Migraines

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Nokterian

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So yeah i just want to talk to people here on gaf who have well the same thing as i do.

I never had migraines before until a few years ago when i stopped smoking and also stopped drinking cola light. But as it stand according to my mother i think i have the same gene as my grandma did she also had migraines that lasted more than 3 days so i was told and my mom doesn't have it and even her sister had it also so yeah.

It is weird how this can sneak up on you and hit you like a brick in the face, i feel all those symptoms..feeling nausea, bright lights are hurting you're eyes, sound is amplified by 10 times than the bonking in the brain begins making it even worse.

Such a terrible terrible feeling i do have medicine though and i had this a few times at work but it happens ever time when before i go home so that isn't to bad? I mean i can go back to work the next day.

But this weekend on friday i had the most heaviest attack yet and it took me 2,5 days to recover such a horrible experience. I need to live with it now but now i know how it feels and it fucking sucks.
 
As a fellow migraine suffer I feel your pain and yes the feckers do sneak up on you and trying to find something at the doctors to treat it, is equally hard .
 
A girl I knew back in high school suffered from them terribly. She was out of class for many days out of the year. I've never had one but by the sounds of it I don't wish it on anyone.
 
I take Rizatriptan. It used to be $30 a pill, with insurance, and I would have to debate if my migraine was a "$30 headache" or not. Now the drug is generic and I think it costs $1.40 per pill. I think allergies and barometric pressure are triggers (I often have a stuffy nose when I awake with a migraine or it occurs before weather changes); MSG or dehydration might trigger them, too.
 
I get headaches about 3 to 4 times a week. If I don't catch them early they turn into migraines.

I remember when I was a kid I was awful at catching them before they got bad... I swear I would have cut my arm off to make them go away.
 
I started getting terrible migraines as a kid (like 8 or 9 years old). The horrible pain that feels like something is stabbing into your head, could barely keep my eyes open, always lead to vomiting, etc. I kept getting them every so often until I was like 15, and then they pretty much stopped. I guess it's a thing that you can "grow out" of, or it can come and go at various points in your life?

I still get bad headaches once in a while but I don't think anything worse than normal. I have the memories of how friggin' awful a bad migraine is though so the littlest headache still stresses me out remembering it.
 
Migraines are terrible. I have had them all my life, but only a handful of times has it been so powerful that I have had to lay still in a dark room just waiting for it to go away. In that regard i consider myself lucky.

My migraine comes in a 3-4 day attack where I basically have to take painkillers all through those days and then it goes away for a while. Could be days or it could be months. Its quite strange really. I feel for those with stronger attacks though. I know people who have to take a lot of sickdays because of it :(
 
I usually get ibuprofen or metamizole to reduce the pain, but what it really helps me is sleeping

Normally I get migraines when I'm dehydrated, thankfully I get an aura before the migraine starts, so I can be prepared....
 
My migraines always go the same way.

Starts with part of my vision just off centre being blurred enough that I can't see any detail. For example, in that last sentence I would look at the word "blurred", but would be unable to see "being". This then moves outwards in a ring toward the edge of my vision over 30 minutes or so.

Then the pain starts.

I used to get them every month or so, then last August I stopped drinking Coke (never drank anything but full fat) and then a few months later I stopped all soft drinks, squash and sweets/candy. Since I drink no tea or coffee anyway, 99% of my intake is now just water. Not had once since.

My brother also gets them but his seem to come at the end of a period of high stress. Almost like his brain holds it together until the stress has gone and then blam.

If my vision starts to go I pop a couple of Migraleve (Each pill is 500mg Paracetamol and 8mg codeine) and usually it's subsided enough that I can continue work without worry. Its not ideal but my job just means that I can't just up and go home and do all the work tomorrow (live television).

I'm grateful to be free of them at last.


I also believe that I am now more sensitive to bright light than I used to be. But it could be utter rubbish.
 
Migraines that last multiple days sound fucking terrifying. Mine last a few hours at most and I already feel like bashing my head in to just make it stop. You all have my sympathy.
 
my wife gets migraines and they seem very miserable... wondering what kind of prescription meds people have tried and have had good results with... thx
 
DBT85 said:
My migraines always go the same way.

Starts with part of my vision just off centre being blurred enough that I can't see any detail. For example, in that last sentence I would look at the word "blurred", but would be unable to see "being". This then moves outwards in a ring toward the edge of my vision over 30 minutes or so.

Then the pain starts.
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This is exactly the one I have. I mean, exactly. I had one last friday that gave me such a strong photophobia, that I'm still recovering from it

I'm gonna do just like you and quit sugar, thanks for the advice
 
I usually get one every few months, blurry vision for about an hour before my head starts pounding and my gag reflex goes haywire. There's this amazing pill called migraleve that helps a lot; doesn't cure it but takes away the headache and nausea afterwards.
 
DBT85 said:
My migraines always go the same way.

Starts with part of my vision just off centre being blurred enough that I can't see any detail. For example, in that last sentence I would look at the word "blurred", but would be unable to see "being". This then moves outwards in a ring toward the edge of my vision over 30 minutes or so.

Then the pain starts.
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Exactly the same happens to me. Its unbelievable how quick and strong the pain comes on after that.
 
I get one or two a month depending on the weather and whether I have a cold (stuffed sinuses seem to really set them off).

I used to take rizatriptan (my wife still does) but now that I'm also on sertraline I can't mix the two so naproxen is really the strongest thing I can employ. It only takes the smallest of edges off, but it's better than tylenol which does basically dick-all.

My migraines seem to worsen with changes in posture, too, which is annoying. They always surge briefly when I stand up.
 
ubique said:
This is exactly the one I have. I mean, exactly. I had one last friday that gave me such a strong photophobia, that I'm still recovering from it

I'm gonna do just like you and quit sugar, thanks for the advice
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I still eat sugar. No way could I stop it all at once. Sitting here right now with a bag of cookies lol. But I was probably necking on average 1L of Coke a day while at work, plus huge bags of sweets and cookies and shit. I've probably just cut down the intake by about 80%, but then it was monstrously high when working.

Please to see I'm not the only one with my particular symptoms!
 
When I was younger I used to get incredibly intense migraines. The pain, the nausea, sensitivity to light and sound and both blind spots and tunnel vision. Absolutely could not function. Today, I still get migraines but the pain and nausea isn't as bad but it always starts with a blind spot and then tunnel vision, which is always terrible.

I know of 2 of my triggers. 1 is aspartame, I started drinking diet soda at one point and suddenly I was having multiple migraines a week (typically I would get one every few months). 2 is when stress is suddenly relieved, like right before having a long vacation from work. That one sucks because I can't avoid it and it should be a good moment.

DBT85 said:
My migraines always go the same way.

Starts with part of my vision just off centre being blurred enough that I can't see any detail. For example, in that last sentence I would look at the word "blurred", but would be unable to see "being". This then moves outwards in a ring toward the edge of my vision over 30 minutes or so.
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This is a perfect description of what I experience. Suddenly you can't read because you can't see what is right in front of you and you know, shit here we go again.
 
I've had migraines since my childhood. They usually start as a small headache and get worse until the full pain hits me in the afternoon. The night will horrible and the whole next day I'll feel like I'm made out of Glas and could shatter any second. I've that around once a month, sometimes every two months...and if I'm really unlucky I get them 2 times a week. Why I still have not figured out

It's funny tho, I can browse gaf like a champ even with a migraine; but walking is so painful that I can barely walk to the bathroom.

The worst one I had a few weeks ago, no matter what I did the pain did not become dull. It just stayed tuned up to 100% even while lying in bed and not moving.

So my tldr: migraines are horrible and I feel ya
 
I feel your pain, I never suffered until a few years ago and I got one at work, felt like my head had been split in half, oddly mine started with a numbness in my little finger then made it all the way up my left hand side of my body, my colleagues called the ambulance out because they didn't know what was going on, I was ok at the time and it wasn't any more serious but ambulance crew told me if it doesn't get better to go to the doctors, it didn't and I felt the sickest I'd ever actually felt without being sick, doctor sent me to hospital where I had a scan and everything but it showed nothing but a severe migraine.

I suffered for about 4 days before it get better, horrible experience. I felt like I was hungover for that whole period after it had gone.

I since get one regularly once a year at any point, they start off with blurry in my peripheral vision then I can't see and I get flickering crackles of light and bang, I'm done, horrible sensitivity to light and noise.

I used to joke with a colleague who suffered them before I did and gave her a ribbing for being off with a headache, now I fully understand.

I had an eye test to rule out any problems and I have perfect vision so it's nothing wrong there, the optician did say I should make a diary of what I've done when I get them to help me figure out what could be my trigger for a migraine but as odds go I haven't had one since my checkup.
 
DBT85 said:
My migraines always go the same way.

Starts with part of my vision just off centre being blurred enough that I can't see any detail. For example, in that last sentence I would look at the word "blurred", but would be unable to see "being". This then moves outwards in a ring toward the edge of my vision over 30 minutes or so.

Then the pain starts.

I used to get them every month or so, then last August I stopped drinking Coke (never drank anything but full fat) and then a few months later I stopped all soft drinks, squash and sweets/candy. Since I drink no tea or coffee anyway, 99% of my intake is now just water. Not had once since.

My brother also gets them but his seem to come at the end of a period of high stress. Almost like his brain holds it together until the stress has gone and then blam.

If my vision starts to go I pop a couple of Migraleve (Each pill is 500mg Paracetamol and 8mg codeine) and usually it's subsided enough that I can continue work without worry. Its not ideal but my job just means that I can't just up and go home and do all the work tomorrow (live television).

I'm grateful to be free of them at last.

I also believe that I am now more sensitive to bright light than I used to be. But it could be utter rubbish.
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Your description of the aura sounds exactly like how I get them. Luckily I only get maybe 3-4 a year, but because of that it makes it hard to pin down an exact cause. I think you might be onto something with the sugar though. The last time I got one was during our company summer picnic where I had a big glass of real soda (I only ever drink diet).

One weird thing is that I've never gotten the nausea that others report. Light sensitivity is something I've always had regardless. Mainly I just get a bad headache towards the back of my head that lasts about a day. Then I have some residual pain and some weird vision issues for a few days after that.

Might have to look into this Migraleve stuff.
 
Feel for ya OP. I've been getting migraines for about 15 years now.

I'm only now starting to narrow down my triggers. It's unbelievably difficult. I've gone as far as speaking to food manufacturing companies, going through detailed ingredients. For example, there is a very specific type of red food colouring that triggers a migraine for me without fail. Red #40 is one I'm 95% sure about.

nilbog21 said:
my wife gets migraines and they seem very miserable... wondering what kind of prescription meds people have tried and have had good results with... thx
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Rizatriptan works for me. I take a generic that costs something like $2 a dose.

Pill from the Gods.
 
I started getting migraines when I was 12. I usually get one once a week but if I take medication in time I can prevent it from getting really bad. Once in a while though, I just wake up one morning with a heavy nausea and no matter what I do, I know that my head is fucked for the next 3 days. I can't drink beer or wine as that tends to trigger migraines. Other alcohols are fine in small doses.

Since I moved to the south of France in 2008, October and November are really bad months for me. I guess the sudden change in atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity affect me a lot. The first year it happened, my doctor thought I had a tumor at first, the pain was so bad... It isolates me a little bit socially as I tend to want to avoid too much excitement, stimulations, noise, large gatherings, etc.

But I've learned to live with it. I always keep in my mind that nobody has it easy, I could have been dealt a much worse hand by fate. I just hope nobody else in my family ever inherits this affliction.
 
I have cluster headaches this time of year. It feels like my eye is swelling and that the left part of my head had been laying on an ice pick when I wake up. My left eye will tear up and it will hurt so bad that at times I have puked. I went to see my doctor and did the whole 9 of X-rays and what not. Turns out it's just one of those things that's a combination of allergy sensitivity and sinus cavities.

As soon as I get up and get coffee, I'm good.
 
Sorry to hear that. They are the worst. They really mess with my brain and there's nothing that helps me once it kicks in.

Although the cola thing is interesting. Obviously it's anecdotal, but since I've been drinking coffee daily, my migraines have nearly disappeared. I went through a bad stretch where I couldn't work out and had two in one week and my Dr. was useless.

Good luck
 
Migraine-sufferer checking in.

Worst thing about mine is the blindness. Anyone else here struggle with what I've dubbed 'the worm'?
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So horrible. Seem to have inherited them from my Dad.
 
See a neurologist. Most likely going to first prescribe you an antidepressant that also works as a migraine stopper. If that doesn't work they will try other drugs and if that doesn't work they will try Botox injections
 
TrounceX said:
Your description of the aura sounds exactly like how I get them. Luckily I only get maybe 3-4 a year, but because of that it makes it hard to pin down an exact cause. I think you might be onto something with the sugar though. The last time I got one was during our company summer picnic where I had a big glass of real soda (I only ever drink diet).

One weird thing is that I've never gotten the nausea that others report. Light sensitivity is something I've always had regardless. Mainly I just get a bad headache towards the back of my head that lasts about a day. Then I have some residual pain and some weird vision issues for a few days after that.

Might have to look into this Migraleve stuff.
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Might not be available everywhere, I'm in the UK and you can just get it over the counter at any pharmacy.

I've only had nausea the first time I got one. I had no idea what was happening and I got sent home from work. I got in the lift (elevator) and felt fine, my dad asked if I felt sick, I said no. 6 floors later the doors open, I take one step out and present my Kung Po Chicken lunch to the lobby floor lol. Couldn't eat that meal from that place for over 18 months.
 
DBT85 said:
Starts with part of my vision just off centre being blurred enough that I can't see any detail. For example, in that last sentence I would look at the word "blurred", but would be unable to see "being". This then moves outwards in a ring toward the edge of my vision over 30 minutes or so.
Click to expand...

I had that recently without the following pain, thought I was suffering from a stroke.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma

Lately I constantly have a twitching eyelid on the left. No full migraine yet but something seems to be developing. Doesn't help that the eye doc diagnosed it as amaurosis fugax even though the scotoma description matches it perfectly.
 
I've had migraines since I was five years old (I'm twenty nine now). I remember my first one very clearly. Christmas Eve, 1992. I was so scared. No idea what was going on. Eventually I threw up and passed out on my grandparents floor.

The throwing up is always the worst. it feels like my entire body is coming out of my mouth and them I'm just dry as a bone and totally in shock, but then I sleep for the rest of the day and I feel better.

Though if I don't get that sleep time in, like a solid 6-8 hours of just total body crash I wake up with the headache again. This time duller and more at the crown of my head.

At least now I have some sort of idea how to handle them and can recognize the signs. I've even successfully dodged them a few times by clearing my mind. This is after attempting meditation on my free time. I can sometimes get through them with out medicating (either aspirin or weed), but not always.

Lately though they've gotten worse. I can feel the migraine creeping in and hitting, but then here comes a tension headache as well. Even just talking about them makes my body "sizzle" in those particular areas.

As long as I can lay down, shut my eyes and keep pressure on my forehead I'm usually cool. And drinking tons of water so when I do eventually vomit I'm not completely dried out.
 
man ive had intense headaches that lasted days if i didnt take medicine. It just hurts really bad though i dont have any other side effects from it so I dont know if it's a migraine or not
 
I regularly get them. Sometimes a couple of times per week. Sometimes none for weeks. They last about half a day, but it will linger until I get some decent sleep.

They're always preceded by the typical blind spot. I thought was going blind the first time it happened. Sometimes I get other weird auras like tingling patches of skin or extreme deja vu.

It's ok if I can take painkillers on time. Tried a whole bunch of different pills and sprays and what have you. None of which really did the job without side effects that were almost as bad.

It fucking sucks. I get goosebumps just thinking about what it's like.
 
I have a mild form of it. Begins with distorted view for about 30 mins then quite ugly headaches at the front for some hours. Frequency about 6 times a year without any pattern visible. Sometimes while watching TV, sometimes at work, sometimes while driving in my car. Never took any medication for this.

My wife isn't as lucky tho. If she doesn't take her pills in the first minutes of the attack, she has to suffer for days literally with vomiting and feeling lousy. Thank god only two or three times a year.
 
I haven't had a migraine attack since I was 19 years old and I hope that they never return as migraines aren't fun to deal with.

Sadly my mother gets them from time to time and is easily prone to them via flashing light.
 
I just started getting them a few years back. Usually happens 1-3 times a year. Usually ends after 10-12hrs. I can't believe people go through that ridiculous amount of pain for days at a time. I be borderline ready to accept death after a few hours. The worst part is not just the insane headache/sickness but the stupid amount pain and pressure I get in my eye sockets. Feels like what expect eye gouging to be like.
 
i used to have one or two a year, but last september i started doing night shifts again and there´s not a lot of natural light on my ward. The first six months were pretty rough, i started havin headache almost every day and a migraine or more a week, i changed to naproxen and metamizole, and this last months i had some headache but not migraines, so i guess the change in medication and my body adjusting to the situation did the rest.
 
I can't even handle headaches. I think my brother's wife gets migraines. Wonder if it's from all the diet coke she drinks..
 
I get migraines, used to be about one a month, then I found out my eyesight was bad, now it's about 2 a year, but an absolute ripper hangover can also trigger them
 
Syder said:
Migraine-sufferer checking in.

Worst thing about mine is the blindness. Anyone else here struggle with what I've dubbed 'the worm'?So horrible. Seem to have inherited them from my Dad.
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I've got those aura's pretty badly. It started about ten years ago. Always the same pattern: having an auro for about half an hour followed by incredible headaches for two days. Sometimes my migraines was so bad I had a constant feeling of deja vu for a day, which was very scary and made me close to vomiting every time. I was incredibly afraid of a brain tumor but my g.p. gave me the diagnosis of migraines and could talk the fear of something bad out of my mind.

Since then I was getting it more and more regular, sometimes twice a week! I started an intensive period of keeping a migraine diary and deducing the cause: from sleeping patterns, activities (like console- and handheld gaming), and food patterns (eliminating alcohol, coffee, chees, milk etc. etc.)

In the end I think I found the three dominant causes and those were E621 or Monosodium glutamate, light drinks (Cola light especially) and alcohol. I as a vegetarian always took a gravy powder which contained E621and also took things like chips and Asian food which contained it. After expelling it from my eating pattern completely and after stopping drinking alcohol it reduced my migraine attacks from twice a week to once in two, three months! I even tried the three causes seperatly but after taking or alcohol, or light Coke or E621 it would almost every time gave me an instant migraine attack!

So happy because it made my life with things like working so hard sometimes. So yeah, the only advice I could give is maybe keeping a migraines diary and start eliminating possible causes. Oh yeah, if I take a paracetamol after getting a aura my headaches periode becomes much less worse.

EDIT: migraine can give some serious bad side effects like my constant deja vu but I also know somebody who, when getting a migraine attack, got a cripple right leg which also made him fear a brain tumor.
 
I used to get them a lot.

They are the fucking worst.

I remember having to stay in and sleep entire days because of them.

Light and sound all fucking hurt your head, it's a ridiculously painful experience.
 
I get them too, OP. Mine tend to start with the aura (visual disturbance, looks a bit like a water droplet over swimming goggles - increasingly larger before dissipating), and then the headache comes on. To be honest, and this isn't some macho thing, I just pop a couple of paracetamol when the aura starts and get on with it. It's horrible when it happens, but I've never taken time off work for them, and seemingly keeping active helps. Other members of my family have them too, which suggest genetic, but they do the whole dark room and bed thing.

I've had them since being a teenager which suggests it might be hormone-related. I've tried for years to work out the triggers, but no patterns have emerged. That said, I once managed to stop it before it took hold by pounding a bag of Haribo, so it has occurred to me that it might be something to do with blood sugar.

Interesting, and slightly weird side note; I sometimes get them at night, and I see the aura in my vision in my dream.
 
When I was younger the vision thing happened before every migraine. Now it's a little pain behind the ear. Also crave something sweet or salty. Does anyone else obsess over a weird thought during a migraine? It's hard to explain.
 
I rarely get it, but if I do it's usually after having the sun kind of blinding me, for example if I'm walk in its direction a bit before sunset. Usually my vision will get blurry in one eye, then the migraine will start, but only lasts maybe an hour. I associate it with some sort of light sensitivity.
 
Syder said:
Migraine-sufferer checking in.

Worst thing about mine is the blindness. Anyone else here struggle with what I've dubbed 'the worm'?So horrible. Seem to have inherited them from my Dad.
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Yes, but thankfully I only get those type of migraines every 1 or 2 years. I immediately have to stop what I'm doing, close my eyes and lay down. That type of blurred vision scares and gives me anxiety because I always think, what if it doesn't go away?
 
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