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 ?

Headaches that border on migraines rather than full blown ones but I often get the "ghost headache" the next day. So tired afterwards, too. I wake up and feel fresh as a daisy with relief from the pain but within 5 min I'm exhausted, like I've been hit by a truck and can feel faint headache stirrings. Often extreme cravings for salty or sweet stuff, too.

@Eckhart

And also the way you ALWAYS think about it

Yes. And does anybody else have a general feeling of it hanging around, even when you don't have one? I can often feel it dithering about near my eye, like my eye has a headache of its own, or nausea on its own, even when I don't have a migraine myself. I've had a lot more days completely free of it since lockdown (not having to be in the office), and it feels like my eye is on holiday!

@Eckhart this describes how I've been all this week. Like my eye has a migraine of it's own. And teeny tiny pupils. I'm assuming that's why I feel like I'm looking through fog.

Yep. My eye has been a bit twitchy and pressed feeling for days and then if ds is bouncing his ball near me it gets worse. Sounds daft I know. It is like a little localised mini migraine and I'm trying not to get stressed or focus on it in case that makes it go nuclear.

Are you allowed ergotamine here? That's what I used to take when I got one in ME but then it was banned in the country I was living in

@Eckhart

If it’s hormonal it won’t help ,sadly

It might. It depends what's out of whack in your system. I wouldn't make blanket statements. Western medicine doesn't know why daith piercings work for some people, and Chinese Medicine is not something you can generalise with.

I can verify that the Daith piercing did work for me. Mine are linked to my hormones and like a PP said, when I had it done I felt an instant relief. For 6 months afterwards I didn't have a migraine, headaches yes, migraines, no. But as soon as it was 100% healed, they started creeping back. My acupuncturist warned me that could happen, she said the pressure point which it hits can shift over time.

But what a blissful 6 months they were!

I'd mention to always get it pierced the side you get your migraines. For me it's the right side. I got my left done a year later and it did diddly squat.

I'd mention to always get it pierced the side you get your migraines

Again, I wouldn't generalise here. I'm glad you had a positive experience, and I'm sorry it only worked on one side for you, but to advise people that this is a blanket experience is inaccurate, and may convince people out of a potentially effective cure for them.

Do you still have acupuncture/shiatsu @puddleducker?

@Eckhart

I'd mention to always get it pierced the side you get your migraines

Again, I wouldn't generalise here. I'm glad you had a positive experience, and I'm sorry it only worked on one side for you, but to advise people that this is a blanket experience is inaccurate, and may convince people out of a potentially effective cure for them.

Do you still have acupuncture/shiatsu @puddleducker?

Yes, I've been having it for years. It doesn't stop the migraines but makes me feel a whole lot better. I love my acupuncturist!

I personally would never advice anyone not to try anything tbh, sorry if it came across that way. In all my years of experience in the migraine communities, what comes across most prevalently is that there is a huge plethora of symptoms out there and different treatments work differently for different people. But I would recommend if you haven't had a daith piercing yet, to get your first one on your migraine side.

I feel like I want us to start a group! It is so refreshing and supportive to listen to so many others symptoms, and tricks and tips they have come up with. We all 'get it' here and that feels so refreshing and liberating! My friends and partner are all supportive, but tbh they don't have a clue.

Thanks all!

Itsamess8456 it took me a while to realise. I have had them since I was a teenager so around 34yrs .My friends at work can spot it too I yawn so much and go pale and the next day I will wake up with a migraine.

Eckhart mine happen a regulary now they were bad before but lot worse during covid .Dr said about sending me to a specialist .I take my medication and go to work but I also like you describe have days where it feels like it's there hovering. Mine is always over one eye the same eye each time.

Puddleducker that is a good idea 👍.

It's not exactly a cure a doctor could recommend, but I find that getting nicely drunk kills off a migraine for me.

I discovered it by accident, because I had a 3 week migraine event (where it varies in strength but recurs), and by the end of it I was thoroughly fed up. It was my friend's 30th and I was sick of missing life and trying to manage symptoms.

So I said, fuck the migraine, went out, drank a lot and laughed with my friends and relaxed.

The next day, no migraine, no hangover.

I've found since that it can act as a reset on the pressure etc, and if I think I might get a migraine, I can stave it off with a glass of wine.

Obviously I make sure that I don't abuse this discovery...

I get about 2/3 a month, the minute I feel it come on I try and drink csffine, a tonne or water and eat something mega salty and try and sleep. When I come out the other end of the migraine I basically do the same, lots of salty food.

Yes I concur on alcohol. I don't tell anyone but I keep a tiny flask of whiskey and some max strength ibuprofen and codeine tablets in my work trolley (teacher) as a migraine emergency kit.

Ideally there would be coke too but can't have a can shaken about in my trolley. Next term I may put a can of coke in my pigeon hole. I think alcohol has a dilating effect on the vascular system?

Obviously drinking alcohol at work isn't advisable but I suspect they'd rather I did that in an emergency than bailed in the middle of the day when there's no cover available. Getting sick in the day is very frowned upon in school to the point of having to work through it or end up on a hit list. I've only had to use the emergency kit once this year but was really glad I had it as it got me through till I could go home and sleep.

I had a colleague many years ago whose remedy was a whole bottle of rescue remedy tipped into a can of coke which is essentially the same amount of alcohol but much more expensive

Yes, my migraine-getting friend has done the research, and there is scientific backing for a "small" amount of alcohol.

I use a bit more than that though .

I also find the "fuck you" approach helps, after days of trying to manage symptoms. I'm lucky that I'm not very photosensitive at all (much worse with smell), so can go out for a drink for a change of scene.

(which is another issue I have, because some people don't think I get migraines as badly as I do, because I'm not sitting in a darkened room...)

Well I just had my daith pierced and then realised that I'm so stupid I didn't think to check what side and had it done the WRONG one 🙄
I'm still foggy clearly. Still I did feel weirdly like the headache I'd had this morning was being "pressed on". Maybe I just need to get the other side done too.
This thread has been so so helpful. Thank you all

ALCOHOL?!

Don't triptans narrow the blood vessels to slow down the blood supply. So alcohol would have the wrong affect if you respond well to triptans?

I'm always open to new suggestions though!

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.

Yes, very, which causes a massive wave of anxiety which makes the whole thing else. I knock back some propranolol as soon as symptoms start now as I have that prescribed for anxiety. Then the nurofen, to preferably with codeine. Then sleep for the rest of the day.

Interesting the craving carbs thing. I'm always obsessed with eating toast when I wake up.

And like a pp I start stumbling over words a day or so before the migraine.

Gosh, yes!!! Had a full hysterectomy 5 years ago and now get them a lot less frequently but still do.

I have the aura thing - and it comes on instantly now - I see a hole so if I'm reading a book, I can't see some of the words - and I need to take co-codamol straight away. Then lie down. Difficult as I'm a full time teacher. Last bad one happened, I kid you not, while I was being Ofsted observed and I just had to carry on.

I used to have to buy full fat coke as I craved it afterwards. Don't do that anymore and do get them less rarely thank goodness. But it takes 2 days or so to get over it, feel out of it and spacey for that time and just a bit weird.

@polkadotpjs

Well I just had my daith pierced and then realised that I'm so stupid I didn't think to check what side and had it done the WRONG one 🙄 I'm still foggy clearly. Still I did feel weirdly like the headache I'd had this morning was being "pressed on". Maybe I just need to get the other side done too. This thread has been so so helpful. Thank you all

DD1 had hers done at both sides just in case as she tends to get them at different sides each time.

Are triptans the serotonin based ones? If so I have tried them because you could just buy them over the counter in a country I used to live in I didn't get on with them. The alternative was ergotamine which was better for me. Codeine was illegal there (weird as you could buy benzos over the counter).

Here thankfully you can buy co-codamol and now codeine with ibuprofen and take two of each. Obviously not something to do in any way frequently.

Did anyone answer whether you can get ergotamine based pain relief here in the UK?

@SeasideStitcher I have had one vestibular migraine about a year ago (I also get the occasional occular migraine i.e. visual disturbance but no pain, and hormonal migraines) and it was pretty terrifying. My DP said I looked awful and he thought he'd need to take me to hospital but he got me to bed and a few hours of sleep helped. A friend of my mum's suffers classic and vestibular migraines, she finds the vestibular ones hardest.

@cinnabarmoth Yes, the first time you have a vestibular migraine is terrifying because you have no idea what's happening or how long it's going to go on for. At least now I recognise the warning signs (with me it's a stiff neck, visual disturbances and salty cravings) and different stages so feel a bit more in control. I do get them more often at the end of the day when I'm tired so I take some cinnarizine, have plenty to drink and try to sleep through it as much as possible.

Thankfully, I've not had one when I'm out and about for a while as that can be frightening - I've had people avoid me because they thought I was drunk.

Had a killer migraine last week.
My eyes started going blurry so I had a lie down. A few minutes later, then came the pounding head. It was the most intense headache of my life. I threw up bile several times and was just clutching my head in agony.
Woke up the next morning and my head felt very tender and even the day after it did. Migraines are certainly not just 'headaches.'

@thebearschairs

I'd love to know what these new drugs are ! Nothing has been revolutionary from my specialist

I'm not sure what you can get in the UK, but the new drugs include CGRP antagonists which are injectable preventatives. I've been using Aimovig for more than a year - maybe two now? It's reduced the intensity and number of migraines I get.

There's more about new drugs here
www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/migraines-new-treatments

Reading this thread has made me realise that I am not going mad! I suffer hugely with my mental health, episodes of dissociation and anxiety being a key one. However, I have tried and tested strategies for those.

In contrast, every now and then I will start to feel disconnected, but (unusually for me) not anxious at all (disconnected feeling usually makes me very panicky) and want salty things; then the headache comes. If I have coke, aspirin and can sleep for a couple of hours with a heat pad on my neck and tiger balm my forehead, I can sometimes shake it. But for up to a week after, I feel very low, extremely anxious, exhausted, and like there is a lag when I speak or even turn my head. Trying to do computer work during this time can bring the headache back and it also feels like me eyes aren’t working together (even though tested very recently). I definitely don’t feel safe to drive. Funnily, I’ve found that if I get diarrhea (I sometimes do), symptoms can dramatically improve, to the point I have considered taking laxatives!

I had been despairing as even taking diazepam - my mental health last resort, which is usual spectacularly effective when my anxiety is awful - has had no effect on the dissociative anxiety symptoms after the headache. I thought I had developed some horrible new dissociative disorder, inner ear problem or was getting a mystery virus once a month.

I can’t take triptans, I don’t think, because I’m on antidepressants, but coke, aspirin, tiger balm, a hot water bottle, a nap and salty crisps work very well if I act fast enough.

I’ve noticed they tend to come on if I’ve had an intensely busy time and then suddenly stop. A Friday night headache after a week with a big work deadline is quite a standard pattern, I’ve started to notice.