In Bed – Joan Didion

Medical Background of Migraine:

Migraine: [extremely bad headache] a recurrent, throbbing, very painful headache,often affecting one side of the head and sometimes accompanied by vomiting or by distinct warning signs including visual disturbances.

Symptoms of Migraine Headache: 

• Headache is not continuous if it occurs it lasts long.
• Migraine attack occurs almost four to five times in a month.
• Flush (blush or redness) of blood in cerebral / brainy arteries / blood vessels.
• Vision is not clear (temporarily blind)
• Mild hallucinations / false sense perceptions / illusion / nightmare
• Gastrointestinal / stomach / digestive / gastric disturbance
• Overpowering fatigue / exhaustion, tiredness, weariness, weakness, lethargy, etc.
• Aphasia / lack of language abilities
• Chilling / sweating
• Nausea / sickness of the stomach / the unsettling feeling in the stomach that accompanies the urge to vomit

Causes of Migraine Headache Attack:

• Stress
• Allergy
• Fatigue
• Abrupt Change in atmosphere
• Flashing Light
• Decrease of serotonin (neurotransmitter chemical) in blood

Difference of Headache and Migraine Headache:

 Common Headache:

Aura: a distinctive sensation or visual disturbance that may signal the beginning of a migraine headache

Aura Period: the period in which symptoms are seen as follows:

• It has no symptoms in aura period.
• It’s not disease and can be cured or treated.
• It’s not physiological (body’s internal processes)error.
• It’s not hereditary error.
• Ordinary headache
• It has no aura period.
• Pain killer works.

 Migraine Headache:

• It has symptoms in aura period of 15 to 20 minutes.
• It’s disease and can’t be cured.
• Migraine is a physiological error.
• Migraine headache is hereditary error.
• Migraine is chemical disturbance in serotonin hormone which is in brain.
• It has aura period.
• Pain killer doesn’t work.

The writer has chills, sweating, nausea, debility / weakness in her migraine headache.

Non migraine patients think that the migraine patients are acting in the name of headache. They think that the headache can be cured by taking painkillers but in fact no painkillers act for migraine headache.

Summary:

‘In Bed’, an essay by Joan Didion depicts her personal experiences with migraine headache, which she inherits from her parents. She presents something unusual about the disease in a more philosophical and meditative domain of thought.

Joan spends her day in bed there almost five times a month because of the migraine headache. She knows that she is going to be attacked by the headache when she feels some sort of irritation and flow of blood in the vessels of her brain. To avoid the attack she takes some medicines and starts to work. In her earlier days, she thought that she would get rid of the disease just by denying it. Sometimes she even tells lies saying that she did not have the attack frequently. But the truth was that sometimes the attack was quite violent and long lasting. However, she feels good that she does not have any other physical problems, such as brain tumor, eyestrain or high blood pressure. She also tries to do all her normal work in spite of it. During the attack her right temple (head) would suffer extreme pain and tears would roll down from her right eyes. She would also vomit. Generally the headache may also be caused by stress, allergy, and tiredness, an abrupt change in blood pressure, a flashing light or a fire drill.

It’s strange that no medicine works effectively in case of migraine, especially when the attack begins. Some people may have hallucination, blinding effect, stomach problem, tiredness and pain in all the senses along with headache. They are even unable to do their normal work. During the attack Didion can’t see and speak clearly. She looks as if she has drunk some wine. But the headache never takes anyone’s life. It is interesting to know what doctors believe about a migraine sufferer. They said that the individual is ambitious, inward, and intolerance of unbearable pain But Didion’s untidy hair and carelessness in house keeping do not point out her migraine quality. However her great effort to write and rewrite a single paragraph for a week reveals some sort of perfection. Finally she accepts the diseases and lives with it. When she has it she simply concentrates on the pain. But after ten or twelve hours she gets some sort of refreshment and spiritual power. She opens the window and feels the air, eats gratefully and sleeps well. She feels as if she is blessed by God. Therefore she is happy.

Questions Answers:

1. The basic difference between common headache and migraine headache?

Migraines are not like common headaches. There are certain basic differences between the two. In other words, migraine headaches are different from common headache. To begin with migraine headaches are inherited whereas common headaches are not. Thus, common headache is not a disease but migraine is. Migraines have an aura period but common headaches do not have any. Common headache can be cured by taking painkillers but if migraine headache starts, no painkiller can work. But, it can be prevented if drugs are taken in the aura period. Migraines have different symptoms in different people but common headaches don’t have any symptoms. The writer is a patient of migraine because both her grandmothers and both her parents had migraine. Migraine is a physiological error but common headache is not. Migraine is caused by a hormone called serotonin. When the amount of it in the blood falls sharply, migraine headache starts but common headache does not have any such chemistry. Migraines are not cured. They can be prevented by taking drugs in the aura period. But, if once the actual headache starts, it goes on continuously for longer hours. Such headaches are very strong and unpleasant.

  2. What are the misconceptions about migraine by normal people?

The writer complains that people don’t take migraines seriously. There are some misconceptions about migraine, and the writer wants to correct them. Many people think that migraines are imaginary. They think that migraine patients make themselves ill by worrying too much. Some people even think that the migraine patients do not take pain killers and do not try to get relief knowingly. All these are misconceptions. The reality is that migraine is not the result of any wrong thinking. Migraine headaches are severe and intolerable. No pain killer has any effect on the migraine headache. In this reference, she says that it’s good that her husband also is a patient of migraine. This helps them to have a good understanding.

Some doctors talk about migraine personality. This is a type of personality which makes migraines more likely. A migraine patient is likely to be a perfectionist. But, the writer thinks that all the perfectionists are not the migraine patients. The writer herself is not a perfectionist but she’s a migraine patient. It is more important that the cause of migraine is biological. It’s passed from parents to their children.

 3. What intellectual response does she have toward her own migraines?

Joan Didion has learnt to live with migraine because she cannot avoid them. They begin when she is worried about something. She has developed a type of intellectual response towards migraine. When the migraine starts, she goes to bed and lets it happen. She does not fight against it. The migraine is painful but the pain helps her to get rid of all the other anxieties of life. They stop her worrying so much about the other problems of her life. When the migraine has finished, she feels better. She enjoys the beauty of the nature and thinks how lucky she is because she did not die out of the migraine headache.