UHAM045

28 * UNDERSTANDING HEADACHES AND M IG RAI N ES own migraine triggers, perhaps by maintaining a diary, and take notę of any changes, informing your doctor from time to time if necessary.

^lo'°l was diagnosed as a migraine sufferer as a child; my mother also being a sufferer noticed the symptoms and took me to see a doctor.

I consider myself one of the luckier people as, in recent years, the headaches have been far less frequent than they once were. I remember very little about the pattern of my migraines from younger childhood, however, it was during my teenage years that I suffered the most and as such these experiences stay with me best.

Between the ages of about 11 and 16 I was guaranteed to get a migraine almost every Sunday morning. I often felt that this was due to the fact that I slept for far longer on Saturday mghts than I did any other day of the week. The headache would get worse as the day went on, despite having taken painkillers as soon as I got up. Later in the daystanding upfrom a seated position caused a tremendous dizziness which would often set me back down agam, at these ti mes the pa in would increase suddenly too, so much so it felt like my head would explode at any minutę. When I went to bed in the evenmg my head would be pounding while I was trying to get to sleep.

Waking up on the Monday morning I would lie in bed in the desperate hope that the headache would have gone, but inevitably it hadn't. I would spend the day functionmg at half speed, finding concentration difficult, and eye strain easy to come by; the pain would last right through the day, sometimes accompamed by feelings of nausea. By the Tuesday morning the pain would have greatly reduced, and as the day went by, with the help of painkillers that now seemed to have some effect, the migraine would finally dissipate.

As I have got older the migraines have become a much rarer occurrence and, as far as I can tell, are not brought on by the amount of sleep I get. They can last for anything between 24- and 72 hours but always have the same characteristics: dizziness, nausea, pounding, high pressure, and increased eyestrain. I have never felt the need to bang my head against the wali like many people do, rather I feel I should be clutching the sides of my head in order to stop it from blowing up from the pressure, although I know that it can't happen. I also can't understand how all that pressure can be contained in my skuli. I have tried almost every painkiller on the market but nonę of them even begin