Headache.
When I was young, they'd go away in an hour with two ibuprofen and a glass of milk. I got them from watching TV or when I was tired and cranky. As I passed through puberty, something about my headaches changed. I developed light sensitivity. Shortly after I entered high school, I started having sound sensitivity. Then sitting up, lying down, or standing would cause a surge in pain. And when I was a sophomore in high school, they stopped responding to any sort of medication. I'd be stuck for hours, curled up in the dark, almost in tears. Four or five hours after the headache started, it would subside and I could get on with the evening. It wasn't always that nice, though. After a long rehearsal for a play, I'd come home with the headache, unable to do any work, and just go to bed. I would wake up early and scramble to half-ass my homework.
The pressure was in all different places. Sometimes it was a crown of thorns, like a band pulling into my scalp with prongs gouging through my skull. It was a hot spoon burning my temple. It was a blow to the side of the head. It was pain shooting through my neck and jaw. It was a metal rod through my brain.
Three years ago, I noticed that my vision blurred when the pain got bad, so much so that I needed to wear reading glasses in order to see anything in close proximity.
Two years ago, the nausea began. I had no appetite, I didn't want to eat or drink, and I learned that the nausea is caused by the headache cutting off the signal that allows the stomach and intestines to absorb nutrients. Which was why the medication never worked. You've got to catch it at the very start to have any chance at keeping the headache at bay.
Last year, I discovered that ice packs provide some relief when you're already down.
Eleven hours ago, I experienced my first real aura. After an entire day of a mild headache (triggered two nights ago from getting something in my eye), I woke up this morning feeling good. No pressure, no blurry vision, just an excessive amount of sleep. I went to visit my grandparents with my mother around 1. While I was there, I glanced at a light on the wall and had the image of the light "burned" into my vision, so when I blinked, the silhouette of the light appeared. But something was funny about it. It looked like a tiny drop of water in my vision. Surrounding it were zig-zagging yellow, pink, green, and blue lines, kind of like a VCR tape with a bad pause. The lines were vibrating and the spot grew over the span of 10 minutes. The direct center stayed in focus, but everything else on the outside of that spot was unfocused, humming, and uncomfortable to see. I was struck with a subtle pinprick of pain on the left side of my head and took a tylenol, and right after I sat down it became very difficult to see. Disoriented, I shut my eyes and saw those zig-zagging lines all around the circle of my vision.
Then came the pain. After having a headache almost consescutively for 36 hours, I am seriously hoping that I'm headache free the rest of the week.
Here's my advice for anyone who has frequent headaches :)
- The darkness is your friend, eliminating light, sound, smells, or any other sensations that could be unpleasant (such as hair being pulled back, wearing a bra, socks, underpants, jewelry, makeup, etc. is the best way to make yourself comfortable.
- The first 20 minutes are crucial, if you can take an Excedrin, Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, etc. in that amount of time, you may be able to fight it off. I do advise against the Excedrin, only because it has caffeine, and that tends to make headaches worse if you're already a caffeine consumer (such as coffee, tea, or soda), but the caffeine just gets the tylenol-type medicine through your system faster. That's the only difference. If you don't take something at the onset of the headache, you're going to be in pain for awhile.
- An ice pack is a wonderful invention. Like any other pain, it can be treated with ice. I like to get the ice pack as close to my skin as possible (like with a thin towel or old shirt) so that the sensation of cold is stronger than the pain of the headache. It kind of functions like Icy-Hot, the nerves in your skin pick up the sensation of cold faster than the sensation of pain, so it tricks your brain into thinking that the cold needs to be addressed before sending more pain signals.
- Sleep it off. If you can afford the time, hit the hay earlier than you normally would. But wake up at a reasonable hour. This is the only surefire way I've found to get rid of a headache.
- This kind of comes from a summer spent battling insomnia: keep a regular schedule. Go to bed around the same time every night, wake up around the same time every morning. If you drink coffee, don't skip one morning--you can end up with a nasty headache from caffeine withdrawal. Don't drink soda after 6 in the evening, that can mess up your sleep schedule as well.
- Try and identify what could have caused your headache. The Android market has a good free app for keeping track of your headaches. I've been using it since February 2011, and it's been really helpful. The trick is remembering to use it (and when you've got a headache, looking at a screen is the last thing you want to be doing) but if you keep track for a couple of months and have something to show your doctor, it gives them a pretty good idea of what your headaches are.
I don't know if I'm going to have another aura anytime soon, but websites tell me that when you have an aura, a migraine usually follows. I know the anxiety of going back to school is probably getting to me. And the numerous amount of classes and assignments I'll have will send me through the roof with tension headaches. Wish me luck, folks.
