Do you get migraines?

[backontrack]

Usernames published. Are there any fellow sufferers on here, especially with the dreaded aura?

 

[Barn]

I used to get them quite regularly, with aura, when I was a teenager but haven't had one for about 15 years.

I was lucky enough to 'outgrow' them, it seems, or perhaps there was a trigger which I have managed to avoid since then.

 

[Domh245]

I have the occasional symptoms of auras* (the odd patterns in my vision and the occasional random bout of pins and needles) but not migraines.

*Having looked it up

 

[Cowley]

Before I answer I'd like to know whether people pronounce it 'megrains' or 'mygrains'? (pronounce not spell that is). I've always pronounced it 'mygrain' as the other way sounds a bit American to me.
Sometimes the English language is enough to give you a headache.

 

[backontrack]

I have the occasional symptoms of auras* (the odd patterns in my vision and the occasional random bout of pins and needles) but not migraines.

*Having looked it up

Great. My foolproof, all-options poll has become void by the third post.

 

[Bayum]

Before I answer I'd like to know whether people pronounce it 'megrains' or 'mygrains'? (pronounce not spell that is). I've always pronounced it 'mygrain' as the other way sounds a bit American to me.
Sometimes the English language is enough to give you a headache.

We teach that the vowel is shortened if the preceding letters are consonants or consonant sounds.

An example I give my class is 'riping' and 'ripping'. In the first word the phoneme produced by the 'i' is elongated - sounding like eye. In the second example, the two following consonants force it into a shorter 'i' as in igloo. So I would pronounce it as migraine.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Great. My foolproof, all-options poll has become void by the third post.

Well.... I get the visual disturbances but not the headaches. There is no option for that so I've ticked the top one since, technically, the aura is a migraine.

I don't get these very often, by the way. Just occasional instances and it usually clears up in about 15 - 20 minutes.

 

[Cowley]

We teach that the vowel is shortened if the preceding letters are consonants or consonant sounds.

An example I give my class is 'riping' and 'ripping'. In the first word the phoneme produced by the 'i' is elongated - sounding like eye. In the second example, the two following consonants force it into a shorter 'i' as in igloo. So I would pronounce it as migraine.

Option 3. Thanks Bayum. Just started to doubt myself there.

 

[alxndr]

I've had three in my life so far (touch wood). The first I didn't have a clue what was going on, but it hurt like nobodies business, the second I wondered why my thumb disappeared when scrolling through my phone after only drinking half a pint, the third I realised I couldn't read because I'd lost the centre of my vision and made it to bed just as the pain hit.

My mother suffered them, and auras, badly for several years before finding the right combo of blood pressure medication to tackle them too. Odd thing is that her auras affect the outside of her vision, whereas I lose the centre.

 

[Strathclyder]

I very occasionally get affected by visual disturbances when a migraine hits. Most of the time though, it's just jackhammer-level pounding in my head usually accompanied by a general feeling of nausea. Sleeping it off usually rids me of headaches/migraines; otherwise they can last for hours at a time.

On at least two other occasions however (both in 2015), I was struck down by incredibly severe migraine attacks. Developing over a half-hour to a hour long timeframe, the symptoms included: a pounding head (even more so than a standard migraine, with the pounding becoming almost unbearable), a consistent feeling of dizziness/nausea & the almost overwhelming urge to vomit whenever even a slight head-turn was made (this was especially prevalent in the second attack, with me violently throwing up at least twice). Even though the worst of the symptoms were cured by sleeping it off (amazingly, given their severity), I still needed a day or two to fully recover from both attacks.

Can't exactly recall what brought these two particularly severe attacks on, but I think the first one was a direct result of extensive bus travel on the day it struck. This makes sense, seeing as I additionally suffer from travel sickness when utilizing road-based transport for extended periods. Have limited myself to travelling on less than 5 buses per day as a result. It's a mystery to this day as to why the second one struck out of the blue like it did, although I suspect it was also travel sickness related...

 

[fowler9]

I feel sorry for anyone who gets migraines. It sounds horrible. A friend of mine back at school years ago could feel them coming on when he sensed a smell of oranges! Saw it happen to him a couple of times and he would be paralysed down one side of his body, unable to speak properly and left in bed for days. Thankfully he seems to have grown out of them. By that I don't mean they are something everyone grows out of but he did seem to.

 

[CarlSilva]

I used to get tehm almost daily when I was a smoker on 60 a day. Now i'ts down to 1 or 2 a month and I can eat chese. The pain was so bad it was like when Rick got his head slammed in the friedge door.

 

[Barn]

What do your auras look like? When I got them they were always purple splotches that appeared in the sky or other bright light (and disappeared in the dark). I still remember them very clearly.

 

[IanD]

I frequently get the aura without the headache. Very occasionally get the headache too.

If you've seen the TV series Primeval, my auras look like the anomalies in that. Start off with just a small area in the centre of my field of vision, gradually increasing in size. Eventually they start to clear from the centre outwards. They last from 10 minutes to a couple of hours.

 

[bramling]

Usernames published. Are there any fellow sufferers on here, especially with the dreaded aura?

Yes. The aura will come first, and the headache will follow. I don't get them as badly as some people seem to, and as I have got older their frequency has reduced to maybe once or twice per year. Normally I find that if I take a headache tablet after getting the aura this will ease the headache to virtually nothing.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Start off with just a small area in the centre of my field of vision, gradually increasing in size. Eventually they start to clear from the centre outwards. They last from 10 minutes to a couple of hours.

That's pretty much how mine go, except rarely any longer than 15 - 20 minutes.

 

[fergusjbend]

Before I answer I'd like to know whether people pronounce it 'megrains' or 'mygrains'? (pronounce not spell that is). I've always pronounced it 'mygrain' as the other way sounds a bit American to me.
Sometimes the English language is enough to give you a headache.

The word is derived from the Greek 'hemicrania', that is affecting half the head - as migraines typically are one-sided. Hence the pronunciation should be megrain, not mygrain. Most doctors use the former pronunciation, and as you will know, doctors are omniscient.

 

[cf111]

I used to between the ages of about 15-22 they got worse and worse to the point I was nearly in tears during them but then one day they stopped of their own accord and I haven't had once since.

 

[Welshman]

I used to get them frequently when younger - the full works - visual disturbance, numbness, thumping headaches and sickness - and would be out of action for the whole day.

They seemed to be associated with stress, an examination or other important event, etc. I remember anxiously going with a girlfriend [who later became my first wife] to meet her parents for the first time, and developed a humdinger of one as soon as I arrived, and spent most of the visit in their lavatory!

I tried feverfew and other "remedies" but to no avail, and tried to avoid dark chocolate, red wine, oranges and cheese - four of my favourite foods.

Then in my 50s, I began to grow out of them [it was the only consolation of growing older]. Now in my late 60s, I still occasionally get the visual disturbances, but fortunately nothing else, and the whole thing is over in half and hour or so.

 

[meridian2]

Then in my 50s, I began to grow out of them [it was the only consolation of growing older]. Now in my late 60s, I still occasionally get the visual disturbances, but fortunately nothing else, and the whole thing is over in half and hour or so.

When I was a kid my mother used to get migranes a few times each year. She could only lie in a darkened room, unable to speak, retching every few minutes. Her doctor told her they would stop when she reached menopause. Remarkably they did. Curious that such information was available half a century ago.

 

[LowLevel]

I last had one about 8 years ago so I'm hoping I've outgrown them but I used to have absolute whoppers. I think they were set off by lights. The first one started out in the Bullring when it had just been rebuilt. I realised I'd lost part of my vision and started tripping over my words. My mum took me straight home on the train and the auras started and I had a massive nosebleed all over the place which actually lead to the train being taken out of service. I got home, threw up everywhere and ended up in bed for at least a day.

I had maybe a couple a year and ended up under the doctors with it but eventually they just seemed to stop.

It was without a doubt the most painful and debilitating set of experiences in my life to date. The feeling of losing my vision with the nausea was just appalling and then the full on agony in one side of my head behind my eyes. It makes me wince thinking about it.

 

[D6975]

I used to get migraines. They would start of with a few purple and yellow dots appearing which would become more and more numerous and then flashes would start. Only once did I get temporary blindness, which lasted for about 10 minutes. I took migralieve tablets for them, one never persisted long enough to need the follow up ones. (they were pink and yellow, can't remember which way around)
Then they just suddenly stopped and I didn't have one for many years. About 4 or 5 years ago I had one, but it was a one off, not had one since.

 

[DarloRich]

I don't get any auras - I get a massive headache that feels like someone whacking my head with a club over and over and over again. The most simple of movements increases the rhythm of the hammering and can make event he most minor movement really unpleasant and by the end I feel sick. IF it gets really bad i can get blurred vision but that doesn't happen often.

However, I refuse to give in. I wont go home if I am at work and I will get through the day on sheer stubbornness and anadin before going home to collapse in a heap in bed and sleep it off. They happen often enough and for no real reason although they do seem to have reduced over the years.

PS what about the poll option I get migraines and don't really care how it is pronounced

 

[Geezertronic]

Doctor told me in my case, dehydration could be a cause and I need to drink more. Also blood pressure fluctuations between sitting and standing can be a cause of my dizziness which is often a precursor to my headaches when I go from sitting to standing. Mine is mainly caused by Gilberts Syndrome which is apparently a common occurrence and people can live with it without actually knowing they have it. I suffer from the jaundice symptom, headaches and dizziness a lot if I don't drink enough liquids

In Gilbert’s syndrome, slightly higher than normal levels of a substance called bilirubin build up in the blood.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

I had lots of migraine, with aura, as a teenager. It was eventually put down to an allergy to Chesse (oddly, only cheese, no other Dairy) and cutting that out of my diet put a stop to them completely. They used to knock me for six - I used to take codeine as the only thing that would touch the pain, which would knock me into a deep sleep for at least 12 hours, and then I'd wake up with no migraine, no memory of what had happened, really confused and disoriented.

I've been totally free of them for over a decade now, except one incident of what I'm told was an "ocular migraine" which was basically a severe visual disturbance with no other migraine symptoms. Don't know where that one came from, but it was pretty weird.

(So, there's another poll option missing, "I used to have them, but don't anymore" )

 

[Geezertronic]

How did your allergy get picked up? Was it via the Doctor or a process of elimination?

 

[CharlieSpotted]

How did your allergy get picked up? Was it via the Doctor or a process of elimination?

A bit of both. I remember having an allergy test that showed I was sensitive to several things, including dairy, but it couldn't say which of those things was specifically causing the migraines. So, we started a process of elimination to narrow it down and eventually identified the cheese.