Migraine, O Queen of Pain

Who could do better than Joan Dideon on the topic of migraine?

Nobody.

​And yet here I am, sharing my thoughts.

First, migraine. It's a headache, yes, but it encompasses a largish category of neurological symptoms and takes a variety of devilishly unpleasant forms. 

"That no one dies of migraine seems,
to someone deep into an attack,
an ambiguous blessing."
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– Joan Dideon

It starts, often, with a visual disturbance.  Flashes or jaggedy streaks of light, tunnel vision, or small blind spots.  

​Followed by perhaps a period of violent sensitivity to light or sound or smell. 

Alarming stroke-like symptoms sometimes show up: surred speech, vomiting, dizziness, for instance. Or weakness or tingling on one side of the whole body. 

And –– o joy! –– migraines can last for days. 

Migraines arrive as a result of some weird blip of electrical impulses and vascular spasms (or something) in the brain.

​The mechanism is "not completely understood," though there is a strong genetic component. Every few years there's a breakthrough in understanding. I used to keep up.

via GIPHY

My father and his mother and her grandmother all suffered from migraines. My first came to me as yet another unwelcome side-effect of being a girl.

Age 13: here you go, missy, a bouquet of body changes that usher in decades of unwelcome public commentary and oh, bonus!  a debilitating headache on either side of this other physical indignity that seems like an illness. 

​Gah.

For years, medical consultation usually ended with, "Well, you can look forward to having them diminish as you get older."

I am officially no longer a spring chicken.

​I remember how it happened, actually, but the point is that I have waited patiently but the migraine train is still damn running on my tracks.  

Oy.

Recently I found myself a new doctor. A young one, whom I can only hope to outlast. 

And so begins the search for effective treatment.  I am happy to report that the MRI reveals that my brain is right where I left it. Even better -- no inappropriate growths are evident.

Young doc and I have embarked on a series of prescription medications. We are steering away from the ones that make me numb, tingly, or which impel me ask Jeff to keep a close watch on me.  

Young doc has updates and a handful of suggestions to try. Which we discuss by e-mail. Brave new world. We have high hopes and a neurologist to visit. 
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