Best thing to do when a migraine strikes?

[TheOriginalFAB]

I have been in denial but after todays migraine I accept I do have them and need tips for dealing with them as I felt so ill and was worried about driving and felt I was going to faint in the school playground.

TIA.

Take painkillers and Imigran. Go to bed in the dark. Try not to have lie ins and keep blood sugar stable.
I ended up in an ambulance last week with migraine. I thought I was having a stroke because it was so severe - didn't take my meds in time

Emma, glad to be of service. I promise I don't work for them!

Ken, I've had to call an ambulance before. The paramedics were lovely and gave me some oral morphine so that I would have to be seen at the hospital. I ended up on IV fluids and pain relief. I think that people who don't have them just have no comprehension of how painful they are.

OP, I think your doctor's appointment is a very good idea. It might me worth asking if your PCT offers any complementary therapies. I had a course of acupuncture on the NHS for mine which was excellent, not least because the treatments were very relaxing.

I take ibuprofen washed down with a full can of coke at the first sign. Usually stops the pain but doesn't help with the spaced out feeling.
DH swears by migraleve but only if you take it at the very first sign and he agrees coke helps a lot.
Has to be when the aura first starts - leave it too long and you have to lie in a darkened room suffering.

Drink a ton of water and take painkillers. I do this the moment I get the first symptoms. More water the better

I've had bad migraine -which incl nausea/vomiting for me- for 20 years now. Tried lots of things but nothing really worked - some things just made it slightly less horrible (dark room, cold flannel on head etc). Joined migraine assoc and got lots of helpful information including finding out about specialist migrane clinics, there are a few around the country, and went to one. Have now learnt to manage my migraine better. I know my triggers (tiredness, too much sleep, skipping meals, strong perfumes)- they are different for different people. I now have drugs that work for me (again, different ones suit different people). I take Imigran (sumitriptan) tablets and paracetemol if I 'catch' the migraine in time. Also have sumitriptan injections if too late and I'm already feeling sick. I do still get the odd 'breakthrough' migraine but a million times better than used to be so do persevere and find what works for you! Also - my advice is be demanding with your GP. I have found a lot of variation in how sympathetic/helpful different GPs were.

www.migraine.org.uk/

Has anyone ever tried feverfew? Did it help?

I don't know why I get them and the first sign is a bad pain in my headache which comes out of nowhere.

I suggested feverfew upthread, yes, for me it helped amazingly.

I started getting migraines when I was a teenager. I had one when I was at a historical re-enactment (we were living as 15th century people) and there was a woman there in the stillroom who knew all about herbs and gave me some infusion of feverfew to drink. It was already a long way into the aura stage and evaporated just like that. (I have aura migraines with visual disturbances, not being able to speak or read because the words get muddled up, and not too bad a headache but leaving me wiped out for up to a week.)
The next time I had one I was at home and picked some feverfew leaves from the garden and ate them - again it went away. After that I used to keep some feverfew leaves pressed in my school hymnbook! Now I just buy proper feverfew herbal remedies.

From what I have read (I am not generally into complementary medicine, there always has to be scientific evidence) it does work for some people though not for everyone.

When I went through a phase of migraines in my early 30s I was prescribed proper drugs but they never worked as well as feverfew for me.

I am quite evangelical about trying it, it may not work but worth a go. nb you're not meant to take it if pregnant.

I should add, I have never met anyone else on whom it has worked as well as with me, but I don't know anyone who has similar migraines with the speech disturbance etc.

The only thing to do (for me) is take some triptan drugs. Sumatriptan, Naratriptan, etc. Someone mentioned Imigran further down. That is sumatriptan. Naratriptan is sold in the UK as Naramig.

And I agree that people who don't get them really don't understand the pain they inflict.

But, triptans really are wonderful and have restored my life to normalcy. I highly recommend them!

sumatriptan...get it on prescription from the gp - i get opthalmic migraines triggerd by hormonal things and sumatriptan fixes them in about 20 minutes.

My boyfriend takes feverfew every day. If he skips a few days then he's way more likely to get a migraine. When I get mine I take paracetamol and ibuprofen and lay as still as I possible can until they go away.....