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CS Guy

Join Date 06/2004

The Bane of My Existence

Well, That May Be A Bit Dramatic

As I child I used to get horrible headaches. These headaches persisted through high school as well. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me, but I did discern a particular pattern. I played baseball through junior and senior high school, and after every game I would get a headache. I played soccer as well, but rarely had a headache after those games.

The difference between these two was that baseball was in the spring/summer time frame, while soccer was in the fall/winter. It seemed that whenever I exerted myself under the sun I would get a headache. Even playing golf with my grandfather induced headaches during the summertime.

I didn’t really understand what caused these headaches until I was 23 years old. I was taking a public speaking course in college and a girl was giving a speech on migraines. She talked about the symptoms: nausea, vomiting, auras (light spots), sensitivity to light and sound, numbness, difficulty in speech, and severe semi-hemispherical head pain. I soon realized she was talking about my headaches!

I went to a doctor, and not wanting to influence his diagnosis I described my symptoms but did not tell him I thought I was having migraines. He started asking me questions about my mother. Did she have bad headaches as well? So bad that she was incapacitated in the same manner that I was? Thinking back, I realized that she did have the same kind of headaches that I had suffered all my life.

The doctor told me I most likely have the migraine disease, which is a genetic disorder passed primarily from a mother to her children. This was something I did not hear in the public speaking class. I called my mom and asked her about it. Her response was something like, “Oh yea, I knew I had migraines, but I hoped your headaches were something different.”

So I started learning what I could about migraines, in the hope that I might be able to find relief. Unfortunately, many people can only mitigate the pain, and at varying degrees of success. Drugs have had little effect on my migraines, so I generally have to sacrifice 8 to 12 hours of my life to recover.

Over the years I’ve had many people offer their “cures” for migraines. Thing is, there is no cure. Migraine is a true organic neurological disease, and if you are born with it you are stuck with it.

So, in the spirit of education, I’d like to share some facts about the migraine disease with you.

Migraine is a disease; a headache is just one symptom. Migraine pain is caused by expansion of the cranial blood vessels (vasodilation). Traditional headache pain is caused by contraction of the blood vessels (vasoconstriction). Because of this, many treatments for traditional headaches actually make migraine pain worse.

Migraine is a genetically-based disease. You have about a 50% chance of inheriting this disease if one of your parents has it. According to Dr. Stephen J. Peroutka, M.D., Ph.D., President & CEO of Spectra Biomedical, Inc., a group of research physicians dedicated to understanding the genetic illnesses, “This susceptibility is neither psychological nor induced by environmental causes."

A migraine is induced by various triggers. Some examples of triggers are weather patterns, menstrual cycles, bright light, certain foods, chemical smells, second-hand smoke, alcohol, and heat/cold. The triggers are generally different for each person, and an attack may require multiple triggers. Some people claim stress is a major trigger, but some doctors disagree with this. My triggers tend to be second-hand smoke, excessive body heat, sunlight, and, it seems, stress. One of my mother’s triggers is cheese.

Migraine causes a severe heightening of all of a person’s senses. A Migraineur (a person with the disease) is more sensitive to their environment to the point of pain. Light hurts, sound hurts, taste is enhanced, and even touch. During a migraine attack the person can actually feel atmospheric pressure against their skin.

Migraine can be life threatening. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, "migraine can sometimes lead to ischemic stroke and stroke can sometimes be aggravated by or associated with the development of migraine." Twenty-seven percent of all strokes suffered by persons under the age of 45 are caused by Migraine.

There is more, but this is getting to be very long and I think I have covered my desired points.
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Like I said in a different article. I too have suffered with headaches. Mine started when I was 5 and have worsened. Before if I threw up I'd feel A LOT better. But now, its to the point where all I can do is just sleep. And even that doesn't help. My doctor thought I had something more wrong with me than just having a migraine so they did MRI's and things on my brain. My brain was completely normal other than I had a hormone blood vessel like thing in the middle of my brain, which stops secreting the hormone after you reach a certain age. So my doctor shrugged it off, and put me on medicine. So I take Inderall every day. Which the Inderall is only to make my Migraines extend further out. Like I used to have a headache 5 days out of the week. And the Inderall make it so I only have 1 or 2 a week. I haven't been home enough this week and I wasn't taking my medicine, so it'll take me another month to get my migraines under control again. I'll probably have to take Inderall all my life even though it doesn't cure me, it just helps me to not have them so often. And for when the Inderall allows me to have an awful headache. I have Axert which helps me handle light and things.

I tried Imitrex one time, it made me jaw lock up really bad. Then I felt worse than I had before. So I quickly stopped taking it. Now things seemed to have settled. Most of my work is done on the computer, so I wear my sunglasses when the Axert doesn't help with the light.

Thanks for writing about your migraines. It helped me to realize I'm not alone with these stupid things.
Emma

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One of my principal migraine triggers is red meat. Stress is another biggie.

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Stress gives me headaches too. Chocolate too.

Emma

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I've had migraines since I was 25.

I've been on every medication known to medicine....and they still keep coming. There seems to be no reason for them, no trigger than I can see (or my physician can see; I've kept headache diaries before). Right now I'm not on any meds at all, and I'm under more stress than usual ......and as yet (touch wood) no headache.

I destest Imitrex. Hate the stuff. I feel like shit when I need to take it anyway, and it makes me feel worse, so therefore I don't. If a physician I'm unfaliliar with suggests Imitirex, I tell them I'd rather take nothing and suffer than take that crap. Zomig works slightly better, as does Maxalt, and they don't make me feel as bad.

I can totally relate to the 'unable to do anything except lay in bed and puke for hours and sometimes days' scenario, tho.

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I can totally relate to the 'unable to do anything except lay in bed and puke for hours and sometimes days' scenario, tho.

Thats how I was when I was little. But now, I can't puke, and when I lay in bed, it doesn't do me any good. but the sometimes days part. Really hits me at home.

Emma

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Before if I threw up I'd feel A LOT better. But now, its to the point where all I can do is just sleep. And even that doesn't help.

I was the same way. If I could throw up I would feel somewhat better. Sleep is really the only thing I can do, and the only reason that helps is because I am unconscious.

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the only reason that helps is because I am unconscious

me too. But when I wake up, its still there. And some times worse.

Emma

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I find it interesting that so many people here are Migraineurs, and so many people that I would characterize as intelligent. I encountered this when I was a lecturer. Probably a third of my university's computer science department faculty had migraines.

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My daughter just got diagnosed with migraines this summer. She's a straight 'A' student, if that assists your therory any.

I find too that the Migrainerus that I know tend to be more 'cerebral'.

I find that the only thinkg that really helps me is sleep. Sometimes that sleep has to be induced by large doses of narcotics, but that's really the only thing that is successful.

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I find that the only thinkg that really helps me is sleep. Sometimes that sleep has to be induced by large doses of narcotics, but that's really the only thing that is successful.

My process is to take some excedrin migraine (it sometimes helps a little), take a long cold shower, make sure my bedroom blinds are drawn, put on an Enya CD playing softly, crawl (slowly) into bed, and try not to think.

I was actually wrong before when I said my only relief is unconsciousness. Ever since I was little showers have been my silver bullet as far as pain is concerned. I will start a cold shower, and lay in the bathtub such that the shower falls around my head. I get this image in my mind of a tropical waterfall, and peace overcomes me. It's purely endorphins, but it will relieve just about any pain I have: from sunburn to muscle ache to physical trauma to migraines. Although for migraines it only works for a short while (maybe 20 minutes). So the key is for me to stay in the shower long enough to make most of the pain go away, then hope I can get to sleep before it returns.

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My daughter just got diagnosed with migraines this summer.

She has my condolences.

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excedrin migraine is, in my opinion, the best OTC med to allow you to function on a day when you otherwise couldn't.

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She has my condolences.

I'll pass them on.

She got them at school (she was having a lot of problems with another student and a teacher; I think she was really stressed), and we finally went to the doc after she got sent home 3 days in a row. He gave her morphine...she got a CT scan, which was clear, and so the diagnosis by default was migraines - which is typically how it happens.

The one thing that really does aggrivate me to no end is the amount of people who will clssify a tylenol headache as a "migraine". It's not. If my headaches could be resolved by simply taking a tyenol, I'd be jumping through hoops. Migraines, as you accurately described in your article, area a completely different animal than your common-or-garden headache. The physiology is different, the symptoms are much more intense and complex.....it's so completely different. I wish sometimes that I could give people a taste of a migraine at it's worst so they would be able to understand and feel for theselves the huge difference that exists between headache and migraine.

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The one thing that really does aggrivate me to no end is the amount of people who will clssify a tylenol headache as a "migraine". It's not.

Right. A Migraine is much more than a headache. It's a complete wipeout.

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Right. A Migraine is much more than a headache. It's a complete wipeout.

I've literally been laying on the floor, fetal position, wishing that someone with a shotgun would come by and blow my head off. But since no one was that kind I had to settle for weeping for hour upon hour.

One of my problems is that I have learned to block a lot of pain through concentration. But you can't do that with a migraine because the act of concentrating is itself painful.

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One of my problems is that I have learned to block a lot of pain through concentration

I have the ability to just go somewhere else in my head when I'm in pain sometimes. Unfortuantely with a migraine it's my head that hurts , so going somewhere else is impossible, because it hurts too much.

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I would have to say I'm relatively lucky as migraine sufferers go. I've never bothered getting diagnosed but I do have the classic symptoms as described (half-head, a couple of common triggers, light sensitivity, desire to vomit, etc.) but I hardly ever feel like I'm incapacitated by them. Usually when I feel one coming on, if I do a couple of things I can mitigate it pretty effectively: 1, take pseudoephedrine; 2, work to relax the neck/shoulder area; and 3, do some exercise. I theorize that the last one is getting blood away from my brain, thereby relieving pressure. Staying physically active throughout the day helps keep pain at bay.
Of course if I don't get out from under it in time, then I do end spending a day or two not eating (so as to avoid any queasiness and desire to vomit) and lying around in a dim room, but I can usually manage to read, compute, or watch TV, and sometimes even do a little work from home. Very rarely do I have to spend the day in bed with the shades drawn and a cold washcloth on my forehead. Which is good, because after a day of complete inactivity, I toss and turn a lot more in my sleep.

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KarmaGirl

Join Date 03/2001

+118

They are starting to link Migraines to autoimmune diseases. (As a migraine might actually be an autoimmune disease). People with migraines tend to also either have or will develop another autoimmune disease in their life (arthritis, lupus, ms, etc.)

I tend to believe that migraines and autoimmune disease is linked. The type of things that trigger a flare in my Lupus will also flare a migraine headache.

I am pretty good at "catching" a migraine before it full blown flares. With the first hint of it (I usually see a few spots) I take about 4 Excedrin migraine. Drink a glass of water then a cup of coffee. I then repeat that in 45 minutes if it's not gone.

I also learned a pressure point tip- when you first get a headache, place your thumbs in the corner where your eyes meet your nose and push up. It relieves pain. However, It won't cure the pain. But, sometimes you need a distraction, and that helps.

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People with migraines tend to also either have or will develop another autoimmune disease in their life

Well, that just makes my day.

I learned this as well... I try to do this while attempting to fall asleep.

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People with migraines tend to also either have or will develop another autoimmune disease in their life

Well, that just makes my day.

Ya know....my doctor thought I might have some early signs of MS earlier this year.

I think I'm getting one, actually. I headache that is. I'm weepy and emotional, and I'm usually not like this...I'm starting to get those neon floaters and the light from the screen is really bothering me.

Time for Karen to take a Zomig and a Bendryl and try to sleep.

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