After successfully enduring the rigors of standing and singing for the four major Easter services on Holy Thursday, Good Friday x 2, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, I was laid low on Easter Monday with a massive migraine. I felt a few 'niggles' of a headache before going to bed tired on Sunday evening, but took some simple analgesia and thought nothing more of it. The migraine crept upon me in the early hours of Monday morning, and I tried all the usual simple remedies - a hot pack to the neck, simple analgesia, anti-emetics and caffeine, but to no avail. The waves of nausea sweeping over me became more and more insistent, and in the end I had no choice but to succumb. I was amazed at the amount of liquid that issued forth, and had to conclude that the migraine had brought on a case of gastric stasis and that everything I had drunk during the morning had gone no further than my stomach. As usual, I felt much better after vomiting and was able eventually to go on and retain an anti-emetic and a prescribed migraine tablet (usually kept as a "last resort" due to the cost per tablet). Although I was now feeling a bit better, I was quite listless. I had no energy to do anything, could not read due to blurry central vision and kept wanting to doze off whilst watching an otherwise interesting documentary on the "Curiosity" Mars Rover. In the end I just continued resting in bed. Fortunately I was able to eat a light evening meal and went to bed early, sleeping for over nine hours. In the morning the headache was thankfully virtually gone, with just residual muscle stiffness and soreness remaining. As I was still somewhat bereft of energy it was lucky that there is a break from teaching this week and I can just work at home.
Migraines run in the family, so I was perhaps doomed from the start, but I still remember the first migraine I ever had at age 13 - I woke up in the middle of the night and felt as if someone was digging an ice-pick into the side of my head. Sometimes I get auras (kaleidoscopic geometric patterns moving across my visual field in an expanding crescent shape) or blurry central vision with or without a headache, and sometimes I don't. Whatever the story, it is always enervating and leaves you feeling guilty about lost time.
It is worth noting that the Skins compression garments certainly helped me to stand up for lengthy periods and reduced the stiffness in my legs but I wonder if the top section, although helpful for my back, was counter-productive for my neck and shoulders and in retrospect it was perhaps a mistake to keep wearing it overnight.
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