It starts while I’m at Clyde’s warehouse, pulling DVDs and videos to ship to happy collectors across the country: a pulsing headache just behind my eyes, accompanied by unsteadiness and nausea.
I do not want to be one of those people who take every little ache or pain too seriously, so I dismiss this and keep working. Less than ten minutes later, though, it’s clear something is going terribly wrong: my vision is too blurry to read the address labels, my stomach is rolling in every direction, and the pain surpasses that of any headache I’ve ever had.
Ultimately, I’m forced to lie in the floor while Clyde finishes the work for the day. After that, he drives me home … and the motion of the car, the light of the sun, and the sound of traffic around us is almost more than I can stand.
At home, retreating to a dark, cold room, I discover I can’t even muster the energy to get up … and when I force myself to, I am slammed by nausea. I’m one of those people who will do anything — and I mean anything — to keep from throwing up … but not even my best mind-control and meditation tricks help me today.
Clyde finds me Migraine-Strength Excedrin and some great stick-on icy-feeling forehead strips, and I manage to sleep. I wake to no pain, but I still feel weak, dizzy, and disoriented.
Problem is, classic migraines and strokes all have the same symptoms — and with my blood pressure now having skyrocketed to 185/110, I’m not sure what to think. So we’re off to the doctor, to see what the professionals have to say.
Update: A little reading on the web reveals anyone suffering my symptoms should seek emergency medical attention, just in case he or she is having a stroke or a pre-stroke condition known as a TIA. If you’re reading this because you did a search on words like “migraine symptoms” or “stroke symptoms,” you should probably quit surfing the web and get yourself to a doctor, pronto — especially if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure.
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