Today sucked...

But it wound up turning out okay, I guess... Here, let me start at the beginning...

So I'm driving along to my doctor's appointment (for a check up on my hips) and I'm about to start moving out of the carpool lane to get off the freeway. I glance up at the rear view mirror........

And my whole world turns upside down.

I honestly don't know if my head just dropped back as I got dizzy or if I was so dizzy my eyes rolled back in my head, but I had a second of blackness, then I saw the roof of the car (don't think you're supposed to see that while driving), then tried to focus on the road. Excuse me, roads.

Was I seeing double? No. Try octuple... yeah... that's more like it.

I've never been so dizzy in my life. Hell, I'd bet if you add all the times I've been dizzy up together, it still wouldn't have compared. And I was driving. With my daughter in the car. Kinda scary.

So, I took my foot off the gas, (luckily my brain was still working and told me to NOT hit the brakes), and just tried to stay in between the two white lines. Well, one set of them anyways. I got off the freeway and got to my doctor's office safely. Promptly called my mom to see if she could come get me, but she was about to go into a session. Called my MIL and she said she'd be there. Got out of my doctor's and on the way home, called my normal, family doctor, while trying to figure out why the center of my vision seemed to be WAY closer than it should be. They said they'd get back to me since they were booked and there was only one doctor, instead of the normal four, there today.

We got home and Sharon (MIL) stayed to help, but Matt got there pretty soon after we did. He took over with Lorelai while I rested on the couch. Well, more like sat nearly comatose, trying to get the dizziness to go away, not to mention the headache that was starting behind my right eye. About an hour later, I call the doctor again. Get told to wait about half an hour. 45 minutes later, I call again. They're still slammed, so I decide to just go to Urgent Care. Called my dad to come over and take me so Matt could stay with Lorelai (don't want a 15-month-old in a doctor's office unless I can avoid it). At this point, I feel like I'm drunk... dizzy, can't see straight, headache, limbs heavy, feel like my tongue is too big for my mouth and I'm slurring my words. Matt decides f*ck Urgent Care, I'm going to the ER.

So my dad comes to get me a few minutes after Matt leaves with Lorelai and his mom to go pick up my car before it gets towed at the doctor's office. We go to the ER where I'm asked about a MILLION questions by a hot newbie doctor (and there were, like, 8 of him! Nice eye candy) before being given a VERY painful shot in the arm of Imitrex (a migraine medicine). It takes about a minute for the migraine to go away. And another thirty seconds for the nice side effect: my head feels like there's a balloon in it. It's not painful, like when you have a head cold and your head feels heavy and twice it's normal size. Not painful at all... but just... weird. And slightly uncomfortable. I feel top heavy, like if I get up, I'll fall over with my feet sticking straight up in the air. Like one of those clown punching backs, but upside down. Then they wheel me off to take a CT of my head to make sure it's nothing like a blood clot or tumor. Fun.

The CT came back fine and I was determined to be suffering from a ophthalmoplegic migraine, which is defined by Web MD as, "Pain around the eye, including paralysis in the muscles surrounding the eye. This is an emergency medical condition, as the symptoms can also be caused by pressure on the nerves behind the eye or an aneurysm. Other symptoms of ophthalmoplegic migraines include droopy eyelid, double vision, or other vision changes. Fortunately, this is a rare form of migraine."

Trust me to get the rare one.

And, apparently, I also get auras, which are defined as, "An "aura" is a physiological warning sign that a migraine is about to begin. Migraines with auras occur in about 20%-30% of migraine sufferers. An aura can occur one hour before the attack of pain and last from 15 to 60 minutes. The symptoms always last less than one hour. Visual auras include: bright flashing dots or lights, blind spots, distorted vision, temporary vision loss, wavy or jagged lines."

No bright lights, no blind spots, and no wavy or jagged lines, but check on the distorted vision and temporary vision loss. And did you see that part about the fact that only 20%-30% of migraine sufferers get auras? Check PLUS on Kendra getting the rare crap.

After the shot I got two pills: one for nausea, which I didn't have most of the time, but for a few minutes here and there, it'd sneak up, and one for the dizziness, which just wouldn't freaking go away. But... twenty or thirty minutes later, and the dizziness is starting to fade. I only have 2 hot doctor's now (disappointing). Matt comes and picks me up (Dad took Matt's truck back to him while they were running tests) and by the time we get home, there's only one of everything again and I feel no pain and my head feels like it's normal size and weight. Nice, effective medication.

So... now, hopefully, it won't happen again. But they don't think so. In the past two weeks, this is the third time I've had what I thought was a headache behind my right eye. The first time, I laid down to watch TV with Matt and fell asleep and it went away (which is part of what he told me to do if it happens again). The second time, again, I went to bed (it was just that time) and it was fine. So he said that these aura things, as annoying and scary as they are, are my warning signals. That when they hit, to take the anti nausea pills, the anti dizziness pills, and the migraine medication, even though the migraine hasn't hit. This won't prevent it from happening, but it does put migraine pain medication in my body before the pain hits, so I can't really feel it. It's kind of like preventing it, but not. It's still there, under the medication.

So, today sucked. Turned out okay, but it makes me worry about driving with Lorelai now. I mean, I got DAMN lucky today. So what exactly am I supposed to do now?