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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think if you have a migraine...

70 replies

DeweyDecibelle · 29/03/2013 22:42

...you will be recuperating in a darkened room, not tweeting/facebooking about it. Surely if you can bear to look at a glaring computer/phone/tablet screen, chances are it's maybe just a headache?? So sick of seeing tweets or Facebook statuses saying "OMG I have such a migraine FML" etc.

That said, I have never had a migraine myself. Am I being unreasonable?

OP posts:
pipsqueakz · 29/03/2013 22:45

Lol or so right and not being unreasonable

CocacolaMum · 29/03/2013 22:45

I had 1 once when I was pg with ds and it completely debilitated me. I mean seriously. Head pain, vision went, the lot.

My mum suffered from them and yes she had to be lying down in a completely darkened room, no noise, nothing.

pipsqueakz · 29/03/2013 22:45

PS or is your silly iphone

AgentZigzag · 29/03/2013 22:46

Social Network Exaggeration is an up and coming syndrome.

OhDearieDearieMe · 29/03/2013 22:46

People who post shite like that have never had a migraine!

extremepie · 29/03/2013 22:50

Yep, some people just like to make mountains out of molehills!

I used to get regular migraines as a child, would sleep all day, wake up to be sick then go back to sleep - couldn't even read a book let alone stare at a bright screen :)

bluer · 29/03/2013 22:54

Depends...I get what are commonly known as ice pick migraines...sharp, painful but spasmodic. The spasms can last seconds and can reoccur over a period of time. However I think that the other type is more common so yanbu!

pipsqueakz · 29/03/2013 22:55

Snap with computer screen. Surely oh I feel migraine coming on turn the screen off!!! Its common sense.

MrsTerryPratchett · 29/03/2013 22:56

I have medically diagnosed migraines. They are atypical so I might be able to do some things that people say they can't - drink coffee, MN, FB. I might also throw up so that's a bonus.

Tee2072 · 29/03/2013 22:56

I get migraines and can still look at a computer for short periods.

Everyone is different.

YouTheCat · 29/03/2013 22:58

Actually I had a weird migraine the other day, or the beginnings of one. Got the disturbed, watery vision in one eye and nausea, just started with the headache and 30 minutes later it all buggered off. I was preparing myself for half a day of feeling utterly crap.

With a migraine, there is no way you'd be posting or texting.

freemanbatch · 29/03/2013 23:01

I get what my doctor calls 'full body migraines' and the effect is I can't move much and my insides feel like someone has run them over with a cheese grater but I can see and the computer is the only thing that keeps me sane while I feel rubbish. I do not, however, complain all over everywhere about it, the worst I do is appeal to my friends for fun links to make me laugh without telling them why I need them.

The moaning that goes on on the internet is seriously depressing sometimes!!

CocacolaMum · 29/03/2013 23:03

Bluer I get those sharp stabby pains all the time. I didn't know they were a form of migraine

Original poster
DeweyDecibelle · 29/03/2013 23:05

I had no idea there were different types of migraines, good to know. I will give everyone moaning about migraines in my timeline the benefit of the doubt from now on, will certainly help my blood pressure.

OP posts:
MrsTerryPratchett · 29/03/2013 23:07

You're not the only one. DH calls them "migraines" with the little finger quotes. Bastard.

roastednut · 29/03/2013 23:09

Yabu. I get migraines, constant pain on right hand side of head for 48 hours. Nothing shifts them, apart from triptans which are prescribed by doctor (and they don't always work). But despite feeling like I want to smash half my head off sometimes while suffering, I can still actually get up out of bed and function to a certain extent. I know everyone suffers differently, and I wouldn't be happily taping away on my laptop, but I could probably do it if I was so inclined. I know what you mean op but yabu to generalise like that, especially when you haven't suffered from them yourself.

KateShmate · 29/03/2013 23:12

bluer and Cocacola I have ice-pick migraines too - which are also called Cluster headaches, I think. Which makes sense as I seem to go through times where I'm getting 15 ice-picks a day, and then none for months.
When mine get really bad, it kind of paralyses me (especially face) because of the pain, and then gone again as quick as it came.
I do get 'normal' migraines too, so know how different they can be.

lougle · 29/03/2013 23:12

I get migraines several times per month. I have no choice but continue through them because I have young children. I can post on MN. I can't play World of Warcraft that day, or for days after.

I have injections that I use and if I can inject and go to sleep, I can be 'migraine headache' free within a couple of hours. The after effects last a day or two though Sad

Unfortunately, hormonal shifts (ie. menstruation, ovulation) and tiredness are massive triggers for me. DD1 has been unwell this week and up in the night, just as I was due on. Cue 3 days of migraines.

I get all sorts of migraine symptoms - not always the same. Disturbed vision, a feeling of weight across my eye socket, pains down my face and into my jaw, pain down my neck and into my fingers, a rod through the eyebrow, a metallic taste and nausea (I am fortunate that my body doesn't like vomiting).

The neurologist I saw said I was definitely having migraine +/- aura.

I think it's like anything else -if you have one or two episodes a year, they'll poleaxe you. If you have one or two episodes per week, you kinda have to work through it.

My longest ever migraine episode was 15 days - that was before I had the injections. I eventually went to A&E, they stabbed me and the pain went. I went to the GP for a prescription the next day!

Startail · 29/03/2013 23:24

I used to suffer what the Dr. Called stress induced migraines, which were, I think more like a type of panic attack.

Violent headache and feeling, but not being sick. Generally feeling like my head was going to explode and I was going to die. But no visual stuff.

This invariably happened in the middle of the night and I've watched endless dire TV, talked incoherent drivel to DH and drank many a cup of tea. Absolutely anything to distract me from thinking I'm about to have a stroke.

You guys would have been wonderful, fortunately I haven't had one since the iPhone was invented.

chickensaladagain · 29/03/2013 23:25

When I have a migraine my face drops on the left and I get weakness on my left side and a feeling of tension in the base of my head

I have been diagnosed by a neurologist as my gp thought I was having mini strokes

But I can still use a computer & light doesn't bother me

HokeyCokeyPigInAPokey · 29/03/2013 23:30

When I have a migraine I cannot do anything apart from lie in a pitch black room. If the light is on on the landing and I need the door open for dd2 I have to wear dark glasses because of the light.

I think there are various types of migraine though.

aldiwhore · 29/03/2013 23:31

Depends on the migraine, though most of mine involve me turning into some kind of vampire who starts fizzing even with electric light... that seems to be the norm.

BUT I have worked with a migraine, so long as I keep my head still and the light consistent I'm alright ish (as in, still uncomfortable and in pain but not unbearably so.. still not pleasant) it's only been when I turn my head or adjust focus that the seering pain kicks in.

I had one the other day where light or dark, move or not I thought I was a gonner, I've never felt pain like it, not only couldn't think, couldn't speak either... that was a bit scary.

I don't actually suffer migraines consistently, mine at present are mostly drug induced (and not the nice kind the needed kind) I've in the (much more longwinded process than I thought) of finding the right med for me, so maybe I'm wrong?

I wouldn't judge or assume. Chances are it's 'drama' but like Grannies often say, if you can't say anything nice... it's a good policy to live by (unless you need to vent)

CocacolaMum · 29/03/2013 23:31

The one I had when pg scared the shit out of me. I was walking along in broad daylight around 35wks gone (so massive!), completely on my own but there were lots of people around and I just suddenly could only see blank whiteness and got a crushing stabby pain. I threw up right there and then and then managed to stumble a few steps, I found a wall and just sat down for a good while until it passed. Sadly not one person asked if I was ok. I was MORTIFIED about upchucking in public.

BenjaminButton172 · 29/03/2013 23:34

YABU. Every migraine sufferer is different. I have had four migraines the past year and each one has been different.

I could still use my phone/laptop/watch tv for short periods in between sleeping and throwing up.

beals692 · 29/03/2013 23:35

I take daily medication to prevent migraines. As well as reducing the frequency of them, when I do get them now they are (usually) a lot less severe so I can just take a couple of paracetamol and struggle on through the day - I would still describe it as 'having a bit of a migraine' though because that is what it is, even though it's nowhere near as bad as a full-blown migraine.