Burrell, a counselor at Freedom Elementary School in Hooper, tries to head things off with ibuprofen, caffeine and a trip to the darkest place she can find to try to sleep. Besides headache, she tends to throw up and an arm goes numb. If she can't head it off — something she says she's getting better at — Burrell says she can only ride it out.

Bauman, a Utah native now in graduate school in Arizona, can't remember not having migraines, although they may not all be preceded by aura and they vary in misery. When one hits, he has to find a dark room because he becomes hypersensitive to light. Occasionally, he can take an aspirin very quickly and head it off or weaken it. But recently, after a particularly bad, three-day episode, he decided to try one of the medications designed to prevent or reduce the intensity before it even starts.

Cabanillas, on the other hand, relies on rescue medicine when one hits, although she hates the side effects of feeling achy and sluggish. She gets migraines a lot and has learned to try to work through them, "though it's definitely hard," telling students at Bennion Junior High where she teaches what's happening and asking them to keep their voices down. Noise is excruciating.

Medication may be preventive or "rescue." The former are designed to reduce frequency and severity of attacks and improve function, if it doesn't stop them entirely. The FDA has approved four drugs for prevention, including Inderal, Blocadren, Depakote and Topamax. They're each designed to be used daily, migraine or not. Because they are very different from each other, it's important that migraineurs work with their health-care providers to decide if a prevention drug is needed and, if so, which one, Baggaley says.

Rescue medicines can cause harm if they're taken daily. And there's an even bigger variety of those, from aspirin or ibuprofen and caffeine over-the-counter combinations to controlled analgesics, opiates and others. Experts warn that while caffeine provides some relief, it can also trigger headaches.

The medications also come in various forms, from injections to pills to nasal sprays. And many of them have side effects that should be discussed with a physician.

Exercise is crucial. So is adequate sleep, Baggaley says.

Some migraineurs say acupuncture helps them. Others use yoga or herbal remedies.

In some cases, it may be a matter of getting enough of certain minerals, such as calcium and magnesium. There are products to prevent the back teeth from clenching during sleep that are marketed to stop migraines.