AIBU to ask you to tell me about your worst migraines.

[migraineosaurus]

I’ve always suffered from migraines on and off since I was a child.

i took one last Wednesday that completely wiped me out and I feel like I’m still recovering from it.

my arms and legs still feel heavy and just a bit off. Getting better but it just seemed to knock me for six and sumatriptan had no effect.

I took them during puberty and they seem to have returned with perimenopause.

just looking for fellow sufferers!

I think because of my age and the initial fears of stroke or brain bleed the A&E consultants were pretty quick with acting on it. Added to this I'm lucky in the fact that my local hospital is rather good.

I have been referred to a specialist now to completely confirm, which I suspect like your DH will be a long wait, but they seem certain thats what it was. I was surprised as actual head pain was short lived, but the spinning and loss of motor function lasted for about 6 hours at its worst with symptoms still in the background now.

I really feel for him, it's terrifying and I couldn't imagine living with that on a daily basis.

I suffered from migraines from the age of 15 to 61, different severity and frequency at different ages (I am 68 now). The worse time was perimenopause, when I was getting them 3 to 4 times a week, with severe one sided pain, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and noise. They would knock me out for days. I am convinced that the main trigger was hormonal fluctuations as they were always worse around my period.

I’m 47. It’s definitely hormones and I actually thought that the doctor would straight away give me oestrogen gel or patches but I don’t really have any other debilitating peri menopause symptoms so I’m happy to try this option the dr has prescribed first and see how we go.

I got them a lot as a teen and then they settled down until about 8 years ago. I only get the odd one here and there now but they are awful. They start with a ringing in my ears, then the pain starts, next I get clouded vision and then it starts thumping so I need to lie down (after taking pain relief) I notice if I haven't eaten/poor diet it brings them on. My sight seems to set them off too, looking at the bright computer screen can set one off.

HRT hasn't been shown to help with hormonal migraines and can sometimes make them worse. There is more evidence for progesterone only conception.

I take the mini pill (I'm late 40's) and having no periods certainly helps. But doesn't cure them just helps reduce the number I have.

I had them terribly as a teen and in my early twenties then they seemed to reduce dramatically. Came back badly during fertility treatments and again now with peri.

I seem to get 2 types of them - 1 is the standard light sensitivity, pounding pressure, nauseous/physically sick and the other is visual disturbances, heavy limbs and it generally feels like I’m a bit floaty and really slow to respond to things around me.
Both cause my temperature to go haywire and swing from sweating to freezing, no appetite and I get the shakes and I generally have a horrible hangover type feeling for a day or 2 afterwards.

The worst one was during hormone treatments. It was like all symptoms combined and I couldn’t focus my eyes. DH called an ambulance and was told what he described sounded like a stroke so they rushed me in. Apparently wasn’t a stroke but ‘high pressure’ migraines can appear the same as one. I was in for 1 night and felt awful for days after, like I had the flu.

I'm way past menopause, still get them the same as I did when I was a child.

Same here. Beta blockers have changed my life!

Mine started in puberty, peaked in my early twenties, then settled down to a more tolerable level in my thirties. Menopause seemed to more or less cure them - I still get an occasional aura (blind spot then zig zags) but no longer get the power-drill headache and vomiting after the aura.

The pattern suggests that in my case, oestrogen was the culprit.

I know it’s going to be bad when I start yawning uncontrollably, then I start seeing chevron patterns. Then I start vomitting and it happens every 20 minutes or so for 6-8 hours. Diarrhoea starts at the same time too. I shiver and sweat simultaneously, intense head pain and can’t stand any light. The next couple of days I feel as if I’ve been run over by a truck

Thanks. We decided the wait was too long and went private. He still can’t leave the house or do much but he’s on medication that should help over the next 3-12 months. Yes daily experience has completely disabled him.

I suffered as a teenager, aura then headache, had to sleep it off in a dark room.

The last one I had was a few years ago after I went on the mini pill. The weirdest thing for me was that I was trying to read something and I just couldn't read.. the letters all just appeared like symbols on the page.

I used to get really sick with migraines and would vomit so often and so violently that my stomach felt as though a horse had given me a good kicking. I couldn't take any meds, as even a couple of sips of water would just reappear a few minutes later.

In the late 1980s, I was well into the 3rd day of this so made an appointment and staggered round the corner to the GP, which was mercifully close. The doctor took one look at me, and called me straight in. He examined me (while I was still dry heaving) and took my blood pressure, then called a fucking ambulance!

Apparently, I was dangerously dehydrated and spent 24 hours in hospital, on a drip, and having anti-emetic injections. They worked really quickly, and in an hour or two I was even able to eat something. They sent a doctor to see me to discuss ongoing treatment and he prescribed anti-emetic suppositories and some tablets to reduce the frequency of the attacks, which enabled me to manage my migraines relatively well for years.

The best thing about menopause was that the frequency of my migraines reduced massively from when I was around 45 and post-menopause, I rarely get them.

I've branched out from the food intolerance-related focal migraines that apparently made me look like I was having an epileptic fit, and downing up to nine pint glasses of water in 20 minutes. They would start with pain in my lower back, travel up my spine and explode in my head, where it's like watching a lot of flashing lights.

Since then, I've had some epic six-day ones. I get around 10 minutes' notice before I start vomiting, and then I have to get home ASAP before I am unable to walk, let alone drive or talk. The worst ones leave me very confused and I cannot keep track of a conversation, so I have to keep asking the other person to stop and start again. My coordination and balance go, too, and as I'm extremely light-sensitive, I thank my lucky stars that I have shutters and blackout curtains over the windows. I then go to bed after a Rimegepant (Sumatriptan didn't do anything for me, either, and it is apparently linked to making your aching body feel worse) and can sleep for up to 15 hours. Then I wake up feeling like I have the flu. I have to live in virtual darkness, sleep a lot, end up ordering takeaway pizza as I do not want to risk burning my house down if I fall asleep while something's cooking, and have as many baths as I can manage, to help with the aching. That goes on for 5-6 days, where I spend most of my time in bed, and trying desperately to not fall down the stairs (I still have pets to look after). By day 6, I am still not back to full strength, but usually go back to work as I feel very guilty because other people have had to do my jobs on top of their own.

I was considering Botox as an extreme resort until I found out how frequently it needs to be topped up, and I do not have the time or inclination to be stabbed so often for that!

That's just what mine were like. The pain I could just about tolerate, but the repeated, violent puking was intolerable. My stomach muscles would end up so sore from the vomitting that they would ache for a couple of days.

I get really bad aura to the point I can't read texts or see 6 inches in front of me and things move all around me.

My daughter vomits 5 or 6 times in a row and hallucinates.

I was 42 wks pregnant with dc2 and I started to get the visual signs of an imminent migraine. Partial blindness and nausea.
I asked my neighbour to look after my 3 yr old and call my mil. I took myself to bed.
By the time she arrived I was completely unable to talk. I did manage to tell her...'9...9...9.'
The whole left side of my body was burning and weak, and my mouth was sagging.
The Dr from my surgery ran into my flat breathless (later told me I scared her witless and she genuinely thought I would die) My BP was through roof. I managed to say 'headache'.
I thought I was having a stroke but could feel baby kicking so was hopeful that she would survive if I had a c section quick enough.
An ambulance quickly arrived and they had to manhandle me down a narrow staircase on a chair thing.
I remember neighbours standing around.
The ambulance doors shut as I was looking at my son standing holding his Nanny's hand. I thought I'd never see him again.
I was violently vomiting for most of the blue light journey to the hospital. (Usually 30mins away).
I was admitted to the maternity CCU? and had a barrage of tests and hooked up to numerous machines and monitors.
My poor DH was told at work to get to the hospital asap. He arrived filthy (Dock work) and distraught as he'd believed I was dead. I had a shocking shocking headache but slowly the burning eased, and I stopped vomiting.
Eventually I was diagnosed with 'just' a hemiplegic migraine.
I gave birth to her in the lift about 12 hrs later still with a headache but so grateful it wasn't a stroke .
I've told numerous women who have migraines that this can happen in pregnancy as I had no Idea.
The most scariest thing that ever happened to me and I still get emotional..
I have had some pretty awful migraines but this was horrific.