Strangely enough, my mother and I found that taking a mulitvitamin with calcium every day helped reduce the number we suffered significantly. Mom can even have some of her forbidden foods once in a while (which has made us all much happier). I don’t watch what I eat at all and my average has dropped to about one per six months or less. Mind you, waking up too early (6 AM or thereabouts) is still almost a guarantee of popping one off.
And for treatment, I second the caffine with pain pill routine, as well as a nap in a dark place–sometimes having a fan on, but not pointed at me helps me sleep and acts as a white noise generator, but YMMV.
I seem to be getting migraine symptoms triggered by visual stimulus (the angle of the sun coming into my cubicle at a particular time of day, just at this time of year.) It’s happened for the last 3 years. This year I’m just mostly getting milder auras and nausea, the precursors to the violently awful headache/nausea knockout combo I was getting the last couple of years. (Though by the end of the work day I tend to be incredible over-sensitive to flickering light and any kind of noise.) I’m reluctant to call what I’ve experienced migraine, since a lot of people just call any old headache that, but the symptoms were pretty textbook. I’d just never heard of it being triggered that way. All I can say is I’m thankful it’s been manageable so far - the last couple of years if I caught that I was getting the auras in time I could prevent too much of the headache by getting the heck out of my cubicle, taking an advil, and just leaving it be. (Hey, I’m allergic to work - that would be funny if the whole package of symptoms wasn’t so upsetting!)
Sure, light is one of the classic triggers for migraines. I’m pretty sensitive to bright lights anyway, so I’ve had my share of light-triggered migraines. Flickering sunlight reflecting off water or snow has been known to set mine off and one of the worst I can remember started in a dance club with a strobe light. Needless to say, my friends (none of whom has ever suffered migraines, of course) found it particularly amusing to be escorting me out and calling me a cab before I’d even had a single beer. I thought I was going to die on my way home.
Thankfully, I only get them rarely, sometimes going years in between episodes, so I’ve never bothered with expensive prescriptions although when they do hit, I’m sure I’d be willing to empty my bank account to make the pain & nausea go away.
It is a sad, sad thing when the things I am an expert in is a Migraine.
I use to get migraines because of food triggers.
Then, in addition:
And sometimes:
Now, after two kids, it is not so much hormonal or food anymore, which is good.
It is **Barometic **, which means my head predicts better than a Doppler
I found preventative maintence medicine likeCorreg or **MaxAlt ** work absolute miracles. In a pinch, when one comes on and I have none of the above, Excedrin Migraine or a couple of aspirin with my coffee helps nip it in the bud.
Imitrex (nasal) is also a godsend, except for the barfening aftertaste.
Also, interestingly enough, since it has been rainy, overcast craptacular here lately, I went lap swimming yesterday and the raining weather hasn’t bothered me much at all. I am wondering if the pressure of the water around my head while I swim somehow off-sets the barometric pressure drop.
Another self-help reducer of migraines can be taking deep, deep breathes. Oxygenating your system can help tremendously and helps lower stress.
Prior to going to the doctors about the hormonal migraines, I just thought it was something I had to deal with until menopause and lay there wishing for death.
I’m on a prescription form of Aleve as my “migraine stopper” medication; it’s the equivalent of 4 Aleve tablets. (Note that this is by prescription; do not take OTC remedies at non-label dosages unless told to by a physician.) I was taking OTC doses of Aleve as migraine treatment before seeing a doctor about them.
And as porcupine and others said, the recommended prescription medications will vary depending on the person and the type of migraine. One poster in the thread is on some very expensive medication for daily prevention, while mine (nortriptyline) is $7.50 for a month’s worth, without any insurance deductions.
I told my internist that I had twice during the previous two years stopped drinking caffeine completely (no tea or anything) for six months at a time, and saw no change in migraine frequency, so she simply recommended that I could continue drinking the amount of caffeine that I was on, but probably shouldn’t increase it. This is why taking OTC meds with caffeine wouldn’t be a good idea for me, and why you need to be careful that you’re really suffering a migraine and not just caffeine withdrawal. I get addicted at even one soda/cup of coffee a day and get a withdrawal headache (not a migraine) if I miss it (unless I’ve been off caffeine for a couple weeks), so I need to be sure what kind of headache I’m experiencing.
On my current meds, I’ve had one migraine in three months, instead of about one a week.
Hmmmm. This week they have been getting slightly better, so I think something at school is causing them. Maybe it’s the poor lighting, overuse of colonge, crappy cafiteria food, extremly loud and annoying people, or concentrating to hard. School is like a death trap, it’s where my really bad ones start. So far at the fist twinge of a headache I have been taking Motrin. Most of the time it has helped, though sometimes it feels like it helped it get worse. I don’t think I have caffine withdrawl, since I was never big on soda anyway. Too much empty calories. Maybe I will start adding the weather too. So far it has been extra crappy here. All rainy and such. It is setting of my asthma, so maybe it is setting off my migraines too. Well I am going to see the nero tomorrow morning, so wish me luck!
I’m another one of those Doppler chicks - Shirley, you and I are quite a bit alike as to other triggers as well.
There are a number of migraine medications I can’t take due to other health related issues, generally, my neuro gives me a prescription for painkillers. I’m not real happy about this, but I can live with it.
Yep, I also have Doppler equipment in my head. I always know when it’s going to rain or snow.
I also have a lot of the same triggers as you two. Chocolate doesn’t bother me, but root veggies and avocados do. Shrimp does, but not other shellfish. Weird, huh? Red wine and grape juice are off-limits, as are raw peanuts. Peanut butter is okay, though.
Flickering lights do it every time. I can “see” flourescent lights flickering, even when others can’t. They think I’m nuts.
The morning sun doesn’t bother me, but I simply cannot sit outside and look into the setting sun. The reddish glare just sets me off.
Strong perfume and chemical smells do me in every time.
[old bat hijack] Been there, done that, Shirley. I hate to be the turd in the punch bowl, but here on the other side it’s actually worse:
Teens: a bunch 'o headaches
Twenties: even more headaches
Thirties: much better
Forties right up to the line: great (maybe 6 times a year)
After: Fully Qualified Black Belt 19-Days-Out-of-30 Migraineur™
Maybe it’ll ease off in a few years, I can only hope. Until then, thank Og for triptans. [/crabby old biddy complaint]
Flourescent lights flicker for me as well. I always feel like I am on the verge of a seizure or something. And I am not epiletic. Most of those Japanese/Anime cartoons do this to me as well, which is why I don’t like my kids watching them. I think it is farking with their brains in someway diabolical anyways.
On cloudy days I wear sunglasses. It just hits on an optic nerve. On sunny days I wear sun glasses or I will suffer. I look like Ray Charles most of the time, only white, female and no keyboard talent.
Smells, chemical or perfumical, just set me off. And God forbid you are one of those people that bath in your ‘signature cologne’, I will nearly gag as I reel back from you. Please, Brut and Hi-Karate are not the epitome of good smells.
Car Exhaust…gah! Cigerette smell…gah!
My husband thinks I am insane, yet is sympathetic. He is pretty sure that his arousal causes my migraines as well. ( It does )
Although, all things considered, I am very healthy. [Old Jewish Woman] I can’t complain [/OJW]
I’m not epileptic, either, but the stuff I take as a preventative (Topamax) is a epilepsy drug, and works on the brain’s electrical impulses to prevent seizures.
Me, too. I have a pair of those yellow-tinted sunglasses for cloudy days that take care of the glare quite nicely. I have several pairs of sunglasses scattered around, too, so I won’t be caught without them. When the sun hits my eyes, it’s like an ice pick right through my head.
Yep. Something subtle is okay, but people who freaking marinate in strong colonges get a wi-i-i-ide berth from me.
Cigarette smoke is just awful, too.
Light and sound are the worst. When I am around strong lighting I cannot see, and my temples feel like knives are going through them. When loud sound is on I just want to cry. I can tell if lights are flickering too. I get strange looks from my friends. I had a really bad one not a few hours ago. I thought I was going to hurl. That is the first time I have had that happen. Thankfuly, I didn’t. I am feeling better now.
I definately suggest Excederin Migraine, but you have to take it as soon as you begin to feel symptoms. If you wait until the headache has progressed more, then it won’t work.
I sometimes get migraines also…As soon as I feel it coming on I immediately take Excedrine with CAFFEINE…works wonders…also take a cold washcloth, place it on your head and lay down for awhile…maybe even take a nap.
good luck!!
Thanks, I will ask my doctor about Excedrine. It seems to be a popular choice here. I’ll try out the cold washcloth. Some of you seem to say that caffiene, which is strange because the first doctor I went to told me NOT to use it, because it is a strong trigger of migraines. Well I’ll take your advice and badger the nero doctor about excedrine and caffine. I’ll let ya know what he says.
As I read about everybody’s own migrane experiences, I am filled with wonder at how anyone can possibly cope with such horrible nausia and pain on a weekly or daily basis.
Thankfully, I get them only once every couple of years – any more frequent is unthinkable. My sympathy for those who suffer frequent migranes.
I just got a migraine today - 5 hours ago. So an anecdote fwiw…
When I first noticed the aura, I immediately took a dose of 20 mg sumatriptan (Imigran nasal single dose spray). It aborted the migraine. All I have now is a mild headache. If it didnt work I would be lying in bed in a dark room trying to sleep - but I can do other things like use the SDMB and work (a bit).
This is the second time I have used this drug and both times have aborted the migraine. I always get auras and have about 10 migraines/year.
It’s actually good to read other people’s experiences with light as a trigger, I feel like less of a raving hypochondriac. I can’t prevent the flickering sunlight but I’ve tried turning my monitor around so it’s not in my peripheral vision, and taking a baseball cap to work to try to block it out a bit - and since I did those things it’s been cloudy for two days, so I don’t know if it’ll work, but huzzah for clouds, and much appreciation to everyone who’s shared remedies.
Another Doppler chick checking in. I get maybe three a year, but always in the spring, around the first warm front. I also get very exciting auras to look at. Then it’s just pretty much prayers for a quick death. I have nipped in the bud with Imitrex, and also just gotten the auras with no headache, which is a different animal entirely.
Most perfume makes me want to heave, and deodorant has a horrible smell all it’s own. Oddly, cigarette smoke bothers me not at all.
I get them rarely under usual circumstances, maybe one or two a year. I did have one last month that kept me in bed all day wishing for death or really good drugs, but it went away eventually. That was the worst one I’ve had for years.
However, if I’m on the pill, I get them with my period. And it’s horrible. Has this happened to anybody else? I do want to be on BC but I’m wary of hormonal methods because of this. I know I need to talk to a doc, but I’m just wondering if I’m the only one. The weird part, according to the nurse practitioners I’ve seen, is that I don’t get them during my periods otherwise.
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