Rock you like a migraine

Migraines suck, I'm just going say that right off the bat. I tend to get at least one, sometimes two, killer ones in a month. If I try to push through it and keep going about my day, it just gets worse. Like a sneeze, I can feel it coming. It builds slowly, like a river gradually flooding its banks until it starts sweeping houses away. Tylenol or whatever doesn't usually help too much. I find a cold washcloth on my face is more effective for dulling the pain. I just have to ride out the pain until it's over.

I got a doozy of a migraine yesterday at work. It usually takes me two days to really recover and feel normal again. The stabbing pain goes away, but a dull, low-grade headache lingers for a day or two. I don't know about other people, but when I get a migraine, I can't do anything else but lay down and wait for it to pass. Light and sound don't bother me too much actually, I just get sick to my stomach and feel like I'm going to puke. I also get really feverish and feel like a menopausal woman--too hot, too cold, too hot again. My face throbs like I have backed up sinuses even though I don't. Pain sparks behind my eyes, feeling like I got kicked inside my brain. If I'm already feeling sick and try to keep going about my day, hoping it will get better, I'll just get slammed with a tsunami of migraine--like what happened yesterday.

I had a sore throat, which started feeling a little bit better as the day went on, but I started feeling the swell of an oncoming wave of head pain. The store was too busy for me to leave, so I just dealt with it. When I was done for the day, I didn't feel too bad actually, but once I got home, I couldn't do anything but lay down. I couldn't eat or drink anything, just the thought of anything in my mouth made my stomach churn. My appetite still isn't back yet today. And my throat is worse too--I got some tea and a bagel down and that's been it so far. My head goes wonky and the rest of my body follows.

It just takes the wind out of me. I can't force myself to do anything, because the headache will come sweeping back if I try to do too much. I've learned the hard way that if I already have a slight headache, I can't try to shove more things into my day. I finish off whatever it is I'm doing and scale back the rest of my plans for the time being.

Going to the movie theater or watching TV in a dark room are guaranteed headache makers for me. So is drinking too much coffee, which thankfully I don't even like that much anyways. The weirdest cause for a rip roaring migraine I discovered while getting physical therapy several years ago: The physical therapist was testing my flexibility and had me on my back with my head hanging off the edge of a table. She tilted my head down and to the right, and I almost immediately got dizzy and sick feeling. Apparently that was odd in her experience, also because it didn't happen when my head was to the left. I'm just a source of medical mysteries, I guess.

I can't imagine getting migraines constantly--thankfully, this usually happens to me only once a month. But it knocks me out of commission for a couple days so it still sucks. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be back to full strength and ready to shelve books at work.