Do you remember the video of a journalist supposedly having a stroke on air that went viral in 2011? It was frightening to watch Serene Branson begin to slur her words and struggle to form a coherent sentence. What was even more shocking was that she wasn't having a stroke at all. In fact, a few days after the incident, news outlets were reporting that it was just a migraine and the story faded from the headlines.
But is a migraine ever just a migraine? I thought so, until I started experiencing them for myself.
I began experiencing migraines in 2009, around the time I turned twenty. Before that, I had been under the false assumption that migraines were just really bad headaches. I didn't realize that the effects of a migraine went beyond the pain: slurred speech, trouble forming sentences, vision problems and vomiting were among the other effects I was dealing with. I would take aspirin to combat the pain, but eventually I was taking so much pain medicine that it was upsetting the lining of my stomach. I was burping up foam, y'all. Not good. The physical toll it took on me was so bad that I didn't think something as simple as a migraine could be causing it... But that is what I was experiencing.
Migraines are bad enough when you only experience them every once in a while, but I was suffering from migraines more often than not. I often found myself in too much pain to go to class, and my grades were reflecting that. I was cancelling plans with friends because I would wake up with a migraine that would last for days. Eventually friends stopped making plans with me – I would just bail later. It was a cycle of pain and depression that, along with other extenuating circumstances, caused me to take a year off from college.
During that year, my health took center stage. My family has a history of migraines, so I started talking to them about their experiences. My grandma talked about how the pain of the migraines made her temperature rise – another side effect I was experiencing – so much so that she would lie on the cold hardwood floor to cool off. I also learned that these hereditary migraines seem to start during our early adult years, as mine had, and fade the closer we get to 30.
With this information, I went to the doctor. I was diagnosed with Chronic Migraine, which meant that I was experiencing migraines more than 15 days a month. I was given a daily prescription for Topamax, a nerve pain medication that is used for treating migraines, and another prescription for a pill that I could only take when I was experiencing a particularly bad headache. My doctor warned me that Topamax wasn't always effective; it was only a first step. But I was incredibly lucky: within two months, I had gone from nearly 20 migraine days a month down to two.
I finally felt like I had my life back. I went back to college and made great grades, got a new job and started making new friends. I would still have a migraine every once in a while, but now I could take aspirin for it without upsetting my stomach. I learned what my triggers were – the smell of diesel and musky perfume, as well as loud, rattling bass – and avoided them when I could. I held my breath behind many a truck and school bus.
Last summer, I weaned myself off of my medication. There were many reasons for it, but I was afraid that the migraines would come back with a vengeance. They didn't. I am incredibly lucky that my migraines do seem to have faded as I've gotten older. I still experience them a few times a month – it is what inspired me to write this blog post – but I've learned how to soldier through when I can and when to stop and take care of the problem.
I wanted to write about my experience because it's something I don't see discussed often. So many illnesses are visible in one way or another, which causes society to forget about or ignore the illnesses they can't see. It makes it easy for those suffering from an invisible illness to ignore theirs, or feel as though it isn't important. But it is important and you need to take care of yourself. If you are experiencing symptoms of an invisible illness, talk to someone close to you or make an appointment with a doctor. You deserve to live the best life you can.
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