1972. I was in 6th grade. The teacher was writing on the chalkboard (green board with white chalk). I was feeling strange. I did not know what was happening. Some of the words were missing letters as I read what she wrote. But as I read further, those letters would re-appear but the next letter was gone. This was my first time seeing spots during a migraine. It was probably my first migraine. I had to go to the restroom to throw up later that day.
This happened on a weekly basis. I don't recall having pain at that exact time. I know I had the visual auras first and that spacy feeling and the nausea.
Even though my oldest brother, two older sisters and my Dad suffered from "sick headaches" I pretty much just went to bed and nobody talked to me about them. The older siblings were not living at home and my Mom just didn't have time to deal with it. My one older sister did start giving me Mylanta and I would just throw that up and to this day I can't eat a chalky antacid without getting sick.
I could not take aspirin (that was all we took for pain back then) because I just threw it up. Being the youngest of 8, you just try not to be a bother to the family. Stay out of the way, don't need anything, don't ask for anything or you will get the dirty look from Mom.
Oh, and my Dad? He was a non entity. I do recall once during the summer, he set up a lounge cushion on the porch for me to lay out in the fresh air during an attack. He knew what I was dealing with.
At 19, my Mom and oldest brother decided it was my eyes that were causing me the pain. Really? So, to the eye doctor I went and was prescribed glasses. I was working at that time and I realized that there was absolutely no difference in my vision as to when I wore my glasses or took them off and I mentioned this to the eye doctor the next time I saw him. He said 'yeah' he knew but felt he had to do something. I never returned. And I didn't wear glasses again until my mid 40s.
From 1972 to 2017 I suffered. In the late 90s I began seeing a female doctor who took my headaches seriously and prescribed me the newer drugs. I had a small child at home, a single Mother and did not want to spend hours and days laying around like a drunk on the couch. Head pain, can't stand light, noise or smells, couldn't eat and kept throwing up. The drugs were a life changer. In 2017 I was diagnosed with cancer and had a total hysterectomy and my migraines all but stopped. I have maybe 1(one) a year, now.
But now, I get to watch my daughter go through the same pain. She does not tolerate the new drugs well but it is better than not having anything but over the counter pain relivers. Acetaminophen is pez candy in my book. It does nothing. I may as well take a pez or a tic tac. It never did do anything for me. Excedrin was my go to. When they came out with Excedrin for migraine I ran to the store to see what the ingredient was they were using to stop the pain - caffeine. Hell, Excedrin already had caffeine in it. What a crock of shit. After some stomach issues, I turned to ibuprofen and still take that for headaches. I am full of wonder when I take a tablet and my pain goes away because that never happened for me. I used to take 4 at a time. Now, I just take the prescribed 2 and the pain goes away. But, I now have 'normal' headaches. That is why it works.
Migraines are a disability. I remember every person who tried to give me advice. I remember every person who said "Oh, I get migraines too." But you could tell they did not. I remember every person who sneered "You ALWAYS have a headache!" and called me a wet blanket. I remember every person who said "It's just a headache! Take an aspirin. Take a walk!" I remember avoiding cooked onions for years because they seemed to be a trigger. Funny. Now I can eat all the onion rings I want and the grilled onions on everything and raw onions and no migraine. Nothing. Nada.
I stay away from lunch meat because it is not good for me and I never liked it much anyway. My Mom had 5 children in school at the same time and we ate a bologna sandwich every day. When I was older, I stopped eating them and I think I pretty much skipped lunch. We never had the money for hot lunch and I would have died before I signed up for free meals. I remember my brother saying when he was in grade school, all the kids who qualified for free lunches had their names written on the chalkboard for all his classmates to see and they made fun of them. No thanks. I'll go without eating, thanks.
I read the subreddit for migraines and I feel so bad for them. They all say the same things over and over again. They all suffer the same symptoms. Some are so much worse than I had it but I think my daughter has worse ones than I did also. Some get Botox, some go to neurologists. Most do not find relief and they ask "How do you guys go to work?" We laugh because we have all discovered the migraine meal - McDonalds salty fries and a coke. I had already been eating salty foods for years because I craved it. KFC mashed potatoes are good, too.
I think I have ordered almost every head and eye massager available on Amazon for my daughter. We just spent the day at the ER (I guess that is why I started this post). She started with the flu but the pain did not go away. She is 2 months into a new job and was just so worried about taking the time off because she was in pain. A couple of days she sat at her desk with an ice pack on her face. The doctor gave her a shot of Topamax. It's been almost 8 hours and she is feeling much better. I just hope it doesn't come back when the shot wears off.
Edit. Correction. She did not get a shot of Topamax. She was given a shot. Not sure if it was Toradol or Decadron or both. She was told to take Sudafed and was prescribed an anti-nausea medication. The shot worked wonderfully but (as migraineurs know) it wears off and sometimes the pain returns. Hers did but not at the magnitude it had been.
