Migraine

Last night, I had my first ever migraine – otherwise known as searing rainbow mind-daggers. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

Even the build-up is scary. Oh hey, something’s up with my eyesight. That was my intro. It was like I had stared at a bright light too long and I had an after-image, but only on the periphery and it wouldn’t go away.  It was difficult to read, because I had to keep shifting my eyes to get words out of the bad spots so I could finish sentences. So that ended that.

I immediately suspected migraine. I have a bit of a family history of migraines, and I’ve had friends who suffer from migraines, and I was thinking whelp, here comes the migraine.  I wasn’t sure if OTC painkillers would help or hurt, so I didn’t take anything preparatory, I just waited.

Rainbow-vision(tm) faded and I had a mild headache, and I thought eh, that’s not so bad. Though I was still afraid the worst was to come (and I was right) I was thinking this would probably be survivable. I did my best to hide my eyes under a pillow. I got a bit of a tingling in my right hand fingers, and I thought crap, I’m not having a migraine, I’m having some sort of heart attack or aneurysm or something. Left arm? Right arm? Probably either is bad news.

Then that faded, and since luckily it was evening, I curled up and went to sleep.  Cause that would have been the smart thing to do if something more serious was happening. I was woken up a couple hours later for other reasons, and I still had a headache. Only it was worse. And I felt nauseous.

At this point I went to Dr. Google, and wound up on the Mayo Clinic’s site, where I learned that everything I had experienced was indeed a symptom of migraines. Also, that everything I might do to help it was also a potential trigger. Also, this could last hours or days. Good luck.

The pain was probably at its worst, stabbing into the left front quadrant of my brain, and it sort of felt like nothing I did helped or hurt. I took some painkillers, curled up in bed and whined to myself for a couple hours. I had some chamomile tea. I tried to be comfortable. I think I only kept myself from getting up and being sick by telling myself the painkillers were in there, and that it probably wouldn’t help anyway. Seemingly out of nowhere, for no particular reason, it started to fade.  It didn’t disappear, and it sort of taunted me a bit with fading then strengthening then fading, but I really thought overall it was fading. And somewhere in there I fell asleep.

This morning I feel tender.  My brain feels tender. I know how Psylocke’s victims felt.  Or maybe Winnowill’s

I know I “only” had a “mild” migraine, and it sucked.  I wonder if it’s coming back. I wonder if I should eat something, or drink coffee, or just curl back up in a ball and hope it ignores me. I’ve decided on black tea as a trial run.

If it does come back, I’m no closer to knowing what will help or hurt than I was before. Trial and error is cruel.

Overall experience? Do not recommend.