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 ?

@PlayerOneReady
Snap on medication. But higher dose here. Do you have any unwelcome side affects?

From the amitryptyline? No, none at all. I’d anything a benefit as it helps me sleep better. Are you on 50mg? My doctor said I could go up to that if I wanted to. I was worried it might start to make me feel groggy. Be interested to hear your experience....

I've had migraines for about 40 years. I have about 2 per month. I'm never ill otherwise and I hate the way they make me feel. Mine are so debilitating, the pain is awful and it's as if my body "shuts down". I also have vomiting with it but the migraine usually gets better after I've vomited lots (I usually fall asleep after being sick and wake up feeling OK)

I've never used aspirin but it's a good trick to try. I'm usually a cocodamol and sumatriptan taker.

I can't believe no one else here has mentioned tiger balm. I use the strongest one and slather it on my forehead, temples and the back of my neck. It tingles like mad and makes my eyes weep but it really helps! It's kind of a distracting pain... 😁

@PlayerOneReady
Restless legs is my only real side affect. It doesn't make me sleepy like it seems to do for most people. So far so good it's cutting down the frequency and intensity.
I don't use any painkillers any more. Only frovatriptan when needed.

I'm never ill otherwise and I hate the way they make me feel

This. They make me into an unreliable person. I end up letting people down when arrangements have been made, and phoning into work sick. I've been 6 years in my job, with regular sick leave. Apart from one day with food poisoning, it's all been migraines.

For those who are on HRT did it help reduce them? I get them at the end of every cycle and can’t even keep water down. Just finished a 2day migraine and totally wiped today

@minesatea I'm hoping to start HRT in January.
I get dreadful hormonal migraine. Frovex is the only thing that works.

I take triptans but they don't do much now. A migraine knackers me for days after its gone.

I want to try botox to see if it helps. Has anyone tried that or the preventatives?

Yes, I get carb cravings as soon as I wake from the migraine induced mega-sleep.

I read somewhere the post-migraine state is similar to the one people with epilepsy get after a fit - euphoria, fatigue and hunger.

I used to leave work with a migraine via M&S and buy sandwiches, crisps, cake, etc. and keep them by the bed

Given the relationship between carbs and inflammation/illness, I do wonder about how carbs are linked to migraines. The cravings are undeniable. So many on the thread have mentioned them. There's definitely a link.

I feel like we're missing a piece of the jigsaw, and given the fact that most of us are in a 'Why me?!' position, I really wish we could get an answer.

Yes and I find drinking loads of water with dioralyte really helps as it replaces salts & sugars. Also helps with the ad crisp and chocolate cravings that I get.

I had childhood epilepsy from 9 and by 10 the migraines had started. Luckily grew out of the epilepsy but not the migraines. DD1 followed the opposite pattern - started migraines at 10 and has since had 2 seizures. She was put on Topomax which was supposed to control both migraines and epilepsy. It succeeded in controlling the seizures but didn't help the migraines. She's on carbamazepine now because of the horrible Topomax side effects.

Yeah topomax is pretty full on - I had it for a while.

A bit of an aside but does anyone find migraines quite scary? The range of experiences and symptoms I've had in middle age could be related to lots of different neurological problems etc but just get bundled under the 'migraine' umbrella.

That's fine until it isn't eg. what if one day I AM actually having a stroke and assume it's just a migraine. Or if I am actually developing a neurological condition that benefits from fast diagnosis and treatment but assume all the symptoms to be a new weird feature of my migraines?

It worries me a little bit. When I started getting them again but with the really weird stuff I was living overseas and it scared friends (non European) and they insisted on me seeing a doctor who wanted to run all sorts of tests and wanted to put me on medication to raise my very low BP.

I submitted to the see 'a' doctor but didn't take BP medicine or have any of the other tests other than a blood sugar one to rule out that the pins and needles and stuff wasn't diabetes and a thyroid test which came back underactive and I'm still treated for now.

It's just a bit worrying how bizarre and debilitating some of the features of my presumed 'aura' are and we seem to understand very little about what actually causes any of this. We just label it migraine and move on. I live with a much squashed but there in the background feeling that when I die it will be from a stroke.

Absolutely, for a day or two afterwards I'm exhausted, spacey and so hungry (If I can't stop my migraine with triptans or I wake up with it I can't seem to eat for the 1-3 days the migraine lasts)

Yes. I had one a few months back. Felt nauseous, slight headache and severe tiredness all day.

@TryingnottobeWaynettaSlob

Yes I always get a migraine hangover mixed with a weird elation that it’s gone. But feel totally wiped out and out of it, I usually get my Words mixed up and crave high fat salty food.

Elation is a common thing post migraine?! I’m not sure if it’s psychological due to being so relieved the pain/sensations are gone or a flood of hormones/chemicals but I’m the same, almost giddy and really chatty. I’m sure my boss might think I’m faking when I can go from can’t hardly see or stand to this!

I get migraine hangovers too. My memory is awful for about 5 days afterwards. To the point I was back at work feeling fine and did the food shop on my way home. I forgot all of my PIN numbers at the till and couldn't pay, horrible. I've not noticed the food cravings I'm going to pay more attention to it.

Thanks for the posters suggesting aspirin. I don't normally have it at home so will get some.

One of the first signs my headache is the beginnings of a migraine is my speech. The last one I had I was in an online meeting after not speaking to anyone all day and I couldn't pronounce words or articulate myself well, it was very noticeable and quite embarrassing. I felt like I sounded pissed. That's when I knew to take to bed and ride it out.

@TheHoneyBadger

Yes, they are undoubtedly scary. I cried when I got my migraine diagnosis, because I was convinced I was dying when I just had the symptoms to go on.

I have Reynauds syndrome, and I think migraines may be 'brain reynauds'. They feel like they're doing damage and surely it can't just be temporary? I suppose we really don't know. It's a bit bewildering that we know so little about them when they're so debilitating, but then, the same can be said of many illnesses.

One reassuring thing is that we all seem to have patterns that we know well. We would know if something happened that was different. But we might have to shout a bit louder at the doctors to get heard.

@polkadotpjs

It's good to talk to people who get it, without feeling I'm just whinging. Thanks for starting a thread that's got migraineurs talking.

Hope you're feeling better.

Yes it is good. It's very hard to explain that the reason you seemed to go moody or weird at a family occasion was because all of a sudden everybody's voices were too loud, too much at once, spinning around you and the lights twinkling on the Christmas tree made felt like they were flashing all the way round your nervous system at high voltage and the smell of the olives on the coffee table seemed to have turned up so 'loud' that it was shouting at your brain.

It's all too weird and 'delicate flower wants attention' sounding for people to understand. On that particular occasion I remember my Mother being really pissed off that I asked if she could put the tree lights on a static setting rather than flashing and tracing through the bulbs itms.

Oh and I remember genuinely worrying that I was going insane once when I was in a shopping centre and a ball that child dropped moved in slow motion bounces with traces following it and I had this feeling of everything in the world going completely still whilst this ball slowly and loudly made it's way across the floor and then getting this strange out of body and time sensation. Like have I started having hallucinations? Am I actually going insane?

The first time that people's faces disappeared I was in a friend's jeep driving along a beach and I'd been feeling strange and prickly but thought it was a mood rather than a migraine event and I looked out the window at people we were slowly driving past and realised they had no faces - just smudges - I could see their heads and their hair but their face was just a weird smudge. Then still what felt like a massive delay to realising oh I'm getting a migraine and I need to tell my friend he needs to drive us home right now and he's going to think I'm awful/weird/rude but there's no way I can string enough words together to explain right now.

Blah blah. Sorry - it is actually nice to share this stuff because you're very alone in it when it happens and it can be really intense and unsettling till later you look it up and that effect of smudges for faces actually has a name and everything

I'm pinning my hopes on menopause being the end for me without a massive resurgence before then.

@TheHoneyBadger very frightening experiences, particularly all the weird stuff that comes with the migraine. I had an MRI a couple of years back looking for sinister things and also possible MS. I got an all clear then but now I get these 'stroke mimic' migraines I'm considering asking for a repeat one because my last really bad episode my exh thought I was having a stroke and I've not had a proper follow up since. It's scary to think that everything is being put under the banner of migraine and it might actually be something else! I was walking home from shopping the other day reeling around like a drunk, and it was 3 days post-migraine so quite worrying!

@Eckhart I have reynauds too.

As much as I hate to hear everyone going through these things it's some comfort to know we're not alone!

I was at my ex in-laws Christmas dinner one year and had to leave the table as suddenly everyone was too loud, everything was too bright, everything was moving on its own and spinning around. I was blinking like crazy, that was a worry, my eye started twitching, then everyone looked like they were behind some kind of hazy fog.

Literally pissed everyone off. Was accused of ruining Christmas and being dramatic. Honestly wish I'd just slumped into my sprouts tbh, someone might've actually taken it seriously then instead of 'it's just a headache..'

I’ve genuinely thought I was having a stroke on a couple of occasions when I had bad ones. They came out of the blue and my speech and vision became funny and I just felt really, really strange like something serious was happening.it’s so difficult to explain. I tried to keep calm and sat quietly in a dark room and took a painkiller, downed a pint of water and a snack. An hour or two later I felt ok but utterly wiped out and could barely keep my eyes open the following day.

I once had a hemiplegic migraine that felt like what I assume a stroke to feel like - I was lying on the bed because I didn't feel good (usual 'I'm going to get a migraine' feeling), when I felt the entire left side of my body go slack, including my mouth drooping. I remember being really panicked as I lived alone at the time and my phone was on the wrong side for me to reach. I vividly recall thinking, "I'm having a stroke and nobody can help". Scary stuff.

I've had several migraines where I've thought, 'this is it, I'm just not going to wake up from this, you can't have this much pain and not be in serious trouble', but still wouldn't ask for medical help because it's "just a migraine".

People are really misinformed - the number of people who will say they have bad headaches too...you're just seen as crying off if you cancel plans or can't go to work because of a migraine. 😞