Thanks for poking at this, y’all. I think I’m leaning towards dehydration/caffeine withdrawal. I’m guessing the nausea was just my body’s reaction to all the other insults, I get pukey at the drop of a hat. I guess I need to get off the damn caffeine train again. I keep thinking one soda a day won’t hurt anyone, but then this sort of thing happens.
I feel your pain. I’m one of those, too, and it just sucks.
This actually sounds really close to the migraines that I get (and have since the age of 7 or so). There’s no “typical” migraine. You can have a migraine without even having an actual headache (silent migraine).
I don’t have auras and light doesn’t bother me much. Heat also tends to improve mine, like when I take a hot shower or wrap my head in a heating pad, it helps quite a bit. A cold pack will as well, but heat works just as nicely. I think that’s all partially influenced by being as still as I can be and in a quite place; movement and noise make things worse for me.
The way that I can tell I have a migraine and not a sinus headache or caffeine withdrawal or something else, is smells. It’s very much like what was described here. When I have a migraine, every scent is punctuated and nausea-inducing. I can handle the pain just fine, it’s the overwhelming smells that get me the most.
Do you have any problems with hypertension? I had headaches like these on a monthly basis and then found out my blood pressure was really high. Lost some weight, on medication and haven’t had one since (2+ years now).
I’ve actually had more problems with low blood pressure, less so since I got older.