Migranes

Anybody else suffer these annoying maladies? I get a migrane on average, one day a week. I catagorize them:

Level 1: You can feel a headache starting but it is easily taken care of in advance.
Level 2: You have the headache but it is still in it's early stage and is easily dipatched.
Level 3: The light hurts you eyes, the head is pounding but if you tough it out you can make it.
Level 4: Same as level 3 but you feel dizzy as well and the only thing you can do is take medicine and sleep for about an hour.
Level 5: Light hurts your eyes, you feel dizzy, you can barely stand it, and if you take medicine you just hope you can keep it down, and no amount of sleep helps (and even if it does the pain is so bad you have difficulty falling asleep.

9 times out of 10 I have a level 4 and I wake up with a level 3. I can go to work but I suffer for hours until it subsides. However, now and then I have a level 5 and I just want to die because the pain is so bad. Usually if I run into Ralf then it dies down to a level 4 and after sleep I fight through a level 3 at work or if I'm off I sleep some more.

Last night I had the worst headache in the history of headaches. I think the only way for me to have a worse one is if I had a brain tumor. Took some medicine and becuae I was dizzy, I tried to eat something which introduced me to Ralf and I went to sleep which was not easy because of the pain and I woke up and it still was a level 5 so I called in late and slept some more. I woke up with level 4 and on my way to work met Ralf again and suffered though a level 4 until lunch time when I took a nap. Afterwards I woke with a level 3 and it finally died down after that. The migrane lasted from 6 p.m. until 3 a.m. I never want to go through something like that ever again.

I feel for you man. I used to have those until I learned how to deal with them.

Mine were like stage 4-5 but instead of dizzy I'd get nauseous. Light, sound, pressure, movement....everything made it worse. I'd have to just lay there in the dark, put a pillow over my head and and wait it out hoping to fall asleep.

I learned a few things about myself.

#1 - Flourescent lights were a BIG reason I'd get these. Big!! Something about them set my headaches off. I'd get them all the time but didn't know why. Then, I got this job in a dirty, hot grimy factory and I was worried my headaches would get worse under those conditions. The reverse happened and it dawned on my why. The factory was dark and dingy. Little light-bulb lights 30 feet in the air sporadically spaced here and there. No big banks of bright flourescent lights. It dawned on my - in school, at department stores, places that were physically easy - the LIGHTS were giving me headaches.

#2 - Hydration! Making sure I was drinking enough fluids. My brain (as of course everyone's to one level or another) is sensitive to hydration levels but I think my window is smaller.

#3 - Nip it in the bud!! For about a decade now I've carry a little container in my pocket EVERYWHERE I GO - even into fires on duty!! - full of Ibuprofen (my most effective painkiller). I still get headaches all the time but when I was a STUPID youngster I'd try and tough it out. By the time it got bad it was too late for meds. NO more! First sign of a headache I pop 4 Ibuprofen. 95+% of the time this does the trick. Drinking water with the pills helps any possible hydration issue. Popping pills like that 2-5 times a week my have it's own problems but at least I can think/function/enjoy life. Those headaches were debilitating - as you know full well.

SO, I've not had a true killer in over ten years and it's because I've learned how to deal with then. Mostly just quick pain reliever action and hydration. Nip it before it's too late!

Another possible thing that helps is that I eat 6 smaller meals throughout the day and almost never binge eat so I don't have blood sugar spikes. The rare case I do do that these days I'll get the beginnings of a headache so I think this combination of things are all leading to my migraine-free life.

I still get "normal" headaches all the time, but that I can live with.....

Yup, I get migranes. Usually at least once or twice a week. If I take some migrane headache tablets JUST as I feel one kinda coming on, I can usually curtail it. However, if I don't have anything to take or I just kinda ignore it, I'm in for some pain. I've had them so bad that I have actually thrown up from nausea (which only made my head hurt even more).

I do not suffer from them, but my mother used to (and still does on occasion). Aside from what the other guys have said, I know she used to get them from eating certain foods. More specifically, the preservatives in certain pre-packaged foods. I think they narrowed it down to one particular kind of preservative, but I don't know what it was. Since she knows what foods to avoid, the frequency of her migrains has dropped significantly.

DB, check your diet. Maybe something in the food is triggering them.

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

Yup, I get migranes. Usually at least once or twice a week. If I take some migrane headache tablets JUST as I feel one kinda coming on, I can usually curtail it. However, if I don't have anything to take or I just kinda ignore it, I'm in for some pain. I've had them so bad that I have actually thrown up from nausea (which only made my head hurt even more).

Actually for me, meeting Ralf has never made it worse, it actually seems to relieve the pressure. Almost nothing I take works very fast for me. Everything I took for it took 2-3 hours to work. I stated taking Advil and it worked in less than an hour but then I guess I got used to it and it went back to taking 2-3 hours. Now I'm using Tylenol Rapid Release and it is working in less than an hour (hopefully I don't adapt to it). Someone suggested I go see a doctor, but my dad and mom both get migranes and really it is just a family thing (we seem to be suseptable to them).

Thanks MetalGuy, but what actally seems to trigger them is usually too much sleep or not enough sleep. Ironically enough, I need more sleep to kill the headaches caused by too much. I try to get a set amount of sleep but I just get so tired all the time and end up sleeping more than needed. Other times I'm tired of having virtually no real time off (or I'm tired of me sleeping so much) so I go with too little sleep to give myself more free time.

My sister has them. She's had them for about 30 years and has no idea what triggers them. I know she takes stuff to knock them out and stuff to prevent them but she still gets them almost daily. She takes Depakote to prevent them but it makes her gain weight, I take the same thing for epilepsy and it makes my hair fall out. The receptionist at my work has migraines also and she often misses work because of it, at least half a day until she can get out of bed. I feel for you. Is there usually a trigger for them? My sister was adopted as a baby and she said the main reason she found our mom was to find out if they were inherited and they're not, on our side anyway, she hasn't found her biological father.

I have them very lightly. And as mentiones, light is the killer. At my work proper light is essential, but also the thing that triggers my headaches. Driving home from work, when the sun is low ight also trigger this. And the worst thing, people showing flashlights in my face! For whatever reason that happens every now and then, and it is a certain headache coming. Mine start with this flimmer in the eyes. I can't even see straight. Then the pressure above the eyes, and the headache. The only thing that makes it better is to lay still in a cold, dark room.

Quote :

The only thing that makes it better is to lay still in a cold, dark room.

That was it for me! And I'd have that eye thing you mention. Not dizzy, but blurred vision sort of.

I've had plenty of them! I found out that they mostly had to do with me needed to wear glasses. I still get them on occasion from not eating right or drinking enough water.

*needing*

troublezone wrote:

I've had plenty of them! I found out that they mostly had to do with me needed to wear glasses. I still get them on occasion from not eating right or drinking enough water.

Yeah, it helped when I started wearing glasses too.

all this talk about migranes is giving me a headache

my 9 year ol gets them...used to get them uit frequently but appears to be growing out of them....thank goodness.

Feel for you guys though....

My sister gets them pretty bad, but I've never had one.

I'm sympathetic, though, my best friend used to have them as well. They were very debilitating.

My Wife gets them alot.I only get an occasional headache but she takes meds for hers.Whenever she has one,she has to go lay down in a dark room and sleep it off.I understand your pain.

Another thing that might attribute to my migranes is caffine. With all the sodas I drink my caffine tolerance level is extremely high. Sometimes when I haven't had much caffine it sets off a migrane (notice how the headache meds specifically for migranes contain caffine).

Nipped one in the bud yesterday, as a matter of fact. In Church one started and the lights were making things worse so I popped Ibuprofen like candy and in about 30-45 all's well and the day great. Had I let that puppy take it's own course things would've been bad...

My wife gets'em occasionally... and my Mom suffers from them as well... in both cases, I learned to stay well outta the sufferer's way and leave'em alone until they were feelin better.

I had a migraine ONE time as a teenager and I swear it was worse than any hangover I have ever had. I wouldn't wish a migraine headache on my worst enemy.

Man, I've had migraines for four going on five years now... =\

GAAA!!!! I have a migrane for the third night in a row. What makes this one worse, is that my work week has started again. This is getting rediculous.

When I get them, I drink lots of Pepsi and watch Spongebob Squarepants while lying on my side.

I never, thankfully, get these things

sam wrote:

I never, thankfully, get these things

Rub it in my face why don't you!



I envy you, when I was your age I had already had experience with bad migranes. In typing class (my senior high school year-I was 19] I had two days in a row with migranes that were bad enough to make my pray to the porcelain God (the worst of my migranes do that-thankfully the last 3 weren't that kind) and many after that. I don't remember having one in Navy bootcamp, but I was probably too tired and cold (Jan-March in Great Lakes, IL) for one to take hold.

I too have never experienced these things but I've known people who have and I wouldn't wish migraines on my worst enemy.

Well, OK, maybe my WORST one but not most people I meet on a daily basis.

Ive suffered both headaches and migranes

I RARELY get migranes last one was over 3 years ago but i do get headaches

gotta say keep yourself hydrated it helps