This is not a tale of woe but rather a tale of weird, definitely my preference.
The first migraine you ever get will demolish you as I remember, when I was about seventeen, waking after somehow getting some sleep with a blazing headache and the headache was still there. That will spook you. They don't come to everyone and you can go off to play Web Doctor about it but I don't. Here's a generic description of Aura Migraine from Excedrin.
Note: I never use anything for pain relief other than Extra-Strength Bayer aspirin. It's 500 mg of aspirin per tablet and there are no modern magic chemicals added to the mix.
Headache medicine which doesn't work: Tylenol doesn't do much of anything. Paracetamol is widely used in England and it also doesn't work. As I discovered later, Paracetamol is only another name for Acetaminophen, the same active ingredient in Tylenol. Ibuprofen and similar have little effect either. For my own situation, if pain is worth medicine then it's worth aspirin and it's not then it's not worth doing anything. That's not from being a tough guy but rather the others are suspect relative to aspirin which is a naturally-occurring compound.
In some cases, caffeine will increase the therapeutic effect from aspirin and possibly other types of pain relievers. For migraine this next struck me as a bad idea because the number one best thing for fighting migraines is sleep.
Reefer is not likely to help once the migraine is in-motion but there may be some benefit from Klonopin although that's an exceptionally risky drug due to the speed one will develop tolerance to it.
The aura is an exceptionally strange thing as it's described by the Excedrin people as arriving maybe twenty minutes or so before the migraine hits. That's not even close to how it works with me.
The aura starts as a little flickering in which my vision is a pool with no ripples but then something drops a pebble into it. That is the immediate warning to get into some Jedi warrior stuff, focus, focus ... on anything which was not your focus previously.
If I don't stop, the aura will grow from a disturbance to an arc across my vision which looks like a snake of triangular diamonds, all of which are shimmering and not quite distinct. If I still don't stop, the snake will disturb my vision so much that I cannot drive or do much of anything. Thinking gets scrambled in other ways as well, like walking in mud or so. This made for an unusual situation at work as I learned over time, whatever you are doing you must stop right now. Find quiet and dark immediately. I could tell colleagues I need to split, I can't see very well but that doesn't make any sense to someone hearing it because there's no sign anything is unusual.
The reason for writing is the aura comes frequently and sometimes several times in a day but the blow-your-head-off migraine does not. As soon as the aura comes, I start belting down aspirin, 1000 mg at a time and I will continue for as long as the situation persists, sometimes to the point of the aspirin making my body nauseated in other ways but it still holds its therapeutic action against headache.
The major variable other than the aspirin is to immediately stop what I am doing. That doesn't mean do something else but rather find quiet and dark and get to soothing the situation a bit. Tiredness has a large effect on it as does general stress. Get dark, get quiet, get cool. Hopefully blessed sleep will come.
There is no medical advice as I only relate what I do and only because it's significantly different from the way medical people say this is supposed to work. I have no mistrust of medical people, it's only that my situation is different for whatever reason. I've also noticed it is sometimes possible to 'ride it out' and that, in part, is what the "Ride the Dragon" song tells.
Doctors have various drugs specifically to help with migraine. I don't know how well they work as I've never used them. I do know this way usually prevents the migraine but I can't explain why the aura time is much longer with me than is described elsewhere. I'm frequently stoned but I don't like being wasted and this is remarkable because it may have some bearing on the symptoms.
This approach is not always effective. If the migraine comes, it will be days before things settle. No need for that description as you know how it goes. What's important is to try to prevent it from coming and the way I've been doing it, for quite a few years, usually works.
The first migraine you ever get will demolish you as I remember, when I was about seventeen, waking after somehow getting some sleep with a blazing headache and the headache was still there. That will spook you. They don't come to everyone and you can go off to play Web Doctor about it but I don't. Here's a generic description of Aura Migraine from Excedrin.
Note: I never use anything for pain relief other than Extra-Strength Bayer aspirin. It's 500 mg of aspirin per tablet and there are no modern magic chemicals added to the mix.
Headache medicine which doesn't work: Tylenol doesn't do much of anything. Paracetamol is widely used in England and it also doesn't work. As I discovered later, Paracetamol is only another name for Acetaminophen, the same active ingredient in Tylenol. Ibuprofen and similar have little effect either. For my own situation, if pain is worth medicine then it's worth aspirin and it's not then it's not worth doing anything. That's not from being a tough guy but rather the others are suspect relative to aspirin which is a naturally-occurring compound.
In some cases, caffeine will increase the therapeutic effect from aspirin and possibly other types of pain relievers. For migraine this next struck me as a bad idea because the number one best thing for fighting migraines is sleep.
Reefer is not likely to help once the migraine is in-motion but there may be some benefit from Klonopin although that's an exceptionally risky drug due to the speed one will develop tolerance to it.
The aura is an exceptionally strange thing as it's described by the Excedrin people as arriving maybe twenty minutes or so before the migraine hits. That's not even close to how it works with me.
The aura starts as a little flickering in which my vision is a pool with no ripples but then something drops a pebble into it. That is the immediate warning to get into some Jedi warrior stuff, focus, focus ... on anything which was not your focus previously.
If I don't stop, the aura will grow from a disturbance to an arc across my vision which looks like a snake of triangular diamonds, all of which are shimmering and not quite distinct. If I still don't stop, the snake will disturb my vision so much that I cannot drive or do much of anything. Thinking gets scrambled in other ways as well, like walking in mud or so. This made for an unusual situation at work as I learned over time, whatever you are doing you must stop right now. Find quiet and dark immediately. I could tell colleagues I need to split, I can't see very well but that doesn't make any sense to someone hearing it because there's no sign anything is unusual.
The reason for writing is the aura comes frequently and sometimes several times in a day but the blow-your-head-off migraine does not. As soon as the aura comes, I start belting down aspirin, 1000 mg at a time and I will continue for as long as the situation persists, sometimes to the point of the aspirin making my body nauseated in other ways but it still holds its therapeutic action against headache.
The major variable other than the aspirin is to immediately stop what I am doing. That doesn't mean do something else but rather find quiet and dark and get to soothing the situation a bit. Tiredness has a large effect on it as does general stress. Get dark, get quiet, get cool. Hopefully blessed sleep will come.
There is no medical advice as I only relate what I do and only because it's significantly different from the way medical people say this is supposed to work. I have no mistrust of medical people, it's only that my situation is different for whatever reason. I've also noticed it is sometimes possible to 'ride it out' and that, in part, is what the "Ride the Dragon" song tells.
Doctors have various drugs specifically to help with migraine. I don't know how well they work as I've never used them. I do know this way usually prevents the migraine but I can't explain why the aura time is much longer with me than is described elsewhere. I'm frequently stoned but I don't like being wasted and this is remarkable because it may have some bearing on the symptoms.
This approach is not always effective. If the migraine comes, it will be days before things settle. No need for that description as you know how it goes. What's important is to try to prevent it from coming and the way I've been doing it, for quite a few years, usually works.
2 comments:
immitrex works well to stop a migraine before it gets going
Maxalt works well if it is too late for immitrex
Aspirin is fine if you enjoy migraines but surely wont change the outcome much
For me, what I listed is sufficient to manage it most of the time. There was exactly that situation this morning as it happens quite a bit. Had only just got up and the visual starts to whack out. Immediate 1000 mg of aspirin. Took a tok or two off a bowl. Visuals kept getting worse and I went outside to hang with the animals. After sometime, maybe 30-40 minutes, the visuals started subsiding. There is still a background headache but not the Doc Watson kind. I can't explain why they still seem to play differently for me as no question of the aura and also no question of the bury you headache which may come but for me, so long as I play it right, probably won't.
I'm not sure if this is accurate but I don't think everyone gets the aura part before the migraine but I am sure there are different classes of them. For me, this way works but it may not work everyone. If not the medications you have listed should provide a good start.
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