Day 1: Your First for the First

Today's topic is to discuss your first migraine. So, here it goes...

I can remember mine vividly.  Never in my life had I had a migraine before.  Sure, I'd had a random headache here and there.  But I could always take some OTC pill and knock it out - and 1 pill was always sufficient!

Then, one January afternoon, a got my first migraine.  I remember coming home from work and not feeling all that great.  This wasn't all that uncommon as I had been fighting bad vertigo since November.  So, thinking it was just the vertigo getting to me (afterall, I had been staring at a computer screen all day long at work), I changed into my pjs and crawled into bed. 

Next thing I knew, my head was pounding.  And then came the nausea.  I knew I needed to get up and go to the bathroom as I felt like I was about to throw up, but my head was pounding so bad and I felt so dizzy.  I just couldn't get up out of the bed.

Then the vision change.  Now, I had been somewhat familiar with some vision change with the vertigo and all.  But this was nothing like that.  I could barely see.  I was seeing a lot of black spots.  And, in some places, all I saw was an empty void. 

I remember thinking something was seriously wrong.  I remember thinking I probably needed to go to the ER.  But then I remember thinking I couldn't see well enough to drive myself to the ER.  And I surely couldn't afford to call an ambulance to take me there.  Plus, while I knew something wasn't right, I felt as though it wasn't a "call the ambulance" emergency sort of situation.

I decided to crawl deeper under the covers, pray to God for comfort and peace, and try to sleep off whatever this was. 

The next morning, I woke up feeling like I had had a rough night.  I've never been intoxicated in my life, but I have been to college.  I have heard all about the classic symptoms of a hangover.  I had pretty much everyone of those.  So, I popped an OTC pill, went to work as if nothing was up, and came home to have a repeat of the previous night.

It wasn't until this went on for a solid week that I finally sought medical attention.

Little did I know that this one week of my life would soon develop into a diagnosis of chronic migraine...