Word: schipper
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...Henry Schipper, 49, of Venice, Calif., the first warning signs are mild and almost pleasant--a giddy light-headedness that evolves into what he describes as a "happy series of energetic moments." Then for about 15 minutes his eyes play tricks on him, and a wall of shimmering light obscures his field of vision. "There's no pain at that point," says Schipper, who produces documentaries for the History Channel. "But once the shimmer starts, the countdown begins...
...Schipper can't get to his medication quickly or if it doesn't kick in, he will experience a neurological event that 28 million Americans know all too well--the tidal wave of headaches known as a migraine. For Schipper the pain is sudden and sharp. "The front quarter of my head begins to pound and throb," he says. In extreme cases, he vomits violently every 20minutes. His senses of smell and hearing become agonizingly acute. "All I want to hear is gentle white noise at most and no movement, please. If there's a car alarm that goes...
...that long ago that migraine sufferers like Schipper had no choice butto retreat to their darkened bedroom and wait, often for days, until the agony passed. Doctors could prescribe heavy-duty painkillers, but regular use often triggered even more painful episodes. Making matters worse, friends and co-workers tended to treat headache sufferers as the punch line of a bad joke, as if they were having headaches on purpose to avoid work or sex or some deeply repressed memory...
...cluster headaches are migraines. Typically, the pain from a migraine is a throbbing one, restricted to one side of the head, that gets worse with movement and lasts from four hours to three days. Migraines are usually accompanied by either nausea and vomiting, as they were for TV producer Schipper, or extreme sensitivity to both light and sound. By contrast, patients suffering from tension-type headaches may react badly to either light or sound but not both...
Meanwhile, it may be a process of trial and error for most migraineurs--and their physicians. Chances are, however, that more and more of them will, like Schipper, eventually hit on the combination of medications and lifestyle changes that works for them. In his case, careful attention to his triggers along with judicious use of a powerful painkiller has kept his headaches to a minimum. "It's a tricky thing to navigate a migraine," Schipper says. "You have to be adept at knowing your own patterns." But it can be done. And sometimes, knowing that relief is within reach...