More migraine art here:
http://www.migraine-aura.org/EN/Migraine_Art.html
I also get them, but I’ve never been diagnosed, because when I get one, I’m too sick to leave the house. I literally cannot function. A dark, cold, quiet room with me under lots of blankets and an ice pack on the side of my head helps. And painkillers. Lots of painkillers (so I can sleep). Fortunately, they subsided in frequency and (usually) intensity after around my 35th birthday. And unless your boss gets them, too, you tend not to be believed that a headache can make you that sick if you call in to work.
It’s my understanding that these headaches tend to run in families. The Sausage Creature is my youngest daughter. My other daughter, my mother, and both of my sisters get them. So you might see if anyone else in your family gets them.
Nobody knows for sure right now. Research is continuing. Many migraine sufferers have undergone extensive MRI explorations - both during the episode and under normal conditions. Nothing conclusive has been discovered or proven yet.
Interestingly though, there is currently a very experimental surgical technique that’s been tried in several extreme cases. Persons suffering from migraine who’ve found no relief through any other means, have been subjected to brain imaging (Magnetic Resonance Venography, I think) in an attempt to locate blood capillaries which are not functioning normally. (It’s thought that in many sufferers, the brain capillaries are dilated and these are the source of both the hallucinations and the pain. That’s why most neurologists will prescribe triptans for migraineurs; triptans act as selective vaso-constrictors in the meninges.) These capillaries are mapped very accurately and then later cauterized by laser. Great initial success with this method has been reported. However, as I said, it is still extremely experimental and isn’t likely to be offered to any but the most chronic and debilitated sufferers.
Yep. Hemiplegic (affecting only one side of the head) migraines are pretty reliably known to be familial. Certain researchers even think they may have isolated the specific gene responsible. This particular gene is also thought to be a locus for epilepsy. Curiously, several anti-convulsants used to treat epilepsy (notably tiagabine & topiramate) have shown to be somewhat effective for migraine prophylaxis - even before this gene was discovered to be a potential cause.
Actually, I was aware of the specific medical meaning, and thus should have unpacked a different adjective. Thanks for clarifying that. I am thankful that I’ve only experienced common migraine, myself. The occasional language loss* I experience when having a very bad migraine is frightening enough, visual or auditory disturbances would be, well, even more disturbing.
- It doesn’t happen often, but it usually manifests in that I cannot find the word for a common object or phrase. Occasionally, I come up with a completely new - and often unintentionally amusing - phrase for something. Once I described a woman with a very unflattering hairstyle as “wearing a bad hair outfit.” I had told my husband I was getting a headache. He said that I started acting spacey, but that phrase was the signal that he had to get me home.
That was about all I could do when I had them. (Luckily I haven’t had one in years, just the aura once in a while.) The dark room and a cold cloth over my eyes did help a little.
I’ll second the advice about seeing a doctor. Meanwhile, get your sleep, since tiredness can be a trigger, and make a note of what you’ve eaten recently if you get another, since some foods can be triggers too.
UncleBeer, I didn’t know there was a correlation with epilepsy. I had migraines as a teenager, and have had a couple of seizures since I turned 50. I’ll have to look that up. Thanks!
Very interesting, particularly the artwork (I hate to admit I like it, as someone suffered so much to create it). UncleBeer, are you a sufferer, a healer, or do you just have an extremely big brain? 
Glad to help. I don’t suffer migraines, but my girlfriend is a chronic migrainuer - and suffers from a distressingly wide variety of migraines with multiple icky symptoms. I didn’t know shit about ‘em before I started dating her four years ago - but I’ve come to learn quite a bit just through natural curiosity and having to deal all too frequently with the ER docs. An excellent book on migraines - although it’s getting a little dated - is Oliver Sacks’ *Migraine*
Here’s a beginning for you, rjk:
The first link discusses use of epilepsy anti-convulsants for migraine treatment:
http://www.neurologyreviews.com/may00/nr_may00_anticonvulsants.html
This second one has a brief mention about a very likely genetic link between familial hemiplegic migraine and epilepsy. Look at the penultimate paragraph; the rest of the page concerns other topics. I dunno if you’ve got a neuro you see regularly, or how bad your migraines are currently, but this might be something to discuss with your doc. Certain types of migraine indicate a higher risk of stroke later in life. Dunno how that plays with epilepsy, but I think I’ve read of a link between stroke and epilepsy.
http://www.neurologyreviews.com/sep05/newsroundup.html
Finally, here’s a far more comprehensive source discussing comorbidity of migraine and epilepsy.
The info on this page, too, discusses some physiological features common to both epilepsy and migraine:
I remember seeing that. Scary. I’ve squashed my head up against the headboard of the bed before. Weird, but when the pain is so intense you do strange stuff.
I’d also advise seeing a doctor, preferably a neurologist. I’ve been taking Topomax for several years and it’s helped considerably. When I feel a (relatively) minor one coming on, I take Advil liqui-gels, and they can sometimes stop it from turning into a full-blown migraine.
My neuro prefers Advil over Excedrin because aspirin can be hard on your stomach.
Also, Excedrin Migraine is the same formula as regular Excedrin, just in a different package. Check the label. It may have more caffeine, if anything.
Jesus! How do they get away with that??
Sure sounds like it, although I concur, hie thee hence to the brain doctor…
I’ve been getting them sporadically for about 20 years now. Started right around the time the Puberty Fairy showed up. Although in terms of timeframe they’ve lasted about the same amount of time (12-14 hours of Pain, dropping steadily to barely-noticable after another 12-14), the actual severity has overall lessened. I actually had one last night and it was pretty mild, although I did go and hide in a dark room…
Yeah, that’s been my experience. Timing may vary; My mom and I get them every 4-6 months or so, other people I’ve commiserated with say they get them every 2 years :mad:
I’ve found that the following things SEEM to provoke/precede mine:
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Extensive periods of stress being suddenly released. Just AFTER job interviews, for instance.
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Sudden, heavy caffiene intake
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The weather SEEMS to have something to do with miine. A sudden shift in weather usually makes me think “Oh boy, time to hide”, but that might be self-fulfilling prophecy, I dunno.
In the distant past nothing helped, although as I’ve grown older ibuprofin is making a mild dent in them, at least enough that I can get to sleep. I’ve tried various other forms of {ahem} medication, vicodin worked for a while but I developed a tolerance to that pretty quick. Certain Herbal Preparations 
never did anything for them, alcohol just made me even more irritable.
Best I can find now is some fast-acting ibuprofin and a dark room and being left the hell alone.
Good luck.
They sought and achieved FDA approval in 1998 to market their standard Excedrin product as “clinically proven to relieve migraine headache pain.” There were independent studies done. It’s the exact same formulation as Extra Strength Excedrin. (There is no “regular strength” Excedrin, btw.)
To their credit, I’ve not seen it priced higher than Extra Strength Excedrin on the shelf.
[hijack] If I had to get an MRI whilst in the middle of a migraine, I would surely be committing suicide, multiple murder, or both. MRIs are LOUD. [/hijack]
I have been a migrane sufferer since I was diagnosed with them at 12. In My family they are hereditary. I am just thankful that my migranes were never as horrifying as the ones my mom had. The longest I had ever had a migrane was lasted 2 days. My moms longest was nearly 5 days. My moms are stress related and mine are a mix of stress and food reactions (aged meats like salami and such)
I am glad that the frequency of my migranes has eased up as I have gotten older. When I was younger (16 - 22) I would get migranes 3 - 4 times a month. Now I only get them a once a month or less often.
My migranes always seem to start with me feeling a bit tired followed by a dull pain behind my eye (one or the other, never both). If I don’t take something right away it usually escalates repidly into a full blown migrane (1/2 hour or less). My vision gets dark and I see iriidescent light in my periphial vision and the pain seems to migrate from behind the eye and seats itself right at the base of the skull. Then it feel like someone drove a spike through the back of my head and is pounding it with a hammer.
Once the pain is there I pray for death, serious drugs and a hot or cold pack. I try one and if it doesn’t help, I switch to the other. Not death or drugs, but the hot or cold packs :eek:
In January I had a migrane set in at work (and didn’t have any Advil with me- bad move) and had to go home. I live about 4 miles from my office, I barely made it home before I was basically incapacatated from the pain.
But as others have said, if you have no history of migranes, definitly see your doctor. It sounds like classic migrane pain, but you never want to assume- especially when it comes to your health.
I’ve gotten them since I was a child. I can remember going to the schol nurse in elementary school with a headache and a sick-to-my-stomach feeling, wanting nothing more than to lie down and be left alone in my misery, and she’d give me a couple of orange chewable baby aspirins (obviously, this was a looong time ago) and send me back to class, thinking I was faking. Sometimes I was able to retaliate by barfing them back up. Then I was able to go home.
They got progressively worse after the Puberty Fairy, and again after each of my kids were born. Hormones or something.
Yes, definitely on Number 1. Weird. You’d think the stress beforehand would do it, but it’s that release afterwards that does it.
As for Number 2, I drink coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. If I skip it, I can feel one coming on.
As for Number 3 - my husband is convinced I have Doppler radar in my head. I can predict pretty accurately when the weather is going to change or when we’re going to get precipitation. We were at a ski resort last year snow tubing and there were these impressive cloud formations in the sky - big billowy rolling clouds, dark gray and ominous-looking. Everyone around us kept saying, “Oh, look at the sky! Look at those clouds! It’s going to SNOW!” He looked at me and asked, “Well? Is it?” and I just said, “Nope.” And it didn’t.
Other times we’ve seem wimpy, wispy clouds and I can say, “It’s going to snow. I can feel it in my head.” And it does. :smug smilie:
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Imitrex works well for me, but it’s not for everyone. Get checked out by a neuro.
I actually have misgivings about telling people these two products are formulated identically. I’ve wondered if mebbe there’s some placebo benefit that a user of the “migraine formula” might no longer experience once the true nature of the drug has been revealed to him/her.
Other folks get them far more frequently, too. My girlfriend, for instance; she gets a pretty fully formed migraine 20 to 25 days every month. I’ve been to the ER with her at least a dozen times in the last four years.
I have to say that my visit to a neurologist was spectacularly uninformative. “Yep, migh be migraines, might be tension headaches.” Then he stuck me on Bextra, which made my heart go pitter patter.
I’ve been complaining about mine to every doctor I’ve ever been to. And sometimes they perscribe something - usually it doesn’t work. Now I do have something that does work.
My six year old gets them - and got her first when she was about three - which was very frightening since she really couldn’t explain what was going on.
One of my girlfriends had them constantly until she started being medicated for being bi-polar - then they went away. Another friend had life impacting ones until a full hysterectomy (which she said was worth it to get rid of the headaches).
I’ve found that Excedrin is the one and only thing that will relieve my migraines. But if I don’t catch it when it’s just starting up, I am likely to be miserable for the next 2 hours or so anyway. Which is still better than a whole day.
One odd thing that works for me is listening to my iPod while I’m lying down in a dark, cool room. I can’t stand to hear people talking or even the normal, background noise in the house (tv, fridge running, dryer etc) but for some reason, music playing softly on the iPod seems to help because it blocks all the other noise. Weird, I know.
I wouldn’t like that - the ‘noise’ would be too close to my ears, but I do tend to put the TV on something mindless and fairly soft. I can hear it, but don’t have to listen too closely. During the day, I’ll put on a soap opera. Just the voices seem to help. Like you said, it’s weird.
(Normally, I never watch soaps - just a disclaimer )
Keep the room dark, and leave me alone, and I’ll be okay … evetually.
I am so glad that you posted this, because just last night I experienced the same thing. I’ve been getting headaches every day for about 2 months, and then last night I was laying in bed and bam! I felt like someone had tied my optic nerve in a big boy scout knot. I thought my eye was going to explode, and then I went to the bathroom to get some tylenol (what? bathroom light? ARRAAGGHGHH!!!) which didn’t really help much.
Eventually it went away, or I fell asleep, I don’t know which came first.
But I will definitely go to the doctor soon.
Bloody head pain…
Argh.
-foxy