migraine - Who gets them? You got one?

[Syiren]

Migraines? Oh don't get me started. I fully understand this pain all too well. I didn't used to get them at all, until about ...mmmm 3 years ago? maybe 4?

 

I usually get very little warning before I get one, but sometimes I'll see small pulses of blue light (kinda like a little dot of light) in my vision a day or two before it starts. I also know to expect one during or after my monthly nightmare. (Girls, you know what I'm referring to.)

 

Triggers? Several sadly.

 

1. As stated above during or after that time of the month.

 

2. Strong perfumes. Especially if its the kind that lingers.

 

3. there's a certain smell that's not a perfume and I've never been able to put a name to it, but the moment I smell it it's like getting slapped in the face. Not pleasant. ;

 

4. Out of caffeine. I'm addicted to soda, specifically Mtn. Dew. If I don't have at least one or two cans a day? Ugh, I don't even want to go there. It's like a nail drilling into my head and it won't stop until I get some caffeine in me. (It's scary how fast it goes away then.)

 

5. Too much sleep. It doesn't happen as much now, but when I was 14 and 15 I used to sleep a lot and whenever I slept for over ten hours I'd wake up with such a painful headache.

 

 

What's it like for me to have a migraine? It depends on where it strikes. If it's between my eyes then it's like a nail burrowing into my skull. If it's my left forehead then it's like a painful throbbing and if it's the top of my head it feels like someone's trying to pry my head open.

 

 

What helps me get rid of it?

Something warm on my forehead, washcloth, etc.

Sometimes rubbing my forehead in a circular motion helps ease the pain.

Advil Liquid Gels work well if not then it's on to the Advil migraine.

Sleep.

Mtn. Dew (if it's caffeine related)

 

If it goes untamed I get nauseous and unless I eat a grape or cherry popsickle my stomach decides it doesn't want to hold the food anymore and I have to make a mad dash to the bathroom.

 

the only other thing that helps when it gets that bad is to lay flat on my back on the cool tile floor in the bathroom. I don't know why, but it has a very calming effect on my stomach and helps reduce my headache a little.

 

[Starscream]

I have pretty much had one at least once a week. Fortunately on my day off. Currently pushed my latest one back with use of the Axert after it was triggered from "migraine is potential - to OMG make it stop after cooking a pizza this evening. The smell in the oven is such a bad trigger.

 

I now got the "hangover" with a slight migraine presence as the smell is still present. I still cannot see an aura. (Incredibly rare in me) Yesterday I had a moderate migraine in my right eye. By that I mean it hurt but was isolated to a very small spot and was more annoying. it felt like an icepick in the corner of the eye and being pushed just behind the socket.

[lady_caetlyn]

I get them. Not often, but I do get them...and unfortunately, its genetic. My daughter gets them too.

 

I usually take an OTC painkiller; if it gets bad enough I take pamprin or midol and I sleep.

 

Triggered by stress, being jerked out of sleep, too little sleep or too much sleep (which is funny because I need to sleep them off.

 

I drink tea usually...and I find a purring cat is good for relieving it..(white noise).

[ishlia]

I have migraines since childhood, fortunately they're not often, probably once every one or two months, and not too severe. They usually happen in my right side brain. When it happens I usually cover my head, stop working and pretend to sleep, or curl myself up in some dark corner and do nothing but wait.

[birdyluv]

I get migraines.

 

Lately, I have been using horse radish to get rid of my migraines. What you do is you take a large spoonful of raw horseradish, and eat it all at once. For me, the migraine goes away almost instantly, although there is a bit of a slight lingering headache.

[Starscream]

ugh.

 

Okay, here's the thing I have been doing for the past few months.

 

Records.

 

I have had 12 migraine attacks since may 26th. I have had 5 since the second of August.

 

I have been recording

 

Side: Left, right, middle or wherever it is located

Sensitivity: Light, smell, sound, or what smell seems to bother it the most.

Temperature: What is it outside

Humidity: How wet is it?

Air Pressure: How many kpA and is the tendency rising or falling

Treatment: How much of what am I taking.

Notes: May include time of attack, weather forecast, weather actual, Postdrome or prodrome and aura - if present. I will also include a notation if other family members are affected.

 

I am trying to get a better understanding of my only remaining trigger - weather. One I can do nearly nothing about. It appears I am going through a season change set.

 

The fact my sense of smell is so acute during an attack makes me wonder - will I be able to function as a chef.

[Starscream]

I am digging this little necrotic thing up.

 

 

rather symptomatic one this time around. No visual aura, Hyper smell sensitivity, but I believe I am identifying the Prodrome symptoms.

 

Prodromes are seen before you even get an aura, the pain is the 3rd of 4 stages.

 

 

Today I have been rather Eurphoric, happy, chipper. But this evening when I went into the supermarket, I could smell the fact there was a rotten orange. It was smelling very loud.

 

this morning at about 1am, I felt this pain go through the right side of my face, into my upper teeth, past my wisdoms and into my lower jaw. I took 3 200mg IB for it. the dose pushed it back but has not gone away. I have woken up again because the pain in my right side is pretty present. The current pressure is 100.0 kPa and dropping. Temperature is 4°c. This is a right hander.

 

I have also in recent weeks had a few distorted smells. Sometimes smells that weren't there I think. I smelled Superglue this one day just before a beast of a migraine. I know I use it in my coral reef, but I did not use it that day, nor had it leaked. I think some odour on me, possibly my deodorant, was the cause. A few days ago, I could smell urine. Something around my desk area, I could not find it, but I could smell pee. Drove me nuts looking. I had a Migraine the next day - not a bad one. Just present.

 

Another thing that I noticed, and this one is particularly common for me to have during a migraine, is that coffee will smell like tobacco smoke. It took me a few weeks to connect coffee to the tobacco smell I detected.

 

As it stands, my current migraine just stepped up. =.=

[AnnoyingTiger888]

I'm not sure if they are migraines, but I get frequent really bad headaches that range from sharp electric pain to dull aching just-enough-to-drive-you-crazy throbbing. The main trigger for me is stress, I believe, as it ties in with my anxiety. It's really strange, because it'll be once or twice a year where I have a headache everyday for one to two weeks :/ Advil Liquid Gels are the only thing that helps me, but I have to take five or so for them to work because my body grows immunity to medicine pretty quickly.

[Starscream]

AT: Do you find your headaches/migraine occur around times of a season change? I generally get mine just before spring and fall. If its one sided, throbbing, generally in the temple area - most likely migraine. Stress can trigger. Also if its behind the eye, it could be more cluster.

 

What I would recommend is keeping a record of all your headaches for a good few months.

 

Write down what foods you ate the day of the headache, what smells seemed to be present, what you drank, any smells that stood out, any sensitivity to light or sound. What stress factors may have been present.

 

go to a weather site and log any weather information - this is my log format below. But I know I got migraine, and pretty much what triggers it normally.

 

Give that information to your doctor and they should be able to determine if it is a migraine and prescribe medication for it.

 

I can trigger off red wine. I can still drink red wine, I just have to be mindful of how much I drink and its usually a very small amount I can have. they can do tests to determine if it is migraine. I had these as a child.

 

Side: Left, right, middle or wherever it is located

Sensitivity: Light, smell, sound, or what smell seems to bother it the most.

Temperature: What is it outside

Humidity: How wet is it?

Air Pressure: How many kpA and is the tendency rising or falling

Treatment: How much of what am I taking.

Notes: May include time of attack, weather forecast, weather actual, Postdrome or prodrome and aura - if present. I will also include a notation if other family members are affected.

 

Migraine medication, if you get it is not cheap. I generally hold off on taking the "big guns" as I call it because it costs around 18 - 20 dollars a pill. they work, but I feel like a beaten rug. But there are times - and today is one of them, that I doubt their effectiveness if the trigger (weather) is still present.

 

[Kestra15]

If the voluntary organisation I work with keeps up their crappiness, I'll develop some.

[Natayah]

Yes I get them. The most common cause is too much video (mostly TV or movies), but especially bad or overpowering CGI. I never had any issues with things like Lord of the Rings. But Spiderman 2 put me out for 1.5 days.

 

My Aura is often the smell of bleach. And super yes to the hyper smell sensitivity. This is tangentially related, I have very strong reactions to certain smells that just put me into a stage of crazed reactions probably partially based on migraine experiences. Sometimes they will start migraine like symptoms or just make me really ill: rotting food, overpowering bleach, Pot/Weed. Hate those smells.

 

Nausea is part of it. I generally need to have medication, go take a nap in a dark quiet room and just sleep. Anything else doesn't really help.

 

I didn't grow up with video games, and with my reactions to movies, most video games would probably make me very ill after extended periods of play. I just don't do well with graphics.

 

My migraines aren't usually disabling like some people have. Yes, after Spiderman 2 I had to call off of work for 2 days and spend it entirely in bed. But normally I understand their onset and when I've overextended myself and when they are coming so I can prep and know I need to go lay down and deal with letting it get better. But it's not like watching too much video for a certain amount of time always does it. Sometimes I can marathon TV and be fine. Sometimes no. But on the flip side, I purposely stay away from any movie that I think is going to have certain types of CGI. I will maybe watch pieces to gauge my reaction. However, if its not a movie I am dying to see, I will just completely avoid it. Which generally isn't a problem.

Edited April 2, 2016 by natayah

[ewi]

When I was around 16 I started having those terrible headaches every once in a while. My whole family were saying that I am simply overreacting, that it is a part of my 'act', that I shouldn't be so oversensitive and just get over it. I would feel this pounding sensation in my head, I would hear constatnt noises, I would vomit, I would shake, I couldn't stand up straight, eat, sleep, or anything. Finally, when I was 18 I was able to go to the doctor on my own. A full set of examination was taken, along with EEG and MRI, I was prescribed heavy medications and my life is so much better

 

Migraines can also be an indicator that something is seriously wrong with your brain. If your headaches are unbearable, please don't wait. Go and get yourself checked out. It is really important.

And if your child suffers from them, don't treat it like my parents. It has nothing to do with attention seeking or trying to be 'ladylike', it means that your child is overstressed and can have real health issues and you have to help them.

 

[Cottoncat]

I sometimes have migraines, but not with terrible pain but with troubles with vision instead. It's like I can't focus both of my eyes at the same time during a migraine, which leads to the other side of things disappearing. For example, if I'm looking at someone's face, only the another side of their face is visible to me. I can't remember which side it usually is that disappears though. My eyes also usually feel pressured during a migraine, especially if I'm trying to sleep and that almost feels like my eyes are going to roll back in my head. I haven't been having migraines for quite a long time though.

[Starscream]

When I was around 16 I started having those terrible headaches every once in a while. My whole family were saying that I am simply overreacting, that it is a part of my 'act', that I shouldn't be so oversensitive and just get over it. I would feel this pounding sensation in my head, I would hear constatnt noises, I would vomit, I would shake, I couldn't stand up straight, eat, sleep, or anything. Finally, when I was 18 I was able to go to the doctor on my own. A full set of examination was taken, along with EEG and MRI, I was prescribed heavy medications and my life is so much better

 

Migraines can also be an indicator that something is seriously wrong with your brain. If your headaches are unbearable, please don't wait. Go and get yourself checked out. It is really important.

And if your child suffers from them, don't treat it like my parents. It has nothing to do with attention seeking or trying to be 'ladylike', it means that your child is overstressed and can have real health issues and you have to help them.

Its hard for people who don't have them to understand. My stepfather never had so much as a headache, so he never understood what we went through, but after his wife, two step daughters, son in law and granddaughter all got migraine and he knew it was quite real.

 

Yeah your symptoms are pretty classic.

 

My migraine today went away just as the Alberta Clipper system came over, high wind and blizzard, then that blissful feeling of pain releasing. I have been bagged out of my mind, but very chipper and alert.

 

Generally movies will trigger them for me. I will often take a couple Ibuprofen before a showing - which usually helps.

[sevenstorms]

My sister and I both get them quite a lot.

Apparently a certain piercing in the ear can help prevent frequent migraines so we'll be going together soon to get that done.

We both have pretty unavoidable triggers so here's to hoping!