Migraine is not just a headache

Ice cold Sensation, throbbing head, visual disturbance, head pain when coughing, etc...are these common things of migraine? I can see that is is not just a bad headache.

Let me share with you this article on “the Stigma of chronic migraine”. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

health.harvard.edu/blog/the...

[Gambit62]

My grandmother, my mother and myself have all experienced the curse of migraine - though for all of us it seems to have been hormonally related and in the case of my gran and mother stopped at the menopause - as my gran was at that age when I was growing up it was only much later that I found out that she had had migraines as well. The headache can be pretty bad but for me the worst element is the gut spasms - they don't always manifest but when they do that is it - stand up at your peril and if you do head to the bathroom straight away.

A lot of the time I have coped with small dosages of triptans (ergotamine before that) ... and because I wasn't using a whole tablet/wafer - generally a quarter - repeat prescriptions were quite far apart.

Because it has been so established in the family I haven't really felt any stigma from those around me - but I do find it really frustrating that I lose whole days - sometimes several days to this - lost the best part of 3 days this week ... but think there may be something going on with my B6 levels at the moment that could be making it worse. I have a B12 deficiency so taking large doses of B12 ... which means I'm using up a lot of B9 I suspect in metabolising B12 and it may be possible that I'm not actually taking in enough B9 so body is converting B6 to B9 so going to play around a bit with that to see if it stops being quite so bad. Problem has definitely been worse in last few months - since I started heavily supplementing the B12 ... which I don't regret at all as it has sorted out a lot of other problems, including co-ordination, balance, tiredness, fatigue and even the depression that I've had for 14 years. Last one has been a bit of an eye opener.

Think there is an element of truth to being harder on ourselves than those around us.

Migraine doesn't always mean headache - have a friend who is an artist and suffers silent migraines (no headaches but just loads of visual disturbance, which is really bad news when she is trying to complete commissions etc.

[mikipaulo]

My migraines have your symptoms and more. The nerve sensations, hot & cold, and lights are called "neurological manifestations". My have now progressed to states including global short term amnesia.

I am sorry that you experience this difficult form of migraines. Please try to find a neurologist who specializes in this type of "neurological manifestations."...for proper diagnosis.

In the meantime, it is critically important that you do not let any doctor prescribe for you any medication for immediately stopping one of your headaches!!!!

A small percentage of migraine sufferers with these types of neurological symptoms have now been found to become frozen, literally permanently locked into the migraine, in their symptomatic state when using drugs like Imitrex & it's comparable fast acting medicines.

Good luck & God Bless!