Atypical migraine
When i tell people i've had a migraine, they usually express some sort of sympathy or frustration on my behalf--all of them focused on how much pain i must be in. Since standard migraines come with a specific sort of often-debilitating head pain, the assumption is that this is what i'm talking about. But the headache is a symptom, not the condition in and of itself. I get multiple kinds of migraine, and the standard is the least common.
My most common is very atypical, including sinus and neck aches and brain fog, along with the more typical light and sound sensitivity. If i ignore the light sensitivity, i can develop a standard migraine. But if i pay attention, take my rescue meds, and get away from sunlight and other bright lights, then the pain will stay fairly minimal. Regardless of pain level, i am usually dealing with high levels of fatigue, light-headedness, and gut problems. For a longer-lasting one, there will be insomnia. On occasion, i will have stroke-like levels of inability to access words verbally.
In addition to when i ignore the light sensitivity, i can also get a standard migraine if i'm dehydrated or there is a very big weather system with sudden pressure change of more than ten millibars. Both of those conditions are rare, though.
Lastly, i'm currently in a remission phase for trigeminal neuralgia. My episodes of this usually top out at 30 seconds--for the pain level, think of being stabbed by an ice pick to the temple--and right now i only experience about one per month. When in the height of a cycle, i can have more than 100 episodes in 24 hours. Medication does not work on these, for me. But when the pain is gone, i only need a minute or two to recover. These come with a lot of insomnia and forgetfulness; i can usually pick up where i left off in a meeting, due to cues from others, but if i was switching tasks when one happens, i'm likely to not remember what i was about to do.
The worst part for all of these is usually the postdrome (a.k.a. migraine hangover). For me, that comes with the same elevated levels of brain fog as the actual migraine attack, but with more gut pain. Without the light sensitivity, i'm theoretically capable of working, and usually do so since averaging seven migraines per month doesn't leave me with a lot of leave. But they are not very productive or useful days; i mostly just go slow and try not to make any mistakes that'll need to be cleaned up later.
For the two-day migraine i'm currently recovering from, though, the worst part was riding my scooter home from work before the first rescue med had fully kicked in. Not gonna do that again. Yiiiikes.
- today's tea: sencha
- current soundscape: Delta Nove (self-titled)
- recently reading: Ravenous (R. Cooper)