For years and years, I’ve had weird ‘groups’ of what I thought were migraine headaches. I thought that all horrible headaches were migraines.
But these were strange. For one thing, they happened in groups – I’d be fine for a year or two, and then I’d be hit with an awful headache every other day for a month and a half. And then they’d be gone, just like that. They didn’t really act like regular migraines – I never had auras and didn’t feel nauseated and didn’t throw up. I wasn’t particularly sensitive to light or sound. I didn’t respond very well to migraine medicine. And while I understood that migraines hurt a lot, these headaches seemed worse. People would say “oh, I have a terrible migraine” but they’d often still be able to drive, or talk – when I had one, I couldn’t do anything but pace and bang my head on the wall. And when the headache was finally over, hours later, I’d need to sleep for a couple of hours before being able to function again. Even then, I’d be exhausted and sore for at least another day, just from my body’s reaction to the pain. Continue reading “Oxygen, My Friend”