Christy's story - common migraine, no aura

I have been suffering from migraines since I was a child. I remember lying on our couch, curled up in a ball because I felt so sick-pounding head pain, nausea, sensitivity to light and sound. At this time (around 1980), it was not really accepted that children could have migraines. Luckily, we found a doctor who did believe children could have migraines and I got treated. Interestingly, my mother also had migraines, but she did not have the head pain, just the light and sound sensitivity, nausea and vomiting.

As I’ve grown (I’m now in my 30’s), my migraines have changed. Most commonly, my migraines involve stabbing pain over my right eye and in my right forehead, nausea and vomiting, and sensitivity to light, sound and touch. I don’t get a typical aura before a migraine, I just feel “weird”. If I take ibuprofen (a lot, 800mg) at this point, I can arrest the migraine. Unfortunately, I usually wake up in the middle of a full-blown migraine. For those, I have Zomig inhalers-I tried pills but usually ended up throwing them up. I’ve also developed what I call “headband” migraines. In these, the pain is a circle around my head at eyebrow height. When they start, I’m usually not nauseated and light doesn’t bother me. For these, I take Naproxen and an anti-nausea medication. That usually reduces the migraine enough that I can fall asleep and sleep through the migraine. Strangely, I’ve recently developed visual auras of bright flashing lights without having a migraine. I’ve read that this is common, but I’m not quite sure what it means for my migraines.

My migraines usually last for less than a day if I don’t take any medication. The worst part for me is what I call the migraine “hangover”. I get these whether or not I’ve taken any medication. The day after a migraine, I’m slow and clumsy, have trouble thinking quickly and sometimes slur my words. I’m also usually very tired the next day.

I’ve only identified three triggers. The first is my menstrual cycle-my migraines typically fall during a specific part of my cycle. I’ve started taking Frova once daily for those few days to prevent migraines. However, my body seems to have clued into this and now I get migraines a few days after I’ve taken the Frova. The second is red wine. The third is the weather. If the weather drastically changes, I can expect a migraine within a day or two.

My health plan has a special clinic for migraine sufferers, so I’m now under the care of a neurologist. He’s been very aggressive in treating my migraines (prescribing Frova as a preventative medication) and I hope that we will be able to reduce the number of migraines I suffer.

I get migraines once every one to three months. I feel blessed in comparison to those who get them daily or weekly. However, they do affect my life no matter how infrequent they are. It’s not just the pain, nausea and next-day “hangover”. My boss is unfortunately very uneducated when it comes to migraines. He believes that it’s “all in my head” and that a few aspirin should cure my “psychologically-caused headaches”. He also believes that more women suffer from migraines because they can’t stand the pain of what a man would call a “minor” headache. With this attitude, he makes my migraines an even worse experience. When I call in sick with a migraine, I’ve often gone through a lot of agonizing whether or not to miss work, and this just makes the migraine worse. Luckily, I now work with several people who suffer from migraines so I get support from my co-workers.

Overall, I’ve found that it is possible to live with migraines. It’s just hard to live with the attitudes many people have about migraines. I hope that this will one day change, with more research into what causes migraines.