Thursday, May 6, 2010

I knew I had a migraine this morning...


Do any of you ever get migraines?  Do you get the weird light show beforehand?  I always do.  It's a very strange series of black-on-black images.  I always notice it when my eyes are closed.  As soon as my eyes are closed, a frenetic, morphing laser show starts.  Sometimes they are swirls of bubbly things or things look like they are bubble-wrapped.  Lately it's been very sharp, geometric patterns that change very quickly.

Imagine this animated.
[via] [1]

One time it looked like an animated Keith Herring painting, but all the little people were Bart Simpson.  (Did you know they put Bart Simpson's image on acid blotter paper for a while?)

There are hundreds of years of very beautiful art that has come out of these bizarre visions.  I find it incredibly fascinating.

Of course, a migraine isn't all fun and games.  

Vertigo with lateral eye movement is a big drag.  Especially if you are trying to change lanes on a highway.

Nausea's not so great.

Oh yeah, and the pain is kind of a drag.


[via]

Not that I'm complaining.  There are far worse conditions and far worse migraines than what I have.  I like to think about it objectively:  how the mechanics of the brain just go awry (in this case, blood rushing through a suddenly-dilated vien) and then all of a sudden, you see Laser Floyd in your brain.

And the most fascinating part is that my favorite substance in the world is an FDA-approved remedy:  caffeine[insert divine birdsong]
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[1] I downloaded this pic from an incredible flickr set by a woman who suffers from migraines.  It illustrates what I cannot describe.  In order to represent what I see, I desaturated the picture and reduced the contrast.

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