Life-shattering

GILLIAN Paterson should have been at university, enjoying thefreedoms that student life brings as a variety of excitingopportunities opened up in front of her. Instead she was lying inbed in her parents' Dumfries home, paralysed by pain, her onlycompany a wet towel draped across her forehead.She would lie likethat for two or even three days, with the curtains closed, thelights off, unable to hold a conversation and barely able to think,as she waited for the pain brought on by chronic migraine tosubside."Lots of things go through your head at times like that,"she recalls. "Such as 'I've had enough. I can't take any more.' Butmost of the time it was like a mental paralysis."You are justconsumed by pain. You just want to get better and try to think ofthings that might help, but they don't really."Paterson, 40, fromJordanhill in Glasgow, is one of 70,000 Scots who suffer fromchronic migraines, which means she suffers 15 debilitating headachesa month or more.The migraines can last days at a time and symptomsinclude visual disturbances, nausea and vomiting, sensitivity tolight, noise and smells, and weakness or numbness of thelimbs.Chronic migraines can stop people working, driving, takingholidays and doing other things people take for granted. Twenty-eight per cent of sufferers worry their boss will not believe themif they call in sick, while a third feel they are letting theircolleagues down when they do. In fact, the condition is so commonthat it affects almost one in five women in the UK.Paterson admittedshe would try to work twice as hard when she was well to try andcompensate for the times when she was sick.She was first diagnosedwhen she was 20, and was forced to give up her hopes of pursuing auniversity degree in French and business computing, and going on tolive and work in Paris - a dream she had held since primaryschool.It was after a successful kidney transplant, to cure problemscaused by a virus, that the first migraine struck.Having alreadysuffered ill-health, which forced her to leave university, sheappeared to be back on track and was contemplating continuing herstudies from her hospital bed when she was struck down.She recalls:"I can remember it vividly. It will be 20 years ago on Monday. Thepain started on the right side of my head, in the temple over myeye. It was a horrible, sickly pain. I remember vomitingrepeatedly."It changed sides [of the head]. I felt absolutely awfuland could not move. It gradually started to get better, but it was afull two days of sitting in constant pain and, the thing is, that'sas good as it ever got."Any hopes she had of returning to universityto finish her course evaporated as she was forced to move back inwith her parents in Dumfries."I had just wanted to get on with mylife. I was focused on leaving university the following year andfinding work. I had always wanted to go to Paris and never been. Ihad studied French since primary - I was desperate to go."A fewyears later she would finally get to Paris but, as she was stillbattling migraine problems, it was a depressing experience thatreminded her of the life she could have had.It was the days beforethe internet and e-mail which, combined with her debilitating newcondition, left her feeling cut off and lonely. She says: "I wasback living with mum and dad. It was a bit of a shock to thesystem."Everyone I had been in school with had moved on. It was avery isolating experience."I would plan to go on holiday or have aspecial occasion coming up and then I'd get a migraine, so Icouldn't go."She started studying from home, enrolling in an OpenUniversity course that she could do in her own time, fitting aroundthe migraines. "At that time I didn't think it would be long term,"she says. "I think I thought it would go away, but it justdidn't."For the first six months I would get one migraine a month. Iwent to the GP and got painkillers, but they didn't do any good."Astime went on the symptoms became more pronounced. I had visualproblems - if someone had a highly patterned wallpaper then thepattern would start to run."Some people get flashing lights, Ididn't but felt my eyesight would lose focus so I couldn't seeclearly. These would be the little things before the really bad painwould come."Then I could not eat. My stomach felt like it wasgetting bigger and bigger. I would take a sip of water and thenvomit for five or six hours. And the migraines got longer - they'dlast for three days now, rather than two."The World HealthOrganisation says migraines are among the world's 20 most disablingconditions, but little is known about them, apart that it is agenetic disorder, thought to affect 18 per cent of adult women and 6per cent of adult men in the UK.It is generally understood to becaused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and tends to affectpeople with what is known as a hyper-excitable brain.In the earlydays, all Paterson was prescribed with were painkillers, which didlittle to prevent the onslaught of migraines.When she was finallyprescribed a drug which worked - Sumatriptan, which reduces theinflammation of blood vessels that triggers the migraine - she foundthe migraines became more frequent, and she was increasingly relianton the medicine.However, now she has been given fresh hope from anunlikely source. Botox, which is better known as a cosmetictreatment, is being offered as a migraine cure. In a trial, patientswho suffered from 19.1 days of migraine a month, suffered 8.2 lessfollowing treatment. A separate placebo group suffered 0.2 less.Justbefore Christmas, Paterson had her first Botox treatment. She had 33injections to the head, neck and shoulders, paralysing the musclesso pain signals can't pass to the brain.In the subsequent months,the amount of drugs she needed to control her migraines were cut inhalf and she has now undergone a second treatment. She hopes thatBotox will help her manage the condition, as she can safely havethree treatments a year, but is reticient to talk of a cure."Whenyou have had migraines for as long as I have - and as severe - theidea of a cure is like a dream. It's probably unlikely, but I wouldlove to be proved wrong."However, she is keen to better manage thecondition for the sake of her husband Alastair, 50, and their twosons, Ruaridh, ten, and Callum, five. Both their children were bornafter difficult pregnancies.She says: "I had been very reliant onthe medication and when I had my first son I suddenly realised Icouldn't take anything except for pain relief tablets, such asparacetamol."On a couple of occasions the migraines got so bad thatI vomited continuously for two days. I had to be taken to hospitalto be given an anti-vomiting drug."Amazingly, this was the easierpregnancy. She explains: "A few years later we thought we'd haveanother one, but the experience was different. I had a headache thewhole time It was a lot worse. I was off work three months - Ididn't have any time off first time."Raising two boys has beendifficult at times when she is frequently laid low by migraines.Shesays: "When I'm well I want to go out. I love life and love sharingnew experiences. But sometimes I just can't."For them, it's 'why'.And I can't tell them why. I think it's affected me in other waystoo."Now and then one will say to me, 'Mummy, I've got a sore head,'and it sends shivers down my spine. There's no reason to believe hehas the condition, but it can be hereditary."She has been helped bythe support she has received from her own mother. Paterson says:"Mum moved near me in 2000, just after my first son was born andstill lives there. She has pretty much been through the worst of themigraine with me over the 20 years."She made sure I took mymedication when I've been debilitated, ensured I didn't getdehydrated, gone out on numerous occasions to the chemist to getprescriptions when I couldn't get out of bed, called the doctor whenI was so bad that no medication actually worked and I was dementedwith pain, collected the children from nursery and school when Icouldn't and looked after them until my husband returned fromwork."I don't know what I'd have done with- out her."Othertreatmentsl Nerve blocking injections: The patient is injected withlocal anaesthetic and steroids in the occipital nerve, at the backof the scalp. The nerves become inflamed which dampens nerve painsignals.l Neuro stimulators: Devices placed under the skin stimulatenerves at the back of the neck. They confuse the body's sensorysystem into thinking the pain is not there. Trials are ongoing.lAcupuncture: Clinical trials increasingly show acupuncture canreduce symptoms.l Cognitive behavioural therapy: This involveschanging people's reaction to the pain, and exploring relaxation andmental exercises to control the suffering.l Physiotherapy:Increasingly recommended by headache specialists, this involvesworking neck muscles to prevent migraines starting in the firstplace.l Medication: Triptans - which include Sumatriptan - are drugsthat can stop attacks once they have started. Preventative medicinesinclude beta-blockers, anticonvulsants and antidepressants.Those whosufferedMIGRAINE can affect anyone, regardless of age or sex, thoughit is known to affect women mostly and to have a genetic component,Famous sufferers include:Lewis Carroll: The author suffered withsevere migraine attacks accompanied by auras, which can inducehallucinations. It is said his experience of these auras might havecontributed to his most famous work, Alice in Wonderland.Vincent VanGogh: The Dutch painter suffered from severe migraines. One of hisbest-known works, Starry Night, was painted at the St-Remy asylum inFrance in 1889, where he was being treated for what were then knownas "sick headaches".Elvis Presley: The king of rock n' roll'smigraines were so painful he was admitted to hospital and a 1975hospital stint, said at the time to be for an extensive eye exam,could have been due to migraine aura problems.Elizabeth Taylor Theactress, right, who twice married Richard Burton, rarely speaksabout the migraine attacks she has reportedly suffered from for mostof her 79 years.