Cowboy, baby!

The first time a doctor referred to me as a migraineur (a person who experiences migraines), I pictured how to spell the word phonetically in my mind and came up with my-gran-ear.  I used word association to help me remember the proper pronunciation.  Migraineur ends similarly to the way the word pioneer ends.  That's the moment my mind jumped the track.  The word pioneer made me think of old west cowboys, and the word cowboy made me think of the Kid Rock song, Cowboy.  (Side note: I think Kid Rock is skeevy, but I do like some of his music.)  The song Cowboy is pretty trashy, but it has a great sound.  He sings about moving out to California, drinking, drugging, pimping, and whatnot.  Not a family friendly song (sorry Mom).  I don't know all the lyrics, I just sing along to the "cowboy, baby" chorus part.  Whenever I think of the word migraineur now, I have an instantaneous response to think about that song, (I wanna be a cowboy, baby!), and it is stuck in my head the rest of the day.  It kind of makes me feel like a bad ass for awhile.

Cowboy?

I wish being a migraineur made me feel like a bad ass, like the Cowboy song.  In reality it just really sucks ass.  Since I am blogging about migraines I feel that I must address what a migraine is and give you an idea of what a chronic migraineur deals with. To me this is about as much fun as reading the fine print on a sweepstakes entry.  As a general rule, I avoid talking about migraine specifics because it's depressing and I'm tired of discussing it, especially with doctors. Because of this aversion I am not going to go into tremendous amount of detail.

Migraine headaches are a neurological disease, not just a headache.  They are more common in women than men, and they can be triggered by a number of factors (stress, hormones, bright lights, flashing lights, diet, air pressure changes, strong scents, and muscle tension just to name a few).

A migraine occurs in phases, the first of which is called the prodrome phase that is associated with symptoms like hyperactivity, neck stiffness, food cravings, dizziness, ringing in the ears, excessive yawning, and irritability.  Some people will also experience an aura.  Aura symptoms include visual abnormalities like seeing wavy lines, experiencing vision loss, speech difficulties, and a tingling sensation in the extremities.

How I feel prodrome phase.

Following the prodrome is the migraine attack that can last a few hours to a few days.  It is a terrible, intense, throbbing pain generally experienced on one side of the head.  It can be accompanied by lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, scents, and sounds.  Migraines can be so severe that all you can do is lie down in a quiet, dark place and wait for a reprieve from the pain.

How I feel during a migraine attack.

Finally, there is the postdrome phase when the migraine attack has ended, but the migraineur is left feeling physically exhausted.  I also call this the hangover phase because after effects of a migraine attack feel eerily similar to the way I feel the morning after I consumed too many cocktails.

How I feel postdrome (aka hangover) phase.

One other term you'll often hear me use is chronic migraine, which is my diagnosis.  Chronic migraine sufferers experience migraines 15 days or more each month.   

I have read different theories about what goes on in a person's body when they experience a migraine.  The theory I've come across most often, as I understand it, is that migraineurs have excitable neurons bouncing around in their brains.  When a migraine trigger is encountered the neurons fire and eventually cause dilation/swelling of the blood vessels in the coverings of the brain.  The impulses transmitted by the nerves of the dilated blood vessels are sent to the brain and experienced as pain.  I'm not a doctor and I don't know what is going on inside my head when I have a migraine, but what I do know is that it is incredibly unpleasant.

So there you go, a brief introduction to migraines.  If you would like to learn more just do a web search and you'll be inundated with web sites dedicated to migraine.