So, what is wrong with me?

[Zaphodsotherhead]

About ten years ago I had an incident, where I only drank one glass of gin but was incredibly ill. This has now happened about five times.

I have literally ONE drink.
I wake up several hours later with an absolutely crushing headache.
I get up and take some painkillers.
About an hour later I am vomiting so hard that I practically bring up yesterday's dinner.
This lasts about four or five hours. I then go back to bed and wake up feeling absolutely fine.

It happens about once every two years, and isn't linked to any one type of alcohol. The circumstances are always different (ie, I'm not always dehydrated/tired/overworked or already ill).

So what the hell is it?

Are you having uneventful drinking in between? Is it possible your drink has been spiked on a handful of occasions?

My mum used to get something similar. It was guaranteed with dark alcohol but pale whit wines and spirits she were hit and miss. She was a vegetarian most of her life but now eats fish and she can drink most things again but is wary of darker coloured things.

Does it coincide with low protein perchance?

I have a friend like this. Turns out it's related to where she is in her cycle. It's only been a problem from her since her early 40s.

I was diagnosed with a stress related stomach ulcer after similar episodes afer a half or 2 of lager...
Took tablets (stomach acid ones off GP) for a while and never happened again.
About 12 years ago now.

I can drink alcohol incident free in between times. No cycle as I'm nearly 60 and it only started when I was approaching 50. Not linked to any type of alcohol (happened on Sunday night after one of those tiny bottles of Prosecco, but has previously occurred on Echo Falls pink wine, gin and a mixture of white wines).

Don't think it's low protein, I had eaten normally during the days on all these occasions.

I don't drink dark coloured drinks generally - I don't like them!

Thanks for trying to get to the bottom of this - I'm only a whisker away from swearing off alcohol for life! There is literally NO warning when this happens.

Oh, and no spiking - I was alone on Sunday night (unless the dog has evil intent and I wouldn't put it past her...)

That sounds like it could be an alcohol triggered migraine, maybe? It may be worth looking up the other symptoms. Not everyone gets aura or, if you're asleep, maybe you are getting aura and not seeing it.

I do get ordinary migraines sometimes. Used to be the headache but now it's almost entirely aura based.

Oddly enough the migraine theory did occur to me this time round, as I had the kind of 'hangover headache' that sometimes lingers after a migraine, but as I've never had it before with this, I wondered if it was coincidental.

Also the headache goes away as soon as the vomiting starts. I wondered if it was taking the painkillers that triggered the vomiting...

Sounds like an alcohol triggered migraine.
Certain types of drinks set of my migraine almost immedeately. I had to find out the hard way that I need to avoid sweet-ish wine, sekt types, the stuff you get when you drink sb health etc.

Gin, schnaps, obstler - all fine

Thank you all. I am coming to the 'alcohol induced migraine' conclusion now, having read up about it (thanks to @TheNestedIf). It just seems really random, in that I've been drinking Prosecco (those tiny, one glass bottles) at the rate of maybe once a week on the grounds that Prosecco had never made it happen before.

Now I very much fear that I am going to have to give up alcohol altogether, and I am starting to worry in case certain foods start triggering it. It's definitely been a post menopausal thing, my previous migraines never made me vomit like this does! It was literally one individual Prosecco (so one glass in effect) that set this off.