Migraines

I know exactly how you feel. I haven't had one lately, but I do the same stuff you seem to be doing. What happens before you get your migraines? When I get one, my vision clouds over in one spot and I become almost temporarily blind. My friend gets this and sometimes his speech becomes strange and he gets hyper. When I can tell one's coming on, I take Excedrin migraine and it lessens the symptoms significantly.

 

The only thing that works for me is Tylenol. Ibuprofin too, but it makes my ears ring. Thankfully I dont get them very often.

 

I'm suffering from migraines since I am 12.
As you said, there is a huge difference between a regular headache and a migraine.
For me paracetamol with codeine and caffeine does help, but what is truly effective on my migraines are triptan. It's an antimigraine drug and if your doctor haven't talked to you about it yet, I suggest you to bring it with them the next time.
Accupunture does help me a lot with this, such as watching my diet. I discovered 2 years ago now that dairy product are giving me migraines, such as chocolate and most of alchoolic drink. I avoid those things in my diet and it reduces the frequency of the migraines. Sleeping with a pillow specialy designed to support the neck helps too.
And when I am having a migraine, putting a ice pack on my eyes and forehead can help a bit with the pain.
If there is any questions you would like to ask, feel free to PM me anytime.
Take care, Cécile

 

Take it from a guy who has been getting severe migraines for awhile. Migraines can be caused by a few things (I'll give you the main ones): Stress, Dehydration, Foods, Genetics, and lack of sleep. Observe all of these and try to find a corellation between migraines and those 5 "triggers". Triptan works great, personally I use Sumatryptaline (spelling?) with two aleve. One trick with migraines is that if you feel one coming on, TAKE YOUR MEDICINE IMMEDIATELY! If you don't it can cause what is called a snowball effect and typically a migraine can't be stopped a few hours into it, but if you catch it within the first half an hour your chance of getting it away is a 50%.

Caffiene works great too, a great way to get it is through Mountain Dew (54 mg of caffeine in a can) that can be hard to drink though if you ae nauseated. A trick for nausea is ginger ale (Canada Dry) it always helps me. As for the MRI's and CT's, they only show up when you are having severe, severe, severe migraines or even worse. Most doctors diagnose migraines by process of elimination, meaning if it is not this and it is not that then it has to be a migraine.

As to curing a migraine, your doing everything right. There is not much else you can do, some peoples find that by combining 1 tylenol, 1 advil, and 1 excedrin migraine they can make there migraine but that has never worked for me. Hope this helps, pm if you have any q's.

 

I also get migraines from time to time, mine being like those described by Nazo. I don't get them often, in fact I've only ever had two bad migraines before. Now whenever I start to feel the warning symptoms, like my vision suddenly going away, I instantly take 4 ibuprofen. This delays the pain and then I take a sleeping pill and usually sleep for about 16 hours. Then when I wake up, I feel a lot better. I would definitely go back to your doctor/neurologist if you get continual migraines.

 

My Mom has the same problem and she always has to take these pills, just two days ago she went to get her CT scan and I don't mean to scare anyone but her uncle also has migranes alot and it turns out that it was a brain tumor so I really encourage anyone with these problems not to overlook these things :/

 

I get them ALL THE TIME. Like, anything could be a trigger for them, it's ridiculous.

What I do, is take some Nurofen and then go to sleep in a dark, silent room, like you do. I eventually fall asleep and it's gone once I wake up. Thankfully I get them when I'm at home and don't need to be anywhere, and I usually get them when I'm on my laptop for too long. *blush* I never thought about going to the doctors with them, I mean, my gran gets them bad too so I thought it might be a hereditary thing.

 

It definitly can be an hereditary thing (my mother has migraines, my grand-mother has migraines, my great-grand father had migraines, my brother and I both have migraines... this doesn't sound too much as a coincidence right ?)
That doesn't mean nothing can be done about it.
Try to find what triggers them (I used to keep a diary of my mirgaines a few years ago. It helped me find out that cigarette's smoke, some perfumes, bright light and flashing lights, repetitive sounds, some foods and dehydratations are my usual triggers. Knowing what trigger the migraines can help dealing with it better by avoiding the triggers.
In my case, it is also hormonal, and for this, nothing can be done really (though when I was taking the pills, it used to reduce the migraine I get just before it get my periods.)
Some treatments do exist both for helping reducing the frequency of the migraines and to deal with the pain when you get one. Talk about it with your doctor.

 

Hi,sorry to hear about your migraines.I too used to get them in my teens but they stopped around eighteen when i started to donate blood,coincidence or not it helped me and a few people that i told have said it has also helped them.

 

Migraines for me mean anything from nausea, to dry heaving, to blurriness, to sensitivity to light to erm......diarrhea. I find that the thing that helps me the most is a Tylenol no. 2 or 3. Generally because of the codeine. I take one every four-six hours up to maybe 3 in a 24 hour period and it generally is just gone. I would maybe talk to your doctor about that too, though remember, you do need a prescription for it.