Migraines- Headaches from Hell

Many of my close friends know that last year was quite rough for me in the medical department. I have always had migraines since college. I'll never forget my first one, I thought I was dying. It was senior year and I had gotten up to go to video class. My head was pounding but I just thought it was a normal headache. Walking back to the dorms my friend Reagan was talking about the Bulls championship rallies when I puked right then and there outside of the Communications building. Turns out that was the start of the migraines.

 

I usually would get one to two a year and they would not really impact my life too much. When I started my job they started to become a bit more frequent but nothing too bad. I was in my early 20s and had not had my wisdom teeth out and swore that was the cause. After having them out, I felt better. Years went by dealing with the one or two a year until last year. July 2012 I had 5-6 in one month (sometimes 2 in one day) and by Dec I experienced almost 25 migraines. I'm talking the head pounding, aura experiencing, face hurting migraines every single time. It did not matter what I was doing, where I was, who I was with, they were all the same and they sucked! I would wake up every day in fear that I would get another one. I finally sucked it up and went to the doctor to look into some preventative pills I could take to keep them at bay. After a few different tries at medication I think we finally found one that works. It has been almost 3 months (knock on wood) of being migraine free. They still have no clue the cause of the headaches (they claim maybe weather change, oh boy I live in IL where it changes daily).

 

I wanted to share my experience because migraines are a lot more common than people think. They could be without aura or with. They can strike at anytime and pretty much ruin your day. I'll tell you it made me feel horrible to have to leave work when one would come on or have to log off to sleep it off. I knew my co workers were understanding, but I still felt helpless that I could not get them under control. I was lucky to have some friends with similar experiences whom I could talk to about what I was going through. Now I at least do not have the fear each morning when I wake up that this could be yet another day having to deal with a migraine.