I have suffered from the damn things since I was 15, when my mother accused me of being drunk. To a certain extent migraines have always affected my speech in varying degrees.  Many years ago I had such a severe Migraine, I was rendered speechless.  Not so much speechless, I could think relatively clearly, but I just couldn’t open my mouth to speak.  A scary and hopefully one off experience.  My GP thought I was having a stroke.

Under normal circumstances, I know one is on the way when an acute feeling of nausea overwhelms me.

Then I feel there is more than just a possibility I am losing my sight as my vision distorts and the blinding Aura hits me.

Then I get the blinding headache.  The overwhelming feeling is to go and lie down in a darkened room where, incidentally, the aura still keeps flashing  in time with the pounding headache, until it decides it is ready and disappears to the left or the right of my visual space.

You can’t just go and lie down in a work situation and for years at work I tried to carry on regardless.  Staring blankly at my computer screen willing the migraine to go away and trying to get on with the job in hand.  I often get cluster migraines and there are only so many “I’ve got a headache …” excuses that any boss will understand, even if the headache is radiating down the back of your neck.

Migraines are so much more than just a headache.  They are painful and debilitating and for some of us they stay with us all our lives and something that we repeatedly have to endure, whether we take migraine prevention medication or not.

Mucho sympatico to all my fellow sufferers.

Filed under: Expect the Unexpected, Life Tagged: aura, coping with migraines, distorted vision, headaches, migraine, migraine sufferers, working with migraines