ISearch Background

BACKGROUND

Lights affect me, sounds annoy me, standing is difficult, and no medications help. This is how I see my life two to three days out of week. I suffer from Migraines, in the front of my head, the back of my head, and right at the top. The migraines range from horrible, unbearable pain to light sensitive dull aches. Trapped underneath a pillow, the house completely dark, no TV or music playing; only sound of fast breathing, and tears roll down my eyes. These words describe a pain, but the truth is nothing can describe it to the extent I feel those migraines.

                I haven’t had migraines all my life. It started when I was 13, on a spring night, right after the circus. I was watching TV in my parents’ bedroom, a documentary on gymnastics and the injuries that occur. I remember very little from that night, only bits and pieces from the beginning, and then waking up. I sat up from the floor, and walked towards the door to go towards my bedroom. I put my hand on the door frame to say good night and black. I wake up about three minutes later, my breathe moving faster than a hurricane moving at 150 mph. Panicking and screaming, my dad has ahold of my head, keeping my still, and in place until paramedics arrive. I hear my mother in the background yelling on the phone, it’s the second time she has dialed 911 in the past three minutes. The blood was drained from her face, turning her white as a ghost at the site of me lying on the floor, not knowing why it had happened, and what was wrong. Paramedics arrive and apply the neck brace and backboard; I can’t move the straps are tight holding my shoulders and legs together. I am panicking inside, more worried about missing school, and not knowing what was happening. I couldn’t remember what had happened, and that scared me most of all.

                My dad tells the story the best; he was the closet on to me when I passed out. He was laying on the outside of the bed, by the night stand, with that the annoying alarm clock. He saw me get up, normally, walk towards the door and stop. My parents always know that I like to joke around and freak them out from time to time, but my dad knew about .5 seconds too late that when I was falling back, this was no joke. In the .5 seconds it took my dad to realize that I was in trouble, I was already on my way down to the floor. Falling onto the floor hurts, but not as bad as the fall I took. My parents’ bed is at an angle, and there is no bed skirt around the edge. I fell very close to the bed, hit the back of head off of the frame, if you were to put four fingers at the base of your skull, and feel where that last finger going upward is that is where the frame and my head connected. My dad has said that he immediately flew out of bed, and watched as my eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I started convulsing into two seizures. As he is holding my head, to make sure I don’t get up and injure myself more, he is watching me panic, and have trouble breathing from all the screaming, and crying.

                The paramedics took my blood pressure in the ambulance, they discovered that it was very low, started an IV, and we were on our way to Maine General Medical Center in Waterville, ME. When we arrived I was taken quickly into a room, and assessed for a broken neck, and any bleeding that could be happening from the blow my head took. They determined I had a major concussion, but I was okay. They could not find a reason for the black out, besides the low blood pressure, so they ordered a CT scan, and a EEG (more known as  electroencephalograph) to measure brain activity to maybe determine if I had a late stage of childhood epilepsy. Everything came back clear, and the testing was over.

                About a week after I had my first migraine, the pain was so severe that I had to leave the second circus show my parents and I were at. We walked out and my mother looked at me, and immediately told me to sit on the stairs. I remember a Shriner and paramedic coming over to see if I was alright, as the color in my face was non-existent, and I was almost limit from the pain, tears streaming down my eyes. All I could think about was that I had ruined another day for my parents and there was nothing I could do about it. Ever since then I have my good days and my bad days. I want to do my ISearch on Migraines because I live with them every day, I can put my opinion out there, and discover maybe what doctors haven’t been able to do, an answer as to why I get the over powering pain, and finally be able to fix the problem, or maybe the information will bring up more questions that need to be dug in to for more answers.