My Story Part 1

My 'encounter' with migraines started when I was about 14.

I was on a boyscout camping/hiking trip. The day prior to the migraine was a long hike. I remember eating dinner of typical camping fare, freeze dried food. I went to sleep in a two person tent. I remember it having blue rip stop nylon fabric.

One of the possible triggers for the migraine was the very lumpy hard surface on which the tent was placed. Or it could have been the stress of a long hike, I don't really know. I had a small cushion or roll underneath my sleeping bag. It did not help much to cushion the hard ground.

In the morning I awoke. I couldn't see well. I thought I was going blind. I could only see through small patches of my visual field. I would later find out about migraines and migraine auras.

This event canceled the outing and we headed back home. The trip back was painful to say the least. I felt very guilty about causing the hiking trip to be cut short. This guilt lasted for a very long time.

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It is hard to describe to some people why your in distress if there are no visible symptoms or outwardly apparent signs of trouble.

Some migraine symptoms seem to mimic being drunk, intoxicated or a resulting hangover. The aphasia (slurred speech), nausea and vomiting are the more significant ones. I have never actually had a hangover, since migraines do such a good job all by themselves without a drop of alcohol. :-)

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I ended up in the emergency room and was diagnosed with migraine. I was given ergot tablets and a suppository (never brave enough to give that a try). The ergot tablets worked to a certain extent, but also resulted in unusual feeling side effects.

I was relieved that I was not going blind, but having migraines is not a walk in the park either.

The migraines were in addition to tension headaches that frequently plagued me in school.