Migraines

I don't get migraines very often, so when I do get one, ouch!  They range from very uncomfortable to totally debilitating.  I get them in October and February, as a general rule.  And I know that mine are brought on most often by a change in barometric pressure.  Hurricane Rosa blew through, and changed things up here in the Valley of the Sun and today, it hit me.

I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept well, which makes for a cranky start to a work day, but that's sometimes more normal than not.  But little stressors can aggravate the situation for me:  loud and/or fast talking elevates my stress levels.  And smells can bring on the worst of the symptoms.  Today, it was a combination of a broken glass bottle of air freshener oil.  When that smell hits direct from the bottle, the oil never washes completely off your hands -- or the desk, the floor, the trash bag you try to toss it into.  That set off the nausea.

The next step was the vision: for me it feels as if my eyes are squinting, or more like when you add a "vignette filter" to a photograph, that's how things look to me when they hit.  Then the maintenance lady who cleans the restroom at my BigBox store likes to use something called "Fabuloso".  It's a normal cleaning solution, sort of like Pine-Sol, but more "flowery" smelling.  However, I'm sure it's supposed to be mixed out, like 1/4 cup in one gallon of water.  The stench is overwhelming to someone who has breathing issues like COPD, and if you have a migraine coming on, the nausea roils deep in your belly .....

After all this, I figured a quick walk in the outdoor air would clear out the remnants and make it possible to finish out my work day.  But the sun was very bright, and bothered my eyes.  I was hoping that a little light reading on my Kindle along with an ice cold Diet Coke might help.  I changed the font to L A R G E so that I wasn't straining my eyes, and it would have been a nice respite from my symptoms -- until the person with a crying child sat down in the booth next to me.  I felt as if the child's wails were piercing my brain. 

Back in my part of the store, where quiet sometimes reigns, I found it impossible to concentrate on work, ended up dashing to the restroom twice before I decided that I needed to be home.  In bed. In a dark room, with the AC running!   And I needed to do that now, before it became bad enough that I would be afraid to drive home. 

So I left work early.   For the first time in .... probably more than a year?  I usually try to stick this stuff out.  And can usually accomplish this when I work alone, but today my chatterbox was in the mood to chatter..... lol 

Three bottles of water and a Powerade after a nap
and I'm feeling like tomorrow will be ... an OK day!