I don't think I've ever mentioned it here, but I'm a migraine sufferer. They've recently become more frequent and severe that I thought it would be good idea to add my experience to the general migraine discussion that's going on out there.
Let's start at the beginning.
My migraines actually started when I was a pre-teen. I would get constant headaches and eventually my parents took me to see our family doctor. At that time they weren't diagnosed as migraines, just really bad headaches, and I was put on Tylenol 3.
After a while, they seemed to have just disappeared. It was amazing. Then out of know where, when I was around 17 - 18, they came back in full force; more severe and became relatively frequent. I remember the very first time they came back; I was driving my car and all of a sudden I had a severe migraine with aura (though I didn't know what that was at the time). I immediately called my doctor, who referred me to an Optomitrist right away.
The Optomitrist dilated my pupils (since most of my migraines centre around my left eye), and he took a good look at what was going on in the back on my eyes. When doctor's dilate your pupils, they can see your optic nerve and the blood vessels in your retina. Because he saw what was going on , he was the one to officially diagnose my migraine.
The type of migraine I suffer from is Ophthalmoplegic migraine, which are an uncommon type of migraine headache in which the eye region is the focal point of pain.
While it was good to finally get a diagnoses, at the time I was really just told to find a trigger and was given a comparable to Tylenol 3. While they worked back then, Tylenol does nothing for them now.
Finding a trigger is a major part of what I struggle with now. They are random; they come at night, during the day, when I just wake up, and sometimes when I'm just sitting on the couch doing nothing.
But what about you; are you a migraine sufferer? How do you cope? I would love to hear your thoughts.
During my posts about migraine's, I'll continue to talk about my struggles and how I cope with them. My next migraine post will focus on my struggle with finding a trigger.
Thanks for joining in this journey, I really appreciate it.
