I haven’t had an actual migraine in a long while. But last night, as I was going to bed, I noticed that my vision was going a big wonky–with small details disappearing, making it hard to read. But, honestly, the actual headache, while pretty bad, didn’t feel like a migraine. But now I’m feeling the after effects, where lights and stuff are hard to look at, I feel a bit queasy, and my head and body still hurt.
So I thought I’d ask you guys if you also experience this prodrome phase, and what it’s like to you. And, of course, how long after a migraine it takes for you to feel normal. Because I’ve got places to be on Wednesday.
I wouldn’t wish migraines on my worst enemy. Honestly. They have made me want to die, and only to escape the seemingly eternal agony. The longest it has taken me to “feel normal” again after the worst of the worst is about 2-3 days. But this is AFTER a headache that lasted for 5-6 days unabated. Usually the next day I’m ok.
When I used to get debilitating migraines, back in grade school they took me about 12 hours to recover from. I’d have the school nurse call my mom to come pick me up. I’d go home, puke two or three times and then sleep like a rock for three hours. When I’d wake up I’d usually be shaking because I’d be soooo hungry. At this point I’d ‘feel’ fine, but my time was all screwed up. I never knew if it was today or tomorrow morning and because of the nap I’d be up all night.
I used to get those once a week like clockwork from 1st grade until I was about 20. Now, I get them about once a year, but I take imitrex to deal with them.
The migraines I get now on a regular basis aren’t debilitating. They’re painful, but I can deal with them. If I don’t take my Imitrex, no amount of OTC meds will even scratch the surface and they won’t go away. I’m not sure how long they’d last, but I know from expieriece it’s at least three or four days.
As for how long before I feel back to normal when I take my Imitrex. It’s very quickly. Even with a raging debilitating migraine, after a shot in the arm, the pain is gone within minutes, I feel ‘ok’ in about 10 minutes, and I’m at about 90% in about 30 minutes. The last 10% isn’t migraine related anymore but just side effects from the Imitrex. Occasionally it doesn’t work as fast and the initial 10 minutes is closer to an hour. Either way, Imitrex is still one of my favorite non-scheduled meds with Topamax as a preventivie coming in as a close second.
If it’s a short amount of time, I feel ok by the next morning. But I once had one that lasted 10 days, and even after that it was several days before I felt normal.
But I haven’t had a really bad one since I started taking feverfew.
Before the current round of migraines, it took me about 4-5 hours to start feeling normal. That would be a prodrome phase that often lasted longer than the migraine itself. It was funny in that the prodrome manifested itself differently depending on what I’d taken to defeat the migraine. Often with Zomig, for example, I’d have feelings of invincibility and strength…I called it the Zomig effect.
But this current round…I haven’t had a prodrome effect because apart from about a five-day respite and an occasional few hours of relief the migraines have not really ended in two months. The current one I’m working on is on day 6.
Definitely depends on the duration of the migraine but for such a short incident as described in the OP - less than 12 hours.
I always referred to it as the headache hangover too Ferret Herder. Groggy, a little nauseated and fuzzy feeling like my brain wasn’t quite working yet.
I’m lucky in that my migraines are infrequent and mostly (sometimes completely) painless. If I can lie down in a dark room the visual effects pass in about an hour and then I just feel a little slow and clumsy and sedated for a few more hours, with pain if I stand up quickly or similar. If I try to just go on with my day, ignoring the headache, such as if I’m at work, I’ll often have a dull ache for several hours, but it’s not bad at all, and goes along with a nice cozy drugged feeling. It was worse when I was a kid because I had such a negative psychological reaction to the headaches that I made it worse. (Why me, it hurts, I can’t see, panic, panic…) As a child I would often feel the effects even the next day.
My migraines last at least a day (pain, vomiting, wishing for death). Afterward, there is “a nice cozy drugged feeling” as xoferew put it, in which I’m a bit lightheaded and disconnected, but float around contentedly for about six hours. I think of it as the aftermath.
This may be a good place to ask what you are going to do now that, because of an absurd FDA ruling, the manufacturers of Midrin and its generics are no longer manufacturing them. I have been using Midrin for 25 years. I shudder to think of my life without it.
For me, about a day, even after imitrex; even if the migraine itself is gone, there’s sort of that reverb, like after one rings a gong, and it’s no longer sounding but its visibly vibrating. I’m using the oral imitrex, which may be different.
That walking underwater migraine hangover state, where my senses are all very acute but the world is moving in slow motion, lasts about a day for me. As long as the pain is completely gone, with no indication that it’s going to come back, the afterweirdness is not altogether unpleasant.
I have been fortunate so far that after years of migraines, I have not had a full migraine since late October or so, a week or two after having a Mirena IUD inserted. I knew I had developed awful migraines lasting every day I was off oral contraceptives (during the placebo week) in addition to sporadic, variable-frequency migraines at other times. When continuous (no break week) oral contraception stopped being as effective and my other migraines were continuing, my neurologist and gynecologist suggested a hormonal IUD. To my delight, it has so far stopped all migraines; the worst I’ve had are some occasional auras with no associated headache.
Mine last 2-3 days.
Day 1 is pain and anguish, and blurry vision.
Day 2 most of the pain is gone, but my head still feels fuzzy. Also, if I bend over it feels like a ball of pain rolls from the back of my head to the front, but only on the left side.
Day 3 the pain is pretty much gone. My head feels much less fuzzy and the ball of pain has turned into a ball of weight.
Day 4 I fell all better :)… usually.
I’m fortunate in that mine are neither common, nor severe - not compared with what I’ve heard others have to deal with. Usually if I get a solid night’s sleep, I’m about 90% the next day - still feeling run down. So, less than 24 hours.
I usually get about one per week, but only have a super bad migraine once per month or so. I recently had a two year stretch of three to four per week, so once per week feels positively blissful.
Like so many others have said…it depends. Depends on the length of the migraine and how much and what kind of drugs I took to try to make it go away. The worst migraine I had was around 36 hrs and it took another couple of days after that to feel normal.
Sunday I woke up with one, fell back to sleep before I had a chance to take any meds and work up 3 hrs later feeling fine.