That’s really all I have to say. I get migraines very occasionally. I’ve always been prone to headaches, but lately, I’ve been getting them more and more frequently. That sucks in so many ways.
The human body fucking bites.
Any chance you’ve ODed on caffeine lately? I find that my migraines tend to get worse when I"ve had too many caffeinated drinks - which is strange, because a little bit of caffeine actually helps calm them down.
If you can feel it coming, as in feel when your aura begins before the pain, Excedrin Migraine or Advil Migraine will be a blessing - if I can feel mine coming, I can head them off at the pass by taking Excedrin before they get too bad. If I don’t catch them in time, Excedrin are more like sugar pills.
You may want to keep a journal of what you eat and see if there’s anything in common with your food when you get them. Certain foods will trigger them - I have to avoid pine nuts like the plague, otherwise, I am out for the count - the longest (six days) migraine I ever had was the result of a pine nut. One pine nut.
I feel for you - I’ve had migraines for fifteen years diagnosed, and probably 20 years undiagnosed. Not fun at all.
E.
Just a suggestion from a fellow headache (and occasional migraine) sufferer:
Liquid vitamin B complex is a godsend. There’s a brand of it called “Sublingual B”. I can’t recomend it highly enough.
About three years ago, I had the worst migraine of my life-- the puking, moaning, darkened room, wishing-I-was-dead kind. I called my grandmother to ask her to bring over some pain medication for me, and she suggested I try some of this vitamin B liquid. I was irritated, thinking it was some hocus-pocus holistic treatment, but she insisted that my grandfather, who also is a migraine sufferer, got relief from it. Skeptically, I agreed to try-- I probably would have snorted horse poop if it would have eased the pain.
I was amazed. It didn’t take it away, but it made it bearable. I went to sleep after taking it, and when I woke up, I felt much, much better.
I’ve used it many times over the last few years. For me, it ends most normal headaches within a couple minutes. On two occasions, I have taken it when I felt a migraine coming on, and was able to reduce it to just a headache.
The recomended dose on the package is one eye-dropper full-- but that’s like for maintenance, like a daily vitamin. For a full-blown migraine, I usually take three or four. (I’m a very small personn, though. My husband has to take more than that for it to work for him.) The only side effect I have ever gotten is a mild flushing of the skin.
I warn you-- it tastes like shit. But it’s most certainly worth it.
Another headache sufferer checking in.
I’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice, but it worked for me:
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relieve your stress. I started exercising. I do a brisk half hour walk every other day or at least three times a week. That stopped most of the headaches I get.
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get enough sleep. I make a habit now of getting to bed by 11:30 PM at the latest. If I stay up late, I wake up with a headache that lasts for most of the day. A real bummer.
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eat right and often enough. I’ve gone to 4 smaller meals during the day. A snack in the afternoon, like cheese and crackers or fresh fruit helps keep your blood sugar even.
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to get rid of the pain, try hot showers. A shower head with a massage or pulse feature is great for this, especially on tension or stress headaches. They help get rid of most of the pain or make it manageable.
Good luck!
I have no advice to offer over and above what has already been posted, but I wanted to offer a resounding FUCK YES THEY DO!
I get chronic daily headaches and I am on a prescription daily preventative for migraines. I was only diagnosed a couple years ago, and I am still experimenting with pills and diet and excercises suggested by my doctor for treatment, but I have been getting migraines for the past seventeen years.
I am so absolutely sick of having people tell me how tired I look or ask me where the usual perk is and me having to say “headache”. I can just hear all of the "oh that again"s. Or having to call work and tell them I can’t come in or that I need to lay down because I can’t keep my eyes open from pain. I really had to educate them about migraines. If it wasn’t for another coworker with a wife who gets them too who backed me up, I bet I would be fired by now.
I just wanted to add that I currently have a sinus infection (the headaches that come with sinus infections are very near migrane intensity) and a yeast infection.
Oh yeah, I’m hating life right about now. :mad:
My sincerest sympathy. If my transporter were working right now, I’d offer you a hot cup of tea.
I’ll check out the Vitamin B stuff. Heh…stress and sleep…hello, three papers due within less than two weeks. Argh. Spring break can’t come fast enough. I think I may also have to break down and find time this week to go and pay a visit to the campus nurse, to see if she has any suggestions. I’m pretty sure that the migraines at least are some sort of environmental thing - I did not ever get a migraine until I moved out to New Mexico. Hmm.
And 'cuz this is the pit: Last night was a formal dance. I wasn’t going to go - hate formals - so I organized an ‘anti-formal’ gathering. We were all going to take over one of the common rooms, watch movies, eat junk food, and be in distinctly comfortale clothes. No heels allowed. And I fucking missed it, because the idea of leaving my nice dark (relatively) quiet room was unbearable. Grrrrrrrr. :mad:
Do you smoke? I’ve read that smoking worsens migraines.
Two words for you NinjaChick, wind and dust.
There is an evironmental component to those migraines. I’ve been blessed in that I’ve never been a sufferer. However, I used to get sinus infections all the time out there. Wind blowing up the dust usually makes it worse, from what I can tell.
Also be aware that the pollens out there are very different then on the East Coast. I am blessing the fact that there’s no juniper out here. There may be an evergreen that you’re reacting to.
April’s right around the corner, and that’s when the wind hits. If you have a “prevention regime”, start thinking about it.
Not regularly, and when I do, I only smoke a (tobacco) hookah. Maybe once every two weeks or so, not enough to be a factor.
I think it could be environmental, maybe - it’s gotten a lot worse since I got back from winter break, so I guess it could be the cold and dry or something. I’ll keep you all posted if I do see the nurse. Especially if she comes up with some miracle cure which will eliminate all manner of headaches, for good.
I’m not a doctor, a smoker, or a migraine sufferer. So I essentially know nothing about this subject. But from what I’ve read, smoking can trigger migraines even at very low levels; some people can even get migraines from second-hand smoke.
Well, I rarely get headaches (maybe once every six months or so), and even when I do they are alleviated by a paracetemol tab within a short time.
Except today I got a fucken doozie of a headache. It wasn’t one like I’d ever had before, more a stabbing pain in the right temple area that lasted for four freakin’ hours. After a while, I got to panicking that I might have had some sort of clot happening that was causing an aneurism in my brain. It’s quite remarkable how you can convince yer’self that you’re dying when you’re not. 
Yeah. 
Migraines suck the big one. Even just listening to stories from people who get them make me hurt in sympathy
I’ve gone from getting maybe 3 or 4 a year to 3 or 4 a month recently. I have pretty much narrowed it down to the new brand of birth control pill I started on. Call me dumb, but I never realized that the brand of pill can have such a profound effect on those things.
Friday’s migraine took 3 Aleves (early in the day), two prescription ibupropen, and two something elses that I can’t remember what they were I was so blind with pain (luckily, I was with a friend who is an EMT…don’t try that at home, kiddies). I figured I could trust someone with 19 medical certifications not to poison me…although I was hurting so bad I was kinda hoping that’s what she was doing.
Hope you find out what is causing yours, NinjaChick .
Lots of college students really break down physically over four years. I know tons of people that acquired panic attacks, migraines, eating disorders, heart problems, GI problems et cetera and all of it’s probably linked to either the stress or the unhealthy (food and booze) aspects of college life.
I’d suggest going on a more natural diet (I have no idea what you eat but I figure it’s not too healthy if you’re the average student) of nice fresh veggies and fruits. Whole grains, and some white meat/very lean beef (if you’re not a vegetarian.)
Also cut out all caffeine. If there’s one thing I could suggest to everyone in the world it would be to not drink caffeinated beverages. I haven’t ingested any caffeine anytime in my recent memory and I feel the better for it.
I feel that caffeine is one of the great silent drug problems we never hear about.
I was such a hypochondriac/stressed in my academy days that I was coming down with symptoms for virtually everything. The occasional migraine headache that I first started getting at the academy unfortunately never went away totally but I suffer them very rarely.