Migraine headaches

I had my first migraine when I was ten. Now I usually have one a year, but this week I've had two. Two!

If you have not had a migraine and want to fully empathize with my pain (masochist!) take ice cream scoops, peal back your eyelids and without doing any damage (this takes skill) sweep the scoop behind your eyeballs and, using the scoops as a lever, pull--gently. Then take a vice and screw it in to your temples. Increase the pressure according to the intensity of light in your environment. Whenever a child screams or whines take that hammer they use to test your reflexes and drum it on the back of the head and slightly to the right. Oh yeah, in the beginning wear glasses with black mascara smudged around the perimeter of the lenses because your vision (in the beginning before the real pain hits) goes as well.

Today I was at the gym. But I am not righting this so that you will feel sorry for me (okay, maybe I want you to feel a little sorry for me), the main reason I am telling you this is to let you know that the gym is THE BEST place to be when you have a migraine. I happened to have my swim suit with me so I got in the pool. My vision immediately cleared. The cool water was great! My head stopped hurting and my nausea went away. (Oh yeah, nausea is part of the package as well.) Then I sat in the sauna. The heat helped as well. Actually it was the alternation of the heat and cold that seemed to help the most.

Anyway, I stayed as long as time allowed then picked up the kids from childcare. Usually a migraine for me is like being ejected from the game. But today I just could not afford that luxury. I think, though, that the pool swim staved off the worst of it. Afterwards I didn't feel nauseated and I was able to make my grocery store run and get ready for company tonight.

But since I can't always be at the gym when I have a headache and we don't have a pool, I'd be grateful for any tips on migraine headache management that might come my way. Most of the time run-of-the-mill pain killers are useless.