Migraines and forgetfulness

[JohnCRaven]

I've been suffering more and more from migraines with aura for the last 12 months or so. Tried sumitripan (caused nausea), zolmitriptan (stopped the symptoms but not the cause) and am now on amitriptyline (10mg no migraines since going on).

But I have found I'm more forgetful, particularly in the morning. For example I have worked at the same place for c10 years. I have to do a certain routine task each morning (e.g turn a switch on or unlock a cupboard) and it's something which gets checked once a day to make sure it's been done. It is not safety related. Only convenience.

4 times since the start of the year I've forgotten to do it on the log. I have literally never forgotten in the other 10 years. Not even once (log records). Are migraines or my medication associated with forgetfulness? I'm wondering if I should speak to occ health about assigning the task to someone else?

It's possibly the medication. I found I was very foggy headed on amytryptiline, even the low dose. Can you set a reminder on a phone for the time it's meant to be done to help you? If you're settled on the meds it would be a shame to change again.

The meds are doing their job 100% so yes I'm loath to stop them. The problem is I'm coming in at slightly different times each day and it's something I do whilst I come into the building. I wonder if a big sign in my car saying 'do this thing' might help but sometimes I forget stuff from the car to the building! (Lunch box etc)

Amitriptyline can cause memory problems. It might be easiest to set alarms on your phone or other prompts (I think the reminders app can remind you do something when in a particular location).

I'm just not sure I fancy setting a reminder every working day for the rest of my life 😬 Do the memory problems typically get better over time?

I can't help with the memory question but I have a suggestion for the work task.

You can set up an app on your phone called If This Then That. If you have location turned on, you could have the app trigger a reminder on your phone every time you drive to your place of work.

Might be easier than setting an alarm every day as you only have to set it up the once.

iPhones have a Location based reminder too.

You can set it to trigger when entering or leaving a particular place.

I use it a lot.

I had a foggy head with amytriptyline too. And when I have/am coming out of a migraine, my memory of those days is like some spaced out dream.
Maybe amytriptyline isn't for you? It might be stopping your migraines but there may be other things that would do this without disturbing your daily functioning. Good luck.

You don’t have to set alarms or reminders everyday - just set them up once on daily repeat.

If your memory probs are caused by amitriptyline I don’t think they will get better while you are on it.

Location specific reminder is excellent thank you. Then it doesn't matter when I arrive it's where I arrive. Thank you.

I'm on the same medication for migraines and do have moments when I've forgotten things! The foggy feeling is worse in the morning too!

Yes I feel the foggy feeling every day when I wake up. But that's when I used to get migraines so I'd rather be foggy than in pain. Hobson's choice really.