This is exactly the way mine develop except that I have to get the vomiting out of the way before taking medication.
Lately I’ve begun to wish there were some way to induce a migraine in people who scoff at them and/or refer to a “regular” headache as a migraine. I’ve always said I wouldn’t wish a migraine on my worst enemy; after years of hearing people blow them off as “just a headache,” I’ve completely changed my mind.
I don’t get too many migraines that evolve into crawl-under-the-covers-and whimper types, but when I do, they’re bad. I listed one in the most recent “what was your worst pain ever?” thread in IMHO.
Most migraines that I get, I take medication fairly early based on what few warning signs I might have - typically I miss them due to concentration at work until I feel the telltale ache begin in my right temple - and then they’re anything from annoying but bearable to that horrible throb that feels like it’s scrambling my brain, but typically I can prop myself up on my desk and soldier through some fairly mindless task. Plus I typically get a milder headache the next day, which I usually refer to as a “hangover headache” - but like a hangover from having a migraine, not from being drunk.
Having the scintillating aura symptom is rare for me, but I appreciate having the extra warning time in which to take medication.
This is an inheritance from my mother that I’m not so thrilled with.
I use the injectible form of Imitrex, so if (or rather, when) I vomit, I’m not throwing up expensive pills.
And Ferret Herder, I also use the term ‘hangover headache’ to describe the day after a particularly bad migraine. My days after a bad one are split about 50/50. Sometimes I feel great - I’ll wake up and think, “Wait, what’s that weird sensation? Oh, yeah, this is what it’s like to wake up pain-free! Wow, what a concept!” 
Other days I walk around feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck, with that ‘hangover headache’ feeling.
It makes me sick just hearing your stories. I have never had one, but I saw a thing on tv once. The poor guy crawled around on the floor and banged his head against the wall. He said he would have killed himself a thousand times over but could never manipulate the gun into position to blow his brains out. Fucking frightening! I hope you find the right drugs/therapies/whatever to make 'em go away.
It’s the changes in the barometric pressure. I can tell with near 100% accuracy if it’s going to snow or rain.
We were on vacation after Christmas a few years ago at a ski resort. We were standing in line while snow tubing and it was very cloudy - dark, ominous clouds with odd scalloped edges. Everyone around us kept saying, “Ooooh, it’s gonna snow soon!”
I could tell that it wasn’t going to snow - I didn’t have that usual ‘precipitation headache’ that I always get. The precipitation headache is one of the low-grade migraines that parks itself behind my eyes and just won’t go away. OTC meds won’t even take the edge off. That’s where something like vicodin comes in handy, but like I said, it’s near-impossible to get.
(Oh, and it didn’t snow that day)
I can say with confidence that my worst experience was more due to environment than intensity.
We had just begun a 90mi or so drive to Rio de Janeiro from my wife’s aunt’s house in the williwags when the pain started.
There was no medication in the car. Neither my wife nor her sister knew how to drive a standard transmission. The road was bumpy.
Even if it were an automatic transmission, neither of them had the courage to drive on Brazilian highways (though they are natives).
After about forty miles I couldn’t drive any further and I had to beg and plead for my SIL to drive. She took the wheel and the car bucked and jumped with every shift and she managed to hit every bump. I had to ask her to stop every five minutes so I could ralph on the side of the road.
When we finally arrived at her uncle’s house in Rio, while I was curled up in a ball in the bedroom, he ground up some Brazilian plant in the blender and made tea from it. I drank it; it stayed down for 20 seconds; everything magically got better over the next hour.