Migraine

Steel Cable
Originally uploaded by shaggyd

So...I've suffered from migraines for about the past seven (?) years. They happen semi-irregularly and relatively infrequently to the tune of about 1-3 per month (I guess that's not so "infrequently, really). I'll get a reprieve for a while and then get hit with several over a few days (on several occasions more than one in a single day, like today). I think my record is five migraines in a seven day period.

The worst migraine I can recall left me so naseous I had to retire to the bedroom while my wife cooked dinner as the smell was more than I could handle. I remember lying in bed with this sick, throbbing sensation in my skull and imagining that a fat, rusted, frayed wire cable was being pulled slowly and rythmically through my optic nerve. It's the worse feeling I can remember.

And nothing I could do about it. Just lie there. And wait for it to be done with me.

When I first started getting migraines I didn't mess with them. I just told the boss and went home and went to bed. As their frequency increased, however, I realized that was no long an option and started to fight through them which left me in very rough shape. More often than not I'd just end up making things worse and going home more sick than I had been anyway.

So it's a fun game to play. I try and pick my battles. I can usually tell at the onset how bad they're going to be to some degree and so I work through the ones I think I can (like the two today) and save my "I'm going home" days for the ones that really beat me up.

It's the best "remedy" I've found so far.