EarthQuake

They suck.

I've been suffering from them for most of my life, although thankfully they aren't very common for me. People who don't experience them usually don't understand just how extremely debilitating they can be. In the past when I was unfamiliar with the symptoms, I would very easily get freaked out by what I was going through. Migraines are much more than just headaches.

Today one struck around 3:00 PM while I was at work. Almost always I will know one is coming because I experience a visual "aura" 30-60 minutes before a headache kicks in. I was legally blind by 3:30 and had to have a co-worker drive me home. It's really hard to explain to somewhat exactly why you suddenly "can't see". Some people describe it as flashes of light or zigzag patterns blocking your vision, but for me, it's a lot more like I have a blind spot in the center of my field of vision. I pretty much have to rely on my peripheral vision to navigate around or tell who someone is by looking at them. I could stare at my co-worker two feet in front of me, and the only discernible feature of her face was her left eye.

As if going blind isn't shitty enough, the actually headache (if it happens) is just as bad. Not only that, but light hurts, sound hurts, moving hurts, the room spins like you're drunk, one side of your body goes completely numb, and sometimes it feels as if you're having a stroke.

Speaking of that last part, it only happened to me once, but once was enough. It's quite horrifying really, when you can't form words or even bring certain words to thought. When I was experiencing this "mental cloudiness" during my last episode (not the one I had today), I tried calling my friend so he could provide some sort of comfort, and everything that came out of my mouth was slurred and incoherent. He thought I was stoned. I thought I was having a fucking stroke.

To put things into perspective, I couldn't think of the word "stroke", even though I clearly wanted to communicate that word to him. Hopefully I don't experience anything like that again.

As I am typing this, I'm coming down from my migraine. My head still has a dull pain to it, and probably will for several more days. At the moment, I'm sorta experiencing the "best" part of this migraine: euphoria. I've heard about different symptoms, but this is one I always wondered about until now. I feel as though I just smoked a huge fucking bowl of reefer, even though I haven't touched the stuff in months.

Head still aches. Vision's still wonky. Room still doesn't stand stationary. But hey, at least I'm high as a kite.

So anyways, what's your story? Surely someone can relate.