Anyone else suffer from these? Yesterday was horrendous. Honestly felt like someone was smashing me in the occipital region with a cricket bat. Of course I'd run out of pain killers. I felt so sick and wobbly, getting to the shop was out of the question. Fortunately a neighbour had some migraleve. I'm in a bit of a mess as far as painkillers go, as they can often make the migraine worse! Fortunately the migraleve seemed to help, although I woke up at 2am with another milder attack. I took tablets straight away. I can still feel it lurking, but not too bad today. I'm so stupid. I did get the aura (I get a weird smell) which is often, (not always) a warning. I should have had a stock of migraleve at the ready!
Mine are frequently triggered by food. I'm better on a keto diet, but I'm struggling to stick to that with the rise in the cost of meat, eggs, butter and cheese. I don't do well at all on grains and sugar. I think also issues with spine/neck can trigger an attack. My shoulders and neck are giving me hell. I've yet to find a decent pillow!
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Blackberrywine
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I used to get the occasional migraine when I was younger and found migraleve and literally lying down in a darkened room to be effective. Stress / being overly busy was my trigger.I have a neck orthopaedic pillow which I bought from IKEA, around £25, a few years ago, it's wonderful and goes everywhere with me. Even a couple of nights without it and I can feel the strain on my neck.
I hope you are on the mend today
yes, often without aura. I use migraleve and find two pink immediately I feel it work, if I wait hoping it won’t develop ( it always does) I need two yellow later and maybe more the next day. During the shortage of migraleve during the pandemic I had to use Paramol which also worked although not quite as well. Unfortunately both contain codeine so constipation follows. I have left side neck pain (RA?) and have spent a fortune on pillows from sheepskin ones, to £5 ones to £100 ones all to no avail and frequency sleep face down flat. A recent bout of acid reflux ( under investigation) led me to try again with firm memory foam pillows that I’d banned to the spare room and to my surprise I found repeated use has somehow made it work this time round.
Much sympathy for you. The migraines arrived with puberty, usually triggered by hormones and foods like oranges, cheese, chocolate and red wine. Classic triggers on top of stress I found. So, they also hit when on HRT to the degree that I had to stop it. We always hope they just 'go away' don't we?
Returning sympathy. Yes. Always a bad idea to hang on to see if it will pass. It got so bad I was almost contemplating dropping a brick on my foot to stop the head pain!😂🤕
Pillows - i could open a pillow store and sell them, I must have tried every pillow on the market. At the moment I’m using a Nomite down filled pillow from JL, it’s quite thin and I can shake the filling to one end until it’s relatively low. I’ve also got a very lightweight Tempur one too which is easily moulded to fit as much as I need under my head. I just never got on with those shaped pillows specially for people with spinal / neck problems. I once had a very flat IKEA pillow that I quite liked - think it was intended for people who sleep on their fronts. Finding the perfect pillow is a total nightmare and when you do you might find it might only suit your body for a limited length of time.
Migraines - I’m lucky I mostly only get the visuals - sparkles that work into a C shape then get larger and larger until I can’t see them, fortunately I don’t seem to get the headache although I do get occipital headaches which are very unpleasant. Smells do it for me - heavy perfume and lilies. Then it’s paracetamol, darkened room and I use Origins Peace of Mind on my pulse points and go under the duvet. Unconventional but it works for me
What you experience sounds like what my optometrist diagnosed me with called "Occular migraine" , no pain, just prism like flashing I see, sort of in half circle, only lasts for a minute or two, forget what he said caused,
Yip, that’s it. It’s amazing how it starts off small and widens out until it disappears - so sparkly. I rarely get a headache with it.
I get an aura like you, usually an odd metallic smell (not like perfume or lilies) that no one else can smell - obviously because it isn’t actually there! That’s when I get a horrible sick headache.
I suffer severe migraines, where I’m sick 10-12 times. 99% of the time I wake with them, I get no aura. I can’t tolerate any tablets or sips of water as I’m always immediately sick. I have another serious illness called adrenal insufficiency, where my body produces no cortisol, and vomiting can cause a life threatening crisis. So I always have to administer an Intramuscular steroid injection when I get them. Thankfully they settle the vomiting down after an hour or 2, and just leave me drained and with a normal headache. Officially I’m supposed to call an ambulance, but my endo agrees if I respond to the injection and can rehydrate at home that’s fine. I’ve never found migraleave help mine, but my stomach shuts down many hours before the migraine. I can vomit the previous nights dinner undigested, sorry if tmi.
I use a memory foam pillow from John Lewis with 2 different heights for your neck, that allows for side or back sleeping. It’s been a godsend as neck pain is one of my worst symptoms. It’s called a 2 way memory foam and was around £50
You have my sympathy, though personally my migraines, with aura, are relatively mild. They used to be hormone linked, but these days it’s usually dehydration or stress that sets them off. So important to keep hydrated. Hope you feel better very soon.
Used to get the mother of all migraines when younger , used pink Migraleve mine started with nausea. Hormones were my main cause (plus psychological issues which i got counselling for) so once passed menopause stopped almost over night.
Last few weeks got them again ones with aura , & yesterday hideous nausea with headache, fortunately paracetamol did the trick.
Drinking lots of water , darkened room & analgesics at earliest possibility .
I was going to say sumatriptan, I suddenly developed ocular migraines about 5 years ago, the prism shapes that start & get worse and worse with the migraine from hell, take a sumatriptan straight away & 99.9% of the time works really quickly, on rare occasions where it didn't work quite so well you can take another in 2 hours I think x
I've had them since I was 18 (52 now) and they have altered in varying forms, been seen by neuro. Long and short of it all, they have got better with age. My GP prescribed me 10-30 mg of Amitriptyline each night. 20 mg does the trick for me. Migraines are definitely less, I sleep (which helps the RA) and quite frankly was a game changer for me. I was only diagnosed with RA about 18 months ago, but was taking this for about 3 years prior. Good luck, I truly empathise.
I have Maxalt melts prescribed my GP. Literally melt on your tongue . I always vomit with mine so solves the problem of taking tablets and then having them reappear before they can work .
Perfumes are a trigger for me but weirdly not aftershave . I may just be strange though :).
I’ve had just about everything else since I was a teenager but these work every time for me .
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