“Migraine Overview.” NHS Choices, NHS, 10 May 2019 https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/migraine/.

To begin our complex and odd investigation of a migraine headache, we have to start with an overview. This online source brought to you by the National Health Service is a starting point of explanation of what a migraine is, something scientists are still unclear about. This source includes information of the broad range of pain a migraine sufferer experiences, the frequency of it, how to prevent migraines from occurring (which is usually a wild goose chase) and when to seek medical advice. This means your doctor will give you a prescription and advise you to lower your stress levels. It also explains a migraine is a moderate to severe headache on one side of the head, (mine is almost exclusively on the right side.) One in every five women have this issue and it is the third most common medical condition in the world. They also admit the direct cause of migraines are unknown (thank god someone is honest,) and it also differs from a usual headache because of the severity and the changes of the nerves and blood vessels in the brain. Many other people I know with migraines also have the same sensation but the frequency and the range of pain experienced is all different. To a migraine sufferer myself searching the web for this information was telling. However, no real solutions for my curse was found, but everyone has to start somewhere right?

Lace, James. “History of Headache – Migraine & Headache Australia.” Headache Australia, 17 May 2021, https://headacheaustralia.org.au/what-is-headache/history-of-headache/.

Looking back into the past for answers, there are many non-scientific reasons for having a severe headache or migraine. A source written by James Lace from Headache Australia, discusses the history of the headache from 7000 BC to the 20^th century. In ancient times, neurosurgery was less of a medical practice but more of a spiritual one. Trepanation or drilling a hole into the skull was used to supposedly release demons and other evil spirits from your head thereby curing the migraine. Later in the 20^th century, Lance describes scientists like Paul Ehlich thought migraines were caused by issues and actions of “receptors in the brain.” My personal history with migraines began when I was nineteen with the pain originating above my right eyelid like someone was stabbing me with a dull butter knife. Ever since, I wished someone would in fact just drill a hole in my skull to release the pressure or any evil spirits lurking within.

Metcalf, Eric. “Ocular Migraines: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment.” WebMD, WebMD, 12 July 2020, https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/ocular-migraine-basics.

Surprisingly, in addition to the traditional one sided monstrosities, there are other types of migraines too, Eric Metcalf writes about another rare but prevalent category called the Ocular Migraine. He describes further there are aura and aura-less migraines. Auras are visual disturbances layered on top of the pain of the headache, usually causing vision loss around the edges of your line of sight (in one or both eyes) coinciding with flashing lights. It is also associated with nausea and sensitivity to light or sound, as if someone dialed up the volume and brightness of the world around you to excruciating levels. If you google “ocular migraine” the photos are almost like looking at the world through a jagged rainbow prism. I remember having such a terrible migraine once that the strings of yellow lights around my bed began to twinkle and dance like shards of rainbow diamonds. I decided in that moment despite how painful migraines are, they can be beautiful too.

Herndon, Jaime. “Migraine and Hallucinations: Visual, Olfactory, and Auditory.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 19 Apr. 2021, https://www.healthline.com/health/migraine-hallucinations.

Continuing with the theme of visual disturbances, Jamie Herndon writes on the different types of hallucinations some people with migraines experience. These are rather rare and go away after the headache runs its course. This article uses the term “auras” as well to explain the three types of hallucinations; visual, auditory and olfactory. Olfactory hallucinations (smelling something that doesn’t exist) affects 95% of migraine suffers. Visual auras are the most common type. In addition, people can also have full hallucinations of seeing people or animals that are not really there. One of my close relatives for example, was playing a concert once with a migraine and the conductor turned into a grey elephant with his trunk as a stand in for the baton. For her this is just a normal consequence of a severe migraine, although it is extremely rare and “can last for hours or days.” I on the other hand, have only witnessed  a diverse set of colors hovering around each individual person in a room, or was convinced to having seen a black cat on the edge of sight, only to be disappointed to find the cat was in fact a rock. As weird as these experiences are, we have in fact normalize them because it’s a side affect of a condition in which we cannot change, so we embrace the cats and elephants that may come our way.

“Genetics and Migraine.” The Migraine Trust, 10 Nov. 2021, https://migrainetrust.org/understand-migraine/genetics-and-migraine/.

Despite the many unknowns about migraines, there is a theory written by the Migraine Trust Organization about how genetics may play a major factor. This article explains how the “more common types of migraines,” are inherited from differences in genetic construction including association, (where the migraine is inherited though different types of genes coming together) and causal (mutations of a specific gene.) Both of these types affects the “ion channels function which has an impact on nerve activity.” While this might not provide all the answers, it solves some of the questions for me. Either of these could be true in my case, as in my family it began with my Grandfather having migraines (who swore on the remedy of strong black coffee.) who passed it onto my Mother and so on. We all seemed to have the same types of migraine that can be triggered by a myriad of different factors; from weather changes, to stress and most commonly, during a change of pace in our routines. We have also all had to lie in a pitch dark room with a cold pack over our eyes while popping painkillers and cursing at the world. While I did not get to know my Grandfather very well, I always think of him when I pour myself a heaping cup of black coffee to dull the symptoms.  

“9 Surprising Symptoms of a Migraine Attack.” American Migraine Foundation, 5 Jan. 2022, https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/9-surprising-migraine-symptoms/.

Despite the most common symptoms of a migraine being weird enough, there are also nine surprising symptoms documented by the American Migraine Foundation. They write about how to know which symptoms add up to a migraine and how surprisingly not all migraines involve pain. These include; neck pain, body chills, phantom spells, brain fog, insomnia, sinus like issues, dizziness, mood changes and allodynia (or sensitivity to light.) Some people may have some of these symptoms, or none at all. I personally have had all of these at one time of another, admittedly once hissing at my college housemate who knocked on the door of my room in the middle of a particularly heinous attack. This variety of symptoms also makes pinpointing an early onset of a migraine difficult. It is also why I joke I am “out of order” when I do have one, and why I always keep my Advil Migraine pills everywhere I go just in case. With this investigation now at an end. I have found there is a constant thread of uncertainty and mysteriousness around migraines. There is no hard and fast answer of the cause or cure. There is only slow plodding progress and newfound discoveries that yes, leave people like my Mother and I in the lurch, but also reminds me of how unique migraine suffers are, because on particular days the world looks just a little bit weirder from behind our rainbow prism eyes.