Out of the blue, vertigo began: this is vestibular migraine. Not my worst episode at all, thankfully , and it will eventually pass, and I will feel better, until the next time. The signal: my eyes can’t converge. Each one sees something else. Focusing on one point can help as long as this isn’t a major attack. What I call a “major” attack is the feeling that I am hurtling through space in a twirling, tossing space capsule on a full stomach, a high fever, and my eyes feel like they don’t belong to me.

There will be a next time. No matter how often I tell myself that I just had my “last episode,’ it is never the case.

Migraine is a strange animal that hits at unexpected times, strikes is various ways. It is a brain thing, a chemistry thing not a regular headache. And there are times when I have NO pain but my vision is impacted by aura. Then there is the feeling of being wiped out.

What a typical migraine aura looks like. A C-shaped dark form facing in the direction of its choice, replete with shimmering gold zig-zags.

I push on. Do the best I can. I have suffered as a child with terrible headaches and was always told it was “sinus.” It was likely both sinus and migraine. 

Sometimes lying down is the only way to get out of it. And even  then it is not a cure. Thankfully I haven’t had one of those skull splitting aches in years, but when I do get a ‘headache” it can last for days.

And yes, what you suggest that I try, I have tried. Thank you for your suggestions, I have tried them and much more.

This is for now, part of life. The new drug is promising BUT is thousands of dollars and has possible side effects, there is not enough info yet. My neurologist is not in a rush.

Now my hand is beginning to go numb. That is part of it, many people have symptoms similar to that of a stroke, and end up in the E.R., which happened to me last year. One C-T scan later and four hours on a gurney and I went home, back to my “normal” self, which is now my abnormal self.

For whatever reason, the triggers—stress, light, food, internet, or just plain brain, no one knows—I have been having an episode of one type or another of migraine almost every day, again. There had been a tapering off to about nine episodes monthly, for a while. I use an STMs machine which zaps the back of my head several times a day. Does it work? I am not sure. But it costs $250/month to rent.

Millions of sufferers are out there, I know I am not alone. Hopefully they will find something that works and has minimal side effects and we migraineurs will get a better quality of life.