Aura Migraines

My son's teacher recently had an Aura Migraine.  At the time she was afraid that she was having a stroke. Aura migraines can be very scary indeed.  All weekend my son had trouble relaxing as he was extremely worried about her.  On the Monday when he found out that it was only a migraine he was very relieved. 

My son absolutely LOVES this teacher.  He has in fact agreed to be more cooperative in school for her.  From the few times I have spoken to her, I can tell that she truly loves teaching and loves her students.  I have spoken to teachers who either don't love teaching or don't love kids or both.  My son has been lucky to have had a few teachers who loved teaching and him. Anyway, back to migraines.  When my son told me his teacher had a migraine and not a stroke as he had feared, he was full of sympathy for the teacher.

When I tried to explain to my son that I understood his teacher's pain as I only get migraines, he was convinced that I could not possibly ever have felt the sheer intensity of his teacher's pain.  So I looked up what an Aura Migraine actually is.  It IS possible after all that her migraine was much worst than the ones I get regularly.  My research determined that there are different kinds of migraines out there.

There is a migraine that is in the tummy, go figure, here I thought it was like a headache.  See this website: Migraines for Dummies

I also found out that an Aura migraine is a migraine that follows a visual disturbance, like the type I can at least twice a month.  The worst ones always happen during my periods.  The last one of those was absolutely horrid.  Those usually happen during the weekend, but not always.  Tylenol and Advil sometimes help, reducing the pain but not eliminating it.

I have consulted WebMD to find out if the "headaches" can really be called Aura Migraine and if the scintilla is any indication, I definitely get these migraines.  At other times, it's my peripheral vision that gets blurry.  I am also prone to the "blind spots".  But further research has made me discover "Cluster Headaches".  These are known as the worst pain known to man.  Think about that for a second...  worst pain known to man...  

The cardinal symptoms of the cluster headache attack are the severe or very severe unilateral orbital, supraorbital and/or temporal pain lasting 15–180 minutes, if untreated, and the attack frequency of one to 16 attacks in 48 hours. The headache is accompanied by at least one of the following autonomic symptoms: ptosis (drooping eyelid), miosis (pupil constriction) conjunctival injection (redness of the conjunctiva), lacrimation (tearing), rhinorrhea (runny nose), and, less commonly, facial blushing, swelling, or sweating, all appearing on the same side of the head as the pain. The attack is also associated with restlessness, the sufferer often pacing the room or rocking back and forth. Less frequently, he or she will have an aversion to bright lights and loud noise during the attack

Now I can't tell for sure that my son's teacher's migraine was more intense than those I get.  I just may never know.  Pain is too personal a concept, but I definitely rank up there as far as pain is considered.

I used to think I never got migraines, and I was thankful.  I figured that my headaches were bad enough, that I sure would not want to go through a migraine.  They looked so painful to watch other people going through them.  One day, I forget what happened (a doctor maybe) I found out that my headaches were not the mere tension headaches that I had always thought they were (not because I thought there were not painful but because I automatically assumed that I was a wimp) but in fact migraines and pretty nasty ones at that!

I know many people feel that I am making a mountain out of a molehill where pain is considered, I am definitely way too self absorbed (but that is another topic).  I do wish some would realize that the pain is real and maybe, just maybe my pain is just as bad as the next person...

Well thanks for reading.