Aww migraine season is upon me! They started up again two weeks ago after about a 6 year absence. I had not missed them. They have played a big part in some of the WORST periods in my life and some of the best. See I don't just get migraines, I get months of migraines. Starting suddenly and building up to a daily attack and a wish for death to come visit. This can (and will) go on for months while I seek help from ERs and Neurologists and homeopaths and chiropractors and who ever the **** else thinks they can help me and then they will stop quite suddenly. The first time I had one of these cycles was right after I gave birth to my darling daughter Hannah. My kidneys were failing and I was home alone for the most part with a new baby who was really confused about the whole day vs night thing. My head started hurting, really ******* hurting. Pain like hot daggers shooting through the right side of my head accompanied by sensativity to light, smell and sound and NAUSEA! I was practically main lining 800mg ibuprofens and doing further damage to my kidneys. I would visit the ER so often that they gave me an open scrip for barbituates. Then my nephrologist finally got in touch with me (I had moved and forgot to give him the new number). I don't really remember how long that episode lasted or how it ended. It is just an 18 year old blurr now. I had several more of these episodes in later years. When Hannah was 4 we traveled across country on Greyhound with me swilling codeine cough suryp all the way (it was OTC with a signature back then and I had stocked up for the trip.) The codeine somewhat helped or atleast made me so loopy I managed to survive the trip. That episode lasted about 4 months and the only thing that kept me from offing my sorry *** was dear Hannah. I was in the middle of an episode when I met Mr Big, 10 years ago. They stopped about 2 months into our relationship and he was convinced he had fixed me. Not likely, but I let him think it. He has since spent many a night in the ER with me crying in pain or barfing so maybe he doesn't think that anymore. The last time I had an episode was while I worked at the worst job ever. I was a "customer service specialist" (read cubicle drone with a HUGE sales quota) for one of the very worst phone companies ever, QWEST!! I was supposed to solve customer issues and complaints (including why the **** their bill was $600 and ***** you better get me a refund for those "free" cell phones so and so sold me last month) and then sell them something before ending the call. It was like amputating diseased legs and then selling the legless people pedal cars to get home in. It paid well and the health benefits were GREAT! But it sucked my soul out of my body, made me hate my life and start going to work in PJ's and brought back the migraine devil. Boy howdy did I use those health benes! I was the chiropractor 3-5 times a week! And my GP every couple of weeks and a neurologist every week and the ER docs atleast once a week for late night ridicule and shots of morpheine. They would demand to see my inner elbows (to check for track marks) and then ask me if I had tried drinking coffee. Umm, hello *****, it is 3 am and I have not slept in 2 days, a ******* Latte is not going to fix this. The brain devils ended after about 5 months as suddenly as they started with everybody patting them selves on the back as if they had fixed me. No one really listens when I tell them the story of my headaches. I know they are genetic (my dad and his mom both have/had similar attacks just not for as long at a time.) I get the run of the mill migraines too, menstural migraines once a month (level 5 or 6), migraines when the season changes (level 4-5) and ones that are triggered by smells or such. What brought on this batch of hell is a mystery to me. Job? It sucks and is kinda stressful. Family, kid and husband are dandy, my mother is a NIGHTMARE, but that is a given and will only change upon her death. You would think that the stress of Mr Big on chemo would have triggered them, but no. Health, it is pretty okay. I have made some BIG changes recently and lost nearly 10 pounds but the devil pain predates that. I don't know. I have been to the ER once so far in the past month and expect to go several more times before Kaiser gives me a perscription for serious narcotics and I get to see the migraine specilaist later this month. Get this, the ER doc gave me imitrex and then anti nausea meds and a big shot of morpheine last friday night at midnight and I still woke up at 4 in agony. How the hell did I manage to wake up much less feel pain?! Anyhow, right now I am convinced that my house stinks of cat **** that no one else seems to notice and keep smelling other vile odors that are supposedly not there (part of the auras) and wait for the next round with the devil. Oh, I am taking half a lemon to bed with me because someone swore that holding half a lemon to my head would make the pain go away and I will try anything.