Oh you had a headache, NO it was a migraine

Lissa - posted on 06/07/2011

Hi Cynthia if you don't mind I have a few tips you could try. If your migraines are hormone linked then hopefully they will go after your baby is born. In my case (who knows why) my migraines have actually lessened after each child. There are a few things you could do to see if anything is actually making them worse. Keep a food diary to see if anything your eating is making it worse (with my Mum it's cheese and chocolate and anything with MSG's) for me it makes no difference. Migraines usually give you a few signs before they develop, for me I smell a particular sweet. Watch out for strange smells, blurry vision, stiff neck, your eyes flickering and light sensitivity. If you can catch it in the very early stages and go to bed, damp cloth/4head strips on the head, drink lots of water and just be in the dark (get some black out blinds) you may be able to stop it from developing into a full blown migraine. Also those wristbands that help with sickness may help (check if you can use them pregnant, I don't know).

Cynthia - posted on 06/06/2011

when i get migraines i feel like i'm having a stroke. my arm hands and face tingle that is the 1st thing that happens to me. then all hell breaks loose. i have all the things you talked about here. my husband dont want me to drive because he is afraid i will have one and not be able to get home. i get confused and i can't even put a sentence together. i can't see either. i puke all over the bathroom because i can't see. i know what you mean about it being to shinny i don't know what to do
i'm pregnant and i never had one in my life until about 6 months ago now they come weekly. the doc says it will stop when the baby is born. and he wouldnt give me anything that is actually strong enough to help because of the baby.
i feel for anyone who has migraines and i pray that the doc is right about it stopping when the baby is born. but until my 1st migraine i was like so many people that thought it was just a bad headache. i had no idea. i wish like hell i still didnt know.

Teresa - posted on 06/04/2011

I can certainly understand THAT.

I think the massive headaches I get would be technically classified as migraines, but while it is a severe pain.... it would definitely be considered super, super minor to what you go through.

Lissa - posted on 06/04/2011

Well I don't know if anyone gets migraines or not, I think I may have been feeling a little touchy that day :$
In fact I may have been feeling a big bit touchy :)

Teresa - posted on 06/04/2011

Well.... apparently I dont get migraines. I do have daily headaches, but they come in varying degrees. The ones I considered to be migraines are fairly debilitating.... or would be if I weren't a single mom w/ 3 kids who don't care if Mommy has a headache. Granted, I CAN still 'function', but every move is agonizing. Laying down is usually worse though cuz the pressure of the pillow on my head makes the pain more severe.



Sorry you were in such pain and misery. :(

Kelly - posted on 06/03/2011

I got 4 migraines while I was pregnant with J--SIX YEARS AGO!!!! And I still remember that H***!

I had to lay in bed, completely dark with comforters strung atop the windows to block the D*** light, holding a garbage can--I never puked, but man I felt like I needed to--and dreaming about yanking my brain out through my ear to relieve the pressure....

I had 2 more after J was born while I was still bfing, but never again. They were brought on by whatever imbalance pregnancy and bfing caused in my hormones or whatever. In any case, they are one reason J is an only child. And I feel truly sorry for women who have to deal with those on a regular basis--even just once a year!

Elizabeth - posted on 06/02/2011

I've not had the nausua with a migraine, but I can't get my husband to understand he needs to stop asking if I'm okay or if I'm feeling better. "No I'm not okay, I have an f****** migraine. Everytime you open the door, it's like someone is taking a rake to my raw painful mass that used to be my brain. Your voice is like hundreds of arrows shooting into my skull. Leave me the f*** alone." But I can't tolerate sound and all I can manage is a soft "shhhhhhhh" to let him know I'm still in pain, but even that causes me to cringe. And whoever is in the room down the hall typing needs to stop because each hit of the key sets of an explosion of light and pain in my head. It sounds like you need to term migraines like that megamigraines. I have not had any as severe as yours *knock on wood* but if you do slap someone for saying that they had a migraine when it was just a tension headache or someone who just tells you that you had a bad headache, I'll be your witness. "yeah, I was right there and I didn't see her do anything."

Katherine - posted on 06/02/2011

I was on beta blockers too.

I hate headaches/migraines! And YES everything hurt so much!!!

Minnie - posted on 06/02/2011

:( Lissa. I used to get migraines like that. I actually had to quit my aviation education in my junior year because I couldn't hold a medical certificate. Pregnancy cured them.I haven't had one in five and a half years now. I was on beta blockers before then.



I would get that a lot- people not understanding what a migraine is, thinking I was either making it up or exaggerating.



My sister gets them too.

Steff - posted on 06/01/2011

well said!!!!

I only just saw this post today, but on the day you posted it, I was actually in hospital being treated for an "atypical migraine with aura"...after everyone had spent the last 2 days telling me I'd had a stroke....had the whole nausea/aura/right side of body going weak & staying that way for a few days. I got released the next day & laid very still on the sofa, watching the wedding with my little girl too, and it took a week for my head to feel like it actually belonged to me. Scary stuff!!

I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome too, and have lost count of comments like "well, you don't look ill", and "you're just tired, all moms with young kids are tired" Enough already!!!! ;D

Bonnie - posted on 04/29/2011

With the description given i'm beginning to think that I have never experienced a migraine just a terrible headache. Although, there have been times I haven't been able to do anything, such as use the computer, the phone, watch tv, etc. So maybe I have :-).

Candi - posted on 04/29/2011

Migraines suck. Mine last for 6 days. 3 days uphill and 3 down. I can't move my head, much less my body and my kids know when they hit....No noise, no lights, and for pete's sake, don't talk to me and ask if my head hurts!!! I started getting them when myhusband deployed the first time. Lived in Germany with no friends or family. My kids learned what migraines were. Poor kids! I haven't had one in over a year and boy am I happy. One thing that helps keep them away is Magnesium. I tke one a day. I still get almost daily headaches nad sometimes they are bad, but the migraine hasnt hit in a while. What annoys me is when my friends get on facebook and post they have a migraine! If you are able to get on your blackberry, computer or whatever and post something, you don't have a migraine!

Sharon - posted on 04/29/2011

I get migraines like those that Erin has described. If I take medication as soon as the visual aura starts I can generally function (somewhat) but if I don't take the meds straight away then I'm a groaning, writhing bundle of misery. I had them frequently after my second child was born but now I probably get then once every two months or so. I'm with you, Lissa, it shits me no end when someone assumes a migraine is just a headache.

Firebird - posted on 04/29/2011

I've been at war with a migraine for the last 4 days too! I so feel your pain. I was in a bad car accident when I was 17, got severe whiplash and my neck has been fucked causing my migraines ever since. I get 4-7 of them every week. Usually if I take an Imitrex as soon as I feel it starting, the med will get rid of if before it becomes debilitating. But every few months, the pressure in my neck and shoulder muscles will build up to the point that the pills don't work.

"But yeah, when I hear someone say 'Oh I've got a migraine' all I want to say is 'No you friggin don't. You would not be standing there talking if you did so STFU'. "
Sorry Erin, but I've got a kid to take care of and a job I cannot afford to lose. My job does not permit me to sit down for more than 2 minutes every 2 hours. =( Fortunately, many of my migraines are fairly low caliber (mild nausea, light sensitivity and pain), but most days I have no choice but to stand there talking to people, no matter how bad my migraine is.

Erin - posted on 04/28/2011

I hate it when people try and one-up each other with medical things. I used to work with a lady like that. She had EVERYTHING. 'Oh I had that, only mine was much worse because I'm hard core' *kick*



I get visual migraines. The first time it happened, I thought I was having a stroke. The pain in itself is nothing like you desribed, but the disorientation, visual disturbance and inability to speak coherently is awful. The only way to get rid of it is to take some heavy-duty painkillers and sleep it off. Luckily they don't happen often anymore.



But yeah, when I hear someone say 'Oh I've got a migraine' all I want to say is 'No you friggin don't. You would not be standing there talking if you did so STFU'.

Jen - posted on 04/28/2011

Oh you poor thing! I'm so sorry. My mother gets just truly debillitating migraines and anyone who says it's "just a headache'" needs to have their head drilled open with a screwdriver.

Lissa - posted on 04/28/2011

lol Shannin I got that, what I am annoyed about now is having spent 4 days mostly dead, I can't sleep. I must get some sleep because my little girl plans for us to put on pretty dresses and watch "The Wedding" .

Shannintipton - posted on 04/28/2011

Lissa, I only meant funny because of your description not that you had a migraine. sorry{:+)

Sneaky - posted on 04/28/2011

I thought I got migraines (occasional puking and always light sensitivity), but after that description I am just going to call them bad head aches from now on . . . . .OUCH!

Krista - posted on 04/28/2011

Yeah, when I get one of those, the only thing that helps is to lie in a dark, dark, dark, quiet, quiet, quiet room with three Advil Liquigels in my gut, and so many cold packs wrapped around my head that they form an ersatz helmet. And when you find that ONE position that is slightly less excruciating than the others, you Do. Not. Move.

Lissa - posted on 04/28/2011

@ Krista, severe head and neck pain, nausea, visual disturbances are all symptoms of migraine.
I just had a particularly bad one, it's got to be 10 years since I had one that lasted 4 days though, so I am just feeling particularly annoyed :) Mostly when I get them it's two days of OMG light arghhhhh, much pain and puking sometimes with audio/visual hallucinations (which sounds worse than it is) and lying on the bathroom floor because I get there but turn to jelly and can't get up. In fact come to think of it the last one I had that lasted this long I lived by myself crawled to the phone and phoned work, said Lissa migraine no work and hung up then couldn't get back upstairs so just lay in my hallway for god knows how long. So I think you are allowed to say I get migraines since you have the severe pain, nausea and light sensitivity, I will not slap you :)

Krista - posted on 04/28/2011

Holy shit, Lissa. That sounds AWFUL. Poor you!!! I've had headaches before that were so bad that I puked, and I definitely had the light sensitivity, but I didn't have any of the other stuff you describe, so I guess they weren't migraines after all. And four DAYS of that?!?! Damn, woman -- people should be simultaneously kissing your ass and rubbing your feet after such an ordeal!

Lissa - posted on 04/28/2011

Luckily it does not happen often Shannin, it used to but over the last few years they are thankfully few and far between. When it does happen the bathroom becomes the most frightening room in the house, why the hell do we make them so white and so f***ing shiny. I think I may get an all matt black suite with matt black floors and walls :)

Shannintipton - posted on 04/28/2011

Hi Lissa,
I feel your pain . . . maybe. That was a great description. I get migraines and have botox injections every three months. It really helps. I have a head injury so it was easy to get it authorized. Wow, I hope this doent happen to you a lot. It would hurt so bad that when I coughed or threw up my whole head would feel like it was going to explode. Good Luck{:+)