Migraines, could you please call ahead?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

At least provide a brief introduction and general statement of intent when you arrive; it would be enormously helpful when I plan my day. Something like: “Hi! I’m your migraine today, and I’ll be making your head ache rather unpleasantly for about half an hour this morning. However, I’ll respond extremely well to the medication you just took, and by lunch I’ll have completely evaporated leaving nothing but a mild queasy feeling. Don’t worry about calling in sick or rescheduling any of your tasks!”

Or, alternately: “Guten tag, mein Herr. Today I’ll be filling the space between your brain and dura mater with liquid mercury. The pressure will gradually increase throughout your skull until an obsidian-sharp crystal of agony forms directly behind your left eye, in much the same manner that Superman squeezes coal into diamonds. Later, I intend to borrow your cervical vertebrae to try out a few Victorian-era exploratory surgical procedures I’ve seen pictures of. Try not to plan anything today that involves interaction with human beings, use of your spine and sensory organs, or any activity except praying for merciful death.”

Just a little hint as to which approach you’re likely to take on any given day? That’s all I’m asking here. Thanks.
P.S. Is there a migraine side effect that causes the subject to hallucinate bugs in one’s peripheral vision? Or is this something completely different I need to worry about?

2

What an excellent description of the pleasure of migraines.

Don’t you at least get some hint beforehand, though? Some people get a funny taste in their mouth or see flashes of light. With me, it’s an odd progression from watching whatever is the center of my line of sight get fuzzy (e.g. my wristwatch is too blurry to read) through various stages of fuzziness, until I suddenly notice I have tunnel vision. Occasionally, one side of my body goes completely numb – all quite proper and expected, according to my neurologist.
Horrible pain and nausea soon follow, but at least the danger signs give me a half hour or so to prepare myself mentally and perhaps take some serious drugs.

3

[QUOTE=Terrifel]
P.S. Is there a migraine side effect that causes the subject to hallucinate bugs in one’s peripheral vision? Or is this something completely different I need to worry about?
[/QUOTE]

Yes. Hallucinations can be associated with migraine.

4

When I get migraines, or am about to get them, I usually get the ‘bugs’ in my vision first. Often if I take good steps at that point, (painkillers, avoiding light, etcetera,) I can head them off completely.

5

[QUOTE=minor7flat5]
Don’t you at least get some hint beforehand, though?
[/QUOTE]
Well yes, but I’d also appreciate at least some clue as to duration and magnitude. I don’t like calling in sick, especially if it turns out that I didn’t have to. On the other hand, I also don’t like having to leave in the middle of the day because my skull membranes won’t stop leaking poison.

I just wish I could know in advance if a particular migraine is going to be weatherable with the proper meds, or if it’s going to be the kind that just keeps going until it causes my nervous system to burst out of my skull and attack the elderly like the creatures from Fiend without a Face.

6

[QUOTE=chrisk]
When I get migraines, or am about to get them, I usually get the ‘bugs’ in my vision first. Often if I take good steps at that point, (painkillers, avoiding light, etcetera,) I can head them off completely.
[/QUOTE]

See you are exactly the kind of person that used to make my life such a misery.

It’s nothing personal though. :slight_smile: When I was younger I used to suffer much more from migraines. They were indistinguishable from a normal headache at first and did not respond to over the counter medication. Neither were they preceded with flashes or any kind of indication that they were going to begin. Yet *every single fucking doctor * I ever asked for medication would insist that flashes and auras and god knows what else were a classic sign of migraine and therefore must be present in every sufferer. Leading to them to prescribe medication which had to be taken in advance of the actual migraine. You, know…when the flashes n stuff starts…you know, the stuff I don’t actually get. I am so glad I have mostly ‘outgrown’ migraines because I am much less tolerant now and there’d be dead doctors all over if they tried that stunt now.

Sorry, we will now return you to your typically less-ranty Zelerton. :slight_smile:

7

I just wanted to note the mention of two major categories of migraine: Terrifel Type I, and Terrifel Type II, precisely defined in the OP.

It annoys me to no end when someone at work shakes their head a little and says “oh…I have a migraine. Sorry, what was that that you said?” — these are clearly people who have never experienced a true migraine, of the Type II mentioned in the OP.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t dilute the fine name of migraine headaches with malingering whining.

The term demands respect. I want to look them in the eye and say, “So, why aren’t you curled up in a ball in a dark room puking your guts out?”

8

[QUOTE=minor7flat5]
The term demands respect. I want to look them in the eye and say, “So, why aren’t you curled up in a ball in a dark room puking your guts out?”
[/QUOTE]

I have had migraines at least twice a week since I was 12. I lose parts of my vision, I lose words, I cannot tolerate noise or lights, and the right side of my body goes weak & numb (and can stay that way for days).

Somehow, though, when it is needed I can block the worst of the pain for a few hours. However I do pay for it when it hits me like an even larger ton of bricks after that few hours.

Also, sometimes I get all those symptoms above, but without the kill-me-now level of pain. I still call it a migraine. That way people don’t think I’m drunk. What else should I call it?

It annoys me to no end when people tell me it can’t be a migraine because I’m still functioning (not saying you are doing that, btw).

9

[QUOTE=Sam I Am]
Also, sometimes I get all those symptoms above, but without the kill-me-now level of pain. I still call it a migraine. That way people don’t think I’m drunk. What else should I call it?

It annoys me to no end when people tell me it can’t be a migraine because I’m still functioning (not saying you are doing that, btw).
[/QUOTE]
There’s a subtle difference between a regular sufferer who is somehow managing to mask the symptoms/stave off the worst, as you describe, and someone who just has no clue of the pain that a true migraine can bring forth.

I guess it comes down to being able to talk the talk. I doubt you would describe your situation to a co-worker as “Oh bother, I have one of those pesky migraines again. And the boss is being a jerk…”, discarding it as if it were simply a tiny inconvenience. If the subject came up, you would chose your words differently. It’s all about attitude and tone.

10

Next time I see my old GP, remind me to thank him for having believed me when I went to him with a migraine, unlike zelie’s.

OK, no, I wasn’t nauseous. I grew up in a mountainous country with a brother who puked his guts out every time the road had a bend - my stomach doesn’t do nausea easily.

And yes, I was walking and talking.

But when I said “I have a headache like an axe going like this (horizontally through my eyes) and another one like this (vertically a little bit to the left of the center of my head), light hurts and sound grates,” he just cussed me for being a lucky hog who was having her first migraine at 30 and gave me some OTC pills, which worked and have worked again the few times one threatened.

When I get an axe through my eyes it’s a migraine. It just happens to be a migraine that doesn’t move into a Terrifel Type II if I take the pills.

11

[QUOTE=minor7flat5]
It annoys me to no end when someone at work shakes their head a little and says “oh…I have a migraine. Sorry, what was that that you said?” — these are clearly people who have never experienced a true migraine, of the Type II mentioned in the OP.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t dilute the fine name of migraine headaches with malingering whining.
[/QUOTE]

That is often me, minor7flat5. It’ll be in that twilight between the first drip drip drip of scalding throbs in my left temple and the blessed moment when the medicine kicks in. I’ll be distracted and quiet, but nominally functional. You won’t know I have a migraine unless you ask me, or notice that I’m paler than usual, or grab my hand and see that it feels like a frozen fish. Drugs kick in and I’m good. They don’t, then it’s Type II and unmistakable.

I’ve got one now. Call you tell?

:frowning:

12

My migraines are much like zelie’s and Nava’s. I have a cast iron stomach - I don’t do nausea except in rare, rare circumstances. I also do not experience visual, auditory or other sensory warnings I’m about to pick up a migraine.

Mine start out as a garden-variety headache that progresses in a continuum of increasing pain until the pain gets to the point where I’m no longer able to function.

Because I have rheumatoid arthritis and a critical allergy to most painkillers, I have a really, really amazing threshold for pain. This means that I can stay functional - not cheerful, mind you, but functional - through ridiculous amounts of pain. So I get a lot of people (including some past doctors) who steadfastly refuse to believe that I have a migraine, as opposed to a desire to slack off whatever it is I’m doing. Those people can bite me.

In my case, my migraines alternate between feeling precisely as though someone has wrapped a steel band around my head and is tightening it slowly (with an added side of icepick-in-both-eardrums) and exactly the same feeling you get about 3 minutes after someone has hit you in the head with a baseball bat (a feeling I’m actually familiar with so I can make the comparison) which moves around my head in a counterclockwise (never clockwise, go figure) fashion. The feeling after impact, but before the bruising has really started to get going, when it’s just all blunt pain and your brain feels slightly mushy and spongy. In both instances, sounds, motion on my part and lights cause evil invisible bastards with axes to lay into my skull.

This is day three of this one. I thought it was gone, but apparently it was just biding its time.

13

I also get two types of migraines.

I usually wake up with the Kill-Me-Now migraines. I take my prescription meds, and stand in the shower with scalding hot water and the shower massage set to ‘stun.’ That usually helps. For the ones that the prescription meds don’t work on, I just crawl into bed and pray for death. I get the light and noise sensitivity, vomiting and chills. Sometimes I even have the sensation that my hair hurts.

The lower-grade migraines start out slow, build to a certain level and just sit there, behind my eyes, with a quiet throbbing. I can function, but at half-speed. Vicodin helps, but it’s hard to get without being labeled as a drug-seeker. My neurologist won’t prescribe it for the low-grade migraines that I get.

I agree with what minor7flat5 said about diluting the good name of migraines by those who don’t know better. A lot (and I mean a lot) of people think ‘migraine’ is just another word for headache. I used to work with a woman who would sometimes lean back, shake her head back and forth and proclaim, “Oooh, I have such a migraine!” Then she’d take one aspirin or Tylenol and be ‘all better’ in 20 minutes.
I’m sure she thought I was a slacker of the highest order for calling in sick when I had a full-blown migraine.

14

I get really angry at people that just call a bad headache a migraine - sorry, not the same thing.
My hubby used to do that -
Him - “OOH, I have a migraine.”
Me - “Do you want something for the pain?”
Him - “Nah - I’ll just deal with it and be fine. I’m tough.”
I am sorry, if it were an actual migraine you would take a ball-peen hammer to the forehead if you thought it would help.

My last goody landed me in the hospital.

“Demerol?”
“It makes me puke…”
“Oh, don’t worry we gave you an anti-emetic.”
:frowning:

Didn’t work.

Dry heaves and vomitting make the pain worse - if that’s even possible.

15

[QUOTE=minor7flat5]
someone at work shakes their head a little
[/QUOTE]

Word. Anyone with a migraine is not going to be shaking their head. I can’t even THINK about shaking my head.

16

I used to get them in high school and thankfully they never reappeared. 20 years later, just the memory of the pain still makes me want to go curl up in a dark room somewhere.

17

[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
Word. Anyone with a migraine is not going to be shaking their head. I can’t even THINK about shaking my head.
[/QUOTE]

The thought of it makes me queasy and I can almost feel one coming on. Ugh.

One of the first times someone realized I was getting migraines I was laid up in the nurses office at school (ca. 7th grade). They thought I was just going in to get out of class with a “headache” all the time. The assistant principal walked in, took one look at me and said, “You’re having a migraine, aren’t you? Your eyes look like mine do when I’m having one.” And I don’t get aura so much as the world becomes painfully white-hot bright. Sometimes a little zigzag but mostly the painful brightness.

It took me years to convince my husband what a migraine was. “Yeah - just a really bad headache. I get them all the time - stop whining!” :mad: I had to spend a few instructive evenings with him on WebMD and Wiki. He doesn’t give me any lip about them now.

Fortunately I don’t get them as badly as I did when I was a teen - my Dr. had me on inderal daily and cafergot when a migraine kicked in. The meds were almost as bad as the headache. I took a lot of herbal things too (feverfew tea - yucky but helpful) and did acupuncture. The inderal made me very tired all the time - I usually have pretty low blood pressure (110/60 or thereabouts, although I had a nasty HBP bout last year) and the cafergot had to be taken with a rectal nausea suppressant or I’d puke it up. That shit was miserable. Puking usually seems to help my headaches, but that stuff would leave me feeling off for hours. In retrospect, it’s really no wonder I did poorly in school when I was a teen. Fortunately my migraines sort of petered out after puberty.

I get the occasional low-grade one knocked out by a handful of Excedrin and a nap. Once a year or so I get one that lays me up for a few days, where I ask people to kill me now, please. And I always get post-headache euphoria - just having the pain *not there *feels like I’m on awesome drugs.

18

[QUOTE=GargoyleWB]
I used to get them in high school and thankfully they never reappeared. 20 years later, just the memory of the pain still makes me want to go curl up in a dark room somewhere.
[/QUOTE]

too true, Gargoyle. :eek:

oh man, is this thread is a bad trip down memory lane. i’m getting queasy just thinking about the memory of that pain, too. i suffered from them from age 10 (onset of puberty) until full-blown menopause kicked in around age 40.

there wasn’t an OTC painkiller or prescribed drug on the market that could abate the pain. i can clearly remember banging my head against the wall because the impact pain made the migraine feel a little less like death was an acceptable option.

i never had any warning they were coming. either i’d wake up with them - very bad and a don’t plan on doing anything kind of day other than to lie very still on a bed in a dark room - or they’d come on gradually. not quite as bad, but still guaranteed to stop any kind of life in it’s tracks for about the next 36 hours.

the only thing i ever got hold of that did work was the vaso-constrictor Imetrex. i crawled (almost literally) into the doctor’s office for a test injection of the stuff during one of the worst migraines i ever had. i was actually about midway through the primary stage of menopause at the time and the headache was so bad i was functioning on survival instinct.

he stuck me with the injection and i swear before god, within five minutes i was feeling better. in ten, the migraine was gone. just gone. i could hardly believe it.

after that, i had no problem at all sticking myself with that tiny needle, knowing relief was only moments away. until my blood pressure decided to go haywire a year later, the Imetrex saved me from a lot of agony. blood pressure issues forced me to give it up, but with the chemical changes, the migraines disappeared at the same time, and seem to be gone for good.

somehow i don’t really mind the many hassles that is menopause, if it means i can be freed of migraines for the rest of my life.

19

[QUOTE=Poysyn]

I am sorry, if it were an actual migraine you would take a ball-peen hammer to the forehead if you thought it would help.

[/QUOTE]

I take injectable imitrex. When someone asks me how I can inject myself with something, I know they’ve never expierenced migraine pain. Luckily, I don’t get that kind of pain anymore*, but I retained the ability to give myself the shot.

I still get the kill me now Migraines, but now my migraines are much more dull and painful rather then kill me now I want to die painful. But Imitrex is still a friggen godsend since Motrin and Tylenol don’t even take the edge off.

20

[QUOTE=BiblioCat]
I usually wake up with the Kill-Me-Now migraines. I take my prescription meds, and stand in the shower with scalding hot water and the shower massage set to ‘stun.’ That usually helps.
[/QUOTE]

Sometimes if I catch it early enough (and can tolerate the noise of it), a cold shower will help knock a migraine into submission for me. I learned this when I was on a canoe trip, and the shock of jumping into a cold lake stopped a migraine completely. Less effective but also useful is freezing the roof of my mouth on the right side.

What I hate are the migraines I get with hot/muggy/stormy weather. There’s not much point getting it to go away, since it’ll just get triggered again until the air finally clears.