NTTCR Migraine headaches

MelissaMiso

Let's discuss migraines! As someone who gets migraines every two or three months, I am contemplating seeing a neurologist to get some treatment. They may be infrequent but they knock me for a loop when I get them. I seem to get light sensitive for a few days, then I get the ocular visual disturbances (loss of some of my field of vision, visual "squiggles", flashes and severe light sensitivity) and then the pain hits and I'm out of commission for at least a few hours. I try and consume some coffee and take painkillers at the first sign but it usually doesn't do anything. I just need to get in a dark room and go to sleep or I puke.
I'm pretty sure they are hormone triggered bc they only seem to occur when I'm ovulating or menstruating. On a positive note, most women that suffer from migraines do not get them during pregnancy, so that is something to look forward to when we finally get KU!

How often do you get them?

What are your symptoms?

What triggers them for you?

How do you treat them?

What can I expect at a neurologist appointment?

NeonNoon

DH and I used to get migraines.  We accidentally fixed them - not completely, but largely.

I used to get migraines every couple of months, around AF.  I also used to get a migraine if I made the mistake of going out in the Texas summer sun without the darkest shades I could find for more than 30 seconds.  My migraines took the form of headache plus nausea lasting one to two days.  They were by no means crippling, except for the three that I've had in my life that resulted in me lying still on the floor for hours to avoid throwing up (the bed wouldn't have been flat enough).

DH would get the aura kind of migraines, usually triggered by stress.  They were extremely disruptive for some periods of his life.

A couple of years ago, we switched to the Paleo/Primal diet because of a nasty infection that meds wouldn't treat.  We also added some supplements around that time.

I rarely get migraines now.  I can walk out in the sun no problem.  I'm not as photophobic anymore.  In fact, I find myself putting away my shades if I had put them on while leaving the house.

DH's migraines are largely gone too.  He still gets them in times of extreme stress.  But we don't have to think about them as a problem anymore.

We aren't sure what did it.  But we think it might've been magnesium supplementation.  I've read that magnesium is sometimes used as a treatment for migraines.  IIRC, 3/4 of Americans are deficient.  The amount of magnesium in the water varies dramatically across the states, hence the amount in food crops varies.  I've stopped magnesium supplementation a few times, and the photophobia has not returned.  So I wonder if I'm getting it from nuts or something?

The form we take is magnesium citrate which is said to be the best absorbed.  It will still give you the runs at the start.  So it is best taken with your last meal of the day.  It has a side effect of relaxing your muscles and making you sleepy.  It is also cheap!

NB: This is just my experience, not medical advice.  Please do your own research

Mrs.McIrish

Ticker warning-- Like the PP, my migraines have disappeared and I attribute it to a specific issue. This is just anecdotal but I can't ignore the coincidence. I had migraines my whole life. I remember my first one when I was 7-ish. They make me vomit, need darkness, sleepy etc. Debilitating when they hit. In March, my repeated pregnancy loss blood panel showed I had 2 copies of MTHFR. I stopped taking folic acid immediately and switched to the natural form which is methylfolate. With MTHFR your body doesn't properly convert folic acid to folate. My migraines literally disappeared since I made this switch. I did some research and migraines for some are linked to MTHFR. I'm guessing I had a folate deficiency and once that level came up, my headaches went away. Odds are this isn't your issue but just wanted to mention it bc it has been a life saver for me.

NeonNoon

@Mrs.McIrish you've got me wondering now!  I haven't tested for MTHFR, but the diet change did include a ton of folate in food form.  I guess I don't have enough info to tell for sure.

meredithcarole

I get migraine auras, but not much of a headache. It has probably only happened 10 times in my life, and it seems to be very stress related for me. I have had 2 in the past week. I have had eye exams that were normal so I think mine is not worth worrying about (unless they start happening more often). I can tell when it is about to happen because it usually happens when I go from dim light into brighter light and my pupils dilate, but they don't seem to recover as fast as normal. Then I get spots and zigzags and flashes. I generally lasts 20 to 30 minutes. I have not found any method of making it pass more quickly.

kjmitlyng

@MelissaMiso

How often do you get them?  I get migraines probably 2-3 times a month, sometimes less and sometimes more. 

What are your symptoms?  My symptoms are a terrible headache, sick to my stomach, eye pain, light sensitive and just overall feeling like crap.  I can't sleep when I have one, either, so I can't even sleep them off.

What triggers them for you?  I've wondered what triggers them for me since they started (had my first one at age 12).  I think stress does to a certain point, otherwise I think they're just genetic.  My dad had them, my aunts.  Thankfully my dad and aunts don't have them anymore so I'm hoping to "grow" out of them.

How do you treat them?  I treat mine with Immitrex now which is a medication to take when you get one, not preventitive.  My doctor told me that if I start getting them much more frequently, she is going to put me on something like Topamax which is preventitive.

What can I expect at a neurologist appointment?  Don't know about this one, never went to one for it but maybe I should! 

Good luck!

KirstenAlecia

I get them Ive been getting them since i hit my 30s.

My mother had them and the Dr. informed me they are indeed genetic so that sucks. 

I get a minimum of 3 a month. There used to be a time when I would get at least 2 a week. That was awful……largely due to stress I believe since that time my life has changed in the stress area and so have my headaches.

My triggers are ALWAYS Aunt Flo. The day before and or the day of. NEVER FAILS. Perfume of most types  trigger them almost instantly…….if we are in a public place and i get a sting enough whiff of someones perfume Im done…..no joke. Its awful. My last job when we hires a new girl she would come in wearing it and it was a HUGE battle to get her to stop for my health. She thought i was being dramatic and over exaggerating. It sucks cause i actually love the smell of lots of the scents that trigger me. And Im a girly girl so to stop wearing it was hard. Some foods also trigger mine. Curry…..which I LOVE.

I have several ways I treat them. I take a migraine prescription called Maxalt and it will work some of the time but not all. I need a dark quiet room. There are times when i have to go get a set of injections from urgent care if the pain gets to an 8 to 10 in intensity. That happens 3-5 times a year.

I have yet to see a Neurologist even though I really should. 

Austrogermokee

How often do you get them? I have some level of migraine every day (my migraines are chronic). Basically, a typical day feels like a mild hangover, and then there are usually 1-2 days a month when I am completely debilitated and have to stay in bed. I started getting migraines as a small child, but they didn't become chronic until about two years ago.

What are your symptoms?  Head pain, fatigue, nausea, sensitivity to light and extreme sensitivity to sound. Sometimes I get vestibular migraines, which cause vertigo and balance problems.

What triggers them for you?  Paint/chemical fumes give me vestibular migraines that knock me down for days. Other triggers are air pressure changes, MSG/processed foods, certain types of alcohol/overindulgence, ovulation, PMS, noisy places (especially if there are echoes - malls can be a problem) and stress. I'm allergic to artificial sweeteners, they make my tongue swell then I get the mother of all migraines. (I've had friends think I was faking, and give me diet drinks to test me. Those people are no longer friends.)

How do you treat them?  I'm not on meds because my neuro doesn't want to prescribe them while I am TTC. I focus on prevention. There's a book called Heal Your Headache by Dr. Buchholz that teaches you how to do an elimination diet so you can figure out your dietary triggers. It's miserable (no chocolate! giving up caffeine!) but worth it. I eat healthfully, get 8-9 hours of sleep a night, avoid caffeine and most alcohol, and get moderate exercise. I've also done a lot to de-stress my life - quit my job and moved to DH's city because the separation was killing us, cut back on social obligations, cut contact with toxic friends and family members, etc.

If I feel a big migraine coming on, I drink a can of Coke and have four extra strength Tylenols. Then I find a quiet place to lie down. I've learned my symptoms - I feel extremely irritable, then depressed, then the pain starts. So I down my caffeine and painkiller before I leave the irritable phase, and that reduces the pain and length of the migraine.

What can I expect at a neurologist appointment?  It depends on your neuro. For my appointment, I made a list of all my symptoms, even if they seemed irrelevant (such as a whooshing sound I get in my left ear). She did a basic neurological exam - basically, she'll ask you to push back against her arms, check your eyes, and lift your arms to see if you can hold them up. It's not invasive, it just feels like a session with an extremely educated personal trainer. After that, I did a bunch of testing. Migraines are diagnosed by ruling everything else out. Here's what I did (keep in mind I had an aggressive neuro and I'm in a lot of daily pain, so you may do less):

MRI - to rule out tumors, benign or not, that could be causing headaches

Sleep study - sometimes teeth grinding in your sleep causes headache, which rules out migraine

CT Scan - to check for any burst or damaged blood vessels in my head

Bloodwork - to rule out Lyme disease and other conditions that can present as headache

Audiology/ENT exam - to rule out acoustic neuroma (a benign inner ear tumor), Meniere's Disease, a disorder of the inner ear that causes dizziness, and a few other things. I also did a "crystals" test to confirm that my balance problems were caused by vestibular migraine and not any inner ear problem.

KirstenAlecia

Austrogermokee said:

How often do you get them? I have some level of migraine every day (my migraines are chronic). Basically, a typical day feels like a mild hangover, and then there are usually 1-2 days a month when I am completely debilitated and have to stay in bed. I started getting migraines as a small child, but they didn't become chronic until about two years ago.

Ugh this was me about 2 years ago. Some form of migraine everyday.  Did you have a problem with people not believing you???

Austrogermokee

I've found that people who don't know me well think I'm being dramatic and high maintenance when I say I can't go to that concert, I can't eat that food, I have to go rest somewhere. But most of my friends are used to it now, and after a rough start DH became a champ.