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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think migraine with aura is really horrible?

58 replies

Northernlurker · 15/03/2010 21:04

Just had my second ever migraine with aura. Goodness me it is foul!

Realised cycling home wasn't a good idea after I nearly pulled out from a junction in front of a car I just couldn't see. Stupid I know - I walked from then but crossing roads was horrible even so.

Much better now thank goodness.

OP posts:

StealthPolarBear · 15/03/2010 21:06

never even heard of it let alone had one, but it sounds dreadful, glad you're OK xx

ShowOfHands · 15/03/2010 21:08

I get the aura first, for about 20 mins/half an hour before the pain. Luckily, if I take painkillers as soon as the aura happens then I can head off the pain but the visual disturbances are hideous. They really frighten me.

ScreaminEagle · 15/03/2010 21:08

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onepieceoflollipop · 15/03/2010 21:08

You poor thing. They are awful, very disorientating ime. I was once in Kwik Save (obviously years ago as it doesn't exist now) and the aura came over me. I was only 5 minutes from home but I was v frightened and had to stagger home. Got back just as the tremendous drilling pain assaulted my head.

Hope you are soon fully recovered.

Mine were pill and/or hormone related. Absolutely horrible, I do sympathise.

MadameDefarge · 15/03/2010 21:09

I get the auras quite a lot at the moment. sometimes two or three times a week. Happily I can now spot the start and wallop it with painkillers so the pain is ok. But waiting for the aura to clear is tiresome and uncomfortable.

My sympathies.

AnyFucker · 15/03/2010 21:09

are you on the pill ?

or pregnant ?

mine first started when I was pg

and then I had to stop hormonal contraception because of this...it is a risk factor for a stroke

not trying to frighten you, but you should maybe get investigated ?

onepieceoflollipop · 15/03/2010 21:10

That's what it's like for me ShowofHands.

Sometimes I try and scrub at my eyes (with my hands) to drive the visual disturbance away. Obviously it has no effect. It is awful, waiting to see if when my eyes are "better" whether my vision will be disturbed again later or if the pain will/won't hit me.

Original poster

Northernlurker · 15/03/2010 21:11

here is quite a good description - today I had a hole in my vision that I couldn't see things in - like that car! Also the zig zags right in the centre of my vision. No idea what triggered it.

OP posts:

southeastastra · 15/03/2010 21:11

they are awful. i was temping when i got my first one. i put it down to over-sniffing a magic marker. i really thought i was going to pass out, i'd never heard of them before!

also got one when driving that really panicked me! seem to have outgrown them now.

if you feel like you're getting one, sit somewhere quiet, you could have had a nasty accident

ScreaminEagle · 15/03/2010 21:11

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chaostrulyreigns · 15/03/2010 21:14

It is unbelievably awful.

No I have had so many though I can spot the warning signs - an area of my vision goes all 'square-y' (think blurring out of faces in crime programmes), I can then take one of my presciption wafers asap and usually that prevents it.

Do you always have medication to hand? Please make sure you do as speed is of the essence. It can be the difference between a loss-of-24-hours-migraine and a tolerable headache.

onepieceoflollipop · 15/03/2010 21:14

I get the awful zig zags, usually out of my right eye. They are so vivid I feel I could touch them.

ShowOfHands · 15/03/2010 21:15

I get a blind spot and it's like things are shifting within it too fast for me to see. I also do that whole looking at a clock display with a digit missing, it's most disconcerting.

It is worth looking at triggers. DH struggles with caffeine and sugar. For me it's fatigue and dehydration combined. I have heard that fatty food and flat coke helps. Not sure why and dislike both.

Only thing that works for me is painkillers and sleep.

Original poster

Northernlurker · 15/03/2010 21:17

No AF - no pill - and when I was it was the mini pill which is ok. Also not pregnant (I hope - dh has had the snip!) I think it is hormone related - I quite often get headaches which have a clear hormonal relationship. This is only the second time I've had the aura though. It's resolved fine but if it comes back I shall see the GP. (The last one was 4 years ago) I also have a strong family history of migraines - mum and sister are absolute martyrs to it.

OP posts:

chaostrulyreigns · 15/03/2010 21:19

onepiece - mine were totally the same - had to change the pill as that was a major trigger. During 4 pregnancies I had so many I couldn't count them.

At least now it's limited to once a month.

Can't stress the important of quick painrelief when you get the niggling signs.

AnyFucker I didn't realise they were related to strokes. That's a worry.

onepieceoflollipop · 15/03/2010 21:24

My former GP tried to tell me that the combined pill was fine, which is rubbish as most of us know.

chaos you are so right re speed of the essence and taking pain relief. So many times I have woken in the night with the early signs and stupidly thought that I would "sleep it off" of course all that happend was that I would wake up at some point later on absolutely in the throes of severe pain.

I keep tablets in reach now and stagger into the ensuite to wash them down with water. If poss I take them with a can of coke (the caffeine/bubbles/sugar combination can add to the efficacy of the medication for me)

peachylovesherpoochy · 15/03/2010 21:26

YANBU - I had one on Sunday, the first one in almost a year (pregnancy and BF seemed to stop them for me), they are totally hideous and miserable. I loose all my vision but the peripheral and it is just frightening. I didn't have my prescription drugs with me so had the aura for around 40 mins and then the terrible pain - was a rubbish first mother's day. Glad you are feeling better now!

AnyFucker · 15/03/2010 21:26

chaos...I got investigated by a neurologist because mine were fully-blown visual aura ones, with no family history of migraine (like some of you ladies too, please see your GP's if you haven't already...)

I had an MRI scan and it picks up the "scars" in your brain as white spots of damage every time you have a migraine

I was advised to come off the pill to reduce risk factors of stroke (the pill, smoking, visual migraines are just a few...)

I am not saying it is a high risk factor, I really don't know...but I took the neurologist's advice and I never had another episode

oldenglishspangles · 15/03/2010 21:29

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1147382/Fixing-hole-heart-cure-migraine-sufferers.html Not sure if any of you are aware of this. There are studies going on at the moment. More relevent to Aura sufferers.

wonderingwondering · 15/03/2010 21:32

I always have soluble aspirin to hand, and take the full dose (3 pills) at the first hint. I also get very hungry, so eating helps if I can do so before the pain starts, plain biscuits!

It is awful, mine come on when I'm sleep-deprived or stressed. I usually feel really irritable beforehand, too. Is an odd thing, and quite frightening at times.

chaostrulyreigns · 15/03/2010 21:43

onepiece thanks for tip about coke will try that.

AF so, since you're off the pill - no more migraines? That's fantastic. I'll definitely look into stroke factors and keep an eye on those. hohum - another reason to lose weight. (as if I didn't have enough reasons already)

Sherida · 15/03/2010 21:47

I fully understand and sympathise. Wonderingwondering, the irritable feelings are normal before migraines, something to do with chemicals being released in the brain. I tend to argue with DH right before one. Mine tend to come on with being sleep deprived, stressed (although not about everything) and not eating. I find that I lose the ability to speak and move, my doctors tell me it's similar to a stroke. I also get with aura .

There's not always a reason, apparantly it can be something to do with a missing bit of DNA on the 19th chromosome from your parents. Did see on the news about a new handheld device that can help aura migraines for those of us who find medication does nothing (fingers crossed).

zanz1bar · 15/03/2010 21:52

sometimes I just get the aura off and on for a few days then get the migraine.

But the pill has vastly Improved them. Mine are hormone related and the pill has really helped calm things down. So not always a bad idea to try the pill if you are getting monthly migraine.

junglist1 · 15/03/2010 21:57

I get them without aura. My eye just throbs and throbs. I get a floaty weird feeling after though, when the meds kick in. It's lovely

BelleDameSansMerci · 15/03/2010 22:00

I had my first aura migraine when I was about 10 years old - I thought I was going blind. They are completely horrific.

I did take the pill in my teens but my migraines were so bad while taking combined pill that I had to come off. Got stroke like symptoms etc - frozen down one side; lost ability to speak; numbness like dental injection (if that makes sense).

Anyway, still get them but nothing like as bad. Mine sound like SOH's and caused by the same things.

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