The Domino Effect

It started with just one. Migraine, that is. Back on July 10, 2010, I had my first migraine like none other I thought I had before. I woke up in the middle of the night with a pounding headache. I got out of bed, went downstairs to get some water to take some Tylenol. I then realized it wasn’t a normal headache so I was wide awake at this point. I opened the laptop only to learn that I was extremely light sensitive (up until this point, I was walking around in the dark).  I finished my water and started to make my way back to the stairs. But once I got to the first landing, I became very dizzy, lightheaded…so much so that I had to crawl the rest of the way up the stairs. Once I reached the top step, I crawled back to the bed and woke Matthew up. I couldn’t even climb into bed. At this point, I was scared something was really wrong with me. I laid on the floor and tried to pull it together so I could get back in bed. Matthew had to help me get back into bed (I’m not too sure how that lightweight picked this heavyweight up, but he did).

Once I was in the bed, I tried to get comfortable but it was near impossible. My head was pounding. It hurt to lie down, it hurt to sit up. It was going to be a long night. For 2 ½ hours, I changed positions from lying on my side to lying on my back to sitting up in an attempt to be comfortable. I had this pain in the back of my head like I had never felt before—something indescribable.  I finally was able to get back to sleep only because I think I was so exhausted from the pain.  Once I woke up the next morning, I felt like someone had whacked me in the back of the head with a baseball bat. It ached all day. But it finally eased up the following day.

Not even a week later, I had another migraine. This one, too, happened in the middle of the night.  Matthew and I woke up to Danica screaming because she had gotten sick and vomited in her bed. At 2:30am, it’s scary hearing your baby girl scream. I jumped out of bed and ran to her room. As I began cleaning the mess up, I started feeling lightheaded and dizzy. I felt like I was going to pass out. The room was getting hot. The walls felt like they were closing in and everything sounded weird. My ears were ringing as I knelt to the floor. I was unable to move. I curled up in the fetal position in the hallway and covered my head. It felt as though it was spinning. And having every light on was making it worse. The next morning I felt as though I had been hit the back of my head…again.

My mom came over and drove me to the doctor while Matthew stayed home with the kids (he was sick too). I saw my PCP, Dr. Harris, who gave me a shot of Stadoll and Phenergan. Once I got back home, I went straight to the couch and didn’t move until around 6pm after Matthew cooked dinner. I tried to eat but was so out of it, I barely touched my food. Zach vomited during dinner. We determined the kids had the stomach bug that was going around. After that, I laid back down on the couch and slept a little while longer until Matthew woke me up to help me get upstairs. I think I slept almost 16 hours straight. I felt much better once I woke up that following morning.

The following week, I had another migraine. Same symptoms. Man, this was getting old…fast! I called Dr. Harris. He referred me to Dr. Glenn.  And that’s when my semi-normal life got very interesting. I saw Dr. Glenn on Friday, August 27, had the MRI/MRA on Friday, September 3, got the results on Friday, September 10, saw Dr. Margraf on Monday, September 13, had the cerebral arteriogram on Wednesday, September 15, and saw Dr. Margraf to get the results on Monday, September 20. And now, here we are...waiting another two weeks to see Dr. Fukushima. But I’m trying to be patient.  I know God is working His magic. ;)