Aura

Yesterday, just as I was stepping into the shower, I saw a migraine aura. People who deal with migraine aura experience visual, sensory or motor disturbances just before a migraine attack. This phenomenon usually lasts an hour or less, and symptoms may range from seeing sparks and zigzags to the inability to speak clearly. For me, it is mostly the sparks that I see, and it usually lasts just a few minutes. I don’t always see an aura before a migraine, but a migraine always begins sometime in the next twenty-four hours after the aura appears. 

When I was younger, the migraine began almost exactly twenty-four hours after I saw an aura. In the last few years, I normally have about thirty minutes to an hour before the migraine sets in. Yesterday’s was a slow progression. It started out mild, so I went to work and tried to work most of the day with my office lights off, but by mid afternoon, that wasn’t working for me anymore. The pain was intensifying and continued to get worse over the course of the evening. Eventually, I just went to bed.