Juggling life with migraines

I've had migraines since I was about 8, always thought it was linked to my poor eyesight as it was only ever flashy lights in front of my eyes and horrid pain - but it would go after a few hours.

But now my migraines have got a lot worse. The last week has been the week from hell.

Monday morning I was woken by severe head pain and I lost the feeling in my right arm - my parents rang the emergency services thinking I was having a stroke. After some blood tests and some pain killers my doctor told me it was a sensory migraine - or a migraine with aura - and I was sent home with pain killers and instructed to rest.

The issue is, it's nearly a week and the pain is still unbearable even with pain killers. Not only that but I've been struggling to balance myself, I've been sick and I've been hallucinating - as my first migraine with aura this is scaring the life out of me.

I'm currently in the final year of my degree as well as holding down a part-time job in the industry I'm training for. It's a very sociable industry and not only am I worried about taking the time off to deal with the pain, but what happens if I start hallucinating during a meeting with a client? Or what happens if I lose the feeling in my arms when I'm driving?

I'm new to dealing with this and I'm not coping very well, I never knew this "aura" existed and now I'm hearing horror stories of people losing their memory and not knowing who they are and people going blind for days on end.

I'm worried that since my migraines have got worse from my younger days that they're going to continue to get worse.

How do people cope with this? How are people living a life with the risks of "aura" happening? Just hoping to find some advice from someone other than a doctor rushing me out of their office because they're running behind their schedule.