Sorry, there is just no easier or polite way to describe a migraine....they suck.

One of my daughters had a nasty one a few days ago. It was quite spectacular...We were having "girl time" on the sofa watching The Time Travelers Wife, and all of a sudden she says, "Mom I can't see the TV." I glanced over the tips of our toes as we were all stretched out, reclining...expecting to see Fat Ted (dog one) ambling around the side of my daughter's foot rest, blocking her view of the television while foraging for stray potato chips. I didn't quite understand, as I was grumbling in attempts to press the pause button, that my daughter was talking about one of the first visual cues to a migraine. "Mom", she says, more panicked, "I see a blurry line, its wiggling." At that point I realized what was coming. It had been three years with her, but the warning was the same. ..the wiggling line.

I immediately got some Advil into her like her pediatrician recommended. It wasn't long after, that the familiar feeling of nausea hit her hard. I grabbed some ginger capsules, hoping to ward it off. I thought we'd succeeded, but within 50 minutes a horrible throbbing head pain hit her hard, making the nausea return with a vengeance. I turned out the lights, got a cool head pack on her, and tried to suppress all sounds....but there wasn't much else that I could do. It was horrible to watch. As if the excruciating pain wasn't enough, the inevitable arrived..the vomiting.

At only 13 years old, it seemed completely cruel. I suppose I say that because I never developed migraines until my 40's.

I thought I was having a stroke, honestly. My first headache was not like my daughters. I was out shopping, feeling completely fine, when out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a fleck of dust. I rubbed my eye and tried to refocus, but the spot was still there. Within 30 seconds the spot grew. It reminded me of an irregular splash of shimmering pool water. I was terrified. I have no idea how I made it to the car. I was in an absolute panic. I sat staring at the steering wheel, parked in the lot...and regardless of where I looked this blotch stayed in the right corner of my vision...about the size of a baseball. Within minutes the shape grew, almost glowing around the edges...very much like the picture to the right. I waited to stop breathing, die right there, collapse...but nothing happened. I closed my eyes and within 5 minutes the splotch faded and then left. I thought my heart would jump out of my chest. I never got the headache afterward...which was why I had never identified it as a migraine, but my doctor did.

Unfortunately, occasionally I do get the head pain now...not so much of the "aura" as they call it anymore...but that throbbing, nasty crushing pain. My migraine followed my daughters the other night. People say we are so very much alike...but this is one thing that I so wish that she did not have to inherit. : (