Migraines with TOS

[Jo*mar]

Since a few others mentioned getting migraines & we haven't had a thread on it here yet...
thought we could talk about it - what helps for you?

[gibbrn]

what helps...
darkness
no annoying men (love him but can't tolerate anyone)
quiet
bed
cold on head and cold on face but nowhre else
axert 12.5mg as soon as I get the aura

my aura is the right eye (right side tos) I loose vision or see tunnel and can't read at all. I also get pressure behind the right eye as well as getting a facial twitching and eye muscle spasms so I know it pretty well now.......but after five years....lol

sleep!! hopefully!!!

Take care guys and looking forward to others answers

love and hugs,
Victoria

[johannakat]

Can anyone tell me what exactly separates a migraine from a really really bad headache??? just curious..

[gibbrn]

sometimes the textbooks classify the difference between a migraine an aura. It is most often one sided and is thought to be created by a vascular spasm in the brain. You usually have an aversion to light and sound and usually nausea.

hope this helps
http://zomig.com/what/migraine.aspx?ce=set

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migraine-headache/DS00120/DSECTION=3

hugs,
Victoria

[ocgirl]

Since my rib resection I get much fewer migraines, but still once in awhile the sharp pains up over the top of my head into my eyes, with other symptoms too

If I don't take an Imitrex 100 mg pretty quick it will progress to vomiting ( really hurts the chest)
The next day or 2 I'm really feel like I've been hit by a truck

[Jo*mar]

My niece gets bad ones {no TOS} she gets nausea, tunnel vision, auras.

I had an optical migraine once at work- was seeing shooting sparks, stars, like fireworks and then things started spinning around and nausea after the visual sx stopped. I made it home but I was wiped out for the rest of the day. I did go to eye dr to get it checked - he was the one to dx was it was.

[redjpwranglergirl]

With mine I've always had the usual symptoms- nausea, vomiting, severe pain- but I've never had the aura with mine. Mine started when I was in the 3rd grade and at that time the pain was only in my head and eye(s) but when they started up again a few years ago, along the the worsening of the muscle spasms in my neck, I not only had the severe pain in my head, but also in my C-spine, at the same time (weird). It would feel like somebody was jabbing a hot icepick into my spine and the ha's I had when I was younger were NOTHING compared to these. We have a friend who has miagraines (according to his dr.) but doesn't have any pain with them:confused: - he just has blurry vision or loses alot of his vision. I've never heard of this but maybe some of you have.

[phoebe]

and if I took Midrin as directed it usually never progressed into a full blown migraine. It started in the peripheral vision of the left eye, and I just couldn't see while they were there, bright flashing lights throughout my whole left eye field. My dr. at the time thought they were cyclical, I was just turning 50 when they started and they quit just a abrubtly about 5 yrs. later.

Red, so glad ya'll didn't get a hit in Houston with Dean. :) phoebe

[redjpwranglergirl]

and if I took Midrin as directed it usually never progressed into a full blown migraine. It started in the peripheral vision of the left eye, and I just couldn't see while they were there, bright flashing lights throughout my whole left eye field. My dr. at the time thought they were cyclical, I was just turning 50 when they started and they quit just a abrubtly about 5 yrs. later.

Red, so glad ya'll didn't get a hit in Houston with Dean. :) phoebe

Thanks, Phoebe- OMG:eek: , we were REALLY sweating that one....I really dread this time of year on the coast.

[gibbrn]

Hi,
I have heard of the only aura migraines but only so far with men.....curiouser and curiouser said Alice.......:p

love V

[VixSparebitz]

I also get the occasional "curl up in a dark corner & leave me the heck alone" kind, but have also suffered for many years with what the medical profession calls "icepick" migraines.

While they're brief lil suckers, I can vouch for the fact they can stop a bull moose in their tracks. Mine are always without warning, strike the very same spot (about an inch directly behind the right arm of my glasses, behind my ear).

Anyone not knowing what they feel like, imagine this....you're walking down a dark alleyway (not sure why I always refer to this in that scenario, but it give the idea of you don't see the attack coming) & some nasty person swings out of nowhere in the shadows, from behind you & lambastes a baseball bat upside the backside of your head. :eek: that's how they hit...with that swiftness & that intensity. They just don't last long, thank goodness. Think the longest I've ever endured was near 3 minutes.

[shelliemac]

I've had migraines a couple of times a year for the last four years or so. they started sometime after my car wreck/whiplash injury. would begin either at the base of my skull and wrap itsfingers around my head and squeeze...only a Zomig, a dark room, and sleep would help. Sometimes i would have nausea and blurred vision, depending on the severity.

I haven't had one in at least a year, but I had r-side rib resection last Tuesday and I've had a migraine 5 times since then. Severe, with nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, not even the iv-morphine or the zoming touched it. I think it has something to do with the position of my head while lying down. I have not been able to lay flat since surg, only propped up to almost a 45 degree angle. But i have to make sure my neck is aligned with back, and that my head is not tilted forward too much, or I will feel the headache and nausea coming. Dr and RN's could not say why migraines were so frequent/severe. anyone else experience this after surgery????

[redjpwranglergirl]

I've had migraines a couple of times a year for the last four years or so. they started sometime after my car wreck/whiplash injury. would begin either at the base of my skull and wrap itsfingers around my head and squeeze...only a Zomig, a dark room, and sleep would help. Sometimes i would have nausea and blurred vision, depending on the severity.

I haven't had one in at least a year, but I had r-side rib resection last Tuesday and I've had a migraine 5 times since then. Severe, with nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, not even the iv-morphine or the zoming touched it. I think it has something to do with the position of my head while lying down. I have not been able to lay flat since surg, only propped up to almost a 45 degree angle. But i have to make sure my neck is aligned with back, and that my head is not tilted forward too much, or I will feel the headache and nausea coming. Dr and RN's could not say why migraines were so frequent/severe. anyone else experience this after surgery????

Shellie,
I haven't had the surgery but you're describing exactly how my migraines have been since they've returned in my adult years. They start in my C-spine area and the pain goes up the back of my head, around my ears, into my temples and around my eyes. The main cause for me is the muscles spasms in my neck but I noticed that the position of my neck when I slept would also bring them on, or maybe it was a combination of both factors. Sometimes I would wake up with my head in a very forward position. I sleep on a pillow with a water chamber and that's seemed to help. My PCP tried me on 2 meds- Zomig and Maxalt- and they were no better than candy for me. The only thing that would ease it for me at the time was to take a Vicodin that I had left over from a previous surgery. Luckily I was able to find a really good PM dr., on my second try, and a good neuro and they put me on the meds I take now and I haven't had a headache like this since.

[JAMY]

I have had migraines as long as I can remember. I can recall being sent home from school in elementary school with killer migraines. I also went through a period of 'cluster migraines' when I was about 13 or 14.

My migraines are always on the right side - you can draw a line down my face and the pain is always on the right. The pulsating throb behind the eyes, that tightness/clenching at the base of the skull, that ache that just won't go away...I generally get some warning - usually flashes of bright light but have nearly lost vision completely prior to a migraine. Generally always have nasuea as well - when I was younger I would hope I would throw up because that tended to lessen the migraine.

What helps for me, ice pack on the head, dark room, quiet, just leave me alone and pray I fall asleep. I did try Zomig at one time but my right arm felt like it was encased in concrete and the docs haven't tried anything since. I did go on Topomax for a bit but had no relief. I do take Gabapentin daily as perscribed by my neuro in hopes this helps (nope).

I find the worse of an 'arm day' I am having the more likely I am to get a full blown, knock-me-out migraine. Whether there is any connection there I dunno.

Heavan forbid we get bad weather, that baramoter drops and look out. I come from a migraine prone family too which doesn't help. I did try the migraine elimination diet - didn't seem to make a difference. My main triggers have always been garlic and root beer!

Since surgery my headaches/migraines are worse. I am seeing my neuro is just over a month and hopefully get that figured out.

Hope everyone is havine a headache free day!

[dabbo]

I've noticed a definite uptick in severe headaches (I think they're migraines) in the last 2 years. I can recall several times I've left work b/c of them, and a few weekends where I had to drop what I was doing and go lay down. I've started to notice them coming - they'll start in the neck/base of the skull and shortly it will feel like someone has a vice grip behind my left eye. Always accompanied by nausea, and the last one made me see "funny." The only thing that I think helps is to try and loosen up my neck muscles, take some pain med, and then lay down in the dark and hope I fall asleep. ugh. Good thread, and I hope nobody gets one for a loooooooong time!

[Curious]

i don't have tos, but a long history of migraines. since my back injury at age 12.

i see fireworks. but the strangest sx before hand is that my speech becomes all mixed up. i have no clue i am doing this. my family notices first. hubby will just hand me 2 excedrine migraine pills. :o i can't tolorate the rx's.

i get shooting pains in my left eye. they go clear to the back of my head. what i call the pencil in the eyeball.

during a migraine, smells..anything good or bad make me nauseated. light. sounds.

i will fill my bath tub. turn off all the lights and float.

[gibbrn]

ok I think I am gonna have to try that one and add some Epsom salts to increase the floating factor!!!!!! oh I need a bigger tub!! esp if it will fit two...cause a neck massage while floating sounds nice.....:eek:

ok I too had massive headaches as a child with emesis and wanted to die!!!!!! left school a few times a month in grade 7 and 8...didn't hit puberty til I was in grade 10 so likely not hormones??? perhpas but seems to be a common thread!!! anybody else have childhood migraines or headaches

hey may have been my eyes though....my dearest mother refused to take me to the optometrist. oh hmmmmmm who knows but this seems to me that there may be a recurring issue here for a few of us/?? more????

love and hgus,
Victoria

[redjpwranglergirl]

ok I think I am gonna have to try that one and add some Epsom salts to increase the floating factor!!!!!! oh I need a bigger tub!! esp if it will fit two...cause a neck massage while floating sounds nice.....:eek:

ok I too had massive headaches as a child with emesis and wanted to die!!!!!! left school a few times a month in grade 7 and 8...didn't hit puberty til I was in grade 10 so likely not hormones??? perhpas but seems to be a common thread!!! anybody else have childhood migraines or headaches

hey may have been my eyes though....my dearest mother refused to take me to the optometrist. oh hmmmmmm who knows but this seems to me that there may be a recurring issue here for a few of us/?? more????

love and hgus,
Victoria

I've wondered myself if my eyes had something to do with it- not causing migraines particularly, but not helping the situation either. My vision got pretty bad around the time I was in the 5th grade and my mother didn't realize it (and neither did I to be honest) until I couldn't see the hands on a clock across the room. But, I also had encephalitis when I was 3 and when the migraines started in the 3rd grade, the drs. kinda thought at the time that that might've contributed to them. Who knows....

[law76]

Since my surgery, I also have less migraines by about 95 percent, however, when I do have one, I take Frova and Actiq.

[pono]

Migraines can be more than a headache... many sites have info. on understanding, treatment options, etc.
some excellent sites :
httpmigraine.orgwww.migraine.org
check out Overiew section.

MAGNUM migraines.org/treatment/index.html[/URL]www.migraines.org/treatment/index.html

"treating pain disorders w/ intradermal Botox" (link to this article from Magnum -migraines.org/treatments, cited above) is of interest. Has anyone tried??

My nuero has suggested Botox and I'm now considering since my insurance has approved.
I 've had migraines since teen but now getting "other" headaches--daily & often debilitating. Not sure what kind.... seems several "types"...

I can't take Triptans (Imitrex, zomig, etc) Fiorecet did help but not now....
Have had cluster headaches (horrible) --was given IM Toradol at ER .
Have also tried some other prophylactics, like Topomax, which did help years ago but couldn't tolerate when tried again recently.
Am wondering if Botox may be a good option...

[cindyj]

A timely thread, i must say! This is one of the reasons I havent been around much. The last 2 months I have had at least 2 migraines a week ugh. The worst is sometimes they last 4 or 5 days. Most of these latest ones have lasted 2 to 3 days. A dark room with absolutely not a sound, dark wet cloth over my eyes, gravol to try to stop vomiting. I have never found a medication to take that helps much. When ive suffered the 4th or 5th day I give in and go to the ER and they put me on iv maxeran (not sure the spelling) and that usually takes it down so i still feel the core of the headache in the centre of my head. If they give me a toradol shot before i go home , this usually takes away the core within a few hours. I know, i know, why suffer for 4 or 5 days instead of going to Er??? Dr, always asks that, well i usually have to sit in a room full of sick people, crying babies, doors closing etc.... for 3 to 4 hours before I finally see the dr. So when a migraine is in full swing the last possible thing i can think of is going to sit through that. On the subject of botox, I kind of put 2 and 2 together last week , in november my pain doc. did a full head and shoulder migraine protocol of botox injections. She managed to scrounge enough to give me a free trial. (If I want it again I have to pay $450. so that rules that out completely ugh) She did that area for the headaches but also hoped it would alleveiate some neck and shoulder pain. Well I didnt think I got any good form them. My pain seemed to stay the same and I was still getting some headaches , but not many migraines, now that io think about it. So for the past 2 months I have been having alot of migraines again. August has been terrible for them, the barometer has been terrible too. We havent had 4 days without a major rain/thunder storm. That kind of weather as many of you know is about the worst it canget. It flares up eevery health problem i have. So.....back to the botox......hubby happened to mention it last week, I had forgotten all about it. I think the botox did help the migraines because all of a sudden Im having them alot and i went through many months with very few. I guess you dont realize something is gone until it comes back. So for anyone who has health insurance and if they will cover it, I would suggest trying the botox. One major advantage with botox is it doesn't get severely painful like cortisone injections.
I did not have childhood migraines, in fact I dont remember having them until I was around 30. I do get warning signs (if i pay attention to them). Usually sound starts really bothering me, or my vision goes funny in my left eye, or i very suddenly feel sick to my stomach. Sometimes if i notice the signs, if i take advil and a muscle relaxer and go lay down in a dark quiet room I can ward them off. Lately nothing has worked. Hope this helps!

[gibbrn]

there was just a study done to say that in a blinded trial there was no benefit either way to saline injection or botox.....so 50/50 either way!

don't have time to find it now, will look later if I feel up to it.....:confused:

hugs,
Victoria


found it..don;t know enough about it......can;t comment on the article but will look into it

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_53314.html

[ihtos]

The only thing that helps my migraines is fioricet and 2 advil. Then laying down in dark quiet room. Mine are mostly menstrual migraines. They begin 1-2days before and usually last a cpl days. For about 3-4 days after the migraine subsides my neck muscles are in agony. I get blurred vision before the migraine and the nausea. It is always on the right side going from my eye to the back upper part of my head. Ihtos