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This year I've decided to participate in the Migraine Awareness Month, Blogging Challenge. Meaning, each day this month I'll be posting according to the prompts. The challenge is a bit daunting as June promises to be a busy month and one during which I won't have the comfort of my usual routine. But here it goes.
Today I'm going to share the story of the first migraine I remember having. I say the first one I remember because I was quite young when I started having migraines (some 25 years ago) so I can't be certain this was my first. It was just the first one I remember and likely the first really horrible one.
I was 8 or 9 years old and hadn't felt well throughout the school day. By the time I got home, I was in so much pain I drew the shades in my bedroom, crawled into bed, pulled the covers over my head and tried to keep as still as possible. The pain so intense nothing I did helped. I remember being so overwhelmed with pain that it didn't take long for fear to set in. I remember thinking something must be wrong, this kind of pain can't be normal.
Between the pain the fear and the tears I just wanted my mom. But since she was at work I made the command decision to crawl down the hall to the closest phone, which happened to be in her bedroom. I pulled the phone off the nightstand and dialed her work number. At the time she was a county social worker and I had to go through the receptionist to reach her. I did my best to pull myself together and hide the fact that I was crying as I asked to speak with her.
Fortunately my mom was very familiar with migraines having been raised by a mother who suffered from them. She was able to recognize that I was having a migraine - not dying as I thought. She told me what was going on and said that she would be home as soon as she could. I stayed there on the floor of her bedroom with the phone until she got home and carried me back to bed.
All these years and countless migraines later the fear still creeps up when I'm having super bad pain. Obviously I know what's happening and know that I'm going to be okay but that pain...ufta!
"National Migraine Awareness Month is initiated by the National Headache Foundation. The Blogger's Challenge is initiated by www.FightingHeadacheDisorders.com."
I remember my first (or what I think was the first - 39 years ago) I was 5 and I woke up with such a bad headache that I was crying most of the day. Fortunately, mom was familiar (well, rather unfortunately for her to have to deal with these too) with bad headaches and comforted me as best she could. I think I pretty much stayed in her arms all day long. I remember not wanting to be away from her. She even let me nap in her room with her. I just needed my mom.
ReplyDeleteHeather