What is a Migraine? (according to WebMD)
"Migraines are painful headaches often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light."
How many people suffer from Migraines?
28 million people estimated, and more women get migraines than men.
What causes them?
"The exact causes of migraines are unknown, although they are related to changes in the brain as well as to genetic causes. People with migraines may inherit the tendency to be affected by certain migraine triggers, such as fatigue, bright lights, weather changes, and others. [...] A migraine begins when hyperactive nerve cells send out impulses to the blood vessels, causing them to clamp down or constrict, followed by dilation (expanding) and the release of prostaglandins, serotonin, and other inflammatory substances that cause the pulsation to be painful."
Triggers list
- Stress
- Chemicals and preservatives in food
- Caffeine
- Weather changes
- Menstrual Periods
- Skipping meals
- Changes in normal sleep pattern
So there you go, a short excerpt from what any average person will find out doing a quick search on the web about migraines. This information does little to no justice for what it actually is, or what it feels like. And for the first time I will go to the extent to explain my personal experiences with such medical anomalies.
Currently as I type this, I am battling the day after effects of one of these migraines, and maybe I can shed some light on this subject and give some sort of explanation. And with that, it will require some background information.
"This picture pops up when you search for awkward family photo"
When I was younger, much younger in my early teenage years, my sister and I both experienced migraines for bouts of time. My sister whom is 15 months younger than I was seeing a neurologist for ADHD and ADD had an easy in to find a remedy. I had them fairly randomly, where as my sister had them more common, and was trying to find triggers for hers. She was prescribed medicine, Sumatriptan (Imitrex) in pill and nasal spray if I remember correctly. My father also randomly got migraines. Most notably, he got one from putting up Christmas lights. He said something like "the little light bulb left his vision starting to get blurry, and hindered. Like a splotch that wouldn't go away." Like when you get a picture taken with a flash on. The little aura stayed. He took Excedrin migraine to battle it, and slept for something like 17 hours. I remember checking to make sure he didn't die in his sleep or something weird. We suffered from them all for periods. But the triggers were rather random.
My sister linked hers to specific foods. I can only be certain that one she said was hot dogs, and bratwursts. Mine were completely random. No reason I could find. My dad was environmentally set off it seemed.
Genetics are somewhat to blame. But with very different triggers/factors to look at its hard to figure. And after 5 or more years of going on living life without a single migraine, yesterday I had one. Randomly I add. And it was bad. Crippling bad.
The Setting:
"This is what it looks like normally, without a migraine. TSB vision activated."
I was at work, doing all my normal things and suddenly I noticed I had a little blotchy aura (like the camera flash blotch) that wasn't going away. In my experience, I usually just go, "Meh, it will go away." I used to have this crazy belief that if I tried to forget about it it would go away. Not this time. Knowing that It had the chance to go full blown level 5, red alert, dropping nukes inside my skull, type of migraine... I clocked out, went to the grocery store and bought some generic migraine medicine and took it. This all happened within 15 minutes of the symptoms starting.
"By the time I came back and took the medicine this is what it looks like"
For visual representation, I will use an image to explain what happens in stages and time frame. For the unknowing I am a full blown visual migraine sufferer. It is pretty much debilitating when it occurs as you turn into a useless, sensory sensitive, noodle person.
Some time went by. I was really hoping the purchase of the medicine was not needed, and that it would go away. Another 30 minutes later I started to feel agitated and overall irritated, sweaty, nauseous, sensitive to sounds and light, and my hands were getting tingly. The welling up in my stomach was making it fairly easy to assume if I wanted to puke I had that option. Sometimes puking makes you feel better. My sisters medicine actually did it to both of us. The nose spray would make you instantly want to puke wherever you were. You would go to hock a loogie and spit and its all medicine. The taste created an instant gagging reaction, making vomiting a cinch! To the interested, I managed not to puke at my place of employment, I was worried I would have to clean it up. My visual aura got worse, much worse. After a mere half hour this is what it looked like.
"By this time my field of vision was reduced by about 80%. Full blown Aura."
Aside from the obvious vision problems, and the other symptoms I was having there is always a signature with migraines. A sharp locatable pain behind one eye, and only on one side of my skull. For 48 hours afterwards, I get a migraine hangover feeling that lingers with any quick movement of my head. It feels like your brain is shrunken and dehydrated, and when you move its thumping against the inside of your cranium. Think of your worst hangover. Wine or dark spirits type of bad hangover. They last like that for 2 - 3 days usually.
"Good thing I have photoshop. Helping people understand Migraine Auras since 2013."
The medicine did work partially. The aura did fade a bit. But the other symptoms were much more apparent. I had more of a tunnel vision problem. The medicine was doing its job, but I needed sleep. My work effort was reduced to standing with my head on a table, in between remedial tasks. Hardest part was driving the rest of the way home. Longest 4 miles ever. After I got home I slept. And that is pretty much all you can do.
"Gary Busey Mode activated. Insurance just went up."
I read about the triggers food wise, and I can only think of one thing that may have set my episode off. I only ate one meal before this happened so it was pretty much the only bit of evidence I could point to. And since before they were random, I never noted or wrote about what it could have been before today. I ate Salami, which I don't typically eat. Could salami be the culprit? Well let me go through this list of triggers from our friends at WebMD once more to check if there are other reasons.
- Stress - (Living paycheck to paycheck, and gun laws changing are the thing lately... maybe?)
- Chemicals and preservatives in food - (Salami has plenty of these.)
- Caffeine - (Been drinking lots of green tea to fend off the Flu, 40mg a cup. Not likely)
- Weather changes - (Without saying too much, the Midwest NEVER has typical patterns)
- Menstrual Periods - (Nope)
- Skipping meals - (Scheduled meals? People do that?)
- Changes in normal sleep pattern - (Sleep when you are dead)
After reading the list the researchers and hosts at WebMD decided are some triggers, I exhibited pretty much all of them with the exception of a few. And I mean, the lot of them (with the exception of having a period) are a normal, typical, everyday occurrence for me. Stress, caffeine, poor weather, and unscheduled meals are common things in all people. The food chems and preservatives could be more responsible than the others possibly. I mean, can I really blame 3 pieces of salami I ate for this if I exhibited the laundry list of "reasons" you could get a migraine?
"Scumbag Salami Steve"
The truth is, I have always felt like my migraines have been totally, and inexplicably random. Specially since I get them so sporadically, I cannot really think that one thing was the reason why. Sure I would love to know if there was one fucking thing that did this to me but more than likely it is a number of things and total chance. And to think there is a research group that spends millions of dollars trying to figure out what the cause and or reason is to why a person gets them, and all I have is a random, open-ended list of possibilities. Why didn't the lead researchers just admit, "We do not know what the causes are, we spent half of the money from donations and research on hookers and top shelf medical grade marijuana, and the other half on Imitrix stocks." That would have been more noble than creating a universal list of "possible triggers."
And also, WebMD is garbage. Pretty much everything searched on the site will eventually lead you to Brain Tumors, Cancer, or Death as an end result. I used it as a reference because most idiots immediately go on a chosen search browser and go directly to WebMD for the medical "experts" answers. For Christ sake, the association that is supposed to be leading organization to the study on finding the reasons why migraines occur doesn't have the definitive answer, so WebMD is definitely not going to have answer. You would have a better solution for medical inquiries using yahoo answers probably.
"Still a better answer than what most WebMD searches yield."
If you want to know what the solution is, it's take migraine meds, sleep as long as you can in a super dark place that is quiet, and try to be comfortable for 2 - 3 days. Because if you experience anything even near what I do, it will feel something similar to having your head kicked around by the Ugandan Soccer team for about 48 hours after the initial shock.
I believe that food preservatives are more to blame than its being published about. And that the buildup of the chemicals are causing the conflicts in nerves and blood vessel pathways. On a chemical level, and neurological level it could already be proven, but the money involved in food, and in the preservatives are big money. I doubt the FDA would want to stop the use of some of these preservatives. Medicine as I have said before is big business. If it was cured or a single trigger was the answer, billions would be lost.
To finally have a chance to explain what it is like to have severe aural migraines with the aid of having photoshop was kind of necessary. I think that people who do not have migraine headaches look at people who do the same way an adult looks at a child crying at the grocery store registers for candy. The shit is no joke. It sucks. I wouldn't wish or hope for my worst enemies to have them. Well. Maybe just one bloke...
Nuff said.
-TSB
****************************************************************************
-EDIT UPDATE-
This one lasted for 10 days. By far the longest one I have ever endured. I SHOULD have went to the hospital to get a brain scan. The hangover effect lasted that long. Do NOT wait like I did. Go see a specialist if your symptoms are anywhere near like what you have just read. Just do it.
Works Cited
http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/guide/migraines-headaches-migraines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatriptan
http://www.migraineresearchfoundation.org/
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