Migraines

I have gotten them since I was 12 - they became very bad in my early 30's and I started a campaign of deduction to try and find the worst triggers at this stage I was losing power in my arm when I got them and they were really scary - I cut out most things I thought were triggers msg, wine, chocolate etc and then I remembered back to my first ever classic migraine when I was 12 it also coincided with my first cup of coffee! I had been a divil for coffee all through my twenties and loved nothing more than a fresh cup of perculated or 10!

So I stopped drinking coffee over a decade ago and (touches wood) I haven't had a scary migraine since. I still get bad headaches, hormone related or overdoing the wine related but nothing as bad as the sick tummy - blind in one eye - limp on one side migraines!

I have never had the joy of tasting all those new coffees on the market but it's worth not having to deal with the dreaded migraine.

I’ve gotten two in the last week, last night being the second, albeit mild one.
It’s strange for me to get them so close together so I just hope this is an anomaly and not an indication of a developing pattern.

When I’ve had them before they’ve happened in a once in a blue moon manner, years apart. Apart from this week the last one I had was about 5 years ago and the one before that was about 15 years ago.

I’m lucky enough, in that I don’t tend to get the blinding headaches, I get the confusion and the auras followed by feeling hungover with a mild headache the next day. Still horrible though and sleep tends to be to only real cure. I'm guessing that the trigger each time has possibly been lack of sleep but I'm not sure.

Pretzill wrote: »

I have gotten them since I was 12 - they became very bad in my early 30's and I started a campaign of deduction to try and find the worst triggers at this stage I was losing power in my arm when I got them and they were really scary - I cut out most things I thought were triggers msg, wine, chocolate etc and then I remembered back to my first ever classic migraine when I was 12 it also coincided with my first cup of coffee! I had been a divil for coffee all through my twenties and loved nothing more than a fresh cup of perculated or 10!

So I stopped drinking coffee over a decade ago and (touches wood) I haven't had a scary migraine since. I still get bad headaches, hormone related or overdoing the wine related but nothing as bad as the sick tummy - blind in one eye - limp on one side migraines!

I have never had the joy of tasting all those new coffees on the market but it's worth not having to deal with the dreaded migraine.

Very similar to me - I have always had headaches....nearly every day, and migraines at least once a month. The numbness and limp feeling in my arms was pretty scary. I even started having ocular migraines. I didnt drink a huge amount of tea/coffee so never made the link (and it wasnt like I drank a coffee and instantly had a migraine....). I cut out tea/coffee and coke&other fizzy drinks and the headaches and migraines stopped completely. As a consequence of cutting those out I also drink more water instead by default, which has been good. I now sleep better, dont wake up with a headache every day and have been migraine free for several months. It was hard at first to stop, especially at work as tea breaks are a social thing really. I now just have a fruit tea instead. Tea/coffee may not have been the only trigger, but perhaps they were pushing the other triggers over the edge/threshold.....if that makes sense...

oh have been suffering since January ! can remember that one so clear, woke up as if I had been drinking the night before and I most defo' was not. So when people say the hangover feeling I know it , as the day went on i just could not function that was on a Wednesday, It did not leave me till Friday evening. I am unwell with whiplash and damage to my neck and back so I have been to the GP many times and its just part of it I am told.
the getting sick and reaction to sunlight or smells is so sudden its all just so new to me.
I am trying to manage it but its a two and 3 day event for me so far. the first one was the most scary and intense and some how I think did some help for me as my mind was clearer , I did not release I was in some sort of bubble since my car accident may months before that. The little bit of sunshine we have had this spring so far sets me off, the smell of coffee does it too and I think its some thing I just have to accept , my GP says it should be ok in time but the pain killers I am on for my other Injury's don't help with the migraines , and I have tried take enough to try help my self.
Drinking water does not help me when I get them but I have tried to drink more, careful to be away from sunlight , and wear my sunglasses. I dont have any tips , but hope some one has. glad to see there may be a tablet , may ask my GP about that this week. on so much now , whats one more tablet !!

Dr Silver in the UK has put together guidelines for chronic migraine patients, some of you might find it interesting:

http://www.thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk/uploadedfiles/documents/Chronic%20Migraine%20Patient%20Information%20Sheet.pdf

Drinking enough water, regular sleeping & eating, and no caffeine are some of the basic things you can do to look after a migraine brain

BlueFairy wrote: »

Drinking enough water, regular sleeping & eating, and no caffeine are some of the basic things you can do to look after a migraine brain

Regular sleep and drinking decaff coffee are the two biggest factors for me. I was diagnoised by my GP at about 12 - with chocolate being a trigger. I have managed to reduce the frequency to about one every 6 weeks now from about one every three, and they are not as debilitating either.

I really hate the lower intensity ones because they tend to last for at least an extra day. Once I get to the point where I need a pirate patch over one eye and to curl up in bed in the dark without moving at least I know that it is reaching a crescendo and I'll feel better once I wake.

I also feel that the weather is a factor, but I cannot pin it down. But I tend to notice it is days with very mixed weather, sun-showers, or a change in the weather bringing in rain that coincides with some episodes. And banana's too. I've cut out all bananas in the past couple of years. I have read that overripe bananas can be a trigger. For years I always associated them with my migraines because I tended to crave them. That and bread. Once I'm recovering I crave bread and butter.

My neck aches every time. I get very lethargic and get the piercing pain behind an eye most times. I usually start drinking water when I start sensing there is one on the way, but aside from noticing a more metallic taste from the water than usual, it doesn't change anything. I then seem to retain water until it is nearly over, when I notice that I have an extra big wizz. There is nothing like the feeling when I wake after a short intense migraine, when my brain feels like it has had a spring cleaning. Everything is sharp and energy levels are right back at max.

Exercise seems to help too. Running gives temporary relief and probably helps me sleep better. I found a migraine diary ( plenty of smartphone apps out there) was useful for narrowing down the triggers. And obviously booze is bad. I almost never have more than a couple of drinks and that has made a massive difference too.

Bit of a stream of consciousness post, but that's much of my experience with them.

Suffer regular migraines for at least a decade now. My GP wrote off a letter several years ago for a referral to a migraine clinic. An appointment arrived in the post only a few weeks ago.

HardLuckWoman wrote: »

It took a few years for a referral to a migraine clinic? Thats crazy.

Yes absolutely if I was a private patient it might have been a year. The referral was made so long ago I can't say exactly when it was made. Somewhere between 3-5 and years anyway.

Greenmachine wrote: »

Yes absolutely if I was a private patient it might have been a year. The referral was made so long ago I can't say exactly when it was made. Somewhere between 3-5 and years anyway.

I was on a waiting list to get braces when I was about 12. My appointment came through when I was 22!

BaZmO* wrote: »

I was on a waiting list to get braces when I was about 12. My appointment came through when I was 22!

The Braces one is all to common. Was referred when I was a little one and called when I was about 20.

cnocbui wrote: »

As someone who suffered regular migraines for decades, I am quite certain there was certainly no negative link between caffeine and migraines. Caffeine is a key ingredient in many migraine medications:

http://migraine.com/migraine-treatment/natural-remedies/caffeine/

Caffeine is actually beneficial because it causes blood vessels in the brain to constrict, which is exactly what you want to counter a migraine.

The most beneficial medication I was ever prescribed was Ergotamine Tartrate in an inhaler form that goes under than name Medihaler. This was wonderful for me because I would as often as not be unable to keep orally ingested medications down for long enough for them to have a beneficial effect. Being inhaled and entering the blood stream through the lungs it's efficacy is much more rapid than is possible with oral medications.

Ergotamine Tartrate is like caffeine in that it causes blood vessels in the brain to constrict, except its effect is a lot stronger. Obviously it would be both necessary and advisable to consult a physician to determine if this would be suitable for you.

As I said in an earlier post my really bad, aura and loss of sensation migraines have stopped since I gave up coffee, however I still drink tea (too much) so it wasn't the caffeine in the coffee - but something else that was a massive trigger, certain types of chocolate give me a one sided headache too -

Interesting post there - because often times a cuppa tea helps a bad headache!

Also whilst I was going through the throes of a bad migraine spree I was referred to a consultant and when I recieved the letter of appointment all I saw was July thinking gosh I have to wait 2 whole months at the time until I saw the year was a further two years away!

I never took the appointment.