Migraine

I got migraines monthly when younger with aura and severe headache. Stress and lights also caused migraine. This improved a lot post menopause and went altogether when I retired and no longer had to spend the day under fluorescent lights.
Mine have started again since developing cataracts. The headache is less severe but more nausea and hangover feeling. Travel sickness has also got worse.

I get them since I can remember.

I also get cluster headaches.

What helps me is:
1. Daily preventive medication was life changing - went from 15+ per month to once a week.
2. The migraine medication (with lysine) from boots is incredible. I stock up when I go through Heathrow.
3. I wear an amber necklace with very positive results
4. Know your triggers - for me, chocolate, weather changes (barometric pressure) and changes in sleep patterns are major triggers
5. A coffee shot with tylenol also works but if I take it when it starts.
6. Certain climates make it so much worse- heat, humidity, tropical-ish/summetlike weather is hell for me

Yes, but not often. There’s a classic aura during which my vision is distorted and I feel as if I’m drunk - can’t walk straight, speak coherently or write properly. The start of the aura is my cue to get home and get horizontal because after half an hour, I get a (relatively mild) headache and acute hypersensitivity to sound and light, and I find it almost impossible to stay awake. I sleep it off for around six hours - if it starts any time after noon, I sleep right through to the next morning. For about 24 hours afterwards, I feel somewhat hungover. During the migraine, my kidneys go into overdrive, so I wee a lot and then wake up dehydrated.

The most common trigger is the release of stress. I can push through almost any amount of stress at work or at home, but as soon as it eases off, I get a corker of a migraine. Many family holidays in our French holiday cottage started with Mum in bed for 24 hours.

MyDH suffered from them for years then he went on an exclusion diet. Not easy but he found that bananas triggered his. Apparently this is common. Who knew?
No bananas = no migraines in this house.

Migraine sounds awful. Up until the menopause, I didn’t really know what a head ache felt like. I have a lot of other conditions , and pains (knee, for example) but headache isn’t one of them. I do get ‘fuzzy heads’ but very rarely do I get a full blown headache.
I hope you feel better soon.

Thank you, Ladyleftfield. They both have kidney failure, which was diagnosed last year and is being treated, but now one of them has a lump which the vet is pretty certain will be very malignant. Op planned for Friday.

I hope your cat is better soon and can have her booster. They just get into our hearts, don’t they??

Sue, I’m sorry you had bad news at the vet. One of our cats was fine but the other had an infection in her stomach. She had had an antibiotic and painkillers. Hopefully she will be fit enough to have her booster in a week,

It wasn’t good news at the vet today, Ladyleftfield, which was a bit of a shock. My migraine came back shortly after, so I’ve just taken painkillers and it’s eased off again. I’ll be glad to go to bed tonight.

Re hemi-plegic migraine, a friend’s uncle was hospitalised with what was thought to be a stroke last week. He’s now been told it was a hemi-plegic migraine, which in the circumstances was a relief. However, he’s now caught Covid in hospital.

I started having migraines at 18. They were blinders, monstrous. I'm now 67. After a very stressful time a few years ago I got so fed up with them that I determined to find my triggers. It took me two years but I discovered that excitement of any kind, sugar and - wait for it - potatoes! were triggers. I worked hard at cutting out all three. The excitement was the hardest as I have a very active mind full of ideas!!! But now I only get the occasional aura migraine if I neglect my diet, and then I take two soluble aspirin. I rarely feel washed out nowadays. Phew.

Pizotifen has saved me from years of 'just let me die now' migraines. I resisted having prophylactic treatment for decades as I was already taking a lot of medication and didn't want to add to it, but finally migraines were dominating my life to such an extent that I had to give in and now I wish I'd started taking Pizotifen years before. I've put on weight, which is one of the known side effects, but honestly that's preferable by far to not being able to function during endless migraines. I wish I could revisit my younger self and tell her to take the prophylactic meds that were offered to me so many times!!

SueDonim

I woke up with a stonker this morning, so you have my sympathy, Ladyleftfieldlover. The sumatriptan has just kicked in, which is just as well as I have vet appointment at 2pm. Not for me, I hasten to add, but for my cats. Although my vet is so lovely I wish he was my doctor.

I stated migraines at age 11 and am 66 now. I am still waiting to grow out of them, as I was told repeatedly I would. Nothing in particular seems to trigger them and if anything they’re more frequent now, although they’re often a lower level version rather than the full-fat lying in a darkened room one.

Gosh SueD. We could be twins! OH is having to take our two cats for their checkup and boosters. Even though the sumatriptan kicked in within half an hour or so, I am feeling absolutely drained and I’m conked out and on the sofa. Many years ago I used to have the most painful migraines and I would go numb down one side and often throw up. Those days seem to have gone, I think from when I was in my 50s.

The only trigger I ever identified for my migraine was being in a smoky atmosphere, otherwise they just came, and still do, when they feel like it, without rhyme or reason.

I get Hemiplegic migraine which causes speech problems and slight weakness down one side.. I had it frequently in my thirties and last year it started up again only few and far between though. My doctor sent me for a brain scan as she thought it may be 'tia' mini stroke. The scan proved all was well thank God but the rare form of migraine confirmed.

Mine are far less frequent, and less painful these days (since the menopause) mainly visual and dizziness. It's better than vomiting and lying in a dark room.

I used to get them regularly on Friday evenings, having relaxed after a hard working week, and randomly as well.

I always had one after giving birth too - so hormone related.

I gave up gluten, and that reduced them, but it's difficult to stick to.

I sympathize with anyone who suffers with migraine of any variety. I had my first about 20yrs ago, whilst I was under severe stress. Since then I've only had three, they hit with no warning.

No headache, but flashing lights, zig zags and tunnel vision, lasting a couple of hours, with total exhaustion after. Very frightening. In retrospect all four were during times of great stress in my life.

I woke up with a stonker this morning, so you have my sympathy, Ladyleftfieldlover. The sumatriptan has just kicked in, which is just as well as I have vet appointment at 2pm. Not for me, I hasten to add, but for my cats. Although my vet is so lovely I wish he was my doctor.

I stated migraines at age 11 and am 66 now. I am still waiting to grow out of them, as I was told repeatedly I would. Nothing in particular seems to trigger them and if anything they’re more frequent now, although they’re often a lower level version rather than the full-fat lying in a darkened room one.

You have all my sympathy. I never had so much as a headache until I hit the menopause at 50, then for the next 10 years I'd more than made up for my headache-free years.
I was taking 4 paracetamol at a time ( 2 were useless ) and going to work like a zombie. After a spell of " heaving ", they used to go until the next day. I could willingly have cut my throat. All caused by hormones ! I had them every day at 3am ??

They finally went as quickly as they'd appeared, never to return again I'm glad to say. I rather feel that the amount of paracetamol that I took over the years, had taken its toll on my kidneys.

Me too. Totally unpredictable. Might not have one for months and months, then they happen in a cluster, then a gap again.

Very trying.

Memories of lying in bed with a cold flannel on my forehead!

I used to get them once a month. Now they aren't as bad as they used to be (post menopausal). Worse than a regular headache, but not migraine agony. I get really bad ones more when it is hot now, but less in winter.

Being cold definitely helps me either avoid them or lessen them a bit. In summer, an electric fan blowing on my head can reduce the headache a bit.

I stopped getting them post menopause. My triggers were acidic drinks or food (I was the one with a massive headache one New Year because I’d been drinking orange juice all night), herbal tea, sleeping late on non working days. It took me years to work out what was causing them. They are truly horrible. My DIL had Botox for hers which worked.

I am 10 years older than you and have also had them since I was 5. Thankfully never as freqently as you have had them, but I used to have absolute blinders every couple of months that had me off work for several days and milder ones inbetween.

I did find they eased a bit after the menopause, but they are now much more unpredictable. I have had a couple of severe attacks of vestibular migraine - which I have never had before.

Sorry you are suffering Ladyleftfieldlover migraines are horrible, I suffered from them too for a lot of my life. Nothing to do except take the meds and sleep in a darkened room. I had the vomiting as well with mine. For some reason my migraines got fewer and fewer post menopause and now I don't get them at all. ( fingers firmly crossed )
Hope you feel better soon, rest and fluids for the day now.

It is horrid isn't it - I am sorry you are suffering.

I get vestibular migraine and feel as though I am going to land on the floor.

I take a sleeping tablet and sleep it off.