I was at school in my first period class when it struck. I was reading something, and I looked up and I didn’t remeber a thing from what i read. Then I got dizzy and my head started to really hurt. I zoned out for the rest of that class, and went to my next one. There I got even dizzier, so I went to the nurse’s office. I said I was extremly dizzy from a migraine, (I needed help down the stairs), and so I went to lay down on a cot to see if it would get better. It got worse. Then my mind was playing tricks on me. The walls were moving and waving, and I thought I saw a kid in a fetal position on the wall. It turns out it was a CPR poster. I then decided to call my parents, since I was in no condition to stay for any other classes, because I couldn’t read. My mom picked me up and I slept for 3 hours. Then I woke up and watched some mindless tv, but I went back to sleep because I got really dizzy again. It felt like my head was literly spinning on my neck. I slept until 7, watched some tv, and here I am where I got dizzy again. I am currently on amitriptyline, but it hasn’t helped one bit. In fact my migaines have gotton worse and longer since I started taking it. I have a follow up appointment in about 3 weeks, but I can’t wait that long, since I have been getting migraines everyday that have affected my schoolwork, and my recent math test shows it. My mom is getting mad at me for missing school, but I can’t do anything there, and it feels like I have an ice pick jabbed in my head. I can’t concentrate, I can’t read (something I live for), and nothing has helped these migraines. Sometime the pain gets so bad I just want to die, since I would be free of migraines. I feel depressed sometimes, which is weird since the med I am on treats depression in higher doses. Well my head is spinning again, so I am gonna go sleep. Later.
I’ve had migraines since before I can remember. Mine receeded quite a bit during the no-stress years of junior high-school, but came back with a vengeance in senior high. I suspect the stress of finally realizing I didn’t know what the heck I was going to do after I graduated finally got to me.
I went right into university following graduation, despite not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, and promptly found myself totally out of my element. (I’d never actually learned how to study or retain information in high-school.) I fell into a bad depression (and spent some time in the hospital) and my migraines only got worse.
Actually, it’s a loop. If my migraines are really bad (in severity, length and/or persistence), depression can rear its ugly head. If I fall into a depression, my migraines tend to get worse. None of the actual migraine medication I’ve taken has worked (including amitriptyline - which seemed to cause more headaches than it prevented for me too), but I am on medication for depression (citalopram).
Nowadays, I tend to have a headache most of the time. But my pain threshold is high, so I can live though it. The main trigger for my migraines - at least, the one I have little control over - is the weather. I had a bad migraine today, which came on quite quickly. I popped a “Big Blue” (Fiorinal C) and went to bed. Soon after, the rain started. And it poured! Which is great! The faster a change in weather actually takes, the better. When it spits all week, teasing rain, my head is terrible.
When I do feel my head getting worse, or start getting pre-migraine symptoms (bad taste in my throat, stiffening neck and shoulders, rambling conversation), I’ll get a cup of coffee (a trigger for many people), which can hold off a migraine for me until I get to bed and can sleep it off. If that alone doesn’t help, I’ll take a few ibuprofen. And if that doesn’t work, and a full-fledged migraine hits, it’s “Big Blue” and bed.
My migraines start with a pressure in one temple, which spreads to both temples, then spreads into a halo around my head. A thumping pulse in the temples isn’t conducive to sleep. If my head isn’t too bad, I can watch some television or look through a magazine with a lot of pictures, or listen to some soft music. Doing those things can take my mind off a moderate migraine. If my head is too bad, then I break out an icepack or wet washcloth.
Anyhoo, just a bit on my own situation. I feel for you flamingbananas, and everyone else who suffers from migraines and chronic headaches. And I know that mine are nothing compared to those many people suffer. I’ve never gone temporarily blind! :eek:
My mother gets the kind you describe: ice pick in the brain, fervent desire to die.
She was an MD, and after trying probably a dozen different medications she found one that worked: coproxamol. It’s sold as a generic RX drug in the UK, and she hasn’t needed it since we moved to Florida (9 years ago, 26 years since the migraines started) so I don’t know what brand name it might be sold under here.
It might be available as a generic, but I doubt it; I was a pharmacy tech for two years and never heard of a drug branded as coproxamol. I could have filled dozens of prescriptions of the same stuff under a brand name, and not known about it.
Ask your doc if he/she’s heard of it. IIRC, it isn’t generally prescribed in the UK as a painkiller. It just happened to work. Don’t say “I heard about x drug, will you prescribe it for me?”.
Another migraine person checking in…I have had good results from taking (my mother’s prescription) Imitrex. However, I had a migraine last week, and the next day had a blind spot in one eye that lasted for about an hour, so I’m scared off of taking other people’s prescriptions right now! (I don’t know that Imitrex had anything to do with it, but my eye doctor doesn’t know what caused it either, so for now I’ll just play it safe.)
I tried Imitrex before, but it made my migraines 10x worse. I think I am going to get another one today moans because I already have pain in my right temple, and I am starting to get dizzy. I’ll check it after school.
Many migraines cause visual auras and loss or partial loss of visions. I don’t think the Imitrex did it (IANAD), but taking other peoples’ prescriptions is a bad idea in general. (My good friend used to get tunnel vision at the onset of a migraine–total loss of peripheral vision–it came back when the migraine was gone.) See your doctor and ask if Imitrex is right for you, then he’ll give you your OWN 'scrip. With the right dose. I can’t take the .50 mg tablets, but I can take the .25 mg tablets. They both make me feel like my throat is closing up, but it’s not so bad with the .25, and it does help with the migraine for me (usually.)
Yup, migrainey person here.
I live in fear of getting one, because once I have it, I have it. I must then go to bed. It is dangerous for me not to be in bed with a migraine.
My migraines begin with half my vision in one eye “whiting out”. I see nothing but white aura. Then the pain starts, and I get dizzy. As a matter of fact, the pain is no where near as bad as the aura and disorientation. That’s what I hate the most.
Once I got my first migraine, it changed my life. I now think about my migraines every day. I am always feverently hoping that this will not be the day I get one. (Sometimes I get them at random, but I am fortunate that most of my migraines can be prevented by avoiding certain foods.)
I know there is a connection between depression and migraines. Is there a connection between hypoglycemia (which I have) and migraines?
hmmmmm…Off to Google!
I’ve had migraines since puberty. I remember having severe dizzy spells when I was younger, followed by hours and hours of sleep. At times, my peripheral vision would disappear, and I would be left with what looked like colorful static in the sides of my vision. It sucked. On a few occasions, the pain has been bad enough to make me throw up. When it gets that bad, suicide starts to sound kind of comforting. Not that I really want to die, but the pain gets so severe that I get kind of desperate.
A few years ago, my doctor precribed zomig and imitrex for me, and my life has been forever changed! I know they don’t work for everyone, but for me, it makes a huge difference. My migraines disappear! The side effects are kind of weird- like aches in my body and throat, but I’d rather have those any day over a migraine! If I were you, I’d at least query about them and see if they are something that might help you. Any relief from a migraine is worth it.
Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who wishes for death during migraines. I sometimes get auras, but not often. I had one last Thursday, it was pretty cool. Right up until the migraine hit. Then it wasn’t so cool anymore. My starting pains normaly feel like brain freezes, then they get the ice picky feel. So I sleep. I don’t care what my mom says, if I stay awake with one of these, I am going to have an accident. Or kill myself. Or pass out. So far no news from my doctor with a sooner appointment. I didn’t have one today, though I have had a dull throb headache from the doosy one I had yesterday. I am depressed during migraines, so maybe I really am depressed, and it only rears it’s ugly head when I am in immense pain. shrugs I think that school causes them, my migraines normaly start during school. I don’t think its stress from school, I just think it is the people there. I can’t stand a good 3/4 of the people at school. Watch my migraines dissapear come summer break!
I’ve been getting migraines ever since at least grade 7. The first one I had, my mom thought I was faking. Then I started puking and that changed her mind.
I get about one a month, and at first it was really not fun. I got auras that grew and blocked out most of my vision. The worst part of it however was knowing a migraine was coming and not being able to do a single thing about it. It’s like watching a bullet start a few metres away and over the course of an hour see it drives its way into your skull.
I saw a doctor, and I suggest that everyone else with migraines does.
He took an x-ray and found that there was, well, something in my sinus. A laceration maybe. Anyway, it would swell, press on my optic nerve and then lead to a migraine. He told me to take Advil Cold and Sinus to release some of the pressure and kill the pain.
And it worked. I have to take the Advil when I’m near blind or it doesn’t block the pain out completely. It puts me out of it a bit, but it’s still way better than a migraine.
I’ve been getting them for about 3 years now.
Sometimes they’ll start with a blind spot is the right edge of my right eye. No pain yet, so I still do things. REAL fun to paint little detaily crap with partial blindness.
They usually start with a slight headache in my right temple area, spread into my jaw, and make my teeth hurt, sometimes (if my molars start to hurt, I know I’m in it for the long haul - migraine today, bad headache tomorrow, dull ache for two more days). Then there’s the light sensitivity and slight quesiness. But I hate HATE the ones where I can feel my pulse in my skull. Lord help me if I stand up or lean over. Lay still and try to sleep. Mmm.
Excedrin Migraine works pretty well. But I prefer two “sinus headache” pills combined with two Aleve. That does the trick mighty well.
I used to get migraines whenever I drove for more than 3 hours, but that has thankfully gone away. Would make those cross-country drives of mine horrid.