Living with migraines: the pain, the lift

When I woke up Saturday morning with a migraine, I prayed hard it would lift enough before having to be in Birmingham for a work event a few hours later.

I stayed in bed for as long as I could before realizing rest and a dark room alone wouldn't help the pain. So I took my meds, and headed north. And the migraine began lifting, slowly, the closer I got to my destination.

It took those few hours for the medication to work – and for the gradual transition of the pain leaving and the "hangover" settling in. Mentally, it is a rough process. You know the migraine is not "gone," but rather, the pain shifts to exhaustion, or what we call a migraine hangover.

And for the remainder of the day, evening and the next morning, my body suffered.

I was mobile and active, but it held on strong. Always does.

June is National Migraine Awareness Month. I've had three this month alone. I blame allergies this round, and after the third episode this past weekend, rolled my eyes and let out a short puff – almost like a laugh, but not. Because there is nothing funny about them.

By the numbers

In the U.S., 38 million people suffer from migraines, a prevalent neurological disease that affects men, women and children. It is the third most prevalent illness in the world, with a person within one in four U.S. households affected. More women (18 percent) experience migraines than men (6 percent) and children (10 percent), according to the Migraine Research Foundation.

Migraines: 36 million affected in the United States

Migraine remains a poorly understood disease that is often undiagnosed and undertreated, and while there are about 500 certified headache specialists in the U.S., more than half of all migraine sufferers are never diagnosed, and the vast majority don't seek medical care. In fact, only 4 percent who do seek medical care consult headache and pain specialists, according to the foundation.

Often, migraine sufferers undergo extensive testing before doctors will tell them they are suffering from migraines. Before first diagnosis in my early 30s, I had already suffered from them for a decade. I simply called them "one-day headaches." But when my vision became distorted one morning – I saw water spots out of one of my eyes, followed by extreme nausea and then followed by that one-day headache – I underwent test after test before I was diagnosed with having migraines.

The process was long and drawn out. Blood was taken, MRIs, vision tests and various medications were given to see what could either help prevent or help when a migraine was oncoming. Triggers were determined as well. For me, most of my migraines are allergy-induced. Often, if there is a lack of sleep over several consecutive nights, another one is guaranteed.

Women, especially, are told to reduce their stress to prevent the trigger of migraines. But women are advised to "reduce stress" for almost any symptom they have. While it can help, sometimes life is life.

Migraines are the sixth most disabling illness worldwide, and about 80 percent of sufferers have a family history. While most sufferers experience attacks once or twice a month, more than four million people have chronic daily migraine, with at least 15 migraine days per month, according to the foundation.

Migraines are not "headaches" – they're not even comparable – and are accompanied by one or more of the following symptoms:

visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, extreme sensitivity to sound, light, touch and smell, and tingling or numbness in the extremities or face.

In 15 percent to 20 percent of attacks, other neurological symptoms occur before the actual head pain, with attacks lasting between four and 72 hours.

If you have a headache, and someone has a migraine, don't tell them, "I understand. I had a headache yesterday." You just don't understand.

Migraines don't only affect people on a health level. Their job can suffer, too, and the disease can cost employers billions of dollars to lost work days.

Healthcare and lost productivity costs associated with migraine are estimated to be as high as $36 billion annually in the U.S. Costs are 70 percent higher for a family with a migraine sufferer, with American employers losing more than $13 billion each year as a result of 113 million lost work days due to migraines, according to the foundation.

Making Migraines Visible

The theme of migraine awareness this year is "Help Make Migraines Visible."

How? Talk about it. It can often be an invisible disease as people are still often able to continue working, and they can remain active as well. This makes it less visible.

But sometimes, migraines confine them to bed with the lights out and unable to move or even open their eyes. It affects an entire family. It can affect the workplace and production. Not talking about it, though, leads to misunderstanding, which in turn can lead to stress, a common trigger for a migraine, according to the American College of Healthcare Sciences.

See where that stress came back in?

Make this disease more visible by talking to your family and to your friends. Express to them what it feels like, and what you need at certain migraine levels.

I've had to communicate this to my teen daughter, and she understands the difference between low-level migraines and high-level, non-functioning migraines. She knows when I need water, or to just be left alone. She knows when to put the dogs out and to quietly shut my bedroom door. And she knows I go to work, often, with an ongoing one.

Communication is the only way we can make this disease "visible." With the two two-week episodes I had last year, I was in a somewhat constant daze for days on end. I functioned like a robot, and worked as much as I could, and talked only when necessary.

Explaining what you need during these times makes a world of difference. Explaining what hurts, and trying to explain how it hurts, helps. During those longer episodes, I just wanted to curl up and sleep the 24 hours every day offered. I was in a constant state of a migraine hangover with migraine "episodes" thrown in for good measure.

Without being able to "see" the disease, communication is as visible as you can make it.

And the most we can ask for is understanding that we are in a lot of pain and that the disease is debilitating to our otherwise very active and busy lives. We're still moving, just slower.

Don't be afraid to ask us questions. There's nothing to hide.

Kym Klass can be reached at kklass@gannett.com or 240-0144

Migraine facts for women

Migraine affects about 28 million women in the U.S.

Roughly 1 in 4 women will experience migraine in their lives.

Three times as many women as men suffer from migraine in adulthood.

About half of female sufferers have more than one attack each month, and a quarter experience 4 or more severe attacks per month.

More severe and more frequent attacks often result from fluctuations in estrogen levels.

Source: Migraine Research Foundation

More information: www.migraineresearchfoundation.org

Symptoms of migraines

Pain areas: in the face or neck

Pain types: can be dull

Headache: can be acute, frequent, severe, or throbbing

Whole body: dizziness, lightheadedness, or malaise

Visual: sensitivity to light, distorted vision, or seeing flashes of light

Gastrointestinal: nausea or vomiting

Sensory: aura or sensitivity to sound

Also common: irritability, nasal congestion, or scalp tenderness

Source: Mayo Clinic