To think she was exaggerating

[Bluebelleswood]

I've just had coffee,in Costa, with a friend and my friends friend. I have never met this person before.

On her arrival, she announced that she had a terrible migraine.

It didn't prevent her drinking a large, sweet christmas special coffee with whipped cream. She also described her symptoms at length, and was generally very voluble and animated.

As a migraine sufferer myself I find the only way I can cope with migraine is to go to bed in a very dark room.

Aibu to think that she was exaggerating.

[FiercePanda]

I ended up in hospital having a lumbar puncture after my last migraine. Woke up screaming with an agonising headache, couldn't bear the light, I was vomiting, had a nosebleed(!). Trundled off to A&E, pumped full of morphine and given a CT scan, then admitted to a ward to have the lumbar puncture twelve hours after the onset of symptoms. The doctors had thought it was a bleed on my brain, but it was "just" a migraine, the most frightening, most painful experience of my life.

Your friend did not have a migraine, she had a sore head and a bad case of the OhWoeIsMe's. YANBU.

[Thistledew]

It is not at all unusual for women to get migraines every month. Almost always get one on the first day of my period - and as I know it is coming I get the painkillers in first so usually just have the spaced out feeling I described above. My friend gets them for about 7 days a month. She is currently under the care of a specialist to try and find a cure, as she simply can't take to a darkened room for a week each month or she would lose her job and her children would have to go into care.

[EldritchCleavage]

Mine vary in intensity. At worst (thankfully rare) they mean 3 days in bed in the dark, not moving, on constant painkillers and unable to eat much. At best, they come on (just before my period) with severe visual disturbance, slight dizziness and nausea but not much pain. Provided I take Migraleve in time, then close my eyes and rest for up to an hour or so, I can stave these off. They're all migraines though and my GP told me to stop taking the pill because of them. Sadly the mild ones are getting more frequent.

[FiercePanda]

As a disclaimer - I didn't know the symptoms (visual aura, pins and needles etc) could come on without the headache. Everyday's a school day on MN!

[bamboobutton]

Yabu.

I get migraines, sometimes with aura sometimes without, once the flashing has gone i can usually manage to get up and about.

I once had one start about 20 minutes before i had to be at the church for my wedding, chugged down enough painkillers to stop the flashing but still managed to stagger down the aisle. Left the reception really early though.

[DeckTheHallsWithBartimaeus]

Oh bamboo on your wedding day?

That was my real fear because stress sets off my migraines.

Fortunately the whole thing went really smoothly (helped that we'd planned a very simple day so not much could go wrong IYSWIM) and I didn't get a migraine.

My mum wasnt so lucky though She got her first (and last) migraine - she was so stressed because she'd planned a lovely surprise for us and needed to get everyone onboard.

She was always sympathetic to my migraines but is doubly so now

[youarewinning]

Just something! My GP said as I could 'cope' with the migraines using paracetamol, ibruforten, heat wrap on neck and cold flannel on head whilst collapsed on floor! she ddn't want to prescribe migraine pills as they can make you feel worse for days after and I can usually sleep mine off. However - she suggested taking motillium (domperidone) with the paracetamol/ ibruprofen as it gets it into the system quicker. So far doing this at first sign of aura has kept them at bay for 18 months and although I still get a banging head a few hours later I'm still able to walk and just get an early night.

[Bluebelleswood]

Atthewelles
You hit the nail on the head!

I would hate my colleagues to think that when I am absent from work with a migraine (maybe once a year) that the symptoms are so mild.

Strawberries I love you! You are such a cheeky tease, purposely missing the point. You have cheered me up no end.

[ShamyFarrahCooper]

I've got a migraine today. Recently I've been getting aura migraines which is horrid. I lose my vision for 20 mins to flashing lights, zig lags and blurriness then on comes the worst pain I've ever had.
Today however, I managed to catch it in time with tablets so I've reduced the pain. I'm still a bit nauseous and still worked, just the pain is manageable. I still have a migraine (what is classed as a migraine) but have been managing my pain.

[ShamyFarrahCooper]

Oh and mine onset mostly through a neck injury. I was prescribed amitriptyline a couple of years back after having all scans etc to make sure nothing sinister. I may need to get it again if this continues, although I'm trying sumatriptan which can be bought over the counter.

Not all things that CAN work on migraines WILL work for each person. The tongue melts did nothing for me.

[TheCortanaThatStoleChristmas]

"The worst was when I was having weekly ones, then got pregnant so had to stop all medication. Severe morning sickness + migraines = horror."

Deck, I know you're better now but I want to come hug you, stroke your head and say there there. You must be hard as nails! Only good thing about pregnancy for me was that the migraines stopped, HG kicked in but I wouldn't have made the full nine month suffering both. Mine are hormonal, once a month bang on the dot.

[PrincessScrumpy]

I once lost vision in a part of my eye. Felt fine but was scary. I went to an emergency opticians app who laughed and said it was a migraine and I might get headache later. My head was fuzzy that evening but not like other migraines i've had so I guess everyone is different. Most people who us the m word mean bad head ache.

[ShamyFarrahCooper]

I don't know about that. I only know of two other people who get migraines, or even say they have them. Everyone else says headache.

[complexnumber]

It fucks me off when people think their migraine is the only proper way to have a migraine. Our whole family on both sides gets them and we are all different. I wouldn't dream of thinking I knew what someone was suffering from better than they did.

[DeckTheHallsWithBartimaeus]

Aw Cortana that is so nice thank you

It was awful but the migraines did stop at 5 months (neurologist had said 3 months but hey, guess I was unlucky) and fortunately didn't come back straight away after the birth (again the neurologist predicted wrongly!).

I don't get as many now (more like every 3-4 weeks), but am still BF so can't take any strong medication. Am hoping that when I stop BF they won't come back as badly as before

I did refuse to go back onto the pill though just in case so that might have helped (although stopping the pill before has never helped).

My aunt suffers terribly and apparently what worked for her was going through the menopause

[Enfyshedd]

DP gets visual migraines when he's run down - he can't take any painkillers to help because he's really sensitive to meds and trips out even on one paracetamol.

I get "normal" migraines, normally when I'm run down (lot less often since I left ExP) - "normal" symptoms for me are a pain like a jack hammer slowly moving across my skull and feeling as if I'm really drunk (only time I've come close to that feeling was after an hour of gas & air during labour). Extreme symptoms have included half of my face feeling numb and pins & needles down my arm. I've even woken up in the middle of the night with the pain. I've tried Imigram but I didn't like the sleepy side effect, so I usually knock back a couple of co-codamol, put on a relaxing cd and try to get some sleep. Once I feel safe enough to leave the house without falling over, I go for a walk for some fresh air but will find a friend just in case I feel like keeling over - before now, that's meant that I've sat in a shop for an afternoon and helped deal with customers, but at least I've felt safe.

Don't think I would have gone for a large sweet coffee though...

[Jojobells1986]

I used to get them maybe every other month. It never occurred to me that they might be hormonal but now that I think about it I did often get them at around AF time. I've only had one or two since becoming pg with DC1 who's 14 months now! Weird!

I used to feel really pathetic that I'd have to go to bed as soon as I felt one coming on, even if I didn't feel too bad at that moment. I learnt very quickly that it wouldn't get too bad if I could get to sleep before the headache kicked in - once it did there was no chance of sleeping it off! The only time I remember deliberately not going to bed was on exam day at uni. I ended up in the campus health centre because my friends escorted me there making sure I could get a letter to excuse me & then had to get myself home. I just vaguely remember wandering along the road with the world flickering like the effect they use on TV when someone's been drugged in a club! No memory of getting home but thankfully I woke up in my bed when my friend came to check on me about 4 hours later!

[StinkyWicket]

I was so concerned that my really bad headaches (they are undiagnosed as migraines but I think I may have to speak with a doc about them - basically headaches so bad I can't function or speak properly and often just have to lie in a cool dark room whimpering to myself) would get worse during pregnancy, but actually they disappeared for a while.

During my second pregnancy I did have a never-ending headache which paracetamol could keep at bay, it was linked to anaemia.

OP, I might be judgy but it would annoy me too! A friend I work with - she's lovely - but she insists she has a migraine sometimes. It's never enough for her to even take any painkillers for it.

I've just googled it, and all definitions (ok, probably not all, but the first four or 5 definitions at least) define it as '..a chronic disorder characterized by recurrent moderate to severe headaches often in association with a number of autonomic nervous system symptoms'. I didn't know you could get them without the headache part.

[LadyFlumpalot]

I've had a few. Only one (touch wood) with debilitating pain. The first one was aura only and I was so scared, I thought I was losing my sight.

I tend to get a blind spot then flashy lines, usually just in one eye. Then comes dizziness, nausea and I start slurring my speech. Then I get the headache. Usually it's bearable, but once - oh my... I seriously thought I was dying.

[MyLittleAprilSunshine]

I have suffered with migraines on and off since hitting puberty and you can tell the difference from a normal headache which I do get as well (I go quiet, my head hurts a bit and sometimes feel slightly nauseous) and having a migraine (I need to be in the dark, quite a cool room, with pretty much no light and no sound snad I could easily vomit, I also feel dizzy).

I couldn't sit and smile and make jokes in a coffee shop, but perhaps she's just great at hiding it.

[jinglebellyalltheway]

"I get visual migraines with no pain. I just go blind in my left eye and get pins and needles down the left side of my face and neck. They're unpleasant and make me feel a bit drunk, but I could manage coffee with friends without too much issue"

mine are just like that on day one, my sight goes in one eye but no pain, and I never get any verbal disturbances at any point although during day 2 in bed I don't want to talk

but when its the visual stuff I am otherwise fine. I can hold a conversation and other than driving do most things

I do think that people are compeditive about their migraines though

[jinglebellyalltheway]

TMI oh and at some point before the one eyed blindness stage, I'll sometimes just out of the blue bring back up my lunch totally undigested - no stomach juices in it at all

there can be so many different stages to a migrane other than the severe headache bit

[QODRestYeMerryGentlemen]

My mum and dad get terrible flu ... Uh no it's a cold?

Someone at work does the migraines thing, but she can sit there, in artificial light, on a pc, eating and talking, that's a headache ... Not a migraine!

[jinglebellyalltheway]

QOD I can finish my shift at work in the early stages of my migranes. In the later stages I would actually shoot my own head off to make it stop if I had a gun and cannot do anything but dark room

but I can and have finished work first

[slatternlymother]

Strawberries I love you! You are such a cheeky tease, purposely missing the point. You have cheered me up no end

and I love YOU op!

YANBU btw. I don't suffer, but DH gets them about once a year. He can barely speak more than a few words at a time, at a whisper. It frightens me every time, I get scared and think he's going to die or something