MIGRAINES!

[WolfyOne]

I've been getting migraines since I was about 6 or 7. Many years ago, there was no migraine medication on the market that targeted just the migraine. Back then I took Darvon or Sinubid. My mom used to always ask me why I didn't wake her when she'd catch be rocking back and forth on the couch in the middle of the night quietly crying because it hurt so bad. I used to tell her that there was nothing she could do to help me, so why wake her. As a young adult, I was taking Vicodin. I was thankful when Imitrex came out. It meant no more crawling the walls over them. I find as I get older they don't come as frequent or are as bad. I had a doctor once tell me that if I feel the slightest tinge of a headache to take Excedrine for migraine with a sinus pill before reaching for my Imitrex. Most of the time it works. I can function if I'm already awake and the migraine hits me, but if I wake in the middle of the night from one, I'm a goner for a day. It will zap all my energy and makes functioning normally quite hard. I have noticed, if the migraine hits me on my right temple, I could deal with it. If it catches my left temple, I just want to be in that dark room with a sleep mask wrapped around my head for extra darkness. I also go grab an ice pack when it gets that bad. At that point any sound around me is not my friend.

Many migraine sufferers may notice a migraine just before or during their menstrual cycle. The doctor told me it was normal for that to happen to a migraine sufferer. I'm thankful I don't have worry about that one anymore.

[imperfect_cupcake]

this is my very first one. But doc says I've probably been having "auras" (the funny vision I've had periodically since I was twenty) the whole time (silent migraine) - I got all the other symptoms but the pain, which occationally happens with some people. So getting hit with a non stop week long headache that feels like someone is kicking me in the back of the head every two seconds till my teeth/eye pops out is a new and novel experience. Light makes me sob. sound feels like someone trepanning my skull. I'm pretty confused, I've lost track of time/when things have happened etc, dizzy, wierd smells (egg) and today some bizarre visual hallucinations - like things getting burned onto your retina that you keep seeing for a few minutes because of a flash of light.

the sumitriptan given to me yesterday has helped. but I'm going back in. I don't think it's normal to have visual hallucinations closer to the end (middle, fuck knows how long this will take to go away).

Wolfy, very glad to hear it's gotten a lot better.

[jelli]

I've been having migraines for almost 21 yrs now - since the birth of my second son. The number of migraines that take place have significantly decreased since moving away from a lot of stressors 11 yrs ago.

I definitely have a strong aura. I know when my vision starts that I have about 20 minutes to get somewhere safe. I tend to go to my room where it is peaceful and not so bright. I use an ice wrap around my neck to slow the blood flow as well as turn my fan on. Meds as needed and depending on severity.

Cruel and I have a 15 yr old son that has been having migraines for the last 5-6 yrs. He regularly sees a pediatric neurologist. He takes medicine as a preventative as well as onset.

Our son and I are both very sensitive to bright lights, flashing lights, and scents.

[Jett]

Omfg I'm coming off the worst 4 day migraine I've had in many many years... and yesterday was like being in hell... the whole left side of my head felt like I'd been hit by a baseball bat and the visual disturbances, nausea, light and sound sensitivity were kicking my ass badly.

Like most I retreat to that dark quiet space and try to stay passed out (sleep) as much as possible, wake up, take more pain meds, try to stay hydrated as I possibly can.

I wish I could give some great tips and tricks, but what Corkey shared with me some time back (what he shared here too) is helpful... especially the ice feels very soothing (my head feels a yucky kinda hot when I get them).

Upside I always lose a couple pounds... it's like my consolation prize for surviving or something...

[*Anya*]

I started getting migraines out of the blue in my 40's.

My absolute worst ones were ones I had before I was prescribed sumatriptan (Imitrex).

I also feel fortunate because I always get an aura. It starts out a pinprick of shimmer in my right eye and progresses to a half-moon of jagged-edge shimmer in my entire eye. I can not see at all out of that eye when it happens. Very rarely it will move to the left eye. The minute it starts I take a pill and can stave off about 80% of them.

The rest? Quiet, dark room and I take as many Imitrex as I can until it goes away. Then I have kind of a hangover for a few hours afterward and go to sleep. I also feel fortunate it only happens once or twice a month; sometimes less.

My trigger is usually a disruption in the usual time I go to bed at night or if I have less than 7-hours of sleep.

It is so strange I never got them when I had periods.

[AtLast]

I never experience migraine headaches until I went through menopause. This made very aware of how people that deal with them are affected. Awful. Mine did stop after I was through menopause, but I feel for people that have dealt with these all through life.

[Dominique]

I have the kind of migraine that looks like I am having a stroke. My speech
becomes very garbled and some parts of my face look droopy. I have gotten better at reading people (based on that OMG look that comes across their face as I am trying to talk) I think I sound fine. Recovery for me/from one of these is about 4 days.

I have photophobia, and I had a neuro opthomologist make a rigid contact lens with prisms in it to deflect lights. That helps alot. I wear sunglasses at night baseball games because the scoreboard makes me sick. Never, not once has anyone asked why I am wearing sunglasses when it's 11p.m. (only at a sporting event I swear) I can get aura's as much as a week in advance and still do not always recognize that they are aura's. When I get the kalediscope, I know that is a migraine knocking on the door and I take treximet (they call it rescue medicine) to me, it's like drinking a 2 litre bottle of Mt dew. I guess everyone reacts differently. I also have chronic
phonophobia and I can not take smells....i/e second hand cigarette smoke,
overly strong perfumes or colognes.....some times the coast deoderant soap sitting in the shower soap dish. I have a couple of medicines that I am trying to take each night before I go to sleep, but do to a reverberation injury to my thalamus (in the center of my brain) I can not tolerate medicines. I take *baby strength doseages* and am constantly having my platelets checked to ensure the medicines are not eating up the platelets. Weird how the body all works.

The insurance companys (they need to stay out of any medical regulating) will only let you have 12 rescue meds a month. I can use 12 on one head ache. They are not pain medication. No schedule class is attached to it.
I have learned to not go near an emergency room with this type of migraine. They admit you and start treating you for TIA (symptons do present very similar) and then you get that nice bill.....so thats why you have to be able to recognize that OMG look people get, because they'll call
for ems with out you knowing. I wear a really nice gold medical alert braclet (purchased from a jewelry store) with my personal web siite engraved on the back so medical people can see what the heck as per my
highly specialized (and highly regarded neurologist). My heart hurts for anyone who has any form of migraines.

[Starbuck]

Originally Posted by Anya/Georgia

My trigger is usually a disruption in the usual time I go to bed at night or if I have less than 7-hours of sleep.

It is so strange I never got them when I had periods.

You're right, Anya, people that don't get enough sleep or less sleep than they are used to getting predisposes them to a migraine. Hormones too play a HUGE role in migraine activation. That's why so many women start getting them when hormones begin to fluctuate during our mid-life years.

Unfortunately, some people, like my mother, have them their whole life. I cannot count the number of ER visits and hospital admissions she's had because her migraines have been so severe. And each time the doctors ALWAYS want to do a head CT to rule out a stroke or a brain bleed...that adds
up $$$! I wish you the best.

[PlatinumPearl]

I use to have massive migraines where even medication wouldn't help. I once had a co-worker who swore by having a Coca-Cola Slushy or an Iced coffee such as an Iced Cappuccino along with a chocolate bar and her migraine would go away. She would mention something about having a sugar rush and how that and a brain freeze helped? Not sure since it never worked for me.

They say that all health issues start with the gut. I use to have low stomach acid levels and found that the only thing that resolved that issue was drinking pure celery juice. I drink celery juice nearly every day and haven't suffered from a migraine since doing so.