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 think sometimes though, people have headaches that seem more than a headache, but not quite a migraine, but don't know how to describe them. I am seeing a neurologist and taking propranalol for frequent severe headaches, which are more debilitating than a headache, and the neurologist described them as migraine-like, but painkillers really do help
. It's actually more likely to be Chiari malformation, but say that to someone and you get a blank look. Calling it a migraine is the easiest way of describing it to someone.

although OP yanbu about your friend, its a bit daft to recommend painkillers for a full blown migraine.

I wonder if the Chinese takeaway cravings has to do with MSG?

I went out with bloke at uni who didn't tell me he got migraines; one night we were sitting around chatting, he went into the kitchen then the next thing I know he was screaming and grunting and collapsing on the floor, puking and all sorts. It was terrifying, I thought he was dying. It went in for 24 hours or so, the poor bugger.

I have the visual disturbances but get only a mild or no headache. I can usually carry on with everything I have to do apart from driving. I know that mine sre mild compared to others.

OP, I find once people like your friend experience something themselves, they get it, but beforehand seem to not quite believe it or maybe that they person is being a wimp or something. Glad you are feeling better now.
MoominKoalaAndMiniMoom, I met several persons with Chiari over the past year, 8 or so. 3 years ago I had never heard of it! I met them at a luncheon, for a Chiari support group a friend of mine is in, she is having her CM repaired soon! Hope all goes well for you.

I don't get migraines, for which I am thankful, and to you who do get them.

DP gets them, or did, he got put on a very low dose of an AD called amytriptaline, which seems to have killed them off, he's not had one for a long time. For context, he's now 53.

When he did get them, he had the light and sound sensitivity, nausea/vomiting, his sight would blur, and other things, but not actually get any aura symptoms. Along with the crippling head pain that he said sometimes left him feeling like he needed to bang his head on the wall to relieve it.

He would need to lie down in a very dark and quiet room, so I'd just go off and do my own thing because I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do for him. I'd make sure he had some water available, but even that could be too much sometimes, as anything that went down came back up pretty much straight away.

His mum, sister, sister's 2 children all got/get migraines, so DP and I have been keeping an eye on the children in case. I have heard that migraines in children can sometimes begin to show as stomach aches on a few occasions before the headaches start.

Actually DD has just reminded me that a couple of times, she's had sudden episodes of blurred vision and dizziness so I've primed her to come to me or DP if there's anything else. Because DP's had the AD for a while, she can't remember what it was like for him to get the crippling migraines.

I forgot to add that afterwards he'd get cravings for sweet sugary carbs, he called it the munchies

My dd was getting them regularly, crippling ones with visual disturbance extreme vomiting and speech problems.
I've known her go to the park and be back screaming five minutes later.
School suggested she take some paracetamol and "see how she is" I told her if they won't call me to puke on the floor
One day she got one straight after the other then her periods started and they stopped.
She gets milder ones just before she has her period but so far no return of the bad ones.

Oh god you poor things! I'm not sure what to call what I get because when I looked up "migraine" the symptoms vary from individual to individual. Occasionally I get a headache that I have a feeling is going to be bad, and even if I catch it quickly and take paracetamol and ibuprofen it just won't go. It's as though the painkillers just take the edge off it but nothing more. It gets to the stage where my eyes hurt to touch, I'm sensitive to light, noise and smells, I'm nauseous (I've been sick in the past if I've not taken the painkillers quickly enough) and have an overwhelming urge to lie in a dark room. I can't watch TV or even want to sit upright, I have to lie down.

Triggers for me are letting myself get too hungry then having something sugary to eat. I dread being away from home when I get them because I feel so shit I can't drive, and the thought of having to do anything other than lie down is pretty scary.

The reason painkillers don't help is that (for some people) a migraine suss the stomach down so the tablets just sit there.

I have rizatriptan (Maxalt) wafers I can take.

Don't think it's fair to say you can't work if you have a migraine. It's different for everyone.
If id have taken days off work every time id had one id have lost my job very quickly.mine were lasting few days and i was having them
Nearly every week at one point.
I had to go to work and struggle through it. Id take painkillers to take the edge of it. Take a sumitriptan or naritriptan at the time,which would take away the pain for bit and then it would cone back. Then id go straight to bed as soon as id finished work, even if it was 530 pm!
Thankfully a trip to the neurologist helped.
Topiraimate as a preventative certainly does help! That along with another epilepsy drug has really changed my life. I
Iv gone from having a migraine a week to maybe one a month.
One warning with topirimate is that it can cause anxiety with some people.

I havent had one in ages but this thread is bringing it all back. Its like someone is stabbing you with the sharp end of a spade on one side of your head. I wince with every throb. And my eye sort of droops and feels like its going to pop out with the pressure behind it. Sleep it off??? Pah! I pass out!

I only get visual migraines these days. No head ache at all. But I do have epilepsy instead. Fan-bloody-tastic.

YANBU.

"Don't think it's fair to say you can't work if you have a migraine. It's different for everyone."

True. It's fair for me to say that I can't work. And not fair for someone else to say I might be able to, or assume that I might never have tried painkillers

Thankfully I haven't had one for years. Massive sympathy for those who still suffer.

It is possible to get migraines of differing levels of severity - I got terrible ones during my teens and early 20s - starting with the aura and followed by slurred speech, vomiting then the obligatory crushing headache. It scared the life out of me the first time it happened - I got sent home from school and tried to say hello to the dog when I got in and I could not get the words out at all!

I certainly couldn't have gone to work - I couldn't do much more than lie in a dark room for hours groaning gently (and I'm normally a grit my teeth and get on with it type).

In contrast I'm currently on the tail end of a very mild migraine - it came on yesterday when I was at work, it was a couple of hours before I could get any medication so a bit late to kill the headache (finally got some co-codamol that took the edge off a bit!) I just had slightly blurry vision instead of a noticible aura, I felt uncomfortable with the strip lighting, and felt mildly queasy. I was able to carry on - had an early night and today I have that strange "bruised head" feeling and still don't like lights much!

It feels just like the migraines from hell I used to get (fingers crossed not for a few years now!) - only milder.

Doctor and migraine sufferer here!

They can come without any pain. The occasional migraine (not mine, though) can present as mere facial tingling. As someone up the thread mentioned, all shapes and sizes.

I could imagine a person with such symptoms wanting tea as something to soothe him/her during a period of discomfort, and I've seen paracetamol cure the most severe attacks (unusual, admittedly).

I've investigated patients for stroke, only to eventually diagnose a migraine.

I agree that the friend was lacking in empathy, or perhaps rather more in understanding. But it is a poorly understood condition, generally.

Ina i Didnt mean you should just work through them! God no. Im thankful that my worst ones have been on my days off or now when
Iv been signed off!
I meant that unfair for someone to say ypu cant have a migraine if you can go to work and just work through it. Some people have to. At one point i was only having 3 or 4 days a week not having a migraine so i couldn't take time everytime i had one as id have been sacked.it was torture.
I think id still be suffering if i hadn't of been put on medication from the neurologist. My migraines now arent even as severe.

Eh, I've had ocular migraines that don't hurt or give me nausea or anything. I had it checked out and yup that is what they are. It was a bit like looking through an old wobbly pint glass. I was driving the first time it happened and it completely freaked me out. I could see fine in the centre of my vision but my peripheral was all over the place. This is before I got headache migraines and the ophthalmology dept warned me to expect headache ones. I do get them now but luckily not very often and actually ibuprofen usually knocks it on the head. Regular OTC medicines often work very well on me, for instance, after root canal surgery one ibuprofen meant that I never felt the anaesthetic wear off and it was a particularly bad one with very deep roots that took a lot of poking around.

I feel nauseated when I get one, but that isn't a surprise because I usually get nauseated when I'm in a lot of pain. Noise and especially light make them worse. Lying down in a darkened room with sunglasses on helps. I feel like someone is poking my eyes out.

Worst time was when we were about 7 hours from home on a road trip. We couldn't stop because my husband had to be at work the next morning for a meeting he couldn't miss. He needed to sleep because he had been driving a lot and needed a break and I started to feel one coming on. I couldn't drive and my newly licensed 16 year old agreed to do it. We were in the middle of nowhere at night and I couldn't find ibuprofen, I took paracetamol and drank some coke as it was all I could find and the local shops were closing. I went into a fast food place that was closed and they tried to kick me out but I cried and so they gave me a bag of hot water with paper towel in it and a bag of ice and I put one on top of my head and one on the back of my neck and it really helped. Then I cried all the way home and felt like death. I finally managed to sleep a little. I felt so awful the next day.

I have to say though, my brother and sister get them and get them far worse than me, but just because theirs are worse does not make mine "just a headache"

My Dsis use to be exactly the same, think I was totally pathetic when unable to do anything with a migraine (she had never had one). BUT then we were doing a long train journey when she got a horrible one and ended up puking her guts up into a plastic bag on the station. She has since admitted that she thought a migraine was just a bad headache....
It's because annoying people who do just have a bad headache say they have a migraine!

Two types of people who deserve to be shot in the foot:

1. Those who think a cold is equivalent to flu
2. People who think headache = migrane

I've been back to the GPs as this thread prompted me. A lovely GP who actually wanted the entire history of my migraines (back to 2002!!). She's now prescribed me gabapentin which I'm starting at 100mg and going up to 300mg in the next few days, then up to 600mg or 900mg if necessary. It's so nice to have someone take it seriously. If that doesn't work, she's going to refer me to the Migraine Centre in Guildford.

I am hospitalised when in severe migraine, mainly for drips, but it does mean I can carry on as normal for probably a bit longer than most when the migraine begins having got use to the pain threshold. Luckily I have not had one for 10 years which is really fortunate as I have a disabled child but it is so debilitating. If they came back my partner would need to take time off. Reading this has brought back the memories of just how bad they where, my parents used bin bags to cover the windows and placed a mattress outside the bedroom door to muffle noise.

I've had my first one in ages today.

I don't get the nausea and I think mine are very mild compared to others. Because I don't get an upset stomach, paracetamol can work for me but only if I take it as soon as my vision goes funny (like looking at stuff underwater). I didn't quite catch it today. So I felt a bit confused and very sleepy once the vision went back to normal. Headache was right behind my right eye, as it always is with me.

Fingers crossed for you, lougle

Thanks ouryve

I'm lucky in that I usually get quite mild migraines but only if I can get myself in a dark, quiet room although, weirdly, I can often use my phone, just can't have any proper lights fast enough & get to sleep then I'll just have frustrating, broken sleep with a slight nagging headache & bizarre physical weakness for 4-8 hours until it's over. If I don't get to bed fast enough I get the nausea, sometimes eased by drinking tiny sips of water & burping a lot, usually temporarily cured by vomiting, agonising head pain, almost paralysis-level weakness where it takes all my focus & energy just to crawl from one room to the next to reach the toilet - we have a specific bowl that DH brings me so I don't have to go anywhere. DH has only seen me that bad a couple of times but now understands when I do suddenly drop everything & disappear off to bed.

If someone suggested to me mid-migraine that some pain-killers would help, I'd take said pain-killers & promptly vomit in their face. Literally the only thing that helps is sleeping it off, if I can get to sleep before the worst hits, otherwise I'm screwed! One of my first symptoms is that my thighs get really hot & my toes get cold. If I can even out the temperature difference with a hot water bottle initially on my feet & then behind my knees then I can sometimes stave off a migraine... My body is weird!

My 8 year old DD has migraines. She vomits repeatedly, and when nothing is left, she has hours of dry heaves. For the milder ones, she gets severe double vision, the worse ones, she loses her eyesight. She can't walk due to the vertigo, and has severe light sensitivity.

Hmmm - 2 paracetamol will take it all away, huh? Why didn't I think of that?