Down for the Count

I have chronic migraines, and anyone who suffers these nasty things can relate to how they can take you death's door. I had been fighting this particular migraine for at least 7 days. Now don't think I was down like this for all seven days, because I was not. This migraine taunted me and laughed at attempts to get rid of its unwanted company. There are levels of migraine pain for everyone, and within those levels pain are levels of functionality. Please understand I am under a doctor's care for these migraines with daily medication to keep them under control and medication for migraines when they do hit. The problem with this last week was I was out of the medication and waiting for the refill. It was on that last day that refill came when the migraine reared its ugly self. What made this one even worse was I woke up with it. That is just not fair. 

This migraine had me at that level of pain where you are either ready to die or simply prefer it. There is no real way to describe how I felt. I will say migraine pain alters your personality(especially after several days). "Many people fail to realize that migraine is a neurological disease, like epilepsy. Migraine ranks in the top 20 of the world's most disabling medical illnesses. Amazingly, over 10% of the population, including children, suffers from migraine"(source) I started getting migraines when I was around 8 years old. The fantastic thing was our doctor(at the time) recognized and new that even a child could get them. The bad news, nothing for a kid(at that time). He told my mom to have me lie down in dark room with an ice pack. I don't remember anything beyond the pain of having the migraines. 

Migraines are debilitating; not only are physically painful, they make light and sound impossible to bear. Moving is not an option, but that is not all. Migraines have the capacity to disrupt speech. The migraine sufferer has been known to speak jibberish. I have not had this happen--that would scare the life out of me and my family. What happens to me, is loss of words. I literally(correct use of literally) lost words mid speaking. I know what I am supposed to say, but I cannot say it. A word like "lunch" or "flour" is not there. There is also delayed reaction time, so driving is not wise when the migraine is bad. 

I am happy to report that as of yesterday, (Wednesday) I have been headache free. Those killer migraines, the ones that "will kill me" aren't all the time and I am so grateful for that. I have learned how to power through the ones that aren't so bad. One medicine will figure out what causes them, but the truth is everyone is wired differently and has about a thousand different triggers per person. It will be a long time before that happens. For now, it's a matter of keeping us with chronic migraines comfortable.