Migraines, Painting, Stuff

Migraine Aura 

 

On Wednesday night when I came home from work, I sat down to eat a snack and watch a little tv before bed and the next thing I knew, I was smack dab in the middle of a migraine.  OH HOW I HATE those pesky migraines.  Minding my own business, feeling great, not a care in the world and BOOM!  While waiting for the meds to kick in, decided to try and capture my visual aura on paper.  They are such sneaky pesky little things those migraine auras.  When I try to look directly at them, they scurry away and hide just outside of my vision.  However, I think I caught a good glimpse and here are several renditions of it (kind of look like sunflowers on drugs).  My migraine auras used to look like round spikey fish with giant sharp teeth and they would swim from one side of my visual field to the other.  In 2002 I had brain surgery to clip a basilar tip aneurysm and now, my migraine aura just kind of hangs out on one side or the other.  Unfortunately, I cannot take much to help migraines.  I have a low tolerance for pain medication (Tylenol w/codeine is about the strongest I can handle without tossing it).  For migraines, I take Naprosyn (Naproxen - same thing).  My lovely periodontist prescribed some 500s for gum surgery and thankfully I have some left to take when I get really bad migraines.  My hand surgeon also prescribed some lovely 550s for my tendonitis, but I take those for migraines only when I know I can stay home and sleep.  I am going to have to approach my family doctor about getting a script for the 500s.  The 220s that are sold over the counter just do not seem to cut through the migraines anymore.

So this is a lovely painting I was working on when I got another migraine.  Decided to add the pesky migraine aura - kind of how it feels really.  Could not get a good photo of this painting.  In reality it is much grayer.  I tried scanning (need a bigger scanner), photographing w/ and without studio lights.  Need to get my photography manual out.

One thing about my migraines that I have discovered is that they are good for certain kinds of projects that require focus and organization skills.  For instance, I organized all my beads during a migraine period - seems easier to stick with boring projects that do not require much creative thought when I am in a migraine fog. 

Now I think I am going to go find one of those boring projects that do not require much creative thought and get to it as I have a special kind of migraine today - the one-two punch sinus migraine!  I know, envy me . . . Happy Giraffe!  Belinda