Worst Migraine in Years

About 10 years ago, give or take a couple years, I was diagnosed with Chronic Migraines by a Neurologist.
I lived in a perpetually windy town and suffered brutal migraines a couple times a week. I would wake up and picture a bolt or a screw was just sitting inside my temple. I would imagine taking a nail gun to my head to try and stop the pain. The pain would often lead to vomiting. BUT, regular Tylenol would always take the edge off well enough to function. Or it would subside within a few hours. Eventually I was prescribed a medication specifically for migraines and that worked wonders.

Then I moved.
The migraines didn't cease, but there were fewer. I would say that, since moving 8 years ago, I have suffered minor to moderately severe migraines a few times a month overall, well-controlled with modest medication and I even let my migraine medication prescriptions expire. Why take them if I didn't need them?

This year, though, things have been a bit different. In early Spring, as the seasons were changing, I had intense migraines every single day for about two months. After that many, I went to my doctor for the same migraine medication I used to take, and she obliged. After a couple more weeks, the migraines settled back to a few times a month.
Until today.

Today was the worst migraine I have had in YEARS. Ever see that meme about rating your headache from 0 to Oberyn Martell? Yeah. Mine was a 9.
Not necessarily because it felt like my skull was being crushed, but more that I was WISHING to crush my skull to kill the source of the pain. I pictured power drills and nail guns and hacksaws. I was sweating and unable to sit still and puking and having horrible stomach cramping along with it. I was shuddering with tears. I had to ask Rj to call and reschedule an appointment for me, and I tried hitting that migraine with every medication I could safely try. We were just about to get ready to go to Emergency when medication started to work.
It took 4 hours to settle down completely.

4 hours may seem short... but every single second was excruciating. Every 10 minutes felt like an hour. I could not function. I could barely even breathe.
I was trying all sorts of different things to take my mind off of the pain.
• I put peppermint oil on my temple
• I put boiling hot water on a cloth and held that to my temple and to the side of my face
• I hit my head with my hands
• I tapped and drummed my fingers on several spots on my head
• I rocked and changed positions and put my head in between my knees
• I used my hands like a vice to put pressure on my head and then release
• I put an eye mask on
• I had all of the lights off
• I even put ear plugs in for a while

I asked some friends for advice (or rather, Rj asked some of my friends for advice), but it just made me realize how uncontrollable migraines can be. Just like so many chronic illnesses. Suggestions included crisis acupuncture... calling Health Link... or going to the ER and being sedated. Knocked the eff out.

That last one was tempting.

Frankly, if my migraine medication did not work, I was headed in to the hospital anyways. If migraine meds don't work, there's a chance it's not a migraine... and with that level of pain it would have been a sure sign that something might be really wrong.

But luckily, the medication worked, and I will be hanging out in bed, in the dark, for the rest of the day. I am lucky to have the prescription that I have and that it works, and I am even more lucky to have RJ. He has never seen me like that and he was right there willing to help - to make phone calls and to shut the blinds and let my cry and even scream in pain.