I don’t know what happened but about two years ago I got my first migraine. Since then I have them about once a month, which is once-a-month too often.

I first went through a journaling process to figure out what my triggers are—artificial sweeteners, stress and change in weather. Second I was put on a prescription – Maxalt. When I first tried the prescription it was heaven and hell. It makes the migraine much worse for about two hours (hell) before eliminating it (heaven).

For those of you that have never had a migraine (for those of you that have, i'm sorry) I’ll tell you what I’ve learned. They are debilitating. Not only is there pain, but it is amplified by light and sound. Sometimes even blinded. People call them auras but for me it's more like tunnel vision.
All you can tolerate is sleeping. For someone that is always on the go like me – this is brutal punishment.

Oh and side note - DON'T EVER TRY TO DRINK A MIGRAINE AWAY - that was a pretty dumb move considering alcohol is a trigger.

When the pain of the migraine starts to fade, the symptoms aren’t over. I may be starting to rejoice but my mind doesn’t work as quickly, synapses just aren’t firing. Its as if someone hit slow motion on my brain. Try explaining a migraine hangover at work.

The reason I’m even thinking about this today is because I have a migraine brewing. I have been taking Ibuprofen way above and beyond the recommended dosage (the only thing that SOMETIMES slows down the onset of the headache) to try and keep it at bay.