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Back to Journal  « Telltale in MacWorld | My First Migraine with Aura | Rosa Louise Parks (1913-2005) » My First Migraine with Aura October 20, 2005 I have a neurological disease! No, I'm not kidding. I will likely kid in places over the next few paragraphs, but about this at least I vow: I do not kid. In the reading I've done over the past few days, I've learned there are two types of migraines: "common" and "classical." Common is the more popular (err, common) of the two; it's what you think of when someone says "I have such a migraine." Maybe they're exaggerating; maybe what they have is just a really bad headache and not actually a common migraine. Either way the effect is the same, albeit with different degrees of pain and frequency): the common migraine is simply the worst headache you can imagine. If common migraines are so named because they're more common, then I'll guess classical migraines are named because they happen to more refined individuals. As it happens, I suffer from classical migraines. Or one at least. Hopefully the next one is a long way off. But when I started hallucinating and seeing LSD fairies and sunspots in my blinds-down living room on Tuesday morning, I wasn't thinking "migraine." When I lost all depth perspective and peripheral vision, I wasn't wondering where we keep the Motrin. No, after forty minutes when the vision problems--along with dizziness, nausea, and a fifteen-minute numbness down my right forearm--hadn't yet gone away, there I was trying to keep working on my laptop, even though my limited eyesight could only actually focus on one letter on the LCD at a time. It just seemed more important at the time that I successfully type the word "BRAIN ANEURYSM" into Wikipedia's search engine. Sure I gad a headache. Sure it was a bad one. But I was a little more worried about those LSD fairies in the corner of my eyes that I couldn't quite see because, again, I had no peripheral vision. After an hour or so, the vision stuff finally cleared up, and I was left feeling nauseated and achy with a "I have such a migraine" sensation in my head for the next 24 hours. And it turned out I was right! I did have a migraine! Classical migraine with aura! Let's say headaches are the Simon West film Con Air, starring Nicolas Cage and John Malkovich, because it's my journal and I say so. I enjoyed Con Air the few dozen times in college when I saw the used VHS play on a tiny TV screen. Then the Collector's Edition DVD comes along, and, though I haven't gotten around to picking it up yet, I can bet that you probably get a better appreciation of the film's sound effects and action sequences. Yes, it's that kind of movie. See, Con Air on Collector's Edition DVD is the migraine version of the headache. Us VHS watchers didn't know what we were missing. But then a few years later they come out with the Uncut Ultimate Edition DVD, with the same film as the CE, plus director's commentaries, two feature length documentaries about the making of the film, and an interview with screenwriter Scott Rosenberg, who also wrote Beautiful Girls and High Fidelity, which leaves you sitting here wondering WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HEADACHES?!?! That's aura. It's the bonus material you don't really need when you have a headache. Since the symptoms all went away relatively quickly and I'm only 29 and in otherwise great health, we decided not to opt for a CATscan or anything (the chances of it being a stroke are very small). But there it is. My first migraine. And I was just about to switch health insurance providers, too. Can you say "preexisting condition," boys and girls? More about Migraines courtesy of Wikipedia. Much easier to read when the LSD fairies aren't getting in your way. Filed under Journal, Vanity Smurf  
Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournalI hope that your first one is your last one. I was really thrown the first time I had vision problems that portended a honking migraine. I've also had the vision problems WITHOUT the migraine coming on. And most of the time, I have no warning at all. Migraine headaches are very, very, very, very, very complicated! My advice? Darkness, no computer, and a hot water bottle filled with ice. I've tried some of the prescription remedies, and some of the side effects were almost as bad as the migraine, and you have to take them as soon as you suspect the migraine is coming. I might keep trying to find a prescription solution. It is tough. I wish you luck and no more headaches. Posted by: Laurie at October 23, 2005 2:03 PM 
Ah, I've had these a few times - though I'm lucky enough apparently to stick with the more common type. This type, with the aura, are really scarey aren't they? I remember thinking I had a brain tumor and it was pressing on my optical nerve and I was going to die. Here's to hoping the LSD fairies stay away eh? Posted by: Erin Monahan at October 23, 2005 2:04 PM
I hope it was both your first and last-that sounds awful. Posted by: terrilynn at October 23, 2005 5:48 PM
Thanks for the love, everybody. Posted by: Alex at October 23, 2005 6:03 PM
Welcome to the wonderful world of migraines! I got my first one with the aura when I was 11 and completely freaked out. I started seeing these squiggly lines on the left-hand side that kept getting bigger and warping my field of vision. They were even there when I closed my eyes, so I got pretty hysterical. My parents thought I had a detached retina, so they called our eye doctor who knew right away what it was (turns out he's a migraine-sufferer as well). He said to lock me in a dark room, and I'd be fine in a few hours. My advice is to watch out for red wine and bright sun-glare. Those are huge triggers for me. The good news is I've only had a few auras over the years, so you may not get them all the time. They still freak me out to this day. I had to laugh at the thought of you trying to type "brain aneurysm" into a search engine as you thought you were having one. You nerd :) Posted by: Maria Getz at October 27, 2005 5:15 PM
Thanks for the advice, Maria, everybody. I had no idea how common this aura thing was. Might as well be giving out LSD fairies to trick or treaters, better prepare them for life. Posted by: Alex at November 1, 2005 9:56 AM
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Alex Wilson writes fiction and comics in Carrboro, NC. His work has appeared/will appear in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Rambler, LCRW, Weird Tales, The Florida Review, Futurismic, ChiZine, Pif, and Dragon. Locus Magazine has called him a "promising new writer," and Publishers Weekly also has nice things to say. Alex runs the audiobook project/podcast Telltale Weekly and the writer wiki Guidevines. He publishes the minicomic/zine Inconsequential Art. He is a 2006 Clarion graduate.  
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