Migraine Tips

So sorry littlek -

I have migraines. So does my 10 year old. Our triggers seem to be over tiredness. Ours last for hours...we have to sleep them off - he takes super doses of ibuprofen, I take darvocet. If they happened more often I would gladly go on something to take daily...but it just seems to happen when I get overly busy. Same with my little boy.

It seems ours start with pain in our right eyes - but unfortunately by the time we have the pain in our eye we can't seem to stop it. Neither one of us seem to notice the spots or have any kind of warning signs until out eyes start to hurt.

S seems to be helped by distraction. Using an ice bag over his eye and sitting with him in a rocking chair seems to sooth him until he falls asleep. Then he sleeps for hours and wakes up fine.

We have had MRI's and have seen a neurologist. We've kept the diaries and still have not found one thing but when we have been burning the candle at both ends that seems to be the trigger.

I have them every time I am going on a trip. Getting the house ready, getting the kids ready...myself and my husband, the animals...fine until I get where we are going. When I relax - BOOM- migraine. I call them let down migraines.

Thank goodness we don't get them very often. They are horrid.

I am so sorry that you and your child suffer these migraines. I know how horrible and unbearable they are for adults and I cannot imagine a ten year old child going through it, much less you having to see it.

I will see yellow spots before I get a migraine. When I see them I take two BC headache powders and lay down in a cold and quiet room. It more often than not will keep the migraine at bay.

I pray you and your child are relieved of these horrible things.

littlek, Oliver Sacks is (to me) fabulous; I've read probably all of his articles in the New Yorker. Didn't know he has a book out on migraines - it's bound to be a worthwhile read.

Mismi... I had migraines young, but not at 10! Your poor kid. In high school I'd close the bathroom shade and door, turn off the light and turn on the clothes dryer. I'd sort of curl up against it and doze between barfing.

The major link I am finding in me is glare. Glare causes me to have massive headaches sometimes. And there was certainly a lot of glare on the hike. Add to that the heat and boom!

Since I've never had a migraine (knock on wood), I'll just read along appreciatively and send chilling vibes to y'all.

For diabetics excess sugar can trigger a very painful headache. So it might be something that is out of balance. Eating a a balanced meal seems to be the best cure and to avoid eating too much of anyhing. I remember as a kid eating more than ten oranges and I got dizzy almost fainted. I never ever tried eating too much of anything since.

Two things I take away from watching littlek struggle with migraine last Saturday:

1) The migraine's effects must have been much more dramatic from the inside than they appeared from the outside. I wouldn't have noticed them except for two minor things: First, littlek avoided looking out of the window and into the light. But when I offered to swap chairs with her so she could look away from the window, she declined. So I figured---falsely I guess---that the glaring couldn't have been that bad. The only other thing I kind of noticed was that littlek was sometimes reaching for words. But I wouldn't have recognized it as unusual if she hadn't pointed it out to me. After all, who doesn't occasionally say "um" and think of the right word to say? But littlek felt she struggled with it, and that drew my attention to it.

Everything else I only know because she reported the symptoms as they came up. As far as I was concerned, I had an enjoyable conversation about a fascinating subject, and had to consciously remind myself that the subject seriously affected littlek.

2) Speaking of the fascinating subject: It is only now that I notice migraines are fascinating. That's strange because both of my sisters have migraines, and so does my mother, occasionally. But I never thought to ask either of them about any specifics about their migraine experience. We just have this rule in the family that as soon as someone says she has a migraine, she will retreat to her room to suffer in silence and darkness, and it's everybody else's job to a) not make noise and b) do whatever the afflicted family member asks of them. I never knew migraines came with such startling visual effects. I guess I'll make some family phone calls to ask around.

The New York Times had an interesting article on migraines in their health section yesterday. Women are 3 times more likely to suffer them. I've never had one, rarely even get regular headaches, but have much sympathy for those that do.

Thomas, there are two types of migraines. Ones that do have visual effects and ones that don't.

If you wouldn't mind, LK, or other sufferers may answer, is the pain unbearable? I don't even know what the measure is for unbearable, I'm just trying to get a handle on how bad it is?

Can a migraine be dissipated, relieved, made to go away by the best of the anti-pain medicines?

I suffered with migraines for years. Thank God I don't have them as often as I used to. JTT, you cannot imagine the pain. I would beg my husband to shoot me and would mean it. The only thing I ever found that would do the trick is heavy drugs. Something strong enough to knock me out.

In generalities? Yes the pain can be pretty much unbearable. Enough pain to make you vomit (I think it's the pain that does it). Of course, it depends on the migraine. This last time there was little pain for me.

The key to warding off pain is nipping things in the bud. As soon as there is any indication that you might possibly be having a migraine, take meds and nap if possible. No harm in taking excedrin (not sure about other meds) if you didn't really need it after all.

Thanks LK.

Does the medication always work or are some migraines too tough for it to handle? Does it always/normally work with the same speed as it would for other aches and pains?

Do migraines ever happen along with colds or the flu, ie. does a migraine sufferer only have migraines or can one have a simple cold/fever/flu headache?

I'm not a sadist, I've seen this advertised on TV and I never paid much notice, 'til LK's thread, but have you ever had any other pain that you can say matched that of the migraines, AM?

How long might the worst ones last?

I am about plumb ignorant on migraines, so don't listen, but the women I knew who had them, had them associated with menstrual cycles.

That's two people. Meantime, men get them too.

Anecdotalism is not much good ---- there are probably useful studies out there.

Ah, not least by Oliver Sacks.

What I understand is that you are susceptible to migraines when your body is under stress (work or emotional, but also extreme heat/cold, lack of sleep, coffee withdrawal, etc). We each react differently to different stressors. Migraines are likewise varied. Perhaps they vary to the same extent as the sufferer is stressed? I had a really stressful week at work before my migraine. It'd been unusually hot for weeks and we were in the middle of a heat wave. And I went hiking on a fairly aggressive trail. I had several moderate to severe stresses in my life. As Osso said they can also be tied to menstrual cycles in women who get them more than men do. Given all that, it seems that the body should get them when getting or being ill with the flu. But, that has not once happened to me.

What happens.... the stress (whatever it is) causes blood vessels to constrict which can limit oxygen to cells. The body reacts by throwing the vessels wide open which causes pain. That's the basic mechanism (I think of any headache). Maybe when we have the flu, our blood vessels don't throw themselves as wide open? Maybe we are laid low enough to be resting so as not to need more O2 than we're getting? Maybe we are on cold meds which constrict vessels on their own? Maybe the histamines we produce have some pacifying affect?

Medications vary in strength. And there are combos and double dosages you can take. So my guess is that meds do not always work effectively. The pain is completely different than any pain I've ever felt, but I haven't had a lot of pain in my life outside of these. I guess that means they are the worst. Interesting to see what sufferers who have also given birth would say.

You can look up migraine art on google. There are publications of such art. It's somewhat insightful.

I was prescribed a migraine medication today - Sumatriptan Succinate (http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/archives/fdaDrugInfo.cfm?archiveid=1548).

I read the side affects. Now I am nervous about ever taking them. I suppose the next migraine I have will push the fear out of my mind.

Try drinking a glass of water. It would help remove some chemicals thru urination. Try green tea it induces the body to produce histamines.

No, never had a pain that could even come close to the pain of a migraine. It is definitely one thing I cannot describe. I've been hospitalized many times for mine because they would go on for days. Once you start vomiting and the headache doesn't stop you can get dehydrated rather quickly. The longest headache I had was six days. I prayed for death. Begged the doctors to just kill me. They just gave me shots and let me sleep and kept me on an IV for fluids. I have not had a serious, serious migraine for about a year. I've had a few I'd classify as a migraine but just for a few hours.