Misery in the Head

Interesting read.

Frustrating to see that migraines are still underfunded and under-researched. If you have ever experienced a migraine, you likely share my frustration. It is about as indescribable an affliction as anything can be. The overwhelming and crippling pain is something hard to convey to someone who hasn’t experienced it first hand. It also seems that everyone experiences them slightly differently.

I typically get an aura that starts at about the 4 o’clock direction just outside the center of my right eye. The aura eventually expands and sometimes will end up obscuring 85-90 percent of my field of vision. It will also sometimes end up obscuring vision in both eyes.

In addition to the aura, I typically start feeling a bit of an upset stomach. Not nausea but rather a gas-like -- almost butterfly-in-stomach type feeling most closely associated with anxiety. Hard to say if it’s related to the migraines in that it’s a precursor or adjacent issue or it’s due to the anxiety of an anticipated migraine.

The aura lasts for 10-20 minutes usually then quickly dissipates. Over the next half hour to hour, the pain will gradually start to creep in behind my right eye. The pain steadily increases over the next several hours eventually becoming incapacitating. I try to take 2 fioricet (the only medication outside of opiates that I’ve found to be effective) as soon as I confirm the aura is real and not just a bit of blurry vision (this is in itself quite an issue as it can be hard to tell sometimes and I wonder if I’ve triggered migraines by working myself into a tizzy out of fear of dealing with the pain). Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s always tricky with meds to tell if they are working because you don’t dare skip them to see lest you end up suffering for hours on end.

The pain feels like it starts at a point behind my right eye and travels straight back into my brain in a sort of football shape. I try to find a quiet dark room and use an ice pack on my forehead and eyes. I usually have the tv or something on to try and distract, otherwise I just sit there thinking about how much pain I’m in. The hope is the fioricet etc helps with sleep which is really the best way to get through.

I was accepted into our states medical marijuana program for migraines and it has definitely seemed to reduce frequency. Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t help me at all once a migraine hits.

The migraine will typically last 8-12 hours or hopefully will be gone by the time I wake up if I’m able to fall asleep. However, for the following 1.5-2 days I’m extremely groggy and feel almost hungover without the usual hangover sickness. If I cough or strain in any way, I will feel pain in the football shape where the migraine pain was. Eventually this will fade over several days.

Anyway, here’s to hoping we can eventually figure this one out. I wouldn’t wish migraines on anyone.

Have you already examined if it’s diet related? I’m thinking about a histamine intolerance.

A few of the putative anti-migraine drugs are antihistamines. (Esp. H3 and H4.) But there's still no evidence they actually work.

Relating anything to diet is somewhat silly at this point as there's enough cases with wildly varying diets. It's a great way to sell a quack treatment though.

> If you have ever experienced a migraine,

... do you mean that there are some people who don't ?

They work for some people. Maybe 30%? But they all have significant side effects. One neurologist I went to said he could prescribe me one of two. “One will make you fat and the other will make you stupid” was what he told me. I was in grad school so I told him I could deal with weight but I needed my brain. He told me I would be surprised how many people made the opposite choice.

In the end the one I tried didn’t work for me anyway...