Migraines and Me Saga Part 1: The Eternal Struggle

Today I wanted to chat a little bit about something that I have been struggling with for the majority of my life so far; Migraines.

Firstly, let me begin with a few facts that I found online about migraines in the UK: 

• Migraines affect roughly about 1 in 7 people that inhabit this planet which is a higher number than diabetes sufferers. 

• They more commonly occur in women rather than men which can often be due to hormones. 

• In the UK, roughly 190,000 migraine attacks happen each day so, if you are a sufferer, you sure aren't alone! 

• Migraines have also been ranked globally as the seventh most disabling 'disease'. 

So, we have established that they are very common and I fall into all of these statistics as a migraine sufferer however, my attacks are slightly more complicated. The type of migraine attacks I get are known as Aura Migraines and these are a lot less common, with less than 20% of migraine sufferers experiencing this kind. In Migraine terms an Aura is the name for symptoms that the victim experiences before the actual headache comes on, these early symptoms are also called a Prodrome. Now, these Prodromes can come in all different shapes and sizes but they mainly affect the victim's eyesight; My Aura starts off as a small 'spot' in my eye which kind of looks like a moving pool of water and this gradually gets bigger and bigger until eventually I can barely see. Once my vision comes back the headache usually begins, and by headache I don't just mean a tension headache and I will explain more about that side of it in a moment. This Aura can cause many problems for me as it means that I am unable to see, which can have an effect on things like work or if I wanted to learn to drive or even just being outside of the house.

Once the Aura has gone, the headache and sickness tends to kick in. On a really bad day, I will usually be sick with a migraine however, this seems to be happening less lately. My theory is that the sickness is created by the pain that comes from the headache. So, lets talk about the headache. 

Migraine headaches can often be dumbed down by people who have never actually experienced one, so let me try and explain what the pain is like for me. Most of the pain occurs around/behind my eyes in the beginning and then spreads further around my head, hitting my temples and even the back of my neck. The pain (apologies if you are squeamish) often feels like someone has take a very long, sharp implement and has stabbed it through my eyeball and is having a good dig around, whilst someone else is actually reaching into my head and hammering at my brain. My eyes also tend to get very light sensitive and looking at the light can feel like staring at the sun. Hopefully, this shows you that coping with a migraine is no walk in the park.

I plan to write a lot more about this subject and possibly my journey as I try to find some kind of remedy, but I'm going to cut this off here for now otherwise this post may become too long. 

Sorry for a bit of a miserable one, but if you suffer from migraines just know that you're not alone!

Thanks for reading

Bex

What I'm listening to: Broadbay - Part of Me

What I'm reading: Dorothy Must Die - Danielle Paige

What I'm eating: Mushy Peas

Websites used:
http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/what-is-a-migraine-with-aura
https://www.migrainetrust.org/about-migraine/migraine-what-is-it/facts-figures/