A some what brief history
I think i'm going to regret saying a "brief" history in my previous post.
The earliest I can remember getting migraines was when I was about 15. I remember I was in high school, if I'm honest i cant really remember whether they were as extreme as they are now or whether they were just headaches. Mostly in lessons such as Art or Maths where I was really concentrating. I never did anything about them, obviously I told my Dad numerous times but now i'm older I can just see that a teenaged girl saying every 5minutes that I've got another headache or migraine probably looked like an excuse not to go to school... which lets be honest I wasn't that popular kid in school, I didn't have a huge amount of friends, I pretty much hated every lesson that involved having some of the popular boys in my class as they would constantly just torment me (ok i swear this is about migraines) back to the point, if I could have a sick day off school I would definitely try it, I had so many reasons not to want to be at school. So i was never sent to the doctors or anything and when I did tell the teachers at school I was always sent to the medical room and had that trusty wet paper towel just slapped across my forehead for 15minutes or on the back of my neck, I remember the wet smell of green paper towels like anything.
When I turned 18 I went out a lot with some friends I had made at my part time job, I was drinking most days whilst going to sixth form the following morning. From Jan - July 2007 I was just in a constant state of daily migraines. I remember this part of my life so vividly. I would go out with my buddies Charlotte and Lily with only a couple of quid and share a bottle of £5 vodka and jut pay a £1 to get in the nightclub. It didn't take us much to get drunk but there we were most week days and weekends drinking then going to school or college the following day, and working 8hours on the weekend, every day my head was just pounding, I now know this was defiantly down to cheap alcohol and dehydration, lack of sleep and not ever wearing my glasses. (I will touch on my eyesight in another post maybe) looking back there were several factors which I was at fault and probably made my situation worse, and who knows if I had done things differently I may not struggle with them as badly as I do now.
I then went to University for 4 years, I would say the final 2 years of my University life were the worse in regards to my migraines. I think looking back it was a mixture of stress, anxiety and yet again my poor eyesight and not wearing my glasses. There would be days on end I would have to just lay in a blacked out room, not moving, hoping to sleep through the pain. In busy shared households having silence as near impossible. I think this was where my migraines started to develop to where they are now.
Now when I have one, it so painful to walk, to open my eyes, to even breathe. Any form of movement is like having a baseball bat on the inside of my head and its hitting ever corner (if my brain was square) of my skull. I have to get on with my usual day. I don't have the freedom no more of being able to spend three days in bed praying for it to pass. I have to go to work and talk to people everyday in agony and they have no idea what is going on inside.
The most painful migraine I had was when I was 23 I had a major operation, I was bed bound for 12 weeks, I was on the strongest drugs you can imagine, I had no idea what was happening half the time and I think that was probably for the best. After my operation I had been on liquid morphine for 1 week, having a shot straight into my bloodstream every half an hour I think? Feels so long ago now, but i'll never forget the amount of pain I was in. When i was discharged I as then on a morphine based tablet pain killer and on another liquid pain killer which I would neck like a cheap shot of sambuca. Just get it down because its the worst tasting thing you'll ever try. I think I was on this cocktail of drugs for about 3 weeks when my Dad thought it would be best to come off them, I felt completely fine whilst taking them and thought this was also the right thing to do. I think the next week was possibly going to be the worst pain of my life, and the most awful person I could be, I was the worst version of myself, god knows how my boyfriend at the time didn't end things with me. The pain was all in my head. I had a migraine that lasted about 7 days, I was constantly vomiting, I was angry and aggressive and couldn't eat anything. To this day I still awful how I was to my family and to Alex. My Dad would keep me company and get films in and make me food and I was just so irritable nothing was helping. I feel ill never be able to truly express how much pain my head was in that week. I remember i just wanted to get a knife or a sharp object anything and make a hole in my head and release what was going in there. I was literally pulling out my hair and crying everyday. These drugs were not fun and bloody dangerous.
Moving on, its not all bad, when I was 26 I went travelling in Australia for a year, amongst other thoughts one of my main concerns was what would i do if i got a migraine whilst i was travelling. Knowing full well I would be spending the next year at least in hostels, knowing I wouldn't be able to lay in a dark room with piece and quite. I took almost a years supply of the strongest painkillers I could get and several boxes of co-codamol incase I got one and not know what medication they would have in Australia. During my whole time in Australia I never had a single migraine, not one. I kept waiting for the day I would wake up with one, especially after drinking. I spent 6months working on farms and drinking a lot; the cheapest wine you could imagine, well its not even wine it was a wine based product they called 'goon' absolute rancid stuff, but never had a migraine. I have no reason why I didn't get once. To this day I always assumed it was because i spent everyday out doors, I was always doing something, walking some place or working outdoors. The air was clear, hardly any pollution and I genuinely believe this was the reason. I will make note on another posts my triggers but my senses; sight, smell and sound are the main triggers which being outdoors all the time meant these weren't stressed out or triggered ... if that makes sense.
Over the past 10 years I would say I have started to see a pattern with what triggers my migraines and if possible how to prevent them. I will always suffer from them but I now know what definitely not to do and can feel when one is coming its way.
Throughout reading this you'll probably notice I kind of refer to my migraines as like a storm, thats purely because thats how i see them, the first day they're just preparing for the chaotic storm which will last about 2/3 days and then a day or so to recover. Its just my thing ok, I never said this would be a professional blog, if its professional advice you're after you're on the wrong page i'm afraid.
The earliest I can remember getting migraines was when I was about 15. I remember I was in high school, if I'm honest i cant really remember whether they were as extreme as they are now or whether they were just headaches. Mostly in lessons such as Art or Maths where I was really concentrating. I never did anything about them, obviously I told my Dad numerous times but now i'm older I can just see that a teenaged girl saying every 5minutes that I've got another headache or migraine probably looked like an excuse not to go to school... which lets be honest I wasn't that popular kid in school, I didn't have a huge amount of friends, I pretty much hated every lesson that involved having some of the popular boys in my class as they would constantly just torment me (ok i swear this is about migraines) back to the point, if I could have a sick day off school I would definitely try it, I had so many reasons not to want to be at school. So i was never sent to the doctors or anything and when I did tell the teachers at school I was always sent to the medical room and had that trusty wet paper towel just slapped across my forehead for 15minutes or on the back of my neck, I remember the wet smell of green paper towels like anything.
When I turned 18 I went out a lot with some friends I had made at my part time job, I was drinking most days whilst going to sixth form the following morning. From Jan - July 2007 I was just in a constant state of daily migraines. I remember this part of my life so vividly. I would go out with my buddies Charlotte and Lily with only a couple of quid and share a bottle of £5 vodka and jut pay a £1 to get in the nightclub. It didn't take us much to get drunk but there we were most week days and weekends drinking then going to school or college the following day, and working 8hours on the weekend, every day my head was just pounding, I now know this was defiantly down to cheap alcohol and dehydration, lack of sleep and not ever wearing my glasses. (I will touch on my eyesight in another post maybe) looking back there were several factors which I was at fault and probably made my situation worse, and who knows if I had done things differently I may not struggle with them as badly as I do now.
I then went to University for 4 years, I would say the final 2 years of my University life were the worse in regards to my migraines. I think looking back it was a mixture of stress, anxiety and yet again my poor eyesight and not wearing my glasses. There would be days on end I would have to just lay in a blacked out room, not moving, hoping to sleep through the pain. In busy shared households having silence as near impossible. I think this was where my migraines started to develop to where they are now.
Now when I have one, it so painful to walk, to open my eyes, to even breathe. Any form of movement is like having a baseball bat on the inside of my head and its hitting ever corner (if my brain was square) of my skull. I have to get on with my usual day. I don't have the freedom no more of being able to spend three days in bed praying for it to pass. I have to go to work and talk to people everyday in agony and they have no idea what is going on inside.
The most painful migraine I had was when I was 23 I had a major operation, I was bed bound for 12 weeks, I was on the strongest drugs you can imagine, I had no idea what was happening half the time and I think that was probably for the best. After my operation I had been on liquid morphine for 1 week, having a shot straight into my bloodstream every half an hour I think? Feels so long ago now, but i'll never forget the amount of pain I was in. When i was discharged I as then on a morphine based tablet pain killer and on another liquid pain killer which I would neck like a cheap shot of sambuca. Just get it down because its the worst tasting thing you'll ever try. I think I was on this cocktail of drugs for about 3 weeks when my Dad thought it would be best to come off them, I felt completely fine whilst taking them and thought this was also the right thing to do. I think the next week was possibly going to be the worst pain of my life, and the most awful person I could be, I was the worst version of myself, god knows how my boyfriend at the time didn't end things with me. The pain was all in my head. I had a migraine that lasted about 7 days, I was constantly vomiting, I was angry and aggressive and couldn't eat anything. To this day I still awful how I was to my family and to Alex. My Dad would keep me company and get films in and make me food and I was just so irritable nothing was helping. I feel ill never be able to truly express how much pain my head was in that week. I remember i just wanted to get a knife or a sharp object anything and make a hole in my head and release what was going in there. I was literally pulling out my hair and crying everyday. These drugs were not fun and bloody dangerous.
Moving on, its not all bad, when I was 26 I went travelling in Australia for a year, amongst other thoughts one of my main concerns was what would i do if i got a migraine whilst i was travelling. Knowing full well I would be spending the next year at least in hostels, knowing I wouldn't be able to lay in a dark room with piece and quite. I took almost a years supply of the strongest painkillers I could get and several boxes of co-codamol incase I got one and not know what medication they would have in Australia. During my whole time in Australia I never had a single migraine, not one. I kept waiting for the day I would wake up with one, especially after drinking. I spent 6months working on farms and drinking a lot; the cheapest wine you could imagine, well its not even wine it was a wine based product they called 'goon' absolute rancid stuff, but never had a migraine. I have no reason why I didn't get once. To this day I always assumed it was because i spent everyday out doors, I was always doing something, walking some place or working outdoors. The air was clear, hardly any pollution and I genuinely believe this was the reason. I will make note on another posts my triggers but my senses; sight, smell and sound are the main triggers which being outdoors all the time meant these weren't stressed out or triggered ... if that makes sense.
Over the past 10 years I would say I have started to see a pattern with what triggers my migraines and if possible how to prevent them. I will always suffer from them but I now know what definitely not to do and can feel when one is coming its way.
Throughout reading this you'll probably notice I kind of refer to my migraines as like a storm, thats purely because thats how i see them, the first day they're just preparing for the chaotic storm which will last about 2/3 days and then a day or so to recover. Its just my thing ok, I never said this would be a professional blog, if its professional advice you're after you're on the wrong page i'm afraid.
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