[Adfcvkdg]

Firstly, this thread is meant to be for serious discussion, becuase I am sure for many of you who have experienced a true migraine, it is a very serious and painful thing to go trhough.

I have been a sufferer of maigraines for the past 10 years. I have had dozens during this period, and they have been ranging in severity. I would like to compare symtoms and effects with other sufferes here in order to guage a real world opinion about them, and to see what other have done to help prevent them.

I suffer from what you would call 'Migraine with Aura', and I will explain what happens to me when I suffer from one...

Firstly I get the 'Aura'. A snake shaped line of flickering coloured light which obscures 70% of my vision. It looks similar to this (which apprently a lot of folks can get):



However it is usually Red, Green and Blue, and the 'noise' is like an array of zig zags, flashing very rapidly. Very close to this (the warp effect seen in this FEAR screenshot, only in colour, and flashing like a stobe light):



This aura, shaped like a snake, gets bigger and bigger over a 10 minute period, covering up to 90% of my vision. And after about 30 minutes completely goes away. Along with the Aura, my stomach loses the ability to digest or break down food, thus making the consumption of pain killers utterly useless.

What follows is some of the most intest pain I have ever felt. Usually behind one eye it literally swells and feels like my brain is expanding and pushing hard against my skull.

I lose the ability to talk, and sometimes hear. I become extremely sensitive to lights and sounds, and sometimes I lose orientation and motor functions. This intense pain (which feels like somebody removing my eye with an icecream scoop) lasts for about 3 hours, and there is nothing I can do about it. Then eventually I get very ill in the stomach and throw up. Which is a signifier that the migraine is almost over.

Then for about 3 days after the migraine, there is a slight bruising of the brain which does not hurt normally, but if I sneeze or cough, I get a serring pain where the migraine was. After a few days, I am back to normal, until it strikes again.

Here is a description online which i fairly accurate, and similar to me:

Migraine with aura is characterized by a neurological phenomenon (aura) that is experienced 10 to 30 minutes before the headache. Most auras are visual and are described as bright shimmering lights around objects or at the edges of the field of vision (called scintillating scotomas) or zigzag lines, wavy images, or hallucinations. Others experience temporary vision loss.
Nonvisual auras include motor weakness, speech or language abnormalities, dizziness, vertigo, and tingling or numbness (parasthesia) of the face, tongue, or extremities. This is how it happens every time, without fail. If I see those Auras, I quickly find the quietest, darkest place, lie down and brace myself for 3-4 hours of the worst pain I've ever felt (and I've been kicked in the balls). In fact, I have been tempted to find a way to kock myself out, knowing that when I come-to, I would have a less severe headache.



Now I know some folks here probably get migraines... and I want to know the severity of yours. I have seen doctors, but they all tell me its normal... but I keep telling them that losing the ability to talk, or hear, or even move is somthing I don't really want to keep on experiencing.


So how about you other Migraine sufferers?

[Texdolley]

I've known quite some people who were suffering from migraine (well thats what they said), but i've never heard anything as severe as this.. [shocked]
I don't really know much about it..and don't suffer from it myself so i can't really add anything useful, but i wish you best of luck with this![surrender]

edit: on wikipedia it says "Each symptom lasts from 5–60 minutes" and "Migraine with aura: According to the International Classification of Headache Disorders[9] it is a recurrent disorder manifesting in attacks of reversible focal neurological symptoms that usually develop gradually over 5–20 minutes and last for less than 60 minutes."

hm?

[Adfcvkdg]

I've known quite some people who were suffering from migraine (well thats what they said), but i've never heard anything as severe as this.. [shocked]
I don't really know much about it..and don't suffer from it myself so i can't really add anything useful, but i wish you best of luck with this![surrender]

edit: on wikipedia it says "Each symptom lasts from 5–60 minutes" and "Migraine with aura: According to the International Classification of Headache Disorders[9] it is a recurrent disorder manifesting in attacks of reversible focal neurological symptoms that usually develop gradually over 5–20 minutes and last for less than 60 minutes."

hm?

Yea that's about right, reversible focal neurological symptoms (the auras) last for no longer than 30 mins with me. But then comes a few hours of intense pain, along with loss of speech, hearing, photo sensitivity, and motor abilities.

Basically the auras are my body's way of saying: "Guess what, in 30 minutes... you're f**ked!"

It really sucks!

[escolubtessen]

Have you been to see any specialists about this?

I rarely get headaches and don't think I have ever had a migraine, so I can't imagine what it must feel like. But it sounds odd there isn't more that can be done.

[Grenader]

ive had that aura happen to me too once or twice... didnt have a headache at the time though

[Argurnenoni]

sorry to say it but migraines are all in peoples heads.

[cafeviahe]

I get migraines any where from mild to severe.

Mine are usually triggered by dehydration, alcohol, hunger.

I can associate my migraines with some neck pains as well. My head hurts as well as my right or left eye, and in some severe cases both.

The pain can get so bad that even yawning will cause the pain to increase. I am lucky tho, Ive found that excedrin migraine kills my pain 70% of the time. If I drank too much the nite b4 excedrin will kill it. But if I have a bad migraine due to stress or dehydration then nothin but rest will make it go away

All in all I dont get migraines as much as I used to when I was a preteen, Back then I would get 1 or 2 a week all ofthem severe! [thumbdown]

[pKgGpUlF]

That's crazy Matt.

I get them on a regular basis, I would say on average once a week, but this can change I might go weeks without one, then have a week were I get a few. I'm not not even close to the pain you're getting. I feel like my eyes are being stabbed and it's not nice, and the pain shifts to different parts of the brain, which then affects what I'm sensitive to.

At worst I've vomited due to the pain. This is rare, I think I've only ever vomited twice.

A lot of the problem is due to neck strain. Rapid changes in temperature adds more strain on my neck and muscles as they contract and tighten. To relieve the neck strain I have been seeing chiropractors which have helped the problem out a lot! Sometimes when the neck strain was bad I could have several migraines a week. They typically last only a day.

My current chiropractor has been good. He's given me stretches I can do to get rid of strain caused by slumping in front of the computer. Also making sure I have free neck movement and blood is flowing well. Then he has given me an ultrasound massage around the neck and shoulder muscles. Ultrasound is amazing, it really loosens the muscles deep inside.

The key I guess is trying to figure out what causes your migraine, the major trigger. There are a lot of factors. My chiro has given me foods that I should try and avoid. Typically a migraines start like a domino effect of things you've done that will trigger them. Alcohol is one I was having issues with. If I went out and had more than two small beers the next day was a write off with a migraine. I still wanted to go out and drink, so I went back to the chiropractor (since I moved to Melbourne I didn't have one) to get my neck strain sorted, and now I can go out drinking with the boys with less risk of a migraine.

[Adfcvkdg]

sorry to say it but migraines are all in peoples heads.

Thanks professor.

...but if you properly read the original post, you would see that I am well aware it is a common occurance. I am just asking other sufferers to come forward and detail the severity of their symptoms.

[ClaudeMarkus]

What if you take like 800mg of Ibuprofen when you start to see the visuals before your stomach stops working? Then go lay down?

Or, what if you make yourself vomit when you start to see the visuals.


Are you stressed? When one occurs, what activities were you doing prior? What was on your mind? What did you eat? Do you suffer from anxiety or depression? How is your blood pressure, high or normal? Do you wear glasses or contacts? When was the last time you had your eyes checked?
________
MONTANA MARIJUANA DISPENSARY

[nursopoutaras]

I used to get them really bad when I was younger. The lights would get loud (fluorescent) and my vision would get all blurry and bright spots. Would become unresponsive occasionally during these. Was a long time ago thought so sorry for lack of more details.

[Adfcvkdg]

What if you take like 800mg of Ibuprofen when you start to see the visuals before your stomach stops working? Then go lay down?

Or, what if you make yourself vomit when you start to see the visuals.


Are you stressed? When one occurs, what activities were you doing prior? What was on your mind? What did you eat? Do you suffer from anxiety or depression? How is your blood pressure, high or normal? Do you wear glasses or contacts? When was the last time you had your eyes checked?

The stomach stops digesting during the visuals, so basically by the time I know I am goign to get one, I am usually unable to process any form of medicine. It's a countermeausre taken by the body as a result of the dizzyness.

I am about as stressed as your average bloke, although I probably average less sleep than some. The activities prior vary; for example, this time I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep... but I have bee at work, driving, and playing soccer when they've hit me before. I don't east anythign out of the ordinary, and my diet has been good and bad periodically. But mostly good as of this recent year. I used to get small cases of anxiety (probably only got it about 3 times in total), but this stopped about 2 years ago, and don't suffer from depression. My bloodp ressure is normal. I don't wear glasses or contacts, and when I had my eyes checked last, they said I have above average vision (esp. with long distances).

So far there is nothing that puts me above the average migraine sufferer, as I too experience neck pain in the days prior to getting one. The only thing that differences me from other sufferers is probably the severity. I tend to get all the bad symptoms all the time, including sligh burising of the brain for the following days.

Maybe I need a cat scan or something.

[juidizHusw]

Thanks professor.

...but if you properly read the original post, you would see that I am well aware it is a common occurance. I am just asking other sufferers to come forward and detail the severity of their symptoms.

I think you missed the joke!

[Adfcvkdg]

I think you missed the joke!

Evidently I did.

[pKgGpUlF]

Evidently I did.

Because it is in your head. [yes]

My head hurts...

[rsdefwgxvcfdts]

I used to get them on a very regular basis, but I reached a point in my late teens/early twenties* when they virtually stopped. Must be 5 or 6 years at least since the last one.

I also had the severe form which could knock me back for a couple of days.

*May be co-incidental but it was around the time I became seriously interested in girls - have you tried that?

[pKgGpUlF]

I have a good question for those that suffer...

Do you guys throw in a sicky at work when you get one?

I personally just plough through the day in pain. I also find that if you can try and not think about the pain it's not too bad. The more you sort of focus and whinge about it it seems to really take hold of you... granted it still hurts. lol.

[lomonel]

bizarrely, I get the aura's or "floaters" as I call them across my vision probably once a month, but very rarely do they escalate into a full blown migraine. Often I get the warping, blury "C" shape across the left side of my vision and I start to feel very tired. If I can, I try to lie down for 30 minutes and it usually goes, if I am at work this can be difficult obviously.

This is a good representation. It tends to happen most when I haven't had enough sleep.

When I was younger I used to have to be physically sick to get rid of migraines.

[nushentelve]

So, when you get migraines you see stuff like this? wow.

I got problems with my night time vision or any dark places where it kind of looks like I'm looking at a TV with fine static. Only happens on dark objects or at night, but never during the day or where light shines. Gets on my nerves sometimes cause it makes it quite difficult to see sh*t at night[thumbdown]

[Adfcvkdg]

So, when you get migraines you see stuff like this? wow.

Yeah, it's thanks to the lack of blood flow, and build up of pressure behind the eyes, and on the left side of the brain that causes it. For a lot of people, they get the same thing in the above shot. And it tends to grow, until it covers msot of that persons vision, and then goes away. Something followed by a migraine, sometimes not. It begins like the above image, but then as it gets bigger, it's like having most of your vision obscured by the 'warp' effect I've circled in the F.E.A.R screenshot.

Ordinarily it would not be that bad, but for some who know they have a migraine coming, it's one of the worst things you can experience, and I often feel like throwing up even talking or thinking about it.