Sue, as it happens, I’m flying up there in 3 weeks! I like the sex idea… this way we can both cure each other! 
I’m flying to Toronto, but if I recall correctly, you live farther west… oh well, my GF probably wouldn’t understand anyway.
The most rewarding part was when I got my money!
-Dr. Nick Riviera
I tried the sex thing (hey I figured if it worked what a discovery!) it eliminated it for the time you are enjoying yourself, mostly. that is it sort of stays in the background, but it isn’t the incredible pain it usually is. However as soon as you are done and supposed to be laying in afterglow it comes back with a vengeance. So you obviously have to keep doing it, forever. As fun as it sounds, not totally practical. Zomig works excellently for me and I’ve heard it’s the best one for women who only get a migraine a few times a month.
That’s so sad for you. It seems that there is no one thing that works for every migraine sufferer. The medicines that I have been able to try don’t work for me. I’m not interested in trying anymore because I have found such good relief from other means.
I forgot to mention that I was hypnotized when I was 17 years old. After that I didn’t have another migraine for more than 2 years. And when they did come back I no longer was having the numbness in my extremities and partial blindness that I had been having before. I usually forget about this because I don’t really understand how being hypnotized helps a migraine sufferer. I only did it because there was a hypnotist that came to my high school psychology class and he asked for volunteers with certain conditions one of them being migraines. At that point I was having migraines more days than not. I went from nearly every day to nothing for more than 2 years. He told me that IF it worked that the effectiveness would fade over time. Maybe I should go find myself another hypnotist.
SoMoMom -
If you do go see another one, and it works, let me know, I would love to find a different cure than pooping a pill!
This is sort of off topic, but I’ve been wondering about this for a few months.
Several months back, I was sitting at home, and all of a sudden, I lost the vision out of my left eye. I was also slurring my words, and I couldn’t walk properly - it was like I was drunk. I’m only 27, but since I’m on the Pill, I was terrified that I might be having a stroke, so I went to the emergency room. The on-call doctor diagnosed me as having a migraine. I told him that I didn’t even have a headache and that I wasn’t nauseated, but he said that thas wasn’t unusual.
I really have no reason to disbelieve him, and I’m fine now, but I’m curious. Has anyone else heard of having a migraine without a headache?
First, migraines without headache: I get “ocular migraines.” The vision in one eye narrows down to a tunnel, with bright swirlies where the tunnel walls would be. No pain, no nausea, no dizziness. Lasts anywhere from an hour to four, then it goes away. Weird as hell, but there appear to be no other adverse effects. It’s always in the left eye, by the way. And yes, I’ve been checked for tumors and stuff – it’s just a weird subset of regular migraines.
Now, on to that topic: My wife gets frequent debilitating migraines. She’s tried every medical treatment under the sun – Imitrex, Percocet, Stadol, Zomig, yada yada yada. Nothing has worked.
But in the last year, we’ve had two separate but effective breakthroughs. First, we’ve discovered a trigger: red wine during the week prior to her period. Even a sip, and she’s flat on her back for a week. Our doc says she’s heard of this, but doesn’t have any more information.
And second, we’ve found a near-miracle preventive treatment: acupuncture. My wife is a hard-nosed scientist and skeptic, while I have more tolerance for the woo-woo stuff. When it was suggested, she dismissed it, but I said, hey, what could it hurt? She tried it, and it was like she had drunk Heaven in a teaspoon. Her migraine frequency has been cut by three-quarters, and when they come on, they’re nowhere near as bad.
The thing about migraines is that everybody responds differently to various treatments; there’s no cure-all. But if you haven’t thought about acupuncture, I’d strongly suggest you at least look into it.
My physician’s migraine trigger is also red wine. His is so sensitve that he got a migraine once from eating salad that had red wine vinegar in it.
katmandu, I don’t want to alarm you unnecessarily, but you might be experiencing a symptom of Multiple Sclerosis. Especially if you’re a 20-ish woman of Northern European descent.
My wife has MS (firmly under control with Interferon-B injections, thank God), and one of the episodes involved temporary sight loss in one eye. The symptoms went away in a few days.
The only way to conclusively rule MS in/out is to get an MRI of your brain.
Kat -
Sorry not to have responded before; I missed this somehow.
In answer to your question, yes you can have a migraine without a headache. But if you have never had any of these symptoms before, I hope you have discussed this with your primary care physician since the episode. If all of the symptoms resolved in a short time, it would not be a stroke, but could be a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, (temporary interruption of blood flow to the brain) which can be a warning that a stroke could occur in the future.
There is a good reason why some of the symptoms could be caused by migraine, or by a TIA. Migraine is thought to be due to irritibility of the muscles surrounding blood vessels supplying the brain. Pre-headache aura symptoms (classically weird visual symptoms) and the stroke-like symptoms you described would be caused by vasoconstriction, or narrowing of the arteries. The headache phase is caused by subsequent vasodilation (widening of the arteries) - an ice cream headache from Hell.
TIA’s are caused by pieces of plaque breaking off from a large artery, usually, the carotid, and going through progressively smaller blood vessels, until it gets stuck & blocks off flow. If it gets cleared, or neighboring vessels are able to supply the affected area of the brain, the symptoms resolve.
For a first-time episode, kat, particularly if you have no prior history of migraine, or if you have any risk factors for stroke beyong the Pill, I would think close follow-up & consideration of some additional testing would be warranted.
Hope this helps!
Sue from El Paso
Siamese Attack Puppet - Texas
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
I had these very bad as a teen, they have begun to lesson as I move into my late 20’s. I have to say though that I was surprised to see no one mentioned the two holy words of all migraine suffers: “Demerol shot”. When the pain is coming on, get thyself to a doctor and demand one of these. Sure the truth is it just knocks your ass out til its over. Whats wrong with that ? I may not have the spelling right but this drug in liquid form will knock those pesky migraines (and you) right out. I recommend it highly.
“A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject.” - Seneca
I’ve tried all kinds of things, too, and I’d have to say that trying acupuncture is worth it. There was a time when I was having headaches about once a week. After 6 weeks of acupuncture the frequency and intensity decreased significantly. While some people definitely have specific triggers, for others, I’ve noticed that it could be almost anything, and it can vary. Sometimes I can drink wine, sometimes not. Sometimes I get a headache when stressed, sometimes not.
At this point, I’ve just about decided that I’m allergic to my own hormones. My migraines/headaches now show up right before & sometimes after my period. I wake up stuffy (which is sometimes a sign I’m about to get a headache.) I don’t get them other times anymore. I’m taking herbs to smooth out the hormonal swings, and have tried preventative painkillers during the suspect times (which just gives me rebounds). Over the last month, I’ve realized that I can’t expect the abortive drugs to work if I try to keep functioning (especially computer work). I have to go lie down in a dark room and wait.