General Chat

I suffer a mild migraine once a month and have actually connected it to my ovulation- obvioulsy hormone related!

I get the pain above my right eye developing into a crushing pain at the side of my head. I cant look at light and I cant tolerate louds sounds and if I let it go too far I cant speak. The only cure I have found is sleep in a darkened room. Occasionally painkillers if I catch it early enough.

I came home from work one afternoon because it was getting worse and I knew I wouldnt be able to drive if I left it longer. When I got through the door my OH said " what are you doing home?" I replied " Bed" because it was all i could say by then. His eyes lit up then he looked at my face and said "Migraine", I nodded and he said" Oh well, maybe next time"

Sad isnt it?

Gosh, peeps this is interesting reading - to a non-migraine sufferer - thank goodness.

Have often said I have got a migraine but after reading this must just be a bad headache.

Hope in the near future they can find something to iradicate it once and for all and come up with the right medication.

Tina xx

COLD LEMONADE DRINK FAST
AND A COUPLE OF GLASSES

Reminds me of my hubby Tina, he thinks migraine is just a headache. Must show him this thread!!

Frelling marvellous, I've started one today as well, aura is completely different then any others..
Guess it's off to the Doctors.....

Maggy, before I was diagnosed with the TA, my husband said to me.... ' you must have a very low pain threshold'.
I was too ill to kill him at the time, but once the doctor spoke to both of us and he understood.... I accepted *I'm so sorry* as many times as he could say it.... ;-0)
Deanna X

Just remembered ... Travelling in fast cars.... that would put me in bed for a week.
I had a friend whose husband thought it great fun to make me so ill. pig that he was... sorry, but I deserve to be allowed to silently abuse him! ;-0)
Deanna X

I used to have 'sick headaches' as I called them. Then one day I had the zigzag ellipse but not the headache. When I found my headaches were migraines I got a book from the library and it had a picture of the zigzag ellipse exactly the same as the one I had had. I had it on only one other occasion though not as strongly as the first time.

The doc did prescribe some tabs to take when I felt a migraine coming on. I still have them but have not had a migraine for many years now (note to self: throw out the tabs). My sister had what she called a 5 day headache. I dont know if she still gets them. She wouldnt go to her doc for tabs.

As somebody else said, old age has some advantages.

Huia.

I suffer from migraine quite often, after having the doc come to the house to give me a morphine injection during one episode, he started to prescribe Maxalt Melts. One tablet which dissolves on the tongue at the start of a migraine, goes away in 10mins and you feel really spaced out for the rest of the day!

Aaaargh, I went to edit my post and deleted by mistake!!

From the age of 12 until my mid-30s, I got the standard one-sided migraine. Severe pain and felt sick if I didn't take tablets and lie down quickly enough. I was prescribed Migraleve.

In my 30s I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, then ME, and my migraines changed at about that time. I now get an all-over headache, sometimes with the zigzags first. Like Hazlenuss, I have Maxalt, they are brilliant but they do make you feel very spaced-out for the rest of the day. I also take a co-codamol and usually have a slight headache the following day as well.

My husband has Maxalt Melts so that he can take one if he's driving to work but his, thankfully, aren't too severe. I don't like the taste of the Melts so I stick with the ordinary tablet form.

Once the initial stages are over, I'm always ravenous and could eat for England ;-)

I had a coup;e of full blown magraine attacks 28 yrs ago in my 20s. now I just get the zig zag lines and feel sick,usually happens if Ifeel stressed or worried about something. I just take take a couple of asprin or paracetamol and within 10 mins all symptons go.

I've had classic migraines for about 30 years, with pain around the eye socket of the skull in the right eye. As someone said, the axe in the head pain.

During the last couple of years though I have had 3 episodes of visual migraine. Mine is seeing an oval shape, but the edges are not curved, they are coloured zig zags. I have described it as being like a christmas rope light. I am temporarily blinded in they eye it occurs in for a couple of hours but there is no pain. Being blinded is very scary though.

I don't get the two types of migraine at the same time though.

Dianne xx

I find Chocolate does make an attack likely, so gave it up. (what a wrench would rather have lost a limb). I don't get an aura but have some trouble with my thought processes, I can't remember what things are called, one day forgot what them things on the feet were until my son said, "you mean shoes mam??". Also my eyes don't tell my brain what they're seeing very quick so I'm in danger crossing roads when I've got a bad attack.
I find migraleve work very well as long as I take them quick enough.
My mam had them until she went through menapause so here's hoping. lol

I find I get a little of what Helen just described - it's like you just can't focus on or concentrate on things that involve logic. (I dread having to drive anywhere if a migraine is brewing because I struggle to concentrate that much on driving as it is - I have always found driving takes all my concentration and a bit more!)

I seem to have a couple of triggers - one being cheese (used to just be hard cheese like Wensleydale or Lancashire but now I have found it has spread to Edam too) so I have had to give that up, the other trigger is not eating, which is annoying if I'm busy because I then find myself having to eat very suddenly when I can feel it coming on.

Like other people, it drives me mad when you say you have a migraine and they think you're trying to glorify a headache. (I find it feels like I've been hit over the head by a plank of wood - it's that kind of disorientation.) Ironically, it is said that sleep is supposed to help but I find it difficult to sleep when I get one.

Since aromatherapy is one of my interests, I have also discovered that, during a migraine, I can't tolerate any floral or citrus based essential oils, although I can cope with peppermint, eucalyptus or frankincense (although not a mixture of scents like Olbas oil). Sometimes I fill the sink with water, add a couple of drops of an oil, soak a flannel in it and then cover my eyes with the flannel. And there is also something soothing about heating a wheatbag and covering my eyes and forehead with it - the weight of the wheat helps block any light out and the pressure of it seems to help.

I know what you mean about problems with the thought process Helen. I describe it to my family as feeling as though my brain isn't working properly! They say that it's normally like that (rotten people)!

Just read your reply Kate, the wheatbag is an interesting one. Will try that next time. Have tried the cool things for your forehead, but they don't seem to work for me.

I have read some of this thread with intrest ...

My son gets migraine and they come on in 20 mins ...from first signs ...dots in eyes to total lose of speach and vomiting ......He has used lots of things like migraleve (sp) and cold flannels ......

We took him to the doctors at 7 and they wanted him to have beta blockers ...I said no ...

We went on to a homeopath who said it was ...
orange coffee sweetcorn peas chocolate marmite and WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so we put him on bottle water and it went from 4-5 a month to 1-2 !!! we were very shocked and I dont think we will be TOTALLY sure that was it .....

He 19 now and gets one in a blue moon ...they still knock him for 6 but one isnt to bad !!

What sort of chemicals are in your water, Kempinastrawhat? Chlorine, fluoride? Something else?

I had initially put my migraines down to being dehydrated as I think I got the first one on a hot summer day when I went to town to do the shopping and didnt bother about having a drink while I was in there for several hours.

Huia.

I've been reading this thread on migraines. I, too,suffer from migraines - not as regularly as I used too.

One theory is that the flow of blood to the brain is suppressed, and suddenly released causing an upsurge which in turn causes a pulsing action. The reasoning is that it is caused by stress and with the release of stress so the pulsing action takes over. Note, this is only a theory but perhaps plausible.
One possible cure is place an icepack on the neck and place the feet in a hot footbath. This is supposed to draw the blood from the brain. I think the witchdoctors have been at work here.

I notice that with my headaches my hands get very cold and placing them in a basin of hot water does relieve my head.

I have never taken medication as such, only paracetemol or aspirin, sometimes together as one does what the other does not.

Beth

The doc has always asked me what do I think triggers my migraine. But unlike most, I just don't know, I don't even get an aura before, my eyesight is not affected. The only thing I know, is that the day before each attack I have loads of energy and clean the house from top to toe untill it looks like a show home (not an easy task I assure you!!) I try to calm down a bit but I just can't sit down while I have that energy, and I hope the migraine won't come, but it always does!

Mine start off like an almighty hangover, feel sick, and as though my head doesn't belong to me. I can't speak properly, it's as though someone has stuffed my head and my mouth full of cotton wool.
But because my migraines, when they do hit, are on waking in the morning, I haven't had time to take my pink Migraleve tablets, which would relieve the vomiting (apparently). I think I've only managed to take them in time about 3 or 4 times in my whole migraine life.

The headache gets progressively worse, and I'm overly sensitive to noise, smell or movement, so the only thing I can do is to lie down in a cool dark room. I vomit every 20minutes (a noise or smell can induce vomiting attacks in between time too) and I gain slight relief immediately afterwards for about 2 minutes, then the whole process starts again...headache getting progressively worse until the next vomiting session. When I first knew my husband he couldn't believe that just by speaking to me he could induce a vomiting attack!!!

Eventually I fall asleep and by late afternoon I start to feel almost human. By early evening I'm able to sip water, and then I eat some dry biscuits or toast. I sleep through til the next day - when I'm right as rain.

I find it quite difficult to explain to a person who doesn't get migraines, the difference between a migraine and a headache. My mother still can't grasp that my migraine lasts a full day , yet I can have a headache for 3 or 4 days.
I have kept a diary in the past, looking for a pattern, but would say mine are not food related, and there is no apparent pattern.

To all you fellow sufferers, you have my sympathies.