Sorry to hear about it. Mine started when I was 16. Over the years with proper management I went from 2 to 3 a month to 1 or 2 per year.

Please keep a record of the things you eat and things you do, especially one week before a migraine occurs. That will help you identify the triggers that cause them, if the cause is external rather than internal.

Jaz...hate to mention this, but mine started when I was in my thirties. Early menopause with the erratic hormone levels. Once I was put on replacement hormones to even things out, the migraines quit. But it was about a year that I put up with them. Not fun!!!

Good Luck. Sometimes, people never find out what triggers them. I have read about people that got great relief by eating VERY HOT, HOT, peppery food. It's something about the capsicum (sp?)level in the peppers.

I feel very fortunate never to have had anything like a migraine. A bad headache now and then, but nothing worse. A friend with whom I worked actually had a "pen" to give herself a shot in the thigh when she felt a migraine coming on. If she could get the medicine into her system in time, it either lessened the severity/length of the migraine, or once in awhile, even prevented it. (I'll write and ask her what it was her doctor had prescribed.)

I'm glad you were able to find out quickly what was happening. It must have been very frightening!

It's pretty frightening, isn't it?

I had my first episode like this when I was twenty and pregnant. The same things shot through my mind, as did yours. I waited for one side to go numb. I had a doc appt anyway a day or so later, and she just said, uh huh. You had a migraine. Cost for the diagnosis? $12. LOL Medicine as it was practised forty years ago. She was right, however, and what I'd experienced was an aura and that's a good word for it, isn't it?

I don't get them often, sometimes go for months and months between an aura, and over the years I've been able to almost completely avoid the headaches if I stop whatever I'm doing when the aura comes on, take an alka-seltzer and go lay down, sometimes for as little as 20 minutes and the aura subsides and no headache follows. If I don't, however, the light show becomes so powerful, I get nauseated like sea sickness from all the flashing and movement and then a headache follows could take you to your knees and lasting for hours.

I've read a lot about them over the years, as they are such an interesting phenomena and many people have good success with bio-feedback and that's essentially what worked for me. The migraine has something to do with constriction or dilatation of the arteries to the brain....forget which and one can learn to relax themselves back to a more normal state.

I have identified only one trigger for me so far. Dappled bright sunlight is one, especially when I am driving, as it becomes a strobe effect. I think they call this stimulus photic drive and it also sets off some epileptics.

Even bright sunlight coming at me in a narrow but constant streak can set me off if I view it in my peripheral vision only. Very weird.

I suspect migraines are familial though I have never read it. My niece has them as well.

They are using something different now, but ergot was the original Rx for migraine. Of course it is a powerful neurotoxin and vasoconstrictor (Duh, then it must be dilated blood vessels causing migraines). I had to take ergot for a complication after pregnancy to make the uterus contract. Like a knot it did. LOL.

Michelle, I am so sorry that you've started having
Migraine headaches. It just sucks eggs.
I started having them after Neil and I got married
and they lasted until menopause and then they went away.
I never had the aura thing just the awful pain combined
with throwing up my toenails.
Neil would always give me a shot and I would sleep for
about 12 hours and it would stop.

I can tell you this, Red Wine nearly sent me to an early
grave one night in Atlanta. After spending the night in
the ER getting pain shots and one IV after another, I've
never touched Red Wine since.

They came out with an injectable Imitrex (sp) that really
helped. They were great but I stopped having the headaches
before I had to use many of them.
There is also an inhaler.

Chocolate and MSG can trigger some migraines and stress
of course.

I hope yours are never severe and that you can quickly
get them under control. I wouldn't wish them on even my
worst enemy.

Gosh, I'm so glad you were able to find out so quickly what it was. With those symptoms I would have been scared to death and good for you for calling the neighbor and getting to the ER promptly.

My son had strange symptoms from the time he was about 16. When he'd have an attack it would scare him. VIsion was affected and he couldn't make his hands do what he wanted. It was as if his brain was sending the message but his muscles weren't responding. The attacks were not very frequent but troubling nonetheless.

He had been seeing internists who could not diagnose and we insisted he see a neurologist. We made a good choice in doctors because this guy happened to recognize a very rare type of migraine in which the optic nerve spasms, causing the visual abberations, vertigo and loss of eye/hand coordination.

He has very, very expensive pills to take when he feels the onset of an attack. In his case he feels the vertigo coming on.

I had them, seldom but severe. Usually caused by stress. Except when I went off Pepsi when I went into caffein withdrawal for 3 weeks. Imitrex really helps. Other than that a dark quiet room. Hope you are feeling better, really pretty scarey, the first time.

I love the title, Jan, it's so upbeat, especially when one reads about your episode. I've never had a migraine (knock wood) but I know from people that do that they are literally life-stopping.

When I first read the symptoms you had, all I could think of was when I had Lyme disease and went blind for a couple of days. I could see light but no objects. Even as my sigut returned over the course of several days, everything around me translated into rows of letters, sometimes a sea of Cs or Ks or Rs, even the wallpaper in my hospital room was like a big blackboard of letters. I certainly never want to go through anything like that again, and I sincerely hope that your migraines canb e controlled so that you don't have to suffer such an episode again.

I've only had one, but that was enough, thank you very much. My mom used to get them periodically & I hate to say this, but hers were set off by eating chocolate.

I also have a good friend who gets them & she adds caffeine to the list of things that can trigger them, as well as being on vacation in places located at high altitudes.

I'm glad that you got yourself to the ER immediately & got a quick diagnosis. And I'm hoping they don't become a chronic problem.

I'm so glad your worst fears were alleviated, but sorry you've started having migraines. :^(

I have occasional visual effects, but have been spared the headaches. Mine looks like I'm looking through a hole in a broken flashing window. The edges are jagged like teeth and the ring slowly disappears. I am still not sure of the trigger. The first time the flashing, jagged ring started I too felt panic and worried about a stroke. I don't know why I haven't had the headaches.

Sorry you had this scare and I hope they don't bother you anymore!

Nasty. I've never been officially diagnosed with migraines, so I just call mine "sick headaches," but I've never had to deal with anything as horrendous as what you described. I can't even imagine.

I can give you some more input if you and your doctor decide you need medication, though. A couple of years ago, my psychiatrist prescribed Topomax for me as a mood stabilizer in addition to my other medications. I've been taking it ever since. The thing about Topomax is that its primary use is as a migraine preventer - mood stabilization is actually a side effect. I've only had two "sick headaches" since I started taking it. And as far as I know, Topomax doesn't have the potential for heart complications that Imitrex does. One of my co-workers had to go to the ER after a dose of Imitrex sent her heart into severe arrhythmia.

As a first line of defense, my son's neurologist (he sees him for his ADHD) recommended Excedrin Migraine for his migraines, to be taken at the first indication of an aura. He says it works often enough to be worth trying at school if one comes on for him there. (We haven't had to put it to the test yet, so I can't give you firsthand information on results.) It might be worth keeping a small bottle in your purse, especially over Thanksgiving.

Sending you a big bunch of sunflowers, Michelle, in hopes that you don't have to deal with this again very often if ever.

I had severe migranes from 13 'till menopause at 45. I would have to lay still, I would vomit even if I had a thought or moved even my little finger. I would lay still with no one talking and not move for 5hours then it would be over but I woud have a day of being spacey and feeling hung over. There is alot good for menopause...hot flashes are better.

I had to laugh at you testing for a stroke. That is so me. I'm very very glad it's only (UGH!) migranes. Advice: Um, didn't you begin testing with peppers this year? "I have read about people that got great relief by eating VERY HOT, HOT, peppery food.", get on it girl!

Get well very soon and if you need anything call me.

Love,
Rob

My co-worker cut out suger and her migraines stopped. What will power.

I used to have migraines, severe migraines that had me unable to move, to think, no one cold speak to me, because it made me vomit to do anything.
Triggers? Don't know. I am sure hormones had something to do with it, but they used to hit when I had been tightly wound and accomplished whatever wound me up and finally relaxed, and whammo - I was stricken. I did experience auras, but remember most that smells would nauseate me.
Menopause and attitude change stopped the headaches, though I still experience auras at times. I then just stop trying to see or think, take a walk or sit back, relax and meditate and the auras go away.

I'm glad you found out quickly what the problem was..how terrifying. Hope you can quickly find out what triggers the onset and how to control them. josh

Jaz, what a misery for you. I hope you can manage them without the high end drugs.

I don't know what Pidge was thinking about in her post [thinking I wrote the title] unless it was a typo, but it does sound like something I have said to her on occasion...

I used to get cluster headaches in college. Five or six mini-migraines inside 2 hours. They would put me down for a day or so. Stress was the trigger, and of course the 'college' life added on top of all the classes.

Later on I would get the full blown 'sick' headaches. I don't remember when they stopped being frequent, but every once in a while I'll get one now.

I hope you feel better now that you know it wasn't a stroke or a brain tumor...

Jan

Jaz,

So sorry to hear this. I've had migraines for about the past 10 years. The medication I take is Maxalt. It's my wonder drug. My new doctor wants me to start experimenting with some new treatments (preventative) but jeeze that's a scary thought. I know the Maxalt works and if I have to try other things that might not... how would I cope?

Anyway, mine seem to be mostly hormonal and also sometimes sleep related. If I lay in bed and doze too long, I'll usually end up with one. Also, if I don't get enough sleep I'll end up with one in most cases.

My aunt has them pretty severly and she's noticed that pork and also bananas seem to set her off.

There are just so many different triggers that it's hard to figure out what your own personal ones might be.

Here is a link that might be useful: Maxalt

Somehow missed this earlier, that would be very scary. Glad you at least know what caused the problem.