Migraines Damnit

[gah!ghost]

Have had them the last two days in a row. I usually get them maybe once every few months or so. I want to say it's stress from work at the moment. Wednesday I started getting the haloing but managed to down some coffee and take some Excedrin before the headache set in and while I felt kinda crappy for the rest of the day it wasn't too bad. Yesterday it was pretty horrible. I had been in DD chat during the morning and it started to hit me sometime after noon. Either didn't get the medicine in me soon enough or it just wasn't enough as I spent the rest of the day laying in bed with the lights off.

Right now I'm getting a goddamn headache. Not as bad as a getting a migraine but after throwing up for most of the tail end of last week and having a cold before than I am so over feeling like shit. Just needed to rant a bit.

For those who have never gotten migraines this is the best visual representation I have found for the "haloing" effect that precedes the migraine. It's really close to what it looks like for me. I think in some cases people only ever get this and never get the rest of the symptoms. For me I get this first and once it goes away I get the migraine proper which means a really bad headache, nausea, super sensitivity to light and sound, and just general malaise.

As you might expect when this is going on it's really hard to see anything. I've been stuck places unable to drive home before because of it.

[sarah_ab]

know how u feel, i get ocular migraines and end up going blind for a day sometimes more at least 1-2x a year....

i got my first migraine around the age of 5-6.... have cycled through all the migraine meds out there at least 2-3 times since than... they work for a while, than stop.... so i have to switch to another and round and round..

I have found, along w/ the dark quiet room... ice packs all around my head help as well.

[gah!ghost]

Usually if I slam down enough caffiene I avoid the worst of it, though it does seem to extend the overall effects. I end up feeling kinda shit for 24 hours or so instead of totally incapacitated for around five or six.

The first time it happened I was in High School during class and I didn't know what was happening, it was kinda scary. I don't remember it too well but I think my teacher knew what it was and I ended up staying with my head down on the desk through more than one class period.

[feralfreak]

for mgraines try getting some melatonin, its sold over the counter in any pharmacy section of your local store, it will make you sleep but it will also help with it

[Bettypooh]

I've seen that 'haloing' many times, but not with the migraines which I don't have (and I'm glad for that!) As best my MD could find, the visual affects I get comes from too-low blood pressure- mine normally sits on the bottom edge of what is considered 'normal'. But I do experience sudden drops in my blood pressure for a few seconds at a time, getting dizzy and seeing just what you described. Apparently, my ocular blood-flow becomes insuffucuent for the eyes to operate properly and just like when you faint, the effect comes from the edges inward. Caffiene opens blood vessels so that is probably why it reduces these symptoms, although I do know excessive blood flow or pressure to the brain can initiate normal headaches so it may be a double-edged sword here (just thinking out loud )

One of these days I hope the Medical world will get their heads straight and stop spending all the money on researching 'super-cures' for end-of-life diseases and start spending it on things like this that adversely affect huge numbers of people throughout their lives instead I think the focus on healthcare belongs on making life better for the many, not just longer-lasting for the fewer Cure the common ailments first and the more severe ones may become less frequent as the body stays in better health through life so it can better fight the really bad stuff.

Bettypooh

[puffybedwetter]

Get yourself checked soon. One of my co workers been having constant migrains through out the years, he went to the doctor on thanksgiving week and they found a tumor on his head. now they gave him 8 months to live.

[gah!ghost]

Are you sure it was actual migraines and not just really bad headaches? They're kind of a different thing. I can't really feasibly go to the doctor now as I have no medical insurance. I have been to the doctor since I started getting migraines in high school and they're just migraines. They're inheirted I think in my case. I believe both my parents used to get them, my dad for sure. They have gotten less frequent the older I have gotten which tracks with what my dad experienced. When they first started I got them a lot, then it settled into about once a month, now it's ever few months though it can go much longer than that.

[sarah_ab]

people who have had chronic migraines for a long period of time have usually at some point had a CT or MRI scan of their brain. I've had em since the age of 5, so they know its not related to a tumor, or other malformation in my brain....

[DailyDi]

Ice pack at the base my neck helps a lot when I get migraines.