Headaches vs. Migraines

Coded Logic

A while back a coworker was telling me she had a migraine in the morning and had to take some aspirin before coming to work. I was like, "Yeah, that wasn't a migraine dear. That was just a headache. If you had a migraine aspirin wouldn't do a thing and you sure as hell wouldn't be at work."

I get them 9-10 a year and I'm surprised at how often friends and co-workers think I just mean "bad headache" when I say I had migraine. It'd be equivalent to thinking that pancreatitis is just a "bad stomach ache". Not quite the same thing.

If you haven't had a migraine before consider yourself fortunate - the pain is utterly debilitating. And I don't mean "debilitating" as in this is really hard now - I mean "debilitating" as in stop you dead in your tracks thinking oh my goodness I'm going to die kind of debilitating. If you've ever had a brain freeze from drinking something cold too fast or eating ice cream too quickly than you already have some understanding the kind of pain I'm talking about. The only difference being that migraines doesn't last four or five seconds - but rather 8-14 hours. And if you can find a quite dark place to lay perfectly still - and I mean PERFECTLY still - the pain is bearable. Sit up - the pain is right back. Reach for the water on your night stand - the pain is right back. So much as cough - and the pain is right back. Add onto that some serious nausea, hyper sensitivity to light, and the weird aura vision - and you've got yourself a full blown migraine.

Anybody else get migraines regularly? And do you have any tips on how to manage pain or prevent them?

zeb

Migraine ! I get them rarely apx 1a year and have to have injections to lay me out.

You are dead right about the need for quiet, dark and no noise.

When I get them its like a 'Tek' screw being driven into my forehead.

I feel it coming on and I know its not an end of the day headache and I have to get to the doctors quickly.

Amelia Ashton

Coded Logic that is the exact description of my migraines. Lying down in a dark room motionless is the only option and even when the migraine has gone I could feel fragile for a further couple of days.

I used to get them a lot when I was younger and they were hormone related but now as a "mature" woman past child bearing age they have thankfully stopped. They were completely debilitating though but if someone can take an aspirin and it leave in 20 minutes that wasn't the kind of migraine familiar to me and I am thankful that person is recovered and not experiencing what I did.

notsurewheretogo

Indeed....I hate when people say "just pop a pill and carry on".

When I get a migraine I am completely destroyed for 3-5 days...I can't move, I can't function, I can't eat or drink, I simply lay in bed with a cold towel on my head, in darkness and vomit...I get a headache but that is nothing...the worse part is simply feeling so unwell you cannot do anything but try and sleep and wait for it to go. The weird blinding lights are very strange but that was always my first symptom it was coming so I was thankful for that since I could then prepare.

Suicidal headaches is what they are...I missed the birth of my daughter because I was having a migraine...thankfully my wife knew how bad I was and told the rest of the family to leave me alone to suffer as they were trying to get me out of bed...

Thankfully, I have not had one in 3 years...they just disappeared...they say it can come and go but I got my first one when I was 35...had them for 2 years with one every two weeks then they just stopped.

EVERYBODY who gets proper migraines has my deepest empathy...they were by far the worst thing I have ever suffered in my life.

The usual cure docs like to offer is betablockers and for a while it did calm down my frequency of them but then I tried an older betablocker called Pziofen and that worked a lot better!

Rizatripans also work to keep one under control if you feel one coming on, I got these just before they stopped but they did reduce the awfulness of them...but if you take too many too frequently they can actually bring on migraines.

jhine

Ditto what y'all have said .

Jan

rebelfighter

I have had migraines my entire life the crazy thing is even with my head pounding out of control I would continue to work. About 5 years ago the doctor had me log my headaches and it was found that I was actually having as many as 20 migraines a month.

The doctors finally started me on a preventative which most people take 25 to 50 MG to control their migraines to bring my migraines under control the dosage over the years has been raised to 350 mg.

As you say it puts you to bed in pain mine never did this. The doctor at John Hopkins explained migraines will take different forms and since I suffered from them for 40 years I had learned to deal with the pain but what was getting bad 5 years ago it started to effect the nerve endings in my face. All the nerve endings were getting very sensitive whenever a migraine came on. It got to the point that I had to take pain killers just to take a shower because I could not tolerate water touching my face or head. Trying to brush my hair was next to impossible even putting on makeup became unbearable. Once they got my headaches under control the nerve endings were no longer sensitive.

My migraines do not make me throw up but when I get migraines it is weeks before I can tolerate the smell or taste of food. I just have to force myself to eat.

notsurewheretogo

I have had migraines my entire life the crazy thing is even with my head pounding out of control I would continue to work.

That sounds just as awful and I appreciate migraines affect people differently but the fact you are not vomiting or not having nausea or not have to lie down suggests to me yours is something different to a standard migraine...if I had 20 migraines a month I would be dead.

Learn to deal with the pain? Again it sounds something different as you simply cannot function at all with a what I call the standard common migraine.

What was the medicine you were prescribed?

Witness My Fury

Like most things there are many levels not just one (or cranked to 11 in your cases).

I'm a bloke and i get them occasionally. I dont get them bad but the visual pulsing with checker board squiggles in the visual periphery and the dull throbbing headache and nausea that can last from 5 minutes to several hours are so obviously different to a normal headache.

So if you are saying that because i am not incapacitated for several days it's not a migraine then you are wrong. Just sayin'.

notsurewheretogo

Like most things there are many levels not just one (or cranked to 11 in your cases).
I'm a bloke and i get them occasionally. I dont get them bad but the visual pulsing with checker board squiggles in the visual periphery and the dull throbbing headache and nausea that can last from 5 minutes to several hours are so obviously different to a normal headache.
So if you are saying that because i am not incapacitated for several days it's not a migraine then you are wrong. Just sayin'.

I agree with you...there are many levels...but as you say you get the nausea, the weird visual thing and the headache...I've had migraines like that too that do not require me to go to bed but then others have been stronger.

But the poster above doesn't get the visual thing, the nausea and just gets a headache...and at twenty a month that is excessive and yet not one required bed...

To me that suggests it is something else but could just be a different form of migraine for sure...

The point is, whether they are minor or major...I hate them with a passion!

James Mixon

A few years back the wife had migraine really bad now she take B.C. tablets, knocks it

out in no time. My grandmother took those years ago. Nothing on the market work as

well as that powder. Migraine or throbbing headaches it kick ass..

Headaches vs. Migraines

Share this