In the top ten lies women tell men “ I have a headache” is at number 4. What I would give to be one of those women… I was 16 when I experienced my first ever headache and it came in the most aggressive form – a migraine. Shortly after breakfast one morning on a family holiday in Wales I began to feel unwell, so went back to bed. As I lay down the muscles in my throat began tightening and I new I was about to be sick. I never even made it out of bed before I projectile vomited everywhere. The morning was spent hugging myself as I rocked on the bathroom floor feeling like death had so very prematurely come for me. My vision seemed to have been replaced by a swirling pattern of colours and lights, I was cold but sweating, I wanted to be alone but I wanted company at the same time- I didn’t know what was happening to me. After 4 hours I seemed to markedly improve and I put it down to some bug and thought nothing of it. It wasn't until the next time that this happened accompanied with an escalated head pain unlike anything I had experienced that I was rushed the emergency doctors and diagnosed with migraines.
I was lucky in that my migraines were infrequent and I didn't get more than 3 a year and they wouldn't usually last more than a 2 days at most, so the impact that they had upon my life was minimal.
