To ask if anyone else has migraine "hangover"

[polkadotpjs]

Got another hormonal
Migraine Friday. Mostly headed off by Triptan but bad enough to need 2 x paramol and a nap pre school run ( floated through that on those meds plus ibuprofen). Another Triptan Saturday as it felt like it was back and more Paramol No Triptan Sunday but more painkillers then and yesterday. And today only ibuprofen but my scalp tonight is so sore and my throat inside and my ear - all down the headache side. And I want to eat crisps and drink coke and craving salt.
It's knackering but I'm trying to document 6 months worth and then go back to talk preventatives. Anyone else ?

Yeah, same.
I always get an aura first, which spreads across my eye then disappears over the course of about half an hour. If I can't take strong painkillers, anti-emetics and lie in a dark room the second I notice the aura, I'm screwed. So if it starts when I'm out, I'm screwed.
If I can take meds and lie down, I can get up again after about 2 hours, albeit in a lot of pain, but I can finish my day. If I can't, I have to go to bed as soon as I can and stay there until the next morning.
I usually get migraines in clusters, so daily over the course of a week, and then none at all for 3-4 months.
The days after I feel tired, sore, a bit spacey, anxious (as I hate the thought that another might start any second) and my hearing goes a bit funny. I have no idea how much of this is the migraine and how much the painkillers are responsible.

For me though, the anxiety of having my next one is the worst part. Because I know they come in clusters. When I've not had one for 3 days I'll accept the cluster is over. But until then, I'm scared of driving in case one comes on and I can't get home, scared of going out .. they just make me so ill.

Oh Gosh I feel for you all. I am 52 almost 53 and have been post menopause for 2 years. I had hormonal debilitating migraines every month since age 10, my periods started at 13 and a half. The migraines were particularly bad in my early teens, (aura/dizziness) but improved when I got to 17 when I could manage them with regular painkillers. Got bad again once I hit perimenopause aged 38. I had my kids at 39/42 and the pregnancy months were bliss as pain-free.

I haven't had a migraine for 2 years now, (not taking HRT) so just want to say that to all of you suffering that they may and hopefully do totally bugger off when you hit menopause. (My Nan had them and hers stopped then too). x

@Claudiawinklemansfringe I'm the same in that my migraines started when I was quite young and they were debilitating, however they're yet to get better!
Migraines run in the family, my nan got them really bad but since she went through menopause she doesn't get them anymore. Both my mum me and DBro get them quite badly, with DBros being the worst, they often cause him to collapse!

Yes. They last one to two days.

Don't have migraines often but when I do I feel crap for two or three days afterwards. Sets off my IBS as well which is sometimes worse in some ways than the actual migraine was. At least with the migraine I can just go to sleep and hope it will feel at least a little better when I wake up. But the IBS can go on for a couple of weeks after.

Horrible things, and I've not figured out the trigger yet.

@Zebrahooves mine often are triggered by the lights in work which are stupidly bright, I find when I come back after annual leave the first day I always end up with a migraine

Think the worst part of mine is how badly it affects my eyes for a few days before. Like I'm looking through fog! And the pain is situated in my eyes and face/teeth more than my actual head. And I've noticed recently I get low tone tinnitus the day before, but that's relatively new to me. Still haven't found a trigger!

@LindaEllen have you tried a Triptan medication? I take sumatriptan at the first sign of one and mostly it stops the headache developing. Still get the hangover unfortunately.

Are anyone else's migraines triggered by bright light? Sunshine bouncing off a window or windscreen can set me off straight away

@Zebrahooves Yup. I'm mostly in sunglasses, indoors or out, rain or shine. Think I might be a mogwai. Or Roy Orbison. I think I look like a prat in shades in the wrong weather, but it's better than feeling like I'm looking directly at a torch beam the whole time.

@Eckhart same here...doctor said 3 aspirin, caffeine and fatty food at the first sign. Certainly helps and can be more effective than other painkillers. I have just come off preventative meds as they stopped working.

Me too.
I can’t stomach aspirin any more, but my kind GP did suggest Nurofen Meltlets, which work wonders for me. He said that with migraines, soluble or liquid meds are better, as the migraine slows gut motility, so tablets can take too long to be absorbed. I’ve not idea if this is accurate, but my own experience agrees with this.I can tell I’m about to have one most of the time, feeling more exhausted than usual, gritty eyes, blurry vision. I take some Meltlets then, prophylactically. For some reason, mine tend to strike very early morning, so I keep some Meltlets in my bedside drawer, then it’s just a matter of taking them and waiting.

Yep, I crave salty stuff, usually cheese, and give in to it. For the next couple of days, I feel more more subdued, and wiped out.

@Zebrahooves @fastandthecurious Bright light is definitely one of my triggers. It is worse in the winter when the sun is very low. I hate driving with the light flickering between trees or buildings - it often catches me out.

I'm always in a peaked cap and dark glasses.

I went through an early menopause and whilst I don't get as many now, it unfortunately hasn't cured me.

When I take sumatriptan it feels like someone is pressing down on my shoulders.

Bloody migraines.

I can't take any triptans unfortunately. I used to take aspirin, but I've stopped that because I've got quite a sensitive stomach (gastritis). I now take paracetamol, but I'm not sure why as they do nothing.

Apart from bright lights, my triggers are stress, lack of sleep, mild dehydration, late meals and when blood sugar fluctuates too much.

I only occasionally get an aura, but the pain starts over my left eye and then spreads. It also aggravates the nerves down the left side of my nose

Hello fellow migraine sufferers. I get the hangover too its nasty. Ive been tracking my migraines for 6 months and I get an awful one either at the beginning or end of each period...or both.. And they are 3 day mega ones. I don't have a single one when pregnant or breastfeeding so whatever the hormonal state is during those times I need to achieve that again! Does anybody have experience of this kind of migraine? I worry about pill and implants because I don't want to jaff my hormones up even more than they are and make things worse..

Caffeine, sweets and salt for me! I find plain old aspirin the best thing to take. Sucks.

My triggers are if I get even a little bit dehydrated or low blood sugars. Doing diets such as fasting or very low calorie are guaranteed to bring on a migraine for me.
Also when I’m very stressed with loads to do can trigger one. I get hormonal ones around ovulation and a couple of days before my period too :-(

As an aside, a doctor also told me that if a child feels poorly with nothing in particular, sit them down quietly with a small glass of coke, a bag of crisps, and some aspirin. Once they've had those, keep them sitting/lying calmly and quietly for as long as possible.

Most little ailments in our society are to do with pain, low sugar, low salt, or over stimulation. Or sometimes a child might just want some attention. This solution covers all of them!

sorry haven't rtft but yes - I think it's called the prodrome. In middle age I rarely have a headache and haven't the projectile vomiting for decades I just get a weird sensory pre aura effect, the full on weirdest aura symptoms including people missing faces, things seeming to move in slow motion and all kinds of trippy stuff and total overload and have to lie down and shut out the world till I get back to normalish but then have a day or two of 'hangover' effect.

I'm sincerely hoping mine disappear after menopause. They came on in adolescence and were hideous 12hours stuck to the bathroom floor other than lifting my head to vomit into the toilet and then take half an hour to stop the vertigo from that movement followed by crawling to my bed to test if I could be higher than ground level without vertigo, followed by 12-16 hours of coma/in and out consciousness, followed by tentatively trying to suck some salty crackers and if I could hold those down start drinking water and eventually sit up.

They then seemed to stop for several years apart from the very odd one. Went through a patch after giving birth but not too bad then in my early 40's started having crazy aura physical stroke like symptoms eg. numbness in one side of my body, droopy face, crazy pins and needles etc and this hangover stuff. At one stage it was every couple of weeks. Now think this may have been the early stages of perimenopause.

Touch wood I have had a quiet stretch other than beginning to feel strange and visual stuff and hypersensitivity to sound or light or 'something' which I can turn around if I can find a can of coke and some codeine and rest for a while. Conscious that menopause may be another peak point but it may also, hopefully, be the end point. Mine do seem to be very hormone related.

Meant to say that the current quiet may be due to taking amiltryptilene nightly. Sorry - I can never spell that.

@TheHoneyBadger your migraines sound much like mine. I was supposed to be on amitriptyline by now trigeminal neuralgia but the GP is dragging his heels. I was hoping they'd help with the migraines too. Hopefully in the new year he'll get his finger out!

*for trigeminal neuralgia that should read

Hope they work for you TheGremlins. I took Topamax at one stage and that with an SNRI seemed to nail them but it's a pretty heavy drug and I stopped taking anything for years. The first time I tried amitriptyline (copied your spelling ) I didn't like the effect but this time they're fine and have the added bonus of also helping with another condition related to a bowel issue.

Yes I do rattle if you shake me and am now adding in various herbal things to try and help with perimenopause symptoms and have hypothyroidism and a vit d deficiency so very rattly

I had one this week too. It was very bad on day 1, with nausea and lots of yawning. Moderately bad on day 2, but I could get on with my day, by day 3 the headache was gone, but I was very tired. I ended up falling asleep at 9pm which is really unusual for me.

Mine are quit erratic, so I've never been sure how preventatives might help. Something to perhaps look at when I can see a GP. I sometimes find 2x paracetamol (or pref cocodamol) alongside 2 ibuprofen will lift it. But sometimes they don't, which is when I think I should see a GP.

I've literally just been prescribed amitriptyline this afternoon. Fingers crossed it works!