Imagine for a moment,
A vast sea of calm but active waters.
Wind in your sails, you’re on the move, making excellent progress to your destination.
Everything moving as it should.
In an instant, the sails droop, the water turns glass.
The air is stagnant. Not a single sound is heard but your breath, and the nervous beating in your chest.
Your only way forward, is to find an alternate way of moving. You search every crack and corner of your ship and find nothing.
The wind starts to pick up again but in the wrong direction.
Let’s just hope we land somewhere nice.
This little short story describes what it feels like for me when I’m getting, or have, a migraine and I’m trying to speak. I can be having a fine conversation and then the word I need next just vanishes before it reaches my mouth. Where did it go, what was I trying to say, what did the word start with, how did it sound? I desperately try to find that word again and in most cases I can’t, so I have to find a different and often lesser word for my meaning.
It’s incredibly stressful. Which is part of why I love writing. Like today, words are not finding me easily, at all.
I was writing a poem before this and it was just all wrong. So I hope I can revisit that idea I had and deliver it as intended later on!
Have a lovely day!
~A
Ink & Embers 
As a fellow migraine sufferer, I feel you, although I think I have it quite easy in the end. At least I am not bothered. Mostly I simply mix up some words or speak more slowly than usual. However, an absolutely hilarious incidence occurred on a lecture a couple months back. I study physics, and in my native language Finnish the word vacuum is tyhjiö. I was going to ask the professor about the vacuum permeability, tyhjiön permeabiliteetti, but I ended up saying “tyhmiö”, which could be understood as a word meaning “a space of stupidity”. My friends and I got a hearty laugh out of that one.
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😂 that is pretty great!
Thankfully my migraines seem to be less intense, either because I’m getting used to them or because I catch them with pain meds soon enough to stop the progression. They sure do mess up my ability to communicate though! I get random pains too, numbness in my face, over sensitive skin in small areas. Migraines are a wild ride, I’ll say that!
Thank you for that story though! 😄
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Glad to hear it’s getting easier for you, no matter what the reason is. As I understand, migraine can evolve over time, so it may get better with time on its own. This happened to my dad.
I was absolutely mindblown when I realized quite recently, after 18 years, that what I thought was hellish PMS might have actually been hormonal migraine all along (or at least adding to the PMS). I have seen so many gynecologists and doctors and no one ever found anything wrong with me. Then, after the lecture I told you about, I was reading up on migraines and went like “Hold on…” because many of the symptoms were so much alike. I have recently had a couple of easier cycles simply because I started treating my PMS as a migraine rather than “something natural” or with an attitude of “yea, no one likes it, but we just gotta put up with it”.
So yeah; now I’m “putting up with it” by sleeping the extra three hours I need, taking painkillers that help both with PMS and migraines, and cutting down all activity by 80% rather than pretending I’m fine. For some reason, the monthly ride is, while not fun, much more tolerable. Wild, huh? 😜
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Wow! I never heard of that!! I’m going through issues with possible endometriosis and cysts (while we are talking of pains I’ll just throw in scoliosis since it for sure doesn’t help anything) but I’ve been through multiple scans, blood tests, ultrasounds and so far nothing. I will say that our hospital near us is not great. I always say they are only great with labor and delivery and babies (which they have been fantastic for me).
But I say this because I’m sure they might be missing something somewhere. Anytime I’ve had to have scans done and sent somewhere else (like my hip X-ray) the other hospital has to re do the scan because they can’t read the one from ours…
I am 100% going to look into what you’ve said though! I’m so happy that it’s helped alleviate some of your symptoms!
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Wow, I’m glad I mentioned it then! I’m not gonna lie, I was both astonished and super mad when I looked at those “phases of migraine” graphs and read all the articles. Astonished because it might be the answer to my problems, angry because it has been overlooked by medical professionals all my life. I still haven’t seen any doctor about it, but things certainly make a lot more sense now. I might book an appointment in the near future and see if there’s any targeted pain meds available.
Endo is what I have been on the hunt for, too, and what every single friend has suggested. But there’s just nothing to work with; no examination has come up with anything, everything looks fine. And yeah, why would there be anything, if it truly is abdominal migraine?
NSAIDs help me, but they also trigger an asthma attack, so I try to use them as little as possible. Another type of painkiller that has worked for me is diclofenac – used to treat both pms and… wait for it… migraine. An absolute lifesaver, however, was when I discovered the TENS machines through an internet ad. It is the only fool-proof way for me to get rid of the abdominal pain fast: just slap on the electrodes on your belly and it blocks the pain signals. I still have to lie down because I get so weak and dizzy, but at least I’m vibing rather than crying! 😂
I truly hope you might find some ease down that path. This whole combo of migraine + girl problems is just a bunch of repetitive, unnecessary suffering, and I know I’m not the only one. I’ve taken an attitude of trying to talk about these things openly, because so much of it is brushed aside when it shouldn’t be. And so many girls and women are left in the dark about. I’ve always known I have migraine, but I never knew it’s tied to estrogen and the monthly cycle! It just makes me feel sad and lonely that the only effective treatments I’ve had came from my own research and googling, not medical professionals. So yeah. Let’s have a better future.
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Gosh I couldn’t agree with you more! Also, I have 2 tens machines that seem to help slightly some days and not others, I don’t know if I’m placing them wrong or if my spine being a bit off makes my nerves not respond the same way. 🤷♀️
But that medication sounds a bit promising! I’m a bit leery because I’ve been allergic to every migraine prescription I’ve been put on but that one might be different!
I can’t thank you enough for sharing all of this! 🤗
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Right. As far as I know, the electrodes only affect the area where they are, so it could be that if your pain originates from multiple places or from a large area, they can’t block all of it.
But good luck to you and let’s hope for advancement!
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Sorry to hear you get migraines. I get them too and I know how horrible they can be.
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Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that.
Side effect of the creative mind maybe? 🤔 seems like the people I know that get migraines are all very crafty and creative thinkers. Interesting thought.
Thank you for stopping by my post!
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