A Discourse on Aches of the Head

Since, pretty much as far back as I can remember, I’ve had headaches. They come in two forms. The “standard” form, the one I get about…what’s the word, right, daily…is manageable. When I get one it’s only really odd things like light and sound that bother me. Generally, I handle one of these by taking way too much ibuprofen and then two hours later, it subsides to something I can ignore as it eventually goes away. If I’m lucky, and happen to take some over the counter medication before the headache really gets going, I just get a few hours of something called, and I believe this is the technical term, “fuzziness.”

Then there’s headache V 2.0…

They’re generally known as “migraine’s” and this is how they pan out for me. Firstly, part of my vision (usually the left side) starts to go white. Now, here’s where the problem developed yesterday. Since I spend all of my work day staring at two screens worth of excel files, databases, and e-mail, I tend to get odd things crop up in my vision anyway, so I didn’t notice when the whiteness started creeping up. There’s about a 20 minute window there that, if I take something, will usually downgrade the migraine to V 1.0 and allow me to function, albeit, much more grumpily. Yesterday, I missed the window.

As I was walking out to my car at 2, leaving for class, it occurred to me that 1. I was dizzy, 2. I was horribly sweaty, and 3. my vision was off. Because of all the white space I stare at all day, my migraine had snuck up on me and was about 15 minutes or so from incapacitating me. Sadly, I had at least 60 minutes until I got home. Here’s another great thing about migraines…when I get one, there’s a 50/50 chance I will vomit violently.

I did not, of course, make it to class. I did, barely, make it home and quickly assume the fetal position on my bed under a mountainous collection of blankets and pillows where I stayed for about three hours. I was also lucky enough to notvomit.

In other, not vomit related news, there is a rumor that we may have a midnight showing of the comic this week…reports are unsubstantiated at this point.

The Darkness – Givin’ Up