Migraine

For the first time in a very very long time Ive started with a migraine. All was going ok with the day and now this.

It’s odd to analyse it. First a tiny circle appeared on my laptop screen. I thought it was an issue with the display or even my eyes going a bit blurry. When the circle started to very slowly grow in size and the outline of the circle started to rotate and display spikey prismatic coloured shapes i knew what it was.

I’ve had aura migraines since I was 13 - the first one happened at high school soon after my boyfriend at the time sprayed a whole can of air freshener on me (that’s how we rolled back then), I guess the smell was a trigger back then but I’m sure they are either hormonal or stress related.

I’ve taken an ibuprofen and I’m resting in a darkish room- the headache part hasn’t started yet but there is a tiny dull pain over my right eye (the spinning circle thing has stopped now after hanging around near my left eye for ages). If the pain starts to grow I’ll have to shut my eyes and wait till it passes. The pain bit used to last about 7 hours and I inevitably threw up during that part in the past. When I was a teenager I always used to pass out too but thankfully that’s not happened for at least 20 years!

It’s really difficult to explain what an aura migraine is like to someone who hasn’t had one but if you search for the two words on you tube some clever bods have made a simulation so you can see how odd it is. The aura bit is the calm before the headachy storm. When I was at college the aura acted like an annoying but handy 15 minute warning to get myself to a safe space.

Fingers crossed this headache doesn’t develop any more