I suffer from “classic migraine”, inherited from my mother. Mine begin usually shortly after waking with a visual disturbance (aura) that shows itself as black and white pinwheels in my field of vision. Shortly after that I get the weird physiological symptoms - weakness, mood changes, sensitivity to light/sound, waves of crushing pain on the left side of my head, nausea, even bladder distress. They usually last a day, but sometimes 5 or more in a row. Strangely enough, sometimes forcing myself to get on the bike cures them, they disappear during the bike ride. The head pain is sometimes so bad that I take out my most recent brain MRI and examine it, certain that the doctors’ have missed a tumor.
Anyway - nothing ever touched them. They went away on their own when they were good and ready. I’ve discovered some triggers - weather patterns, dairy products, and of course, stress.
BUT - my doctor gave me a new-ish drug to try - RELPAX. I take it at the first sign of problems - the visual aura, and sure enough, within an hour my symptoms are gone. The only side effect is that it gives me a sore throat - within 30 minutes of taking it. for about 24 hours. I can live with that!
This is a total miracle for me. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have finally found something that will give me those days back.
Thanks for the info. I get them too, although not to the degree you get them. I also think I get a different headach as well but it is tough to tell. I have missed more workouts then I want to count. I am on my way back to the Dr. in a couple weeks to try something else. I tried Imitrex but didn’t even dent the headache. I will ask about RELPAX.
How often do you get your headaches? It is strange that a ride cures them, I can’t do anything but lie really still or my head hurts too bad and if they are really bad (only a handful in my life) I can’t even sit still.
The triggers are key, but tough to determine them for sure. I also have weather changes as one and not much you can do there.
Right now I’m having them weekly. Not sure why exactly, but for the last 10 years or so I’d get one for a week straight, and then not again for a few months. Most of mine appear with the other symptoms but only a mild or no headache. Swimming used to cause the visual aura, too, but without migraine. The visual aura I get looks very similar to this but with spokes that radiate down to the center of the whirling circle… When I first saw the image linked below I had to look away because it was too close to what I see before a migraine.
During the weekly spells I have to keep on living, so I’ve forced myself to get on the bike. Running would be hell with the pounding, but biking is OK. Thats how I discovered that exercise alleviates them.
I’ve had pretty good luck with Midrin. I always keep some in the bag behind my bike seat. My migraines aren’t as bad - they’re visual, but not as bad as that image from your link. If you’ve ever watched tv with the reflection of a lightbulb from an overhead light that also has a ceiling fan turning, well, that’s pretty much what mine look like, as long as I take the midrin in time. but i’d need to stop and wait for the drug to kick in, i think, as my peripheral vision pretty much goes away. i could run like that, but i don’t know that i’d want to bike that way.
I too had zero luck w/imitrex, but know others who swear by it.
I used to get them when I would play hockey early in the morning (6am), no other time, just the early morning skate. I thought it was a dehydration problem but drinking more water didn’t help.
One day I had a bottle of Gatorade in the car and drank it after the skate. I didn’t get a headache that day so I tried it again the next week. No headache or cloudy vision again. I’m guessing that it was an electrolyte problem and the Gatorade filled the need.
Migraines are usually caused by vasodilation. I have had them for over thirty-five years now. They used to last for three days especially three hours of fourwall handball. I have injected, snorted and taken Imitrex pills. If I catch it fast enough they work. Ice on my forehead and neck help. On rare occasions I can actually talk them away by focusing on the headache.
One of my friends is a neurologist and has written extensively on migraines. When I told him of my auras he asked if I could draw them. I am sure those of you who have them know what I mean. There is a light show going on in your head and then DOOM.
Thanks for the information on a new medication. These headaches are not fun for me and terrible for those around me.
Doug, interesting that you mention you can rid yourself of them by focusing on them. I sometimes have a point of extreme pain directly above my left eye, that, with concentration, I am able to move it around inside my head to other locations. Once I was able to move it as far away as into my left arm. When I stop concentrating on it, it goes back to its previous location. I know this is going to sound like BS to most of you, but when you’ve had headaches like this for so long you try weird things with them.
This medication - Relpax, is supposedly a really good thing. Well tolerated, and blows away the placebos during trials. The 40mg dose works great for me.
You know there was a brief tidbit about migraines on the morning news last week. Apparently doctors linked migraine headaches to a small hole between the right and left side of the heart that might allow tiny clots to pass out of the heart, through the body, and up to the brain: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=876088&page=1
I started talking Relpax about 4 months ago with great results. I can handle the pain and aura for the 6-12 hours of the migraine, but the three days of foggy thinking and slightly blurry vision killed me. So far Relpax has been great. Only problem is that I get really nauseous with migraines so I have to take it right away or I can’t keep it down. I think they make a nasal spray that I might try in the future
My mom takes Imitrex injections, they have dramatically improved her quality of life over the last 7-8 years.
I found that pains in our body have size, shape, color and can move and/or disappear when you focus your attention on them. It is very weird. When my high school students told me that they had a headache I would ask what color was it?
It takes practice and you can gain some control over your pains.
wow, who would have thought that? That story just shows how complex our body is and how one tiny imbalance can effect so much.
I can’t move my pain but never really tried. I get the pain right behind the eye too and for me if I put pressure on different parts of my head it will lighten the pain a little. Usually at the base of my skull behind my ears or bridge or nose works but it will not stop the headache.
Sometimes if I can take a really hot shower and crawl into bed and get control of my breathing and slow everything down I can fall asleep and sometimes that will stop it. I just feel so run down after them though.
There is also a fairly new class of drugs designed to prevent migraines (not like Imitrex that stops a headache once started) my doctor told me about but said it was fro people who suffered them all the time. Anyone taking those?
Good point, you should send the bill for a new P3C to your insurance company If people can have medical marijuana then I say medical P3Cs for migraine sufferers
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I’ve had migraine’s all through my adolescence but they basically stopped when I was 22 (uni. finals!). Then suddenly last June they started again but in a slightly different form, I was getting the aura and confusion but no real headaches and they’d go after about 1 hour. This was happening every other day, until at the end of a tt the same thing happened but I collapsed, lost the ability to speak and was taken to hospital. Between July and Christmas last year, I have had 3 similar incidents where I’ve raced come home and collapsed. I’ve had loads of tests, mri, heart scan, ct scan and more that I can’t remember the names of. The diagnosis was that I’ve had three mini-strokes which have been caused from the migraines, if this is possible?
Everyone wanted me to give up training but luckily I think I’ve found the trigger, natural yougart. I was fuelling up on the stuff before races. No more yougarts no more headaches.
Well I hope this is the reason, I’m due to see a neurologist soon to confirm my suspicion. Any ideas fellow suffrers
goggles that display your time & number of laps. a great idea, and i have as much trouble counting laps as anyone, but for me, this is precisely the sort of thing that would trigger a migraine.
when things were bad, even driving w/a dirty windshield was tough. something about too much in the visual field…
I’m with you there. In fact, I’m afraid that my part time hobby/business, where I do a lot of woodcarving requiring extremely fine detail, might be triggering them. Much of the time I work with magnifying lenses and bright lights - not a good script for migraines.
If people can have medical marijuana then I say medical P3Cs for migraine sufferers