To ask what helps your migraines?!

Other than medication I have found the following things help:

Full fat Coke and salty crisps (seems to be a common one)
Running a cold tap over my wrists.
Electrolyte drinks (this one I learnt recently and it really helps)

Sleep.
But my body will literally put me to sleep during a migraine so I don't get a lot of choice in the matter.

• Triptans - I got a prescription meltlet so I didn't keep throwing them up but you can also get a nasal spray.
• Sugar, caffeine and sleep.
• Watching my cycle (pre menopause) and then realised they were better on the implant.
• I took Propanol for a while but it made my asthma worse.
• I now take amitriptyline as a preventer. It helps in that when I get them now a couple of paracetamol usually see them off.
• Yoga with Adrienne has a migraine sequence that surprisingly helps. Get in some lavender oil for it.

Do you get migraine aura before the headache? I haven’t been having too many migraines since menopause, but what really helped me was taking painkillers as soon as the visual aura started. I mean at the very first suspicion. Usually it reduced the headache drastically or completely stopped it. I still had all the other associated stuff like feeling kind of hollowed out and terrible fatigue, but it’s almost impossible to eradicate every symptom. I still had some fleeting nausea, but wasn’t actually sick.

My gp recommended a can of coke and bag of chipper chips with lashings of salt and vinegar.

I always keep a can of coke in the fridge(this has lead to a diet coke addiction which I'm trying to battle) and a when I get the first hint of a migraine I put my sunglasses on even in the house and have can of coke and some salt and vinegar Pringles.

I’ve suffered with migraines since I hit teenage years. Mine are hormone and stress related (and bizarrely the weather when it’s humid!). Monitor your migraines and maybe keep a diary to see if they happen after certain foods/triggers or at certain points in the month. 3 times a month sounds awful! My advice is get yourself to your GP and start trying some different prescription medications. I’ve found it doesn’t stop the migraine but lessens the time it lasts for (4-6hrs instead of 12+) stops me being sick (I just feel it instead), it’s not as bad as without the meds and I manage to fall asleep and sleep through the worst of it in a dark room. I don’t get the full on “migraine hangover” the next day either so I can usually get back to normal activity, whereas without the medication I’m laid up for another day just getting over it. I used to use Migraleve from the pharmacy and that worked really well alongside my prescribed medication but not sure they still do it as I haven’t managed to find it for a while - the pink and yellow tablet version as that’s good for sickness.

You can also take preventative medicine. I never went for it as I don’t get mine that often since having DS. But 3 times a month you may want to consider it as I imagine it’s really disrupting your life?

Also, maybe one to explore if you never had migraines and suddenly developed them… I worked with a guy once who started getting awful ones all the time out the blue. He had a trapped nerve in his neck (or something similar I can’t remember fully) and a physio diagnosed it and once he got treatment they stopped.

I’ve never heard of Feverfew - off to Google it!

For me it’s the following:

Stay hydrated
get adequate sleep
avoid extreme drop of blood sugar ie don’t skip meals
avoid excessive screen use (sometimes I do 14 hour days on laptop - bad idea
avoid stress

I have Mirena coil and I’m better since I don’t have PMT any more - hormone changes can be a trigger and that was definitely much worse after I’d had kids than before.

Im also triggered by sudden changes in air pressure like @TeenLifeMum so if there’s a thunderstorm I am careful to watch for migraine onset symptoms and then take pink Migraleve. I can sense when a headache is going to be a migraine.

And I’m triggered sometimes by severe sinus blockage so I’m careful about using steam inhalations during colds etc.

Feverfew - I went from 4-6 migraine days a month to 0 just taking feverfew every morning.

I've had hormonal migraines since I was a teen. Only thing that works for me is Sumatriptan,

2 Migraleve Pink, some iced water and sleep. Then a few cups of Tea & Yellow migraleve 4 hours later if it’s lingering.
I say iced water because room temp makes me feel more sick and my migraines usually start with me either feeling or being sick.
Later on I keep food very plain and light. Toast or Soup.

Three times a month is getting close to it being worth on a preventer medication. Especially if each of those three times lasts longer than a day.

There are loads of triggers for migraine and some are very amenable to lifestyle measures and some you can't do a lot about. Some of the commonest are:

Having different amounts of caffeine in a day
Alcohol
Not getting up at the same time every day
Not going to bed at the same time every day
Being hungry and not having regular meals
Screens - install a blue light filter
Hormones- minipill was a lifechanger for me but obvs is a personal choice to try

Those are probably the easiest to change, although depending on your job and the presence of small children it can be difficult! Basically migraine prefers you to have a boring steady life with no late nights or lie ins.

Triggers you can't do much about:
The weather - especially storms and high pressure
Stress - unless you do some radical life changes
Relaxation - I find this particularly mean but it's a classic migraine on the first day of the weekend or a holiday

I feel sick with my migraines just like you do, and for me it was wonderful to discover Zomig nasal spray. It really works, I can feel confident that I’ll be able to carry on though busy meetings or stressful situations even with a migraine looming. Just remember to keep them in the fridge, or at least below 20 degrees or they go off (I discovered this the hard way, and lost a week of holiday to languishing in a dark room).

Ginger Ale works wonders for nausea.

Full fat coke, ready salted crisps, being in a darkened room with a cold flannel on the back of my neck

Soluable paracetamol ( preferably with caffeine in) mixed with a rehydration sachet

Tastes awful but it works for me

Pink migraleave tablets. Mine are triggered by sudden weather changes so I find that any sign of headache or mild nausea ( usually how mine start but not always) I take a pink pill and then move to yellow and I can continue with my day. I’m a barometer basically. If I leave it too late I’ll be sick and need a dark room. Sometimes I miss the signs but if I think it’s a bug, but I fancy a cup of tea, that means migraine.

Lots of sympathy OP, migraine is awful. Mine seemed to be hormone related. Plenty of water and painkillers as soon as I felt one starting. I also had to lie down in a darkened room and close my eyes. If I could sleep the worst would be gone when I woke up. Perhaps go to your GP and keep going until you find a medication that helps.

I've just got a prescription for amitriptyline for a compressed nerve in my neck, drug snap! 😂

DD had a daith piercing which stopped hers

Find out what your triggers are mine are orange juice and chocolate . I also know as soon as I start feeling sick the headache will go to a migraine so I take paracetamol but if it does go to a migraine I take Rizatriptan bearing in mind I also take Topiramate every day too to prevent migraines heat works for me on my forehead like a wheat bag and pressure like my hand or just an eye mask you can get eye masks you can warm up in the microwave one of those with a wheat bag on your neck is bliss ! In a dark room and silence and lots of fluids xx

Ok, I’ve had migraines for almost 40yrs. After a LOT of trial and error I have achieved the most control ever with:
💊Pizotifen 1.5mg once a day
💊Dolovent vitamins 2 capsules twice a day (turns my urine bright yellow)
💊 Feverfew capsule twice a day
💊 Rizatraptan, migraleve and sleep at first sign of migraine

This regime has reduced my migraines from once a week to once every couple of months. Once it starts though, I’m pretty much useless for 24hrs

Hands in as hot a bowl of water as you can bear as soon as you start to feel it coming. And cocodamol