Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

If I sent you this message, what would you do?

303 replies

QuestionableMouse · 04/10/2018 15:25

Message was "help migraine pills drink help please"

I sent it to my sister after waking up with the worst migraine I've had for a while. I never ask for help, ever. I sent it at 12:20. She's still out shopping and I've had no help from her or my parents. Just managed to make it downstairs to get a drink.

I'm feeling pretty sorry for myself and quite fragile so I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable in feeling a bit annoyed and upset.

OP posts:
Original poster
QuestionableMouse · 05/10/2018 10:20

Normally they're not so bad but that one was the worst I've had in quite a while.

And yes, 60mg of codiene is a fuck load when I don't take any usually. Also why the sarcastic face about the bathroom? I didn't build the house.

OP posts:
Gabilan · 05/10/2018 10:21

I think people need to remember there is an actual person on the receiving end of all this.

OP, as I said before, if I got the text from your first post or from the second one that you've now checked, * I would try to come round if I could and if I received the text in time. It would worry me that someone I cared about was asking for help. I don't care if it is "attention seeking". Sometimes people need attention.

If I were too far away to call in I'd respond in some way unless the sender had form for crying wolf - then I'd be less bothered.

  • not sure why people are so critical of the OP's change in stated text there. If you're in the first grips of a migraine, chances are you're not going to remember clearly what you sent.
Bluntness100 · 05/10/2018 10:22

I think you need to take some personal responsibility in future, keep tabkets and drinks near you. Especially as you live in a three storey house with a bathroom on the ground floor. You can't expect people will get your calls or texts, drop everything and rush back to help you, when there is a simpler preventative solution available to you.

MrMeSeeks · 05/10/2018 10:39

OP you are still being a little attention seeking now with ‘a fuck load of codeine’ - implying that you’ve taken too much as a regular dose is not a ‘fuckload’ hmm

Or op has prescribed codeine which is a lot more than the chemist...

Op do you have proper migraine medication as well as the codeine?
The painkiller is good but if you don’t have a reliever then you may as well not take it.
Are you on any preventative medication?

Taylor22 · 05/10/2018 10:42

You're sister didn't do anything wrong! You were ill that sucks but come on! Did you actually expect them to drop everything for you because you're a bit poorly?

HeckyPeck · 05/10/2018 10:44

If I received that text (especially if from someone I knew suffered from severe migraines? I’d call the person and come home ASAP.

Sorry your family are so selfish.

MsOliphant · 05/10/2018 10:44

Actually you can take 60mg up to four times a day, so 240mg is a maximum dose. 60mg isn’t close to being a ‘fuckload’.

PhilomenaButterfly · 05/10/2018 10:46

MsOliphant yes my aunt and uncle lived in a 3 storey house with only one bathroom, which was downstairs. My cousins had potties in their room until they were about 7 because the stairs were a bit precarious in the dark.

HeckyPeck · 05/10/2018 10:53

I prescribe MsOliphant a fuckload of empathy. Might bring the levels up to something approaching normal.

fieryginger · 05/10/2018 10:58

Looking at a screen and scrolling won't do your migraine much good, all that light flashing and moving, might make it worse though.

I had migraines as a child. It was two days in bed, ending with vomiting. Thank heavens I out grew them, they were the pits.

Hope you're feeling better.

Asterado · 05/10/2018 11:59

I live in a 3 story house with one bathroom Grin

PhilomenaButterfly · 05/10/2018 12:01

I know Asterado, surprisingly, they do exist! Shock

Asterado · 05/10/2018 12:44

And it’s downstairs Shock

PhilomenaButterfly · 05/10/2018 12:45
Grin
mostdays · 05/10/2018 12:47

I'd panic, phone you, if you didn't answer I'd be rushing back home and wondering whether I should call 999 on the way, because (and this is likely due to my job role and life experiences) I would be hugely concerned you had taken an overdose.

Stupomax · 05/10/2018 14:16

Yes I managed to get down the stairs and yes I managed to post on here but it doesn't mean I was being attention seeking or dramatic. It took me almost an hour to make it downstairs and I vomited repeatedly (at one point I was sitting on the landing vomiting into a bin bag while crying my eyes out because it was so painful). It also took a fuck load of codiene to get it under any sort of control

Ah that does sound like an awful migraine - I'm sorry. I hope you're feeling better now.

Do you have triptans for migraines? They are better than codeine, and less addictive. If you haven't tried them then I really would recommend giving them a go. The Rizatriptan melts or the Sumatriptan spray would probably be better as you are someone who throws up during migraines. I have them in my bag with me at all times and panic if they're not there.

Original poster
QuestionableMouse · 05/10/2018 14:51

I did have them and they were so much better but my GP changed and the new one won't prescribe them again.

OP posts:
DameSylvieKrin · 05/10/2018 15:06

I’ve usually found that migraneurs have a lot of sympathy with one another, so this thread is really disappointing. Everyone seems to think their type of migraine is the one true migraine and everyone else has a headache. It’s ridiculous and ill-informed to say if you don’t respond to triptans you don’t have migraines (although I personally do respond to them).
I used to have textbook classic migraines and at times had one every four days. However, nowadays headache is not one of my primary symptoms and if I have the classic one-sided headache it’s excruciating but lasts only between 5 and 15 minutes. The vertigo, in contrast, lasts for 5 days.
I don’t care whether anybody on this thread believes in my migraines and I would advise OP to do the same.

Amibeingnaive · 05/10/2018 16:18

People on MN do seem to find it hard that different people function differently with pain.

I had meningitis. It's a nasty headache, but I was still going about normal life, admittedly with the lights off where possible and more slowly than normal. I eventually took myself off to A&E thinking that I'd better get checked out because this bastard headache would not piss off. I never dreamt it would be meningitis. It hurt but I wasn't driven mad by the pain. Similarly the lumbar puncture I had to diagnose it gave me a bastard headache, but I was still texting DH to update him.

It is possible to for some people to be quite unwell but still vaguely functioning. The OP isn't asking for a diagnosis.

Orchiddingme · 05/10/2018 17:01

DameSylvieKrin I completely agree, migraines manifest really quite differently for different people or indeed over time, or on medication. They also last different lengths of time, some are short and sharp, some long and awful and some drag into days some of which you can just about function. Not everyone is photosensitive, some people have more stroke-like (hemiplegic) symptoms, some have really strong auras, some nothing at all and just intense pain.

Some quite ignorant statements on this thread. Also I went through two tryptans which had no effect whatsoever so could have easily concluded they don't work on me. It was my GP who said there was a tryptan for everyone. I don't like them though and I don't bother to take them any more, I prefer different combos of other medications.

MaxStirner · 05/10/2018 17:08

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Gabilan · 05/10/2018 17:11

My migraines are very varied. The worst ones seem to consist of someone placing a metal band around my skull and slowly both tightening and heating it, whilst something operates a hammer on the inside of my skull. The pain of that makes me vomit and leaves me whimpering in a corner. Light is neither good nor bad but the smallest sounds feel as if someone is running their fingernails over a blackboard and then sending the result through several amplifiers directly into my ear canal. I feel as if millions of years of evolution have been stripped away and I'm just a small animal, a bundle of nerves in huge amounts of pain.

The mild ones are a bit like looking through a kaleidoscope. I have learned never to battle on through though, as that is when they get really bad. If I catch them early enough and go to bed, I just feel like shit, instead of wanting to die. So I wouldn't dictate what other people can or can't do during a migraine - although it does annoy me when someone describes a headache as a migraine.

MrMeSeeks · 05/10/2018 17:32

I did have them and they were so much better but my GP changed and the new one won't prescribe them again.
I’d change GP’s, that’s awful

Stupomax · 05/10/2018 17:43

I did have them and they were so much better but my GP changed and the new one won't prescribe them again.

Any idea why? That just doesn't seem to be good medical practice.

As a pp said, can you see a different GP? That's a bad migraine you had. Your GP should be talking them seriously. There's also a whole range of preventatives you could try.

Original poster
QuestionableMouse · 05/10/2018 18:15

The practice was taken over and now all they seem bothered about is saving money. I don't actually have anything prescribed for them at the moment (not through a lack of trying!) The codiene was prescribed for my sciatica pain. It may not seem a lot to people who take it regularly but I don't because I can't function when I'm taking it. I'd also had two normal (8mg) co codamol so it was a bit more than I'd posted.

OP posts: