Yes, I have suffered with terrible headaches my whole life. Excedrin works pretty well for me, as someone else mentioned. But see my note about it in my reply to him/her. Imitrex worked really well for me, but I haven't had to have a script for it in years since I am on a preventative that's worked well for me so far. I still get headaches on occasion, but they don't progress to full on migraines like they used to.
Re: working with one - um, I don't know anyone who has been able to do that (so if you can then you must be a super hero). A migraine completely knocks me out of commission. Light bothers me, loud noises, etc. When they have occurred in the past, I would lay in bed with an icepack on my head/neck and pop an Imitrex then just go to sleep. Excedrin used to work pretty well, if I took it before the headache progressed.
Now, I just get cluster headaches or tension/sinus headaches. But not nearly as much.
I agree on the seeing a physician thing. Hopefully you'll get things figured out and get some relief.