MIGRAINES!

[*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.

[Stone-Butch]

I use to get halo headaches almost every couple of days, both eyes, had to get to a safe rest spot. What I learned through my studies is that something with caffeine would open the brain barrier and allow medication to act more quickly . Coffee, coke, tea etc. one of which surfaced and I would take two extra strength Tylenol and relax. After a while, as soon as I could see it coming on I would take a drink and two Tylenol and avoid the majority of headaches. Now I might get two a year.