I was at work when the headache I had kept intensifying. I thought I would be okay to hold off a little bit longer on taking something for it. I was wrong.
By the time I took pain relief, I could hardly keep my eyes open. Everything sounded 100x louder than normal. I kept checking the clock waiting for it to be 6:30 so I could leave. When the arrows of the clock fell in place, I knew I wasn’t headed home.
I made it to the bathroom and threw up several times. I called my sister and asked her and my mom to come pick me up— there was no way I could drive the 20 minutes I needed to get home.
I got out to my car blasted the cold air and threw a jacket over my eyes. It was already dark but the little blue lights in my car felt like a cop light searching for a man on the run.
I reclined in the driver seat chair hoping the jackhammering going on in my head would stop. It didn’t matter my position, the pain was persisted.
My mom and sister got me into their car. My sister drove my car home. The drive felt so long. I felt every bump. By the time I got home, I tried to lay down, but I ended up in the bathroom throwing up a few more times. I couldn’t tell you what time the medicine kicked in, or what time I fell asleep. I was done for, until this migraine passed.
I don’t know exactly when I started getting migraines. I remember one time when I was young that I couldn’t go to a soccer event because of a severe headache.
As I got older, they would sometimes come frequently. Other times, I’d go for a long time without them. Migraines don’t really have much rhyme or reason. They just tend to show up. I will do my best to eliminate triggers but sometimes even with all the triggers eliminated, I end up in my bed unable to do anything , sometimes even sleep, until the migraine passes.
A thought occurred to me as I was thinking about migraines. I think sometimes God gives us migraine seasons in life. Let me explain. Sometimes things happen to us in life that debilitate us like a migraine. The things we used to have no problem doing are impossible. The little things that weren’t an issue before suddenly become unbearable. We just have to hunker down until the migraine or the season passes and I think that’s okay.
You know why?! Because for me, the day after I have the migraine I am very flat. I don’t have much energy. I feel exhausted. I try and take it easy, and eventually, I feel fine. Something about migraines tends to balance me out.
Normally (not always) before I get a migraine, I’ve tend to be on the go non-stop. Then, the migraine hits and makes me stop everything. I can’t do anything until it passes. I think the same is true for our migraine seasons, sometimes they come to recalibrate us. Recalibrate our spiritual lives, our emotional wellbeing and even our physical wellbeing.
I think this is similar to desert seasons. Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and many of the people we look up to had their desert seasons. They couldn’t do much if anything in the desert until their season was up. I think the same is true for our migraine seasons.
In those seasons, you’re not any less than you were. God isn’t disappointed because you may not be able to do what you used to do. He cares enough to allow a migraine season, as painful as it can be, to work for your ultimate good.
I share this because I have felt as though I am in a migraine season. I’m beginning to realize it’s okay. It’s a part of the journey.
