Question for anyone familiar with migraines: do you get a "warning sign" before they hit?

[Orrex]

I'm lucky enough to have had just six or seven in my life, however, I've noticed an indicator that pops up without fail prior to the onset of a migraine.

It starts as sort of an exaggerated blind spot at the far-left of my field of vision, just slightly below center. Gradually this area expands and turns into an area kind of like white noise. Within an hour it expands further to encompass about 2/3 of my total visual field, by which time I start to get a sort of cramp-like sensation at the rear of my skull.

Since I know what this sensation indicates, I now make it a point to swallow a few ibuprofen and then lie down for a nap, hopefully to remain unconscious until after the migraine has passed.

On several occasions following migraines I've perceived a lingering fatigue in the muscles at the base of my skull, similar to what you'd feel if you slept wrong or if you'd been in the front row for a long movie.


How about you? When a migraine is bearing down on you, do you get a warning sign, or does it just explode behind your eyes and tear off the top of your skull?



And to those of us who get cluster headaches, I can only say this: if it were me, I'd have decapitated myself a long time ago.

[femmocrat]

1. I just get a dull ache on the left side of my head.

It can worsen over a couple of hours or come on suddenly. I take Imitrex early on in the achy-ness. I also yawn a lot when it's coming and going. I don't have any aura.

Thank God for Imitrex. It has changed my life! My migraines were debilitating and frequent.

[Orrex]

2. My sister used to get them chronically, like every day or so

It turned out to be a thyroid issue of some kind, though I'm not sure of the specifics.

Thankfully, I've never been required to function in the full throes of a migraine, which I would imagine to be hideous beyond words.


Once, years ago, I was cashing out my register at the end of my shift at the fast food restaurant where I worked, and suddenly I couldn't read the report they'd printed out for me. At first they teased me about it, until they realized that I was growing increasingly distressed.

I survived the half-mile walk back to my apartment where I became voluntarily comatose for 18 hours or so...



Thanks for your info!

[femmocrat]

3. That is frightening.

Someone should have taken you home-- or to the hospital!

:hug:

[Orrex]

5. I probably put on some stupid "tough-as-nails" attitude and pretended to shrug it off.

Mostly I just remember not being able to read the register tape and piling pillows on my head when I got home. The rest has kind of faded!

But thanks for the :hug:


Right back at you! :hug:

[RainDog]

4. a lot of the time I wake up with one

but sometimes I'll suddenly notice that my head feels sore to the touch and there's a little bit of build time and then the headache is there.

I've had some sort of neuralgia since I was 12 that is very sporadic.. sometimes often in a two month period then nothing for a couple of years. Occasionally some nerve on the right side of my head will send a little wave of pain. I get a little notice I may have that nerve mess with me temporarily. If I think about relaxing my muscles I can avoid that, or the worst of it (which can sometimes mean that my nerve, from my ear to my forearm, makes my arm draw up and my eye shut for a few seconds.

sometimes I wonder if the two are connected - tho the neuralgia thing only lasts for a few seconds it makes my arm and neck sore, like a migraine.

[Orrex]

6. Wow--that sounds like buckets of fun!

I've never noticed a "sore to the touch" sensation, for which I'm grateful.

That's an interesting point about the neuralgia. I don't think I've previously heard of someone having a reaction like that, but it seems like a reasonable guess.

[RainDog]

12. here's how wiki rolls with it

The disorder (trigeminal neuralgia) generally causes short episodes of excruciating pain, usually for less than two minutes and usually only one side of the face. The pain can be described in a variety of ways such as "stabbing," "sharp," "like lightning," "burning," and even "itchy". In the atypical form of TN, the pain presents itself as severe constant aching along the nerve. The pain associated with TN is recognized as one of the most excruciating pains that can be experienced

...The attacks can occur in clusters, as an isolated attack, or be completely constant. Some patients will have a muscle spasm which led to the original term for TN of "tic douloureux" ("tic", meaning 'spasm', and "douloureux", meaning 'painful', in French).

anyway, other than migraines and semi-annual moments of excruciating pain, oh and that trauma thing (nevermind) I'm sickly healthy. As in lucky.

[Orrex]

17. That's a great way to make lemonade out of it!

Now that I think of it, I seem to recall an episode of Mystery Diagnosis or some similar show in which a baby girl went into shrieking fits of agony, which was naturally horrifying to her parents. After some extended period of soul-wrenching uncertainty, her condition was diagnosed as a specific neuralgia involving a particular facial nerve, and they were able to treat it via some method I can't recall.

Thanks for sharing your story!

[Kali]

7. I've had auras one time.

I used to get migraines a few times a year, usually involving a combination of being tired, alcohol, and lots of sunlight. (Summer partying by the pool/lake/beach was almost a guarantee)

Sometimes I get them traveling - same related conditions - sun in my eyes from driving, tension/tired from change in routine, dehydration. These all happen in the afternoon/evening and I can usually get rid of them by sleeping in a dark room for 1/2 hour or so. But I really have to get to sleep or it doesn't work. Sometimes a neck massage helps but sleep is better.

In the last year or so I have been getting them almost monthly - some kind of PMS thing obviously - these I wake up with and they get worse unless I go back to bed and sleep same as the others. Sometimes they happen two days in a row.

Mine usually involve my right side and eye. Lots of watering and a "shadow" in the vision. A cold pillow is so nice.

I am so lucky to at least be in a position to go take a nap when these happen (usually) and I feel very sorry for those who suffer not only more pain and harder to stop, but a work environment or schedule that does not allow that flexibility.

[Orrex]

9. Again, I'm lucky to have gotten them so infrequently

And as far as I can discern, they aren't related to any menstruation issues.


I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with the term "aura" in this context prior to starting this thread. Learn something new every day!

[EvolveOrConvolve]

19. Don't be so sure about it not being related to menstruation

I've noticed that I have a "hormone" cycle that seems to match my wife's. My migraines tend to hit at the same time as her PMS. And I wish that was a joke.

[Orrex]

26. Intriguing! I figured it was something to do with a a registry problem and a bad EXE association!

That's interesting about your cyclical migraines. Thankfully, I get mine so infrequently that if they're tied to any cycle, it must be on a particularly slow track.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

35. I think those might be indirect causes of some of my migraines

(I pretend to be an I.T. nerd at work).

Yea, it's weird about the cycle thing. When I start craving chocolate, I know that my wife is about to have her period.

[Orrex]

36. Well, at least we know you're probably not pregnant.

If I'm too much of a baby to tough my way through an occasional migraine, I shudder to think what labor would do to me.

I'd demand an epidural some time during the second trimester and keep it going until two months after the birth.

[Jamastiene]

8. For me, everything smells too much

or at least that is how it feels. It's like my sense of smell becomes super hyper acute and I usually get extremely nauseated and highly sensitive to light too. From the first symptoms to the onset of a full fledged migraine is less than 20 minutes for me.

Laying down in a dark quiet room is the only relief. That's when I know it is a migraine for sure and not something else.


When all I can think of is laying down in a dark, quiet room and the reason is not that other thing I can't mention here but just did :evilgrin: , it's most likely a migraine.

[Orrex]

11. Wow--I've never heard of that one. It's like you briefly turn into a superhero or something!

Curiously, I've never had a particular sensitivity to light or sound. I get the nausea and the urge to run my head over with a train, but that's pretty much par for the course, migraine-wise!

[BeachBaby]

10. I'm sorry that you have to experience this.

I had way too many to count, during my high school years. After I moved out of my parents' house, they subsided substantially.

The last one I had was about 4 years ago.

The only warning shots I got, were a dull throbbing on the left side of my head.

But, what everybody always noticed, right around the same time I started to feel the throbbing, were dark circles forming under my eyes.

I remember many times, wanting to kill myself, during those episodes. Sometimes they only lasted for two hours, but others lasted over 24 hours. Vomiting was always in the cards, but the one thing I always did was take my hands and push on either side of my skull, as if I were trying to crush it.

I couldn't handle any source of light, nor sound. I remember my mother opening my bedroom door once, while I was laying down. The turn of the knob sounded like a freight train coming through my room. It became a rule in the house that nobody was to enter my room while I was going through a migraine. All shades and drapes were drawn. Vomit bucket by the side of my bed.

Hugs to you. :hug:

[Orrex]

14. Thank you for you kind wishes, but I really must underscore that I get them only very rarely

I've had one in the last year and one about three years before that. The next most recent was seven or eight years, and so on back to my first one, which hit me when I was 15.

That one was weird because I was actually playing around with that blind spot test-thingie, with the O and the + a few inches apart on a card. You hold them at arm's length, looking at one of the symbols, and then you bring the card closer until the other symbol disappears.

Well, the blind spot persisted and then expanded as I described in the OP, and that was my initiation into the migraine club!


Trivia: since that day more than 23 years ago, I've never once tried that O/+ test again!


The dark circles under the eyes is interesting, and I guess it makes it hard to poker-face your way through the migraine. Interesting point about moving out of your parents' house; I've heard many times about a stress:migraine linkage.


Thanks for sharing! :hug:

[erinlough]

13. I've had visual migraines all my life

It starts just like you say, the vision becomes disturbed with prism like flashes until there is a c-shape around the entire visual field. The whole process takes 30 minutes from start to finish, and I never get the headache. I did go to a vision specialist because I wanted to make sure I didn't have a detached, or detaching, retina. He said it is called a visual migraine and I was very lucky I didn't have the pain along with it. I am very glad also.

[Orrex]

15. YES! That's it exactly! Except with subsequent pain!

I've tried to describe it for a long time, and you've hit on it precisely! I wouldn't have thought to articulate it as a C-shape, but that's right on the money.

I once mentioned this to my mother, who tends to have a sort of "things were always tougher for me" attitude about things, and instead of trivializing my migraines as I'd expected, she got a kind of horrified OMG look on her face. Turns out she'd been occasionally suffering something similar for years, and she was afraid to tell anyone because she feared that it meant she was having a stroke or something.

I still told her to get her ass (well, her head) to a doctor, and it turned out not to be a stroke (or a bunch of them) after all, thank goodness.


How often do you get these visual migraines, by the way?

[targetpractice]

21. Look up "scintillating scotoma" on YouTube...

There are several animated simulations of the aura symptom.

I experienced this 6 months ago and another about 3 weeks later... I'm 45 and never had migraines, but the auras freaked me out.

[Orrex]

32. LOL!

I mentioned elsewhere in the thread that I can't bring myself to look at a "blind-spot test" out of fear of triggering a migraine. By the same token, I'm sure as hell not going to look for a "scintillating scotoma" on YouTube or anywhere else! :P

[erinlough]

48. sometimes I go for months without them

I get them more in the summer months, I don't know why, maybe the sun. If I have a lot of stress in my life I get them more, but it doesn't always pair with stress. My mother had them too.

[trof]

52. Also called opthalmic migraine.

I have them but rarely with the headache.

[Zomby Woof]

16. Disorientation, moodiness, extreme insomnia the day before

Occasional white flashes of light, kind of like fireflies or flashbulbs, in my peripheral vision - especially my right eye. My migraines (going on 28 years since my first) always begin behind my right eye socket. In extreme cases, I am bedridden in a dark and very quiet room, and will vomit during its peak.

I feel GREAT the day after they pass. Like I am cleansed. Still, I'd rather not have them at all.

They have gotten less frequent and less severe with age. Sometimes I can even nip them in the bud, but at least one or two per year do their damage.

[Orrex]

18. Yikes! Very strange!

My father suffered from them for years, and he's said he would actual suffer mild panic attacks when he felt a migraine coming on. His particular warning sign was like a cramping ache in the back of his neck, which would then creep up through his skull and (presumably) mash his brain to a pulp.

I imagine that a full day's notice would send me into fits! :scared:


That "cleansed" feeling is interesting. I've never experienced that aspect, but I'm glad that there's at least some kind of silver lining for you!

[Zomby Woof]

20. I'll note the day-before symptoms can be subtle, and gradual

They build up slowly, kind of like the frog-in-the-boiling-water - by the time I get used to the symptoms, it's too late. Sometimes I get lucky and notice them sooner rather than later, and those are the ones I can pre-empt with mega-doses of aspirin and caffeine.

There are several kinds of migraines, so the sore-neck type you and your father have had can have different symptoms. They are hereditary too, but I hope you don't get them as bad as your dad.

[Orrex]

24. I was reluctant to add this part about my father's experience with it, but here goes:

He attributes his migraines to an allergy to chocolate, which he identified after years of searching for a cause. Once he stopped eating chocolate, his migraines stopped completely. At one point a few years later, he ate a Hershey bar to see if he'd been right, and the next day he had another killer migraine. So in his case, it seems like the allergy might indeed be the proximate cause.

The reason I was reluctant to mention it is that he has a tendency to attribute just about everything to food allergies:

You're feeling irritable? Food allergy.

You've got pain in your joints? Food allergy.

Your shoes are too tight? Food allergy.

You broke your leg? Food allergy.

The fuel pump went bad in your car? Food allergy.

And so on...


When I've mentioned my migraines to him in the past, he's invariably asked "did you eat any chocolate the day before?"

Usually, I say "No, but I stuffed a Milky Way into my gas tank, so that probably explains the fuel pump."

:evilgrin:

[Zomby Woof]

37. Chocolate *has* been linked to migraines

And having a weakness for it, I admit it could be a cause. But mine seem to follow periods of stress too, so I just rationalize that I have multiple causes, because a chocolate-less existence would be hell. :D

[RainDog]

42. so has red wine. it's the tannins, iirc.

that's probably one reason I don't really care about drinking alcohol all that much. I occasionally have a glass of wine (and I like red wine) but since I already have a natural "hangover" without any sort of help, I don't want to create the same myself.

[elana i am]

22. mine usually start as a dull ache

in the back of my skull down around the base. if i'm able, i will head it off with advil and a nap. otherwise it usually progresses to a throbbing, nearly searing pain that spreads on a diagonal plane from the base of my skull, through my brain to behind my eyes. i don't have blind spots or flashes, but when the pain gets to behind my eyes everything gets blurry and i feel eye strain. that's usually when the vertigo and puking starts. my migraines seem to be a result of hypothyroidism. i average about 6 migraines a year, so they're manageable.

[Orrex]

25. Isn't it weird how specifically you can localize the pain?

And weirder still that it repeats the same way, more or less, each time?

Thankfully, I've never actually had to vomit in the wake of a migraine, though I've had five-alarm nausea once or twice.


Thanks for sharing!

[elana i am]

30. even weirder

like zomby woof says right above, i also feel almost "refreshed" the day after i've had a migraine. THAT'S weird.

and for me, at least, the puking provides some relief. it's like once i reach the point of puking the migraine is on the downhill slide. i guess that's kind of weird too.

[Orrex]

31. That's so bizarre!

My father has said that if he sneezes, it sometimes seems to "break" the migraine. I should add that he has some really explosive sneezes, so maybe that's a factor. He admitted that he even tried to sniff pepper to trigger a sneeze, but it didn't work out the same. It seemed as though the "breaking" sneeze needed to come about on its own.

I wonder if a similar acute-tension/sudden-release effect occurs during vomiting in this context?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

23. Mine start with a sore feeling in my neck where the spine meets the cranium

It's a muscle ache like I've been holding something heavy around my neck and the muscles are fatigued. If I don't swallow some Excedrin Migraine down within 30 minutes of the onset of the neck pain, then I'm in for a full blown migraine. I've had some last 3 days, and I can't stand any sounds or light. Lying down hurts, but sitting up hurts worse. It's pure freaking agony.

[Orrex]

28. If I had a three-day migraine, I'd probably pack it in after about the 25th hour.

Put my head in a box and reattach it after the storm has passed.

How nightmarish!

[AwakeAtLast]

27. Sometimes

I get a dull ache in the inside corner of my right eye or the sinus area beneath it. Then it progresses around that eye socket and up to the back of my ear. Always on the right side. :shrug:

[Orrex]

29. This thread has been very interesting for me.

I mean, mine have always followed the same basic course, but I didn't realize that similarly regular manifestations were so common.

It's so bizarre that the onset can be so specifically repeated from one instance to the next!

[gmoney]

33. I sort of get the blind spot thing before I get a headache

BUT I found if, as soon as I notice it, I take a couple aspirin and let myself take a nap for maybe a half hour, I will wake up and the blind spot will be gone, and headache avoided.

[Orrex]

34. A very wise strategy!

It's weird to say that I have to "notice" the blind spot, because once I do recognize it, it's so pointedly obvious that I don't know how it took so long to identify it in the first place!

But from that first "notice," I give myself about a half an hour for whatever preventative steps I can take, and then I go for a nap if possible. Sometimes I've avoided the migraine, but sometimes not. I can always tell after it's passed, though, by a lingering "wrongness" in the back of my head.


Freaky!

[DFLforever]

38. I had migraines for over 30 yrs.

A line as thin as a wire would appear across my field of vision the day before a headache. I would also lose appetite and stop eating which prevented nausea and vomiting with the headache.

I sometimes had super severe migraines which lasted two or three days.

[NNadir]

39. I've lived with them for long stretches of my life. Advice: Check your blood pressure.

My most recent bout with them was definitely connected with blood pressure. I was, in fact, in a very dangerous position with that, but now have it fairly well controlled.

[dysfunctional press]

40. i don't get any particular 'warning sign', other than a low-grade headache, sometimes...

i've had '6 or 7' in just the past couple months.

i can't take imitrex, due to my raynaud's syndrome- so i take copius amounts of vicoprofen instead.

btw- has anyone else ever found migraine relief from a cat's purr..? when our smallest cat really gets her motor running- if i lay her across my neck/head, the pain stops. when she leaves, the pain comes back.

[miss_american_pie]

41. I get an aura

Usually in my right eye, cause they usually start from my right temple, but that eye will get tunnel vision, and then both eyes stop focusing. It's hard to explain, really. I can still see distances, but can't read, run the registers at work. If I catch them at this point and take something I can keep the pain at a manageable level. If not its two days of hell.

Mine are hormone related, so once a month I pay very close attention to any vision problems that may be developing. ;)

[nuxvomica]

43. I get auras and they are often stroposcopic zig-zags

It's so maddening that I usually welcome the headache which follows as soon as the aura disappears. It used to be that once I started getting the aura, I'd lie down in a dark room but now I deliberately exacerbate it by watching TV or working at the computer. That way, the headache comes on sooner and is not as severe. When I took sumatriptin for migraines, the aura got longer and longer and I thought I would go nuts so I stopped taking the medication.
I get a different kind of prodrome -- tunnel vision -- when I'm shoveling snow on a cold, sunny day and I take a shower immediately afterward. That doesn't last so long and isn't as annoying but it was pretty scary the first time it happened.

[Pithlet]

44. Yep, classic aura. I get those, too.

I'm lucky in that I found a drug that works well for me. I get them about half as often, and sometimes I'll go for as long as a month with none at all. Pure bliss. Occasionally I'll get the aura without the headache; it's called an ocular migraine. That freaked me out the first time it happened.

[Mike 03]

45. Thanks for posting this, because so few people understand migraines.

I do not get warnings, but both of my sisters and my mother do. They get visual disturbances.

I have a very bizarre ritual I use to get rid of migraines, but it is rather extreme, but it usually works.

My heart goes out to anyone who experiences migraines. They are not just "headaches," as most sufferers can verify.

[nytemare]

46. I've had them since about 6 years old

It is very rare that I only get the aura, and not experience other symptoms. Around 2003, I was getting them quite frequently and severely.

I can't see, I get expressive aphasia (brain tongue connection doesn't seem to work), I get disoriented where if I look at my hands, they look like someone elses hands. Then comes the nausea, headache, and vomiting. If I'm lucky, I can get home quickly and take an imitrex, and go in my dark room.

There is an animation on this site that shows what an aura looks like.

http://www.knownjohnson.com/?p=73

[nolabear]

47. Nothing like getting that aura on the left side when you're trying to drive!

I don't get them often, and can usually take a hefty dose of ibuprofen and prevent the headache, but that aura is just amazing. My other main symptom is not being able to speak well; something between my brain and mouth disconnect and I can't think my way out of a paper bag. After an hour or so it goes away.

Quite a few migraine sufferers here. I wonder if it's an aberration or just a lot of people have them. I don't really know.

[ohheckyeah]

49. Even though I've had blinding headaches from

muscle spasms in my neck, the only true migraines I've had were optical migraines. The flashing lights in my eyes have been so bad at times I've had to pull off the road until it went away. Usually a couple of Ibuprofen gets rid of it within a half hour. They seem to be set off by stress and certain chemicals like paint fumes.

[AlecBGreen]

50. Ive had 3

they all started the same way - a dull ache in my eyes which moved down into my jaw and to the back of my skull. On the first one (the worst) it felt like the roots of my teeth were going to pop. All 3 times the achy eyes was the first to show up, a few hours before the headache hit. Sorry you have to go through this. :(

[AlecBGreen]

51. p.s. have you tried Imitrex?

I got some after the 1st one and took them to control the 2nd two. It worked for me. You can probably get some free samples if you can get to a Dr.

[Brickbat]

53. Mine usually hit in the morning, and I find that I wake up around 3 a.m. with a "normal" headache

and having to pee. So I get up and take two aspirin and go back to bed, and that usually mitigates it a little bit -- making them disruptive instead of devastating. I am also starting to figure out that they might be caused by a very low pressure system moving in, but I'm not sure about that yet.

I didn't get them until three or four years ago. They are horrid.

[RainDog]

57. I tend to get bad headaches whenever the weather changes drastically

sharp cold is especially bad, but so is rain and even a sudden move from spring to summer weather. I used to joke that I could tell when it was going to rain a day before it came.

I think sinuses may have something to do with this, but I wonder if it's a matter of sinuses pushing on nerves in the head caused by pressure changes.

the neuralgia stuff I deal with sometimes stems from blood vessels that push against a nerve - I think that's how the problem is viewed at the moment.

when I have a migraine I can feel the blood pulsing on the side of my head.

[JCMach1]

54. Short stabbing paines to my eyes, itchy tingly feeling the back of the neck

and then the onset of nausea.

I used to get the I can't even function ones. Fortunately only when I was having problems with my wisdom teeth and allergies when I lived in OK and FL.

After I had the teeth out, haven't had a migraine in years.

[Dappleganger]

55. Yes, it's the nausea.

That symptom will come hours before the migraine, often waking me up in the early morning before the migraine hits.

[dropkickpa]

56. I get auras

Bars of light flashing anywhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours before the migraines hits which sucks if it happens when I'm sleeping, I hate waking up with a mirgraine. I also get sometimes get fumble-tongued, but that's only with the total doozy migraine's that are whole head instead of just one sided.

[RainDog]

58. What do others do to deal with them?

I now have a rx for imitrex, tho before I did, I found out that cannabis is a migraine wonder drug. It's better for the onrush of nausea. catches it.

when I had neither of these choices, I used excedrine migraine.

dealing with them depends on the stage, of course. if you wake up with a migraine in progress, it's different than dealing with one that is building off of tightened muscles in my head.

I also have a gel eye mask thing that I put in the refridge and use that and/or a cold rag with ice inside on my forehead. my sister gave me a lavender-filled head thingie.. like an eye mask but it's weighted with coco shells under a cotton cover. If I put that on my eyes in the dark it sometimes helps. maybe just because it blocks all light.

I also massage my head and neck - but if it's already in progress, that usually hurts too much if someone else does it. I also apply pressure to my forehead. if someone sits over you while you lie on the floor, they can put one hand on top of the other and press down on your forehead, slowly, until you feel the pressure. then they sloooooooowly release the pressure from their hands and it feels like a release. also massaging my eyebrows. I pinch the skin there because that seems to help relieve some of the pain.

I've tried "accupressure" things like pinching the fleshy part of the palm at the thumb - I think that's like efflurage, or whatever that's called, that's used in childbirth, where you distract your nerves by creating a pain or a pleasant sensation elsewhere.

I have green eyes and I was told that the color of your eyes effects light sensitivity. Wearing sunglasses helps in general.

[dropkickpa]

59. The triptans don't work for me, horrible side effects

I have to approach them mostly from the preventative side of things. I am on topomax (an epilepsy med) and cymbalta for prevention which have done WONDERS (I was pretty much having near daily migraines), and migranol (an ergotamine) for interventional, which occasionally will help.

For the most part, nothing helps make them feel any better when I'm having one but a perfectly silent cold room pitch black room with ice packs for at least 24 hours. But because I had them so bad so often for so long I just learned to force myself to be somewhat functional during them. Never pleasant, I was always in agony, always nauseous (I'd usually already thrown everything up), but I couldn't miss work or shirk on taking care of Dropkid so I muddled through. I do find now that they are under control I am nowhere near as "tough" as I used to be. I am now willing to take that sick day when one does breakthough.