Auras - no, really...

[//drift]

Is anyone else here plagued by the Aura Migraine disease?
Only other person I've met that was, was an engineer I ran round for on work experience. Oh, and most of my mother's side of the family. It's like the symptoms have intensified through the generations.
whhyy hereditry
Anyway, yes: is anyone?

The horrible, horrible, nausiating, panic-inducing, heart-breaking spreading visual disturbances ...

 

[Bebelina]

I get horrible migraine attacks from time to time. Usually once a month. Don't know if it is the same as you have, but I can't stand any light at all and the pain is usually so bad that I vomate.

 

[//drift]

I'm talking the ones which start off as a what looks like a preeetty, twinkling little tear/filament in my(the) field of vision, which arcs and spreads untill it leaves my(the) sight. Then I get the pain, and for the first time last time, the vomiting. The thought of it makes me extremely uncomfortable and quite nauseous.
Do you have and remedies, or anything effective to do/take?

I sympathise, naturally.
*sniffle*

At least it's not serious cluster migraines, I assume at least.
I've seen stories of people getting them and bleeding from their eyes, and one guy who woke up with one and tried to kill himself with a fork to his temple.
whoosh

 

[Pollux V]

Forgive me

But have either of you tried talking to a doctor? I've never heard of headaches so bad as to induce vomitting. I would suggest trying to keep a journal of when the headaches happen, what you were doing, what you saw, smelt, touched, heard, tasted. What you were thinking about. Who knows, maybe you could find a pattern.

 

[//drift]

vomiting is a very common symptom of migraines. I have been to a doctor and I have a small portable leather pharmacy for a wallet now. I've almost forgotten what to take with what when.
EAch time i think I have the trigger, i get one without it present. A common theme seems to be boredom, dull conditions and a particular dull, boring state of mind that seem to let it happen. Doesn't always hold true though, and their regularity seems to be all over the place too.
I hear that they often calm down later in life...but that still leaves me buggered for a while yet.






The journal is a good idea. There may be a food I'm forgetting each time or something. Problem is, it'd probably go the same way as my dream one. guhhh.

I seem to even get them mostly on certain days. Mondays and Fridays seem most common, and I've never had one at the weekend. Or after 5pm.
Doo dee doo doo, doo dee doo doo

 

[outlandish]

drift, you need to seek an alternative form of treatment, whether it's acupuncture, Homeopathy (yes I know it get's a rough deal, but what's more important than one's health and wellbeing?)..or whatever.
I knew a migrane sufferer who got tested for food allergies, and tested +ve for bread. he then cut out bread from his diet and his migranes never returned.

 

[gendanken]

//Drift:

Is anyone else here plagued by the Aura Migraine disease

While not of the Aura brand (the rarest) I do get migraines slightly psycadelic in color. If I wasn't miserable I would consider them beautiful works of delicious art.

It does induce vomiting and while its been researched to be hereditary there's no solid evidence. No one in my family is as lucky as I've been to be plagued by fucking glorious headaches.

While I don't have a remedy, I will tell you what works for me. Try rubbing ice cubes on your palms.

 

[Xev]

gendanken:
Ach, you too? I had a particularly nasty one thursday which led to my overdosing on asprin.
Whoops. Never do this to yourself. Your throat swells, it's difficult to breathe, you feel dizzy and worst of all your ears ring persistantly for a good twelve to eighteen hours.
And if you tell your friends, you're teased for "o.ding on asprin like a suicidal little goth chick"


Pollux:

I've never heard of headaches so bad as to induce vomitting.

Not headaches, migranes.
Which are sometimes triggered by certain foods - peanuts, for instance.

Wraith:

drift, you need to seek an alternative form of treatment, whether it's acupuncture, Homeopathy (yes I know it get's a rough deal, but what's more important than one's health and wellbeing?)..or whatever.

You are aware that the Middle Ages are over?

 

[gendanken]

Xev:

Ach, you too

Dear god yes. The little beasts are like flowers in bloom aren't they? They just cast this glow around all the proles in your life and make you not want to kill them.



And yes, Wraith. How dare you leave out the leeches and the blooletting?

 

[Pollux V]

Not headaches, migranes, you putrid slimeball

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse meeee!

I'm sorry, I wish I could say something to help you denizens out. But it's unlikely that I'd be able to say anything original, that would actually do you people any good. So then I shall bid you adieu and farewell.

*takes out sword and slices the following on gendanken's [edit: megadeth] shirt*

----------
........./
......../
......./
....../
...../
..../
.../
../
./
-----------

*whips black cape over face and jumps out of nearby (first story) window*

 

[gendanken]

Pollux:

takes out sword and slices the following on gendanken's shirt*

Keep it up little man and you'll be spitting out teeth soon.

 

[Pollux V]

little man

Uhhh, I would have to say that, if anything, we are probably the same height. I'm not that tall but I am by no means short either. So please do a little research before punching in a comeback, k?

 

[gendanken]

Pollux:

So please do a little research before punching in a comeback, k?

I take it the present moment finds you incredibly insane becuase either you don't know who you're getting cheeky with and talking out your "nalga"

or

Rosseau has chewed your brains out. In either case its sodomy.

 

[Pollux V]

I take the present moment finds you incredibly insane becuase either you don't know who you're getting cheeky with and talking out your "nalga"

Chill out! I'm just messing around damnit! Is there a law that keeps me from doing this? Is there? I don't think so. But if I've hurt your feelings in any way, I can give you a hug and a teddybear with a heart on its chest and we'll be aaaallll better.

Rosseau has chewed your brains out.

Leave Rousseau out of this, damnit! Why do you always have to blame it on Rousseau?

In either case its sodomy

You wish!

 

[Bebelina]

I get mine if I haven't slept or eaten enough or when I have my period. Or sometimes after staring at a computer for too long and always after drinking alcohol.
Some say that dark chocolate, red wine, and cheese can trigger it, but so far the wine part has only been true for me.
When I get the attack, I turn off all the lights and sounds, take painkillers en masse, rub in a painkilling creame on my head and neck, lie down in my bead and suffer.
The painkilling cream is new to me, and it actually works quite well, but only for a very short time, so if I'm lucky I can fall asleep just then and often the migraine is gone when I wake up..unless it's one of those ruthless ones that can last for days. But those I usually create by myself because I eat too much painkillers that then get's the opposite effect and makes the migraine worse.
Although I know this can happen, the pain makes one irrational and I eat too much anyway.
I can totally understand that people have killed themselves, because it's hard to imagine that it will ever stop when you're in the middle of an attack.
I have been to a doctor about this and it's not much they can do about it, but make you buy horribly exspensive pills that MAY work better than ordinary painkillers if you take them at the exact moment when the migraine hasn't started yet, a bit of a catch 22 there.
I can talk a lot about this, as you can see....

I have also been up all night painitng a fantastic abstract painting and is utterly proud of myself, but also tired, confused and easily amused.

I forgot to mention that my mother and her father has it too, so it is hereditary.

:bugeye:

 

[river-wind]

normal headaches are caused by a number of different possible things; most often, the cause is sinus swelling, or swelling of the blood vessels either in the skin covering the skull, or the ones which run from the inner nasal cacity to just below the inside of the eyes.

Migranes, on the other hand, are caused by a swelling of the blood vessels *in* the brain, which, for obvious reasons, cause cause some pretty funky symptoms when they occur. (this info is more for anyone who doesn't get migranes - the rest of you guys already know this, I'm sure).

My step-mom gets them, as did one of the kids in my Boy Scout troop growing up. seriously debilatating when they hit hard.

Sorry to hear about your difficulty, I wish you luck.

 

[outlandish]

Xev:

You are aware that the Middle Ages are over?

Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Suppose your 6 month old baby was suffereing from horrific Atopic Eczema, covered in bleeding lesions. Every day you watch him cry, and itch himself into a frenzy. The Doctors cover him with powerful Cortico-steroids, and pump him full of steroids, anti histamines, and possibly imuno suppressant drugs, all to no avail. You watch your only child get worse and worse. You spend more time in the Hospital than at home, and you probably haven't had a single nights proper sleep in...well since you can remember. You're so stressed about the condition of your child, your own health starts to get effected. Then a friend mentions to you an accupuncturist, or a Chinese Herbalist, or a Homeopath, or any other "Middle age" treatment you so easily scoffed at. Now tell me, you'd take your child there. Off course you would, you'd take your child to the other side of the world if it meant the possibility to the end of your child's suffering.

 

[Docmayhem]

My wife and I both get migraines... My wife's seem more similar to yours (strange vision problems, loss of balance, etc.)

At one point I was getting them every week. The pain would start, and slowly build until I was shuffling around like a zombie. Then I'd throw up and pass out. I'd usually stay unconscious for about 12 hours. I was 10 years old at the time, and it took the doctors months to decide that I didn't have a brain tumor.

I spent a year taking daily doses of phenylbarbital (sp?) but eventually built up a tolerance, so it stopped working.

These are the things that I find most helpful:

1. Biofeedback

It took about a year of training, but eventually I learned to recognize the onset of my migraines and to consciously stop them. It's about 90% effective in my case.

2. Excedrin "Migraine" formula

As a generic look for a pill that's a mix of aspirin, acetominophen and caffeine. It's the only over the counter medication I've found that has any effect. Usually enough to keep me rational and functioning until I can get into bed in a cool, dark room with a cold pack on my head.

3. Violent excercise

Weight lifting, sprinting, beating the hell out of my heavy bag, trying to keep up with my four year old...

Gendanken: Your ice-cube trick probably works by tricking your body into increasing the blood flow to your arms. Anything that increases circulation away from your body core will tend to help.