Migraine

I think as you get older migraine becomes very variable. I have had migraine since I was about 5 or 6 and every 10 years it reinvents itself.

However over the last ten years, I am now in my early 70s, it has gradually faded away, except that, about once a year, for no obvious reason I wake with or develop that old familiar headache.

I'm permanently on medication to control what were painful 3 day migraines, but I do now get a weird visual disturbance that has been diagnosed as migraine. It's not painful at all, but it is very disconcerting.

Some of the symptoms of migraine can be very disturbing indeed. The aura for me consists of a sudden brief sense of euphoria and a ghastly sensation that the floor is either further away or nearer. It then goes on to pain in my right eye, ear, nostril and numbness along the right side of my tongue. If only migraine were just an headache it might be more tolerable.

I have to wear sunglasses to use the computer and watch TV or I trigger another migraine.

I too take medication to try and prevent it happening. I find they come in batches with several over a period of days, and a sort of hangover for at least 24 hours afterwards.

It is miserable and I am sorry that yours seem to be coming back "Elliebeth." Might it be worth going to the doctor to see if you can have something to prevent it happening?

Elliebeth there was quite a long thread on this some time ago which you might find useful but yes, I've had this and I agree with Flickety that migraine can change as you get older. I used to have them a couple of times a month then in my 50s they more or less stopped. Now in my early 70s, they've come back. I have the peculiar visual effects still but a much less bad headache. I used to have visual disturbance, numbness, speech confusion and a bad, bad headache that lasted all day and made me nauseated. to all migraine sufferers!

Migraines in any form are so horrible. It does annoy me when people say they have a migraine and they are working, using the computer or out and about. They may have a headache but a migraine will knock you out. When I have one I can tolerate nothing but a dark cool room and a bed to sleep in.

I get visual disturbances that the Optician told me were migraine. One eye, usually the left, breaks up my sight into shards like a broken mirror and I get flashes of light as if it was light dancing off water.

I agree with Ginny...... I don't believe it's a migraine if you're at work, up and about.... etc.

On once occasion, many years ago I was in hospital, prepped and waiting to go to theatre for surgery. Should have gone at 9am, at 1pm I was still waiting, and had been fasting from the day before. I had a migraine. It was agonising if someone even walked past my bed. Ward doctor would not give me anything as I was going to theatre (at some time). Eventually I told staff I could stick it no longer, I was going home to get pain relief.... enough ! Someone took me seriously and consultant/anaesthetist (whomever) arrived at my bedside and saw the state I was in. They took me to theatre.

Sorry to be long winded but my point is that in the midst of a migraine I was willing to forego the surgery I had waited on for many months.
That is what the pain of migraine can do.

Thankfully as I have got older the migraines have eased off.

i recommend eating a few feverfew leaves as soon as a migraine begins . I still get the kaleidoscopic effects but not the sickening pain and nausea.

I have recently been getting my cluster headaches/migraines back when I've not suffered for a good while now. I did suffer with them in my 20's and 30's but have not been bothered for a bit. Then last week, wham! Back with a vengeance. All down the right hand side of my head, my face, eye, ear, cheek, all sore, throbbing, warm and painful. I can only take one co-dydramol and one paracetamol or if I go stronger then I spark off my IBS. Oh the joys! So I will keep an eye on it and see if it corresponds with anything I am doing or my periods.

My eyes do go funny seeing lightening images on the side if I have used the laptop too much so close it down, dark room and sleep for a while.

As a long term migraine sufferer - I started at 11 yrs old- this sounds like tha Aura which people get before migraines and I never had it with the terrible migraines I had. Now I get it and no pain follows! It makes reading or folowing a recipe or playing cards impossible but lasts 20 mins and then is gone.
Migraine is basically an inflamation of the skin surrounding the brain which is why the symtoms are so varied. Most migraine sufferers want to go to bed and lie down in a dark room. This is what makes it different from an ordinary headache. Its hard to find a GP who has migraine because a migraine sufferer could not have got through the training.
Like most women my hormones were the main triggers. I never had one when pregnant but after the birth. Wow! The pill was no help either.

I once worked with someone who used to drive home when she got a migraine which I certainly wouldn't be able to do! In fact, it was always one of my main worries that I would start with one when I was driving. But she was properly diagnosed and being treated. They do vary so much. Apparently children sometimes start with episodes of vomiting, no headache which then turns into the classic or other kind of migraine later on.

harrigran; that happened to me late one night with both eyes a few years ago. I was terrified..thankfully after 20 minutes my sight was ok again. Never happened again. Pre menopause I used to get 'Saturday migraines'; always at the weekend when I'd had a couple of hours extra sleep or if I'd been drinking orange juice or herbal tea [took me years to realise the orange juice was a problem].

I found as my migraine began to fade, it was the pain that faded but not the side effects, the feeling of being entirely spaced out, photo-sensitive and feeling queasy. But now and again I do suddenly get quite severe ones and the worst migraine attack I ever had was when I was in my early 60s.

I used to feel really good afterwards, as if the tension had been building up for a long time and had been defused.

Elliebeth if you had the visual aura without any headache it sounds like the ocular migraines that I get. IIRC from when I read a bit after I was diagnosed common migraine (headache only) accounts for about 60% of cases, and classic migraine (with aura) about 40%, but ocular migraine is rare and accounts for only about 1% of cases.

Mine look like a scintillating patch a bit like the pixellation the use to hide things on TV. It starts as a small patch just off centre and takes about 15 mins to spread until it covers about half my visual field. Over the next 15 mins it clears from the centre out wards.

They're very variable, the longest I've been without one is nearly two years, and the shortest a few hours. In early 2011 I had as many OMs in 9 weeks as I had had in the previous 9 years.

I remember having one many years ago when I was on the pill and I simply lost my sight - I had two children in the house and just had to crawl to the bed and get the older one to ring my OH. Needless to say I went off the pill!

I have been told that I have vestibular migraine because my balance is badly affected. It is a real pig this problem and I do sympathise with all those of you who suffer.

Thank you all for your replys. The headache this time was minimal, but the shimmering was very strange. It was just from my left eye and l could still see it with my eyes shut !! If that makes sense. It left me feeling very sickly all day but have been alright since. I'm 65 now so can't really blame it on hormones. When l got them on the pill the headaches were horrendous and didn't go until l was sick. So not as bad as that. If it happens again will see the gp . Thanks again

If it's just in one eye I think that's a retinal migraine, ocular migraines are in the brain, and affect both eyes together.

Still in the grip of a migraine after 24 hours - this is happening about every 10 days now. Such a b*** nuisance. None of the meds to prevent it seem to work.

Anyone found anything that does the trick?

Poor you Mishap
Have you tried drinking a can of cola + pint of water with 2 paracetamol and 400mg ibuprofen? It often works for me (mine are due usually to not enough fluids)
Miserable condition....

I take opthalmic migraine which I find frightening as I can't see right. Don't know if there is anything I can take for it as it just strikes out of the blue.

Hi Mishap hope you are feeling better today, migraine's are a curse aren't they!. Have you tried Maxalt, Zomig or Imigran you can buy that over the counter, usually you have to take them as soon as you realize a migraine is coming on,the cola or a strong coffee with 3 painkillers Loopylou suggested is a good idea too works for me if i take it in time.

I read somewhere that migraine pain is due to the blood vessels dilating, so I have been known to stick my head under a cold shower or use a cold flannel on the back of my neck. DD uses an ice pack with some relief- you can by 'instant' ice packs, which are very good and easy to carry around.
Do hope you're feeling better today Mishap

Thanks for all the ideas. Worst is over now but I still have that migraine hangover. Whenever I have one it lasts about 24 hours and if you add in the run-up and the hangover, that's a couple of days down the pan - it makes it very hard to plan one's life. It's happening about every 10 days at the moment.