Ah, yes, a subject I know well.
I end up in the hospital with mine. They are also the reason I am close to blind in my left eye.
I got so bad one night that my husband called his ex to take me to the hospital. Her and I are best friends, and he couldn’t convince me to let him take me since I know he cannot stand hospitals or needles.
When he handed me the phone all she said was grab your bucket, forget your shoes, and get your ass out to my car, your going.
She has them as bad as I do, but not as frequent. She also knows that when I get to the hospital on top of the migraine I tend to have panic attacks. One time she went to have a smoke and call home to let them know what was going on, and I had started to pull out my IV.
I have a slight migraine most of the time, but like someone said about thier sister, if I let myself lay down, I would be down 90% of the time.
They have got me on Amitriptyline 50mg every night and tried pairing it with that Midrin which didn’t help a bit. Imitrex has always been too expensive. But, now that I have insurance I might have to try that.
They have no idea what trigers mine, but yeah SoMoMom, I am supposed to stay away from certain foods also. Mostly alcohol, caffine, and nicotine. Nothing actually centered on.
My 11 year old daughter gets them also. They are hereditary from what I read. The first time she said that her head hurt she looked really pale. I didn’t catch it in time for her, and she started vomitting.
I know that when the vomitting starts for me I just want my head to fall off, or die. I felt so bad for her.
Wow. I feel like a wimp, because compared to most of the posts, mine aren’t that bad (although I know that they’re worse than headaches). Mine are sharp pains and stay all day. When I think the migraine is gone, I’ll move my head the wrong way and BAM, it feels like someone stuck a knife in (like this afternoon—right now). Sometimes it’ll pulse to my heartbeat. The only reason I know I have the migraine is because of the aura warnings (only time I don’t get those warnings is when I wake up with a migraine, like this morning, which prompted me to start this thread). I know I’ve had some bad ones, but not as bad as some of you guys. There are times when I cannot stand light and have to just lay on my bed. But I never get nauseated. I do sometimes get dizzy.
Another sufferer checking in.
I’ve had them for nearly fifteen years now. I too get the ‘goofy’ vision others here have mentioned. I know one’s coming when I can only see ‘half’ of whatever it is I’m looking at. It’s hard to explain, but I can only see half of anything, regardless of what it is. For instance, if it’s a word, like cook, I can only see the ‘co’, unless I kinda look away. Very odd, and sometimes frightening, depending upon the severity of the final headache.
In my youth it would completely knock me out. Dark room, cool towel on my head, and absolutely no sound for an hour or two was the only way to get through it. Really sucked.
If there’s any consolation to my problem it’s been my ability to both spot them coming on long before they hit and a general idea of what was causing them.
When I was younger my parents took me to see any number of specialists (Kind of a joke, ‘specialist’, if you ask me. I want to know how I can charge a fortune and specialize in doing nothing.). They inevitably prescribed some drug that was hot at the time but did nothing to help my condition.
What did help, ironically enough, was having a lot of bad ones. I got better at spotting the symptoms. I can now tell one’s coming up almost forty minutes before it hits.
Back in college I drank 'em away. Seriously. I would spot one coming and drink a few beers as fast as I could. I doubt it helped much outside of numbing up my system a bit, but any little bit was considered progress, in my view.
As I got older and the idea of getting drunk as a treatment was seen as bit irresponsible, I tried figuring what was going on when one would hit. What I’ve found is a connection between diet a headaches.
When I was younger, and the migraines were especially bad, I was eating like shit. Anything and everything was fair game. Chocolate, ice cream, deep-fried anything, I didn’t care, I was a kid.
But the older I got, and the more narrow and responsible my diet got, the less severe and less often I’d have migraines. I especially notice a drop in migraines when I’m dieting but continuing to eat. I’ll eat fruits and veggies and avoid most highly processed foods. The migraines aren’t as bad.
I’ve also noticed a connection between the frequency of the headaches and the level of stress I’m feeling at any one time. If I’m nervous or over-analyzing things more than normal, the more migraines in a week that I get.
At that point, the only thing I can do is try to calm myself down. Use some deep breathing techniques and basically tell myself that it’s nothing that can’t be solved and worrying about it will only bring more of these things on. Once the headaches gone, I do my damndest to get rid or work out whatever it was that was making me anxious.
In terms of taking something for the pain, despite all the drugs I’ve tried throughout my youth for the headaches, the best thing I’ve found is Excedrin Migraine Capsules. Not the tablets, but the capsules. When I spot one coming I immediately make a bee line for the bottle and down three of them with some water.
I still get the goofed up vision and some nausea, but the headache doesn’t seem quite as bad as they do when I take nothing for them. And believe me, they’ve hit when I haven’t had anything to take for them. Ughhh.
Take this for whatever it’s worth. It’s a bit dated and there’s probably something out there that works better than what was available to me years ago. But my advice to you is to perfect your ability at spotting them and take action immediately. Don’t even hesitate and think, “Well, I’m not sure if it is or not.” take the damn stuff no matter what.
That’s about all I can add. I hope they get better for you, or, in my case, you can learn to live with them.
Good luck.
Cnote - some good advice.
Unfortunately I no longer have any warning signals for mine - I used to be able to tell about 1/2 hour before it would kick in, but that stopped around 7 years ago. But you’re 100% correct about taking measures as soon as you suspect a migraine is coming on.
One good thing is that I don’t have any of the classic food triggers - I can consume all the chocolate and red wine I want. 
My triggers are things like being out in the hot sun, sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, hormonal fluctuations, etc. I used to get low-blood sugar migraines, but since I cut out most of the sugar, refined flour, and other empty starches, my blood sugar is more stable.
And BTW, Excedrin Migraine is the same as “regular” Excedrin, but in a different package. Check the ingredients.
Ugh. Migraines. When I get them, I feel dizzy, and often if I get up and start walking, even if I get up extra slow, I get the bright colored aura over my vision. This is rare, but when it comes…oh boy. And every little sound is amplified.
The ONLY thing that ever helped me with them was Excedin’s Migraine-and I can’t take that, because the aspirin was HELL on my stomach. The only thing I can do with a migraine is take a nap.
What I hate isn’t so much people saying, “oh, I’ve got a migraine, oops, better.” No, it’s the ones who say, “Oh, it’s just a damn headache-you’re such a baby.” Or someone calls off from work because of a migraine: “Bitch! It’s just a stupid headache, what a wimp.” Yeah, well, that shows me you’ve had one before.
Usually, I get the worst ones around my period.
I’ve found drinking caffeine Pepsi helps-caffeine restricts blood vessels, and migraines cause them to expand. So actually, caffeine HELPS me.
Go figure.
I’ve never been formally diagnosed, but on occasion – maybe four or five times a year – I get these headaches that if they aren’t migraines I don’t know what they could be. They seem to be stress-related; I don’t know of any food triggers. I get the throbbing ice pick in either my right or left sinus, sensitivity to light, EXTREME sensitivity to motion, and nausea. I haven’t actually thrown up, but I came really close once when I was about fourteen and my mom was driving me home from school with one. The only thing that helps is staying very still in a dark room and, hopefully, falling asleep. They’re always gone when I wake up.
My mom gets what her doctor calls “visual” migraines, so I suspect that she passed these on to me. Geez, THANKS, Mom…
Sure do
Got them since i was seven years old, they used to be weekly
but these days i get them 4/5 times a year.
My trigger: stress, as soon as the stressfull period is over wham the darn thing hits. They used to give me medicine to take but within a year my system adapted to a point where i had to take ridiculous amounts for it to work so i stopped. Only thing that works these days is a puke-session, gross but it works.
Side-effect: deja-vu’s, two weeks before an attack i’d get deja-vu dreams situated in the stressfull period.
Don’t know about you people but i sure “love” those hypersensetive senses when i got migraines, anything and everything will annoy me, be it the chattering of birds or the smell of food.
On the positive side sure as heck don’t allow myself to get stressed out about a lot of things anymore.
Well thank you sooooo much porcupine. It’s the same!?! There went the placebo effect for me!
Bitch! What’s that, “Bi something something” Great! One’s coming on now too!
Serious? I’ll take a look at that and experiment. I’ve only tried the regular once and it didn’t seem to work as well as the other. If there the same, then thanks, I like saving a buck as much as the next guy. If it’s all been in my head, then I’m gonna be comin’ after ya with all the fury of a cluster migrane!
Cnote, so said my neurologist when I specifically asked him about Excedrin Migraine. I followed with “So it’s a scam?” and he said “Yes.” And if you listen very carefully to the ads, they support the “same drug in a new box” theory. A google search turns up a bunch of stuff, but of course I could not actually find the ingredient list on Excedrin’s website.
I got this one recently a couple of weeks ago while doing tech for a school musical. About three hours earlier, I had a bit of a headache, which just kind of stayed to one side of my head, and then proceeded to increase intensity gradually until suddenly a bunch of symptoms hit me: nausea without the ability to vomit [even when forcing myself to gag], throbbing on the whole left side of my body, inability to stand light or sound, and a feeling like my lungs were collapsing and my body was swelling up. Of course, this had to happen right before the cast party, so my friend, who was driving, had to give me about 700 mg of Tylenol 3 w/ codeine and drop me off at my house while I’m in so much pain tears are streaming down my face. I get home, and my mom thinks I’m just faking it or making a big thing out of it, and makes me sleep in her room just in case I throw up or something. I can barely get to sleep, and then suddenly I just passed out on my pillow in a big puddle of snot and tears.
I would never wish a migraine upon anyone, and I know mine was only a mild one compared to a lot of people’s. I just hope I don’t have to have another one any time soon.
I, too, am a sufferer of migranes. Luckily, I haven’t had one in a while. My only problem is when I get them, they are bad. One was so bad that I had to come home from school and got sick to my stomach. I’m soo happy I don’t have them often. Although, there is a solution out there, at least it helps me, its Excedrin migrane :). hehe love that stuff. I never knew it was just like the regular Excedrin though, ah well its better than tylenol anyway.
I would also be in bed 80% of the time if I wasn’t able to just suck it up and get on with my life.
The really bad ones (9 or 10 on a scale of 1-10) are the ones that put me in bed for the day, puking and crying. I often have migraines that are somewhere around a 2-3 on the pain scale. They’re not too bad, but they hurt enough to be annoying, and basic pain relivers don’t even put a dent in the pain. I need my friend Mr. Codeine to help.
All those OTC “migraine” formulas are the same dose of the medicine, just in a different box. I think Tylenol and Motrin have migraine versions, but the amount of pain reliver is exactly the same as its regular version, and most of them are a dollar or two more than the regular version. What a scam.
Guys can get migraines? I sometimes get really bad migraine-like headaches, but I always thought they’re not real migraines because I’m a guy and only women get them. They’re probably not real anyway because they’re not very sensitive to light or sound (well, bright sunlight maybe, but not normal ambient indoor lighting). I do get pale and nauseous, and movement really sets them off. If I lay perfectly still, I can watch TV no problem, but if I sit up or turn my head then WHAM! It’s like getting hit with a hammer. They usually last 3 or 4 days. No medicine can really stop it, but Excedrin will keep them from getting worse. If I take some early, I can still function pretty normally. I used to get them about once a month, but they’ve really tapered off the last few years (about since I graduated from college).
My husband did get one once, and ever since then he has taken mine seriously.
Took us four years to get to that point. He would tell me it was just a headache and that I needed to get over it.
The one he had must have been pretty mild, but enough to keep him in bed all day. All he took for it was three tylenol, that is why I say mild. Comparitivly to mine.
My friend, his ex, says that alcohol helps hers also. It is rare I guess, but it happens. Tell your doctor about that it will help them prescribe any meds you might need. It has something to do with the way the blood vesels contract IIRC. I know it was mentioned here already, and it is almost 5am after a 11 hour shift, so I am not going to bother racking my brain as of yet. I will call her when I crawl out of be tomorrow to give you the scoop.
I started having migraines when I was a little boy. Fortunately for me, if not for her, my mother also suffered from them and understood. I likened the pain itself to
having a cockleburr (that’s a seed pod about the size of a peanut covered with 1/4 inch spines, for those who don’t know the term) expanding to about 4 times its normal size behind my left eye, then contracting again. I wasn’t particularly sound sensitive, but light was agony–I still hate bright light.
To make matters worse, most of the drugs prescribed for them had, at best, useless effects on me. I was dosed with codeine for one–it made me hyper. Nothing sucks worse than being hyper while suffering from a migraine. Eventually, I started refusing to take anything, and just suffered through on my own.
At the worst (in high school), I got them about once every two weeks. That held steady on into college. Then they just stopped, midway through my sophomore year, and never came back. There’s hope yet guys; sometimes they go away.