To think if you have a migraine...

[DeweyDecibelle]

...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?

coca yeah sounds like it...very intense and can make you yelp but really over before you can take pills etc. go months without but sometimes can get quite a few in succession. I had a scan etc to confirm there wasn't anything else and saw a neurologist.

What do you take, beals? I've tried a few different ones, but they made me feel so knocked off that I figured it was better to be knocked off for 15 days in each month than 30 days

Propanolol/amitryptyline combo actually made me pass out several times - they thought I had a subarrachnoid haemorrhage at one point, then epilepsy because I repeatedly collapsed. I had my licence taken away, until the neurologist realised that different doctors adjusting my dosages had effectively short-circuited my brain!

I've heard good things about Topirimate, just need to pluck up the courage to ask to try it. I'm getting more and more reluctant to stab myself with needles and I can't use the injections unless I can go to bed straight after, because it gives me terrible neck pain and drowsiness.

OP Do think YABU but in an ill-informed way (mean that in a nice way!)

Truly, if you haven't ever had a migraine (or one of the variants of migraine), then it really is IMPOSSIBLE to comment on anyone else's suffering of them, or what they can/can't do through them.

Anyone who HAS migraines - if (like poster above) get a 15 dayer, then only real option is steroids to 'break it'. If you get them almost daily (i.e. a chronic migraneur) then get your ass to your Nuero and request Botox protocol as has JUST been approved by the (generally inaptly named IMHO) NICE committee.

And if you HAVEN'T ever had a migraine, count your frickin blessings - full blown migraine is ranked 20th iirc in terms of disability, and an 'active' full blown migraine is ranked equal to quadriplegia in terms of it's 'in that time it lasts' level of disability (NOT - obv - before some pointy making kind poster posts about the HUGE differences between the 2 overall; but whilst at it's most & utterly wholly disabling).

Lougle - I take pizotifen and it's made a big difference for me. I used to get a bad migraine once a month - Now I only get a full-blown migraine less than once a year.

YABU - I get the odd migraine (mainly due to dehydration). The headache bit is not always dreadful, but I know they are migraines as I get classic migraine with aura.
I worked with a woman who had dreadful debilitating ones that lasted a week and ruined her life. Much worse than mine - but mine was still a migraine, much like a severe headache is not necessarily a migraine either.

YABU My husband has constant migraines (he actually suffers from 3 different headache conditions one of which makes him agitated so he couldn't lay down and sleep even if he wanted to!) if he lay in bed every time he suffered he'd never be up - let alone ever use his phone/computer! Unfortunately with chronic illnesses your perception has to change so you do have to keep on, go to work and generally live your life (or as much as you can!) - I suppose the only concession I'd make is he'd never tell anyone he was suffering, let alone whinge online. It's too much effort so he just relies on those of us close to him to know and make allowances.

Incidentally he's just been prescribed the botox injections, having had several years of the GON injections that do work for a week or so and ongoing medication that minimises but doesn't eliminate any pain. His first session is May (earliest they could do) so hopefully that'll give a bit of respite.

I can't use a proper computer with a migraine but I can use my phone. And they're boring and you feel shit so a wee bit of sympathy seeking statusing is ok in my book. As long as it is a proper migraine, and not just a sore head, of course!

YABU but you sound like you are genuinely asking the question!

My migraines are like chickensaladagain describes. I was isolated for months recovering from a bad series of them combined with shit treatment, nasty SIL decided to proclaim 'forgetmenots can't be that ill if she is online'. but she is generally a hateful cow anyway

I was. Social networking especially Facebook (which I've now in better health stepped away from) was a lifeline when I needed it.

I get nasty migraines, anywhere from 6 to 12 a month. I go on the computer once I've taken my meds (prescribed by the neurologist) Once the head pain subsides I'm left with muscle aches from head to toe, so not much else to do but veg at the computer, walking/moving hurts.

Lougle I have been on topirimate since Nov & it has made a big difference for me. I was getting migraines every week and they lasted for hours, even days sometimes. Now I still have a headache every day, but nowhere near as bad, most of the time I don't need to take pain killers, & unless I get stressed or a couple of nights bad sleep I very seldom get a full blown migraine.

The side effects are still hanging around, I find that after 5-10mins of walking I my face and head gets pins and needles & tingly. My lips kind of recedes, and I do feel I tire easily but all these are much preferable to suffering migraines weekly.

I agree with those who say social network exaggeration is a bit of a pain, but I also agree with those who say they can use computers for some of the time with migraines. I vary between feeling out of it, headachey & tearful (and wasting time on the internet because my brain's not up to doing anything else), and being nauseated and having to lie down in a darkened room feeling like I'm having a stroke, over about 1.5 days when I have migraines. So it depends on the individual whether one should think "it's a headache, grow up" or "cut them some slack for a few days".

I get quite irritated by people who patronisingly say "oh, sorry to hear you had a headache/ a cold" when I've been off work with a migraine or the flu. I can tell the difference even if the patronizing gits can't, and I don't take days off if it's a cold or a headache.

I can tolerate a bit of time of my phone when I have a migraine, the most important thing for me is not to move around as that makes it far worse! I find that taking a liberal dose of chocolate followed immediately by cocodamol and ibrufen and my anti nausea tablets works wonders and if caught early enough do not have to send me to bed in a darkened room.

Thanks I'll look in to the meds.

I think the hardest thing for me to get my head around (excuse the pun) was that sometimes a normal headache can be a worse pain than a migraine.

A migraine is so much more than a headache. For me, with young children, it is the heightened noise sensitivity, the heightened sense of smell, the slight loss of balance, the dulling of the mind, the inability to multitask, the complete slowing of my mental functioning that hits me worst.

Also, my stomach goes into stasis and any pills I take don't get absorbed once I'm in full migraine. If I can take 2 paracetamol and 900mg aspirin or 400mg ibuprofen or motifene (dual release diclofenac) when I get the first signs of a migraine and then get to bed with a scarf tied around my eyes to ensure complete darkness and sleep within those first few minutes -I can stave it off sometimes.

If I miss that window, the only choices are to ride it out, where it can last for days, or inject myself with sumatriptan, go to bed and wait for the neck pain it brings to subside and fall asleep.

Have any of you with extreme migraines looked into Botox, which the NHS has approved recently, as it's suppose to stop all headaches not just migraines?

There's stuff on Google about it.

Yabu, I get anything from weakness on one side and mild nausea, to a headache that feels like an alien is trying to escape through my skull using its teeth. If its the former type (focal) it's fairly unpleasant and unnerving when your arm suddenly turns to jelly, but I can certainly fiction almost normally, if it's the latter I lie in bed with the blinds closed whimpering and the sick bucket for company.

For me it depends what stage I am in the migraine. I can feel them coming and they ramp up quite slowly.
In the beginning stages I feel nauseous, and my left eye & cheek feels like someone has belted me one, I have a throbbing head but I can function and even finish up what I'm doing on the computer/work etc. This can last an hour or so

Then it ramps up to need to lie down in a dark room. Can't see out of left eye, blinding White lights, even more nauseous, extreme and sudden tiredness, head feels like it's going to explode on left side only

Final stage - is extreme vomiting and passing out, whole body hurts.
Although now I can predict I can usually avoid the last stage by medicating in time.

Every migraine sufferer is different, yes, but YANBU about the need for some people to tell (what they imagine is an interested audience, deluded fools that they are) the world wide web that they have one.

Since I've been on sumatryptan I have only got to the vommy for 48 hrs stage once (in 5 years) Before that it was about 3x a year.

If you're on Facebook, you haven't got a migraine!

YANBU

YABU as you have never suffered how can you possibly pass comment. I have suffered for years with migraine and depending on what stage the migraine is at my tolerance for screens on computer/tablet/phone will vary. It also depends on how quick I get my medication in.

Off to Google botox, thanks Tee

I can be online with a migraine. Dark doesn't always help. Or even if it does, there are still times when I can be up and functioning. Sometimes the distraction is ok, as otherwise I might be sick. It's movement that usually gets me, so as long as I'm very still I can sometimes do things on the computer. I can't always see well - jagged lines across it etc, but sometimes I can. Often words in my head will get twisted and I can't always talk, but might be able to type or read. Sometimes it's worth letting people know what's happening, too, so that they don't expect you somewhere or know that there might be doubt about whether or not you are likely to be able to do something later than day or the next. Sometimes just the sympathy is comforting!

No way I could look at any type of screen when I have a migraine

Actually you could get a migraine and no pain in the head at all....
Some people get very sensitive to light, others don't.
Some people can sort of carry on with their work and other don't.

in the same way, some people get 'tension headaches' that are so strong that they have to lie down for the day when most other people just take a bit of paracetamol and get on with their day.

Having said that, most people use the word migraine as a replacement for headache. Just as a lot of people talk about having the flu when they have a bad cold....

OP I woke up with a migraine at 6.00 this morning. At first I couldn't even drag myself downstairs to get some painkillers and water. I did then lie in a darkened room feeling sorry for myself, feeling like I was going to throw up. But it's taken me 3 hours to be able to move.

It's 11.30 now and the pain is starting to recede, so rather than being all consuming in my head it's just a really dull ache all over, I do still feel very disconnected and my muscles are slow. But I've got to work today (on the computer) I'm a single mum of two so I've got see to the DCs, the poor dog is still waiting to be taken for a walk. Even though I feel rubbish I do still have to function, and I came here on MN because I couldn't face starting to work and concentrate, even though I know it's got to be done.

However, if I could get away with lying in a darkened room all day I would because then I know I'll be fine tomorrow, however because I'm having to continue as normal I know I'll still be feeling unwell tomorrow. Migraines are horrible, I'm so glad I only get them a few times a year (always on a weekend too, I could never figure that one out).