To think my friend has never had a proper migraine and has no idea what she's talking about?

[Sleepswithbutterflies]

I had to cancel on a friend last week due to migraine. Friend was a bit snippy about which I get - it's annoying when plans are cancelled at short notice. She said when she has a migraine she just takes a couple of paracetamol and carries on as normal.

Ha ha ha. The migraine I experienced last week affected my vision, speech, balance and caused loss of feeling in one side of my body. I was sick over and over and over again and at one point dh contemplated phoning an ambulance. Paracetamol? Ha ha ha. I don't get them often but when I do they're a force to be reckoned with. Even now my head still feels bruised and I'm sensitive to the light. No way could I have gone anywhere, driving would have been a bad idea. At one point I couldn't remember my own house number.

Aibu to think she actually has never experienced a real migraine because if she had she would have a bit more sympathy than 'take a couple of paracetamol and carry on as usual.'

I doubt paracetemol would help anyone's migraine though, don't even touch the sides.
My daughter doesn't always get headaches with her migraines, and when she does it's often not a bad one.
She couldn't take anything for it anyway though, she'd just throw it back up.

I get a migraine about once a month

I get the visual disturbances first, then feel a bit off balance and stumbly, then feel nauseous before getting a blinding headache.

If I can get to painkillers in time, I can stave off the worst of the headache, but not the rest of it. Nurofen is usually fine, but once the headache actually hits, nothing helps

I wouldn't drive as I can't really see properly and what I can see isn't quite right (eg, if I look at my own hand, it appears to me as if it's someone else's), but I can generally muddle through

I still feel a bit odd the next day, my brain feels a bit bruised if that makes sense

I do find sometimes though that they're caused when I haven't eaten properly. I was at Chessington with my family a few months ago when the visual disturbances started. I'd had an early start, missed breakfast as we were all rushing around getting ready, etc, so I grabbed a bar of chocolate which seemed to stop it in its tracks

My 12 year old dd suffers from frequent migraines and they are absolutely horrendous. There is no way someone with a migraine can pop a couple of paracetamols and carry on.

I had an interesting(?) one yesterday, virtually painless but still the other horrible symptoms, sick, diarrhoea, impossible to lift my head, tiredness, wanting to die.....but no pain. Really weird.

Had migraines for 30 years, stress, alcohol and chocolate are my triggers and I have a bagful of goodies to take when I do get one. Yesterday's was caused by a strawberry clotted cream biscuit, the only chocolate free packet in the meeting I was at..... Till I read it properly after eating two "with pieces of white chocolate". Bastards made me spend my day off in bed/throwing up.

I grabbed a bar of chocolate which seemed to stop it in its tracks
I've been told that drinking 1-2 cups of strong black coffee as soon as you start to get symptoms can help, because of the caffeine. That's actual medical advice from a doctor, not a made up home remedy, btw.

I get an aura of flashes in my vision , swiftly followed by nausea, dizziness, confusion, then tunnel vision/ loss of vision in my left eye, then pain, indescribable pain. Then hopefully vomiting. Vomiting usually means I'm over the worst of it.
My mum and one of my dbros also get Migraine. And my dd 15 had one last month .

Well as previous posters have said, there are degrees of migraine. I've even had pain free ones that just affected vision or speech. I've also had ones that had me in bed for 3 days vomiting.

And actually, if I catch it early enough, maximum dose paracetamol with a very strong sweet coffee can stop a migraine progressing beyond the headache stage.

.... So actually yes, sometimes, I can pop a couple of paracetamols and carry on, and have to with sole charge of 2 small children

I can't concentrate with migraines.I slur my speech and i lose my memory and my body goes numb.She's obviously never experienced one to come out with that one even codeine based paracetamol doesn't help.

I am at the lighter end of the migraine scale. I get nausea, and a throbbing headache, right behind the eyes. It hurts to walk because it jars my head. Become very sinsitive to light (causes more pain) and heat. I have to lie in a cool dark room until the migraleve kicks in. They usually last no more than 24 hours.

I've had fewer since I started working as a zumba instructor, so think the exercise does somehting preventative.

Also, can I please tell you all about the wonders of ginger ale? It takes the edge off, and I suppose it's the ginger that helps with nausea. It is the world's best kept migraine fighting secret.

Your friend is misinformed. Mamma is a genius!

I find that they've now started up in pregnancy.Wish there was something i could take.It's awful as i find i can't move my fingers when i get them but they will bend on thier own

This annoys me too.

I am a migraine sufferer. Luckily my work has a sick room so if I catch it early enough I can lie in a dark room for an hour or so and then continue working.

If it catches though, I can be incapacitated for a few days. Have also had to call DH back from work to look after the children as I wasn't capable.

I had a hemiplegic migraine when I was 10 days overdue pregnant with my 2nd DC....absolutely horrific...I started getting the aura....blind spots...so got my neighbour to care for DC1 and call my MIL...by the time she arrived I was paralysed and had an awful burning down one side of my body...I couldn't speak but managed to say 999...MIL had a son who died of a brain heamorrage and she said it was so scary and frightening...an ambulance was called and two DRs came...my normally low BP was 100/160...The baby was moving a lot and I genuinely thought I'd had a stroke...but knew the baby was ok...I remember the ambulance doors closing on 3 yr old DS holding his Nannies hand...I thought that would be the last time I saw him...he remembers it too... I was blue lighted to the hosp and taken to ICU but luckily I made a fairly quick recovery from the paralysis and my speech came back slowly....I pushed her out 12 hours later in the lift (another thread!!) with only a moderate headache...I tell every young women I know who has migraines as I hadn't ever heard of this and I was terrified....

SleepswithButterflies - you are not being unreasonable at all! If your friend has never had a migraine, she doesn't have a clue what she's talking about! I sympathise with you, and it would have been very dangerous for you to have driven.

Sheldor - I had them often and badly with my first pregnancy too. So dreadful I honestly thought I had a brain tumour. Affected my neck muscles so I couldn't even lift my head without physically using my hands. DP came up to stroke my forehead, or whatever, but I couldn't bear anyone to touch me - absolutely everything felt so painful. I usually end up sleeping for about 12-16 hours.

Mine have always seemed to have been hormone-based. Started in puberty, some awful ones whilst growing up, truly horrific ones in first pregnancy (but not with second, strangely) and now I've reached the menopause, have had some frightful ones. Neither Paracetamol nor Ibuprofen will even touch them. Many years ago I had a prescribed medication (can't remember the name of it at the moment) but it always made me so sick, so stopped taking it.

I agree totally - a normal headache and a full-blown migraine are two entirely different things

Marylou - you poor thing, that must have been absolutely terrifying!

That's awful MaryLou. I had a similar thing with aura and paralysis a few weeks before I gave birth, they had to check me out for preeclampsia.

I also had a bad one on the night after the birth, I had to buzz for someone to change my baby's nappy as I couldn't see!

evansoval out of interest, were your two pregnancies boys or girls or a mixture if you don't mind my asking?

Only my migraines came on badly at around the time I started my periods at 13, then I got them cyclically until I had my son. The one I described above on the day he was born was my last migraine for 3 years, until I gave birth to my daughter. Since she started weaning I've had some absolute shockers once a month, around the time I would be having a period. I've long thought mine are caused by oestrogen surges, or lack thereof, and wondered if having a girl baby means I have more of it still in my system or something.

Hi SootGremlin - Sorry to hear you're suffering!

First pregnancy was a girl (with the migraines and dreadful morning sickness also), second a boy with virtually no adverse symptoms at all (mild nausea once or twice, nothing more).

Daughter has also been trouble ever since

YANBU as a hemiplegic migraine sufferer I feel your pain - quite literally!

Sad thing for me is I've been told I must call an ambulance each time I have one as they are almost identical to a stroke and drs have a hard time telling the difference.

I hate people who have a bit of a dehydration headache and shout migraine

People with headaches who claim they have migraine make me want to stab them repeatedly in the right eye with a poker, whilst crushing their head in a vice and repeatedly shining a torch in their left eye, whilst riding on a waltzer after quaffing a bag of dimes to replicate the nausea.

Then they'd know what a bloody migraine is. This is probably my biggest irritant in life!

I grabbed a bar of chocolate which seemed to stop it in its tracks
I've been told that drinking 1-2 cups of strong black coffee as soon as you start to get symptoms can help, because of the caffeine. That's actual medical advice from a doctor, not a made up home remedy, btw.

That's interesting, Ninja, because I was told to give up caffeine!

Oh and YANBU

TheNewSchmoo -

If you're a hormonal hemiplegic migraine sufferer (which is likely if you went into labour soon after as happened to me with my DC!) then you need to be aware you cannot take hormonal contraception.

I used to get them monthly as a teen and was out in propananol but now as an adult I only get them once in a while and nothing helps. The most terrifying part is as I'm coming out of them it causes hallucinations and hot flushes and delirium which is absolutely horrendous.

Also hemiplegic can be genetic so if you have a daughter when she hits puberty keep an eye on her

Primrose My Grandmother used to suffer too - chocolate was actually the trigger for setting hers off.

I used to get them regularly, but (hooray for my early menopause) they've pretty much gone away!

Bil gets "migraines". Which usually involve him opting out of something he doesn't want to do and retiring to bed with his laptop to watch DVDs.