The Anatomy of A Migraine Flare

As you probably know, I'm a long time chronic pain sufferer. This past weekend, I had an extremely bad migraine flare, and I thought I'd talk some about how my flares go. 

Image: www.glamour.com 

This whole month has been full of mini flares, starting over 4th of July when my neighbors were blowing up the neighborhood with fireworks. But it got really bad the middle of last week because of tons pop up thunderstorms.

The first part of the flare usually involves both pain and pressure. As the storms move in, the pressure grows in my head. Usually once the storms reach us, the pressure subsides. But because I live in the mountains, the storms sometimes fall apart before reaching here, leaving me with all the pressure. After a couple of days of this, my whole head throbs.

Once the pressure is pushing down on my head, that's when the auras can start. Auras are what make migraines different than just headaches. Auras can be different for every migraine sufferer. Mine are usually dizziness, fogginess, balance issues, light sensitivity and general brain dumb-ness. In short, massive brain fog and lots of almost falling down. 

I tried to work for several days but it got impossible to focus on the computer screen. It even got so bad that even just watching tv was too bright, which tells me that things are getting really bad. By Friday, I was miserable. I called my neurologist but she wasn't in the office, but the lady who answered the phone was going to try and text her for a new prescription. 

Because the pain had gotten so bad that I couldn't do anything, Todd ended up taking me to the ER. Usually it doesn't get to this point, but right now we are playing the merry-go-round of meds when it comes to a good abortive to break the cycle when it gets really bad. I didn't have any that worked, which is why I ended up in the ER for the first time in over six months.

Sadly, the ER gave me a cocktail that helped a little at first, but then messed up really bad. Thankfully, my neurologist had been reached and a new abortive was called into my pharmacy. Finally I was able to sleep and break the cycle, ending the flare.

The end of a major flare is a great feeling. I've been feeling great the last few days but trying not to overdo it. 

The Stigma and Misunderstanding of Migraines

The face of a migraine sufferer (or me)

Before I started suffering from chronic pain, I thought that a migraine was just a bad headache. I bet a lot of people think that. Migraines are so much more than a bad headache – it’s a whole neurological disease. People with migraines know what a debilitating disease this can be and we are sick of being trivialized.

Kmart is running an ad currently that has a husband and wife taking about surprises with the new Kmart pharmacy. Most of the “surprises” have nothing to do with health issues – for example the husband says to begin how his mother in law was just supposed to visit and then stayed for 30 years. But at one point the wife says in retort that she doesn't have migraines implying that she does have migraines.

Now if the wife was suffering from some other disease like MS, it would be totally taboo for her to say that she doesn't have that disease in jest. For some reason, Kmart and their parent company Sears, doesn't think that migraines are bad enough of a disease that it can be used in this fashion.

Migraines should be considered seriously but obviously they aren't. This makes me angry because I know how hard it can be to suffer from migraines. I end up in tears sometimes because the pain and other symptoms can get so bad. I've also lost several friendships because they think I’m trying to get attention or not as sick as I say I am. I pretty much don’t have any close friends outside of the internet because I don’t get out of the house much.

You can read more about this and even see the ad at migraine.com and you can also go to change.org to sign the petition.