could just use inertia to guide me. And then, I slept.
Today was a quiet day at work. Tomorrow will not be a quiet day at work. So I chose to just drop out for the day, crawl into bed and sleep it off. Once I woke up and got some food I was good to go. Even made it to a dentist's appointment tonight.
And normally I wouldn't be able to pinpoint that closely the date of a migraine headache, but a co-worker was a contestant on the short-lived television program "Are You Hot?" and I happened to get a migraine the day his episode aired on TV. There was no way I could make it to the party, and I didn't get ABC at the time, so I missed that moment.
As illnesses go, migraines are something I can almost deal with. It might have something to do with the fact that I average a migraine 1-2 times a year. It's easy to recognize the symptoms coming on, and there's a window of opportunity to make it to a dark, quiet place where I can sleep it off. The worst issues are the timing, because often they come on when I really can't afford to drop out of consciousness for 4-5 hours, and the cat, because he kicks into snuggle mode, which means he wants to curl up with me and purr his little heart out. When you have a migraine a purring cat is one of the most painful experiences known, and you don't have the energy to throw him across the room.
I can even, if I choose, manage the timing of a migraine to some extent. When I can feel the symptoms coming on I've got a window of opportunity available to me. If, within that window, I get myself a couple of Excederin Migraine and a liter of Diet Coke to chug down then I can remain conscious for the duration. I'm just going to be a wee bit of a space cadet for a day. There are times when I think it's going to be a standard issue headache, and take appropriate medication, and then after the fact realize that it's going to be a migraine. That's what happened last time around. Then I've just got to deal with it.
The first migraine I ever had was the worst. I was working in an office of two people at the time, and the other person was out of town at a conference. So I was running the office. I started getting the symptoms. It's hard to describe, but there's a weird tingling feeling in your brain, and the quality of your vision changes noticably (at least in my migraines). I had heard about these maybe being symptoms of migraines, so went online to do a little research. Best as I could tell it quite likely was a migraine, and if it was a migraine I was going to be feeling like hell very, very soon. I made an executive decision to close up the office early and go home. At the time I didn't care if I lost my job over it, alleving the pain was the primary goal. I was taking the bus to work those days. Thankfuly it was a bus that ran fairly often, and I hit the bus stop at just the right time. About 2 blocks from home was where the full-force migraine hit. Thankfully, the remainder of the walk was downhill and I could just use inertia to guide me. And then, I slept.
Today was a quiet day at work. Tomorrow will not be a quiet day at work. So I chose to just drop out for the day, crawl into bed and sleep it off. Once I woke up and got some food I was good to go. Even made it to a dentist's appointment tonight.
posted by Swankette at 7:40 PM
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