10 DAYS?!? or: 'The one where a migraine got in the way of everything

I can't believe it's 10 days since I blogged. WTH? If any of you are still out there I appreciate your unbelievable patience. *tumbleweed*

Basically, I blogged on the Friday, had the weekend, worked the Monday and Tuesday thinking 'Oh I'll do a nice blog post about Paris on Wednesday night.', went to bed Tuesday evening, couldn't sleep A WINK, got up at 5am having had zero sleep, went to Paris with Ruth, Anna, Lily and Hayley - more of which later this week and then woke up Thursday morning vomiting with the migraine from hell. No: really, really, the migraine from hell. That floored me all day Thursday which meant on Friday I barely had enough energy to catch up with vital work emails and spent the day recovering. It was so beyond vile and horrible that the thought of it literally hurts my head again and makes me nauseous.

Before the migraine from hell driving around in an open-top Citroen 2cv in Paris with Rufus (actually the best fun):

During and after my migraine:

Every silver lining etc... It did however, lead me to this blog post. Migraines. What triggers them? What are the signs? What helps them?

I'm not telling, I'm asking! After I surfaced with the migraine hangover so many of you related your stories that I thought we could have an open space and hopefully some of us can pick up tips along the way..I know everyone is different but there are always things to learn!

What I've learned from my migraines...

Triggers

lack of sleep - killer for me. Really early starts - especially after little or no sleep. Nope. Can't do it.
traveling - especially across time zones. Ugh.
lack of water/dehydration
too many painkillers (the ones I take for my back - I'm not just randomly ingesting tablets!)
some alcohol
some foods

Signs

vomiting - literally. The last 2 I've had have started with me thinking I have food poisoning. This time it was actually the Mr who sussed out it was a migraine, not a bug. The vomiting happened first thing, the head really kicked in (literally) mid-afternoon. And it was horrific.
sometimes I get that low, 'heavy eyebrow' pain over one eye but the flashing/aura is something I haven't had in a long while
diarrhoea (sorry if TMI) - that's why I thought it was a bug

That's literally it for me. How pleasant. Chunder ahoy, ooh here comes another hammer to the head.

What helps (me)

in the following order:

cans of coke
migraine meds from the doctor
darkness
no noise - my poor family tiptoe around like there's a sleeping baby in the house
and sometimes - dark chocolate, magnesium tablets and a banana

What are your triggers? What do you do as soon as you know it's coming? Do you get the hangover from hell without the fun of touching alcohol? *ggrrrrrr* Let me know. If this post helps one person get through a migraine a little quicker I'll be thrilled.

Thank you again for your patience - kids are back to school next week, Autumn is upon us and I am sitting at the computer again! YAY!