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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to want to slay people who claim they have a migraine when it's just a sore head?

115 replies

cfc · 31/10/2011 06:21

Even more irritating than those who have a cold and claim it's a touch of 'flu (my MIL). As if you could get a touch of 'flu!

But those who say 'oh, I've got a migraine' when they blatantly haven't. I want to say to them oh, is your sight gone? Has your stomach closed? Are you being sick or having the runs? Is the pain bad enough to warrant a doctor's visit to give you a shot of effing MORPHINE?

No?

Then it's not a migraine, fool.

And relax.

OP posts:

NosfeRaahhtu · 31/10/2011 07:32

YANBU- I worked with someone who was always claiming migraines- though we knew full well they were hangovers. Her line manager always believed her.

I have suffered since I was a child- got about 3/4 bad ones a year. Then,about 15 years ago I started to get menstrual migraines. 3 days of hell every month. It is worse because I know they are coming, and there is nothing I can do to stop them.(Apart from being pregnant- but that is a tad drastic) A couple of months ago I ended up in an ambulance because the doctor was sure I was having a stroke.

BOOareHaunting · 31/10/2011 07:40

YANBU. I had a migraine at 9yo and was screaming as I couldn't open or close my eyes . I had 1 at 17yo and an ambulance was called (at work at the time) as they suspected menigitis.

I then didn't have anymore for years but the past 18 months I have had a few and they scare the bejezzus out of me because I can't move. I'm a LP and DS is only 7yo.

As for Flu - I had it once at 18yo - I was ill for a month, had constant blood tests etc because they thought I had Glandular fever or something. It does really wreckle me when people say 'it must be flu because I ache'. Yes it's called a cold! They can make you ache and feel pretty damn crap - don't make it flu!

Highlander · 31/10/2011 07:47

I get wierd migraines.

As soon as I get peripheral vision loss, I take 2 paracetamol. The 'splintered glass' visual distrubance still comes, as does the blinding headache on one side. But then within 30 mins, it's all gone. As long as I've taken the paracetamol. Ibuprofen doesn't work.

V wierd. Everyone else I know with migraines is crippled.

QOD · 31/10/2011 07:49

Yanbu! Woman at work gets "migraines" but can work, talk, eat, walk, whitter, whinge and moan. She gets bad headaches!

I do get painless optical migraines though, where is like looking thru a fuzzy oval

mumnotmachine · 31/10/2011 07:51

A girl in work gets the painless migraines- she says they are worse than the painful ones as at least you have the "pain" as well as the symptoms

DeliriousTante · 31/10/2011 08:00

Last time I had one was when dd2 was a newborn. I was having to delatch her from my breast to go and throw up. Have only had the dr called out once to give me a shot of painkillers and antiemetic.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 31/10/2011 08:07

YANBU but I'm going to go along with everyone else and say that migraine symptoms can be unique to the individual. It is annoying when people pinch them to justify being off work, makes it harder to be taken seriously when you actually do suffer from them.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 31/10/2011 08:13

I agree with MrsDmitri. I've suffered from migraines in the past but never threw up or needed morphine (thank god)

susiedaisy · 31/10/2011 08:18

Yanbu as a migraine sufferer I hate it when people throw the M word around when clearly they have a headache

3littlefrogs · 31/10/2011 08:22

wonkylegs - have you been screened for hughes syndrome/lupus/sjogrens? If not, you should ask your rheumatologist. Severe migraines plus RA can be associated with these syndromes and there is treatment that can help a lot.

hairypotter · 31/10/2011 08:27

I luff my zolmitripton migraine tablets. They have literally changed my life after suffering for years.

screamqueenrollo · 31/10/2011 08:29

I used to get menstrual related hormones. Always on day 3 of my cycle. Since being treated by a medical herbalist for to sort out an irregular cycle it's sorted out whatever imbalance I had on day 3 that triggered them. My GP gave me Zomig, but a medical professional I know who specialised in migraine/cluster headache suggested that one time i try taking 3 dispersible aspirin as soon as i got the first signs of a migraine coming on - and for me this works(more often than not). It was a godsend as one of the problems for me with the Zomig was that while it helped with the actual migraine it also triggered awful pain with an existing jaw/neck complaint that I have.

YANBU to get peed off with people who claim migraine when they don't have one. Mine laid me up in bed for three days and it would take me a week to properly recover from the 'hangover' feeling it left me with. I get visual migarine too, they only last for 20 mins but they leave me feeling absolutely wiped out for two days after.

lesley33 · 31/10/2011 08:33

YANBU, hate this as well. When you have proper flu you understand why people die from it. At Uni where DP works they tell students that it is only flu if - you feel so ill that you wouldn't get up to rescue a £20 note that was in danger of blowing out the window. Otherwise its a cold.

Dawndonna · 31/10/2011 08:42

I get migraine, can't move, talk, function in anyway whatsoever. Only needed morphine once, in forty years. Do have to take strong analgesics for it though. Fortunately, they have become rarer as I have got older.

working9while5 · 31/10/2011 08:47

It doesn't bother me that much but then it's been a while since I have had migraine. I used to have classical migraine and it was really bad after my son's birth, I had a whole week where my vision was permanently tunnelled but weirdly I had no pain that time and (touch wood) haven't had migraine since. Migraine is horrible but it is definitely one of those things that people don't understand unless they have experienced it.

On the plus side, I think my years of migraine really have given me a good pain threshold and I found labour pains a doddle! When you have gotten used to having to lie in a darkened room feeling as though you are dying and just waiting for it to pass, it teaches you good coping skills!

BOOareHaunting · 31/10/2011 08:58

I have to add I don't often vomit with migraines. Because of this I have Motilium (domperidone) and Co-codomol to take. I was told the actual migraine pills may make me feel sick so because the combination I take prevents it worsening (it doesn't make it go away I just have to ride it out) then to continue.

Saltire · 31/10/2011 09:00

YANBU, but as other posters have said, not all migraines ahve the same symptoms

DS2 for example gets abdominal migraines.

I often get a warning, I get flashing lights and zig zags, then a blind spot in each eye, and then bang, the headache starts. I have actually thought I was going to die with them before. I never get vomting with them, and only twice have I had an inability to speak.
I also on occasion get what the doc and optician termed as occular migraine, but this tended to happen when I worked in a shop and was under glaring bright lights all day.
Someone on here recommended 2 paracetamol and a can of full fat coke at the first sign of a migraine. I've not had one for ages so haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

Trills · 31/10/2011 09:08

You want to slay them?

Sounds like a bit of an overreaction to me. YABU.

SausageGoulsAndFruitSpooks · 31/10/2011 09:10

YANBU

I used to work with someone who suffered badly with them.

It would affect her back too and she just physically couldn't get out of bed for 3 days. No lights, curtains closed. If you wanted to ask her if she needed drink/food/painkillers you would have to write it on a piece of paper. No talking at all because even a whisper would have her squirming in agony.

A couple of work "mates" used to take the piss and complain that she was just doing it to get time off work after all she "only had a bloody headache"

I would have liked to see them say it was just a bloody headache had they suffered with them. Twats!

NosfeRaahhtu · 31/10/2011 09:14

Did anyone else ever grow feverfew plants? All the women in out family have been migraine sufferers- and my gran over the years has tried everything to help. So we went through a phase of growing fewerfew, can't rmember if it worked really, but they were very pretty!

borderslass · 31/10/2011 09:14

Also hereditary both my girls get them DD1 now 20 was only 6 when hers started she was so bad she was on preventative DD2 now 16 was about 8 she is sick with them. My sister suffers badly from them as well.

borderslass · 31/10/2011 09:15

preventative medication

GalaxyWeaver · 31/10/2011 09:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LadyEvenstarsCoven · 31/10/2011 09:47

This annoys me too.
I have suffered with terrible migraines since I was 3yrs old. Back then prior to diagnosis I would bang my head on anything hard - floor, walls etc as I wanted the pain to go. When my parents discovered me doing this they took me to the hospital where they diagnosed migraines.

Now 36yrs old and I have been through pretty much every drug available including injections at the onset when I was 10yrs old.
Now all that I find works is lucozade energy sweets, lucozade (They replenish the system) and darkness, the latter not always possible. I also keep a piece of tin foil in the freezer. When I feel a migraine coming on, I put it on the back of my neck which is where all migraines stem from. The blood vessels tighten so the coolness of the foil releases this and can prevent a full blown migraine.

notpodd · 31/10/2011 09:54

Hormones are often at the root cause of migraines. I only started getting them after the birth of DD1. They've stopped giving the regular pill to people with migraines that affect their vision. So any of you who get them and are on the pill might want to chat to your quack/health provider about that.

Borderslass - the aura is some sort of warning. It can be colour changes for sure. Or increased sensitivity to light, blurring of vision or lack of vision. I get missing areas in my vision - terrifying the first time it happened. But as cfc said, the good thing is you can rush straight for the tabs at this point and hopefully avoid the actual headache.

Its not uncommon to get tingling in the arms and legs too.

Don't i sound like a smarty pants on migraines...

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