‘I’ve Googled it …it’s a migraine!’

I am almost 6 months in to my Migraine Marathon and my options are decapitation or humour. So in a vague attempt to keep the light at the end of the tunnel on and find some sort of help/kindred migraine spirits here goes some random ramblings!

This is where it all began…Saturday mornings rarely welcome me in with open arms and rarely do I have a spring in my step but this was harsh, even by my standards. I’m not known for my timid approach to life or indeed drinking, but this was completely unjustified. I realised quickly that this wasn’t the usual bleary eyed, shouldn’t have had the second bottle, I’m about to lose my Eggs Benedict, hangover.

The distorted vision I did have showed the room was spinning, my head was pounding and the little thoughts I could get together told me I HAD to get out of the door; the one that was swirling around my head. Sure, elegance and grace have never been in my top sells, but I’d been completely stripped of any coordination or balance. I’m sure this display, similar to a blindfolded dizzy toddler would have been amusing to watch, but this led to me smashing my head off of almost every surface in my attempt to get to the bathroom. The morning involved me becoming a human vomcano inbetween smashing my face off the floor. This along with being freezing cold then boiling hot with tingling hands and feet all whilst trying to comprehend what the hell was going on. Unfortunately, in this incidence, seeing a blonde head in a toilet doesn’t stir much concern in our house, more photos and hilarity. Movement was hard but communication was just as difficult. I managed to tell them I wasn’t okay, in fact I just cried at them and clutched my head until they put me to bed with a tea, as is their British duty. The diagnosis was, as the title suggests, migraine!

The day went from bad to worse, along with the nausea, sickness, sweats, shivering, tingling hands and feet and horrendous vertigo, now the headache became the bigger problem. My head felt like it was going to explode, the tinnitus and hallucinations were the icing on the cake. I’d had migraines before but this was like nothing I’d ever experienced. Saturday came and went and 36 hours later the haze lifted. I felt completely drained, it has sucked everything out of me. I was convinced I was out of the worst of it and tomorrow would be a better day.

Unfortunately I didn’t bounce back, the world was in slow time, everything was fuzzy. It was like I’d been on an all day drinking sesh but with none of the fun but all of the headache. I felt sick/ was sick all of the time and was constantly fighting with the street furniture on my road. Everything was a lot harder than it has previously been. After two visits to the GP and 3 prescriptions we have Diagnosis 1 and 2 – Migraine and/or Viral Labyrinthitis

Weekend two of ‘becoming ill’ is upon us and I decide it’s time to give up and go the Aunts. I planned on getting better but then I lost the feeling in the right hand side of my face. Then the blackouts began, when I was standing up on moving I was having a complete loss of vision and finding myself on the floor at least 2/3 times a day. The headache was now constant and words were becoming a real struggle. I gave up and went back to Dr X. At this point we both decided medically to, ‘get a bit a worried’!

An urgent CT scan was ordered and I ‘popped’ to A&E to get it over a done with. With the escalation of nurse to doctor to more doctors to neurology I started to panic. I realised with the emerging tests that things weren’t okay. I couldn’t walk in a straight line, stand up with my eyes closed, I couldn’t touch my nose and touch someone else fingers, run my heel along my shin…all of these vital life skills I never knew I needed, I now desperately wanted to be able to do. Never have I ever wanted to be able to say ‘baby hippopotamus’ so much. This is the point that at 25 years old they admit you into an acute stroke unit. This is the point that you realise you might not be okay being on your own in London. And also the point you realise you hadn’t packed your make up, stroke on no stroke, a girl has to look her best!!

Worst diagnosis to date Diagnosis’ 3/4 – Stroke / Vascular Lesions – very fortunate in that these were both wrong! On account of me having a headache, this brings a close to the migraine diaries Chapter 1!