REQUEST/BRAINSTORMING SESSION: share your stories!

I have a somewhat odd request, but I think it will be nice to hear from everyone and build something fun/interesting from your responses! (Feel free to respond here or message me directly.)

I am learning to code Javascript. The project I came up with to help me learn will be an interactive "story" that takes one through what it is like to have a migraine. It will work like those storybooks, where you read page 1, then it gives you choices, and you either turn to page 2 or 10 to find out what happens.

I am interested in your stories because I would like a variety of ideas for what a migraineur goes through, the types of decisions they have to make (prevention, treatment, response), and the consequences/outcomes of those decisions. I could do this based on my experience alone, but I wanted this to be a more accurate representation of a day in the life with M. Depending on how easily I pick up the code, I could make multiple days that generate randomly.

For example:
I wake up, my head is a little achey.
Do I: take basic medicine (ibuprofen) or ignore it and have breakfast
If I take the medicine, let's say it works 30% of the time.
The other 70%, the pain slowly gets worse until I remind myself again to take medicine.
I now have to take a triptan. If this is the first or second time taking it, I'm okay. If I have already taken it twice, I can risk rebound, or find another treatment.
etc etc

You can take this in so many directions--I didn't even talk about where I am, what I'm doing, or who i'm with when the pain hits, but you can!

Another example:
I walk outside, it is unexpectedly sunny. Instant M.
I turn around, go inside, grab a hat or sunglasses, and take medicine.
The pain is still there, but I ignore it.
In 30 minutes the medicine kicks in and I am pain free!

OR

I walk outside, it is unexpectedly sunny. Instant M.
I cover my eyes with my hand, and bear the pain while I walk to my car.
I drive for ~15 minutes to my destination. By the time I get there the M intensity has tripled.
3 hours later I get home, with a raging M, take triptans, and lie down in a cold/dark room.
I fall asleep.
Hours later I wake up, confused, disoriented, and hungry.

Anything you can estimate as a % will also help. X medicine works 40% of the time; you have headaches 50% of the month/day; if 60% of your headaches are a 7 or above, etc.

Simple stories with less steps are better as a starting point.

I hope everyone understands, if not please let me know and I will attempt to better explain this!

Feedback and ideas are always welcome

Thank you! CG

I wake up in the morning tired. Temples ache. Light hurts.
I get out of bed and feel dizzy.
I drink a glass of water hoping to hydrate so the dizziness goes away.
I get in the shower.  Start to feel nauseous from the glass of water and still feel dizzy.
Black spots and side-way lightening bolts dance across shower.
Panic sets in.  Am I going to puke a glass of water?!?!?! 
Lower myself to my knees and turn the water to cold so I don't pass out.
Start to panic. 
"How am I going to drive to work like this?" 
"How am I going to sit at a computer all day?" 
"How am I going to work?" 
Start to cry wondering how I'm going to pay my bills if I get fired.  I've been absent a lot.
Get out of shower.  Cold water felt good.  Dizziness subsides.

Hope I have clean underwear someplace since laundry didn't get done. 
I hope my socks match.

Run brush through hair.  No moisturizer, no makeup, no curling iron, no perfume.  I don't care.  
I can barely get deodorant on my armpits. 
Toothpaste makes me retch.

Look at bed...wish I could crawl back into it.  
Dry tears.  My eyes are red from crying.
I don't care.

Eat a bowl of cereal with rice milk.  Dairy milk makes me nauseous.
Stand in bathroom over toilet for 10 minutes (just in case....).

Put on sunglasses in dark garage and get into car.  
Dread the idea of opening the garage door knowing the sunlight is going to blast my eyeballs out of their sockets.
Take deep breath, place death grip on steering wheel and open garage door with eyes closed behind sunglasses.

Peek....
OK...I can do this...start car...drive 10 minutes to work.

Keep sunglasses on as I walk through door. Fluorescent lights are so obnoxious!
Look at my watch as I walk to my cubicle.  
I wonder if I can make it to break and puke in bathroom or if I'm going to puke in my trash can at my desk.
Hope that the bathroom is empty when I finally puke.  I hate explaining this to everyone.
Drink an Ensure drink knowing that this will puke up easier than solid food.

Turn on my computer.
Whose idea was it to give me 2 giant monitors?!?!?  I can barely look at one.
I keep the florescent desk lamp off.  
Wonder if a monitor screen would help filter the light.
Decide to keep my sunglasses on all day.
Asshole co-worker asks if I've become famous overnight and if I'm "incognito".
DICK!!!
I seriously consider puking on him.

I have 300 emails.
Panic sets in for a second time this morning.
I try not to cry at my desk.
Asshole co-worker asks why my hands are shaking.
Tells me I need to drink more water.
I seriously consider puking on him.

Boss comes by my desk.
Tells me to take off my sunglasses.
It's "unprofessional".
I seriously consider puking on him.
He sees the dark circles under my eyes and tells me I need to get more sleep.
I seriously consider puking on him even more.
He tells me if I need to get a second trash can to puke in, I can order one from office supply.  That way I won't have to leave my desk to puke.
I seriously consider telling him fuck off. 

Make it to break.  Go into bathroom.
Puke.
Nice lady is in there.  She brings me a gatorade from the lunchroom vending machine.

Make it to lunchtime without fainting.
Drive home with death grip on steering wheel.
Turn air conditioning in bedroom to "freezing" level.  
Grap a bag of frozen peas from freezer.  
Grap black towel from bathroom.
Close black curtains and crawl into bed.
Put peas on pounding forehead, black towel over face.
Cry until alarm goes off 30 minutes later.
Crawl out of bed knowing that someway, somehow, I have to go back to my cubicle and get through the afternoon.
Panic attack #3 starts.

Time to medicate.
2 Zofran for puke prevention.  But insurance only gives me 15 pills for a month.  If I take 2 then I'll only have a week's worth. Fuck it. I need this now. I'm sick of puking.
Reglan for acid reflux (helps with the gastroparesis which has developed along with the migraines).
Then what? 
Imitrex pill takes an hour to start working.  Hurts my stomach.
Imitrex spray only lasts 2 hours.  I'll need another at 3:00 and insurance only gives me 6 doses a month. Better save it.
Hydrocodone make me levitate.
Topomax makes me yell at people.  
Percocept makes me feel like a blob of jello.
Fiorecept makes me puke.
Ultram makes my muscles tingle.

Tramadol it is!  Whee!!!! My favorite!!!  Gives me lots of energy, doesn't hurt my stomach.
But I don't want to take it before I drive back to work. Afraid of DUI.
I feel better in anticipation of the high I'm going to get as soon as I get this little pill into my system.
Tramadol, Zofran, Reglan, Imitrex and a Monster Energy Drink.
I'm a rockstar for the afternoon.

The day is finally over.  I get home at 5:30.
Eat a bowl of cereal with rice milk (again).
Stand in bathroom over toilet for 10 minutes again (just in case....).

Take my evening meds.
Amytryptaline-for depression, Ambien for sleep.
Tramadol has worn off and I'd really like another.  Maybe a Percocept and/or a Hydrocodone instead.
I wonder if someone will someday find my dead body in bed after an accidental overdose.

Bed feels good.  I sleep from 7:00 pm to 6:00 am.

And the next day comes.....

Hey, this was awesome! (In an I-understand-how-you-feel way). Thank you. Perhaps you've realized, as I did writing my initial post, that it helps to just get it out there and tell it like a story.

I actually laughed at the part when you are at work. I really want you to puke on your co-workers. All lightheartedness aside, I hope this isn't an average day for you! It makes me realize that mine are not so bad, as days like this are rare for me (I hope I won't be eating and puking those words in the future).


Anyone else, feel free to vent!

I've just joined this board so hello to all of you.  My migraines started when I was in my teens and have continued till now at age 65. They have gotten a bit better post meno, less intense but maybe more frequent. Anyhow, here is a typical migraine.

I wake up about 3 AMish and my head hurts more than usual. If it is reasonably mild I grab the peppermint oil bottle and use the dropper top to dot it all over my head. Sometimes this is all I need and I can go back to sleep. If it is more severe I take one of the triptan medicines that are kept right by my bed with the bottle of water that is also there. If things don't settle down in an hour or so I add a pain medication that contains caffeine and a mild barbiturate.

That almost always fixes things and I feel better in the morning. Normally that will be followed by a blah day where I feel wiped out and just a tiny bit of dull headache. More peppermint oil is usually applied throughout the day. Sometimes this same routine will continue for days or weeks followed by several good days and occasionally even several good weeks.
Kem

I wake up at 3am. Headache AGAIN.
I go downstairs and take 3 Excedrin in hopes that its just a plain old headache and will be gone by morning
I wake up...headache is still there (like there was any chance I could be so lucky to have it gone)
Maybe it won't turn into a full blown M
Go to work
Headache is slowly intensifying
Face is beginning to go numb
Here comes the nausea
Do I push through or take a Maxalt? If I take a Maxalt, will I survive the side effects sitting here at my desk?
My eyes are starting to water. I put my head down on my desk, wishing I could just go home.
I take a Maxalt
Why do I expect it to start working in 15 minutes?
An hour later, here comes the incredible tightening of my upper GI and I feel like I have to make that noise like someone is squeezing the life out of me
My arms and everything feel squeezed. I hate this feeling. Hurry up and start working on my headache. If I could only sleep through this part.
Another hour goes by and I think I will make it through the day
It's lunchtime and I go to my car and sleep in the back seat for an hour
I wake up "oh thank god I fell asleep" I feel so much better
Go back to work feeling like I got hit by a truck, but the axe is out of my head at least
Next day (provided it doesn't start all over again)...I have the migraine hangover...disoriented and a little numb
My head now pinches in various spots. Hard pinches. Like pliers on little parts of my brain
If I'm lucky, I won't get one tonight, but that's not likely
Here we go again...