“I thought for sure I was dying,” ASL teacher Marie DeRegnaucourt said.
DeRegnaucourt, along with countless others, suffers from an invisible ailment: migraines.
While migraines are not frequently talked about, they can often be misconceived simply as a headache when they are discussed.
“Generally, my migraines start out as just a normal headache,” junior Kaeryc Thompson, a migraine sufferer, said. However, the symptoms quickly escalate after that.
“I get headaches, dizziness, nausea, [and] sensitivity to light and sound,” DeRegnaucourt said, which are frequent symptoms those with migraines can experience.
Migraines taking place within school hours can greatly impact work and learning.
“In school, when the teacher is talking [and I have a migraine], I sort of space out,” Thompson said. This leads to confusion about the lesson and, in turn, sets back any progress on homework assignments and can begin to impact scores.
The impact of a severe migraine can be felt for days or weeks after the event. According to DeRegnaucourt, a migraine can leave the victim drained for some time, even after the immediate effects have passed.
Junior Rebecca Lehtinen, whose migraines are mainly stress-related, said, “This year I am trying harder in class again because I saw my grades fall when I tried to stop the headaches…but I’ll have to suffer through my migraines for now to have a good future.”
Though these migraine episodes can seemingly come out of nowhere, surprising both the sufferer and an onlooker, there often isn’t much that can be done to help.
“People that have migraines already feel helpless when they happen so if you try to talk to them to help…it may make it worse,” DeRegnaucourt said.
It’s important to know their limits and respect them.
