Misery in the Head

Interesting the article doesn't talk about nicotine. Nicotine was my savior from one sided-headaches that accentuated by continued computer and screen abuse.

I have found nicotine to be a major relief and hardly addictive (though this is probably very person-specific, so tread carefully). I could go on for a month without smoking but if I'm working with a computer, I could not pull off more than a couple hours without my vape device close.

Sometimes I wonder if smokers are actually addicted or suffer from other unrelated-pain that makes them reliant on nicotine for relief.

I am now almost certain that acetaldehyde is my migraine trigger. The sources for me included chocolate, alcohol, tomatoes, certain fish and preserved meats, all of which are common sources of acetaldehyde.

I can't always avoid these things, but I can usually avoid combining them, and migraines are now less frequent and a lot milder - unpleasant rather than debilitating.

I have also found that dehydration is a major factor. If I skip breakfast or lunch then I make sure I drink, even if just tea or a large glass of water.

I’m a chronic migraine sufferer. I’ve had them at least since I was five.

I strongly suspect that “migraine” is not a single disease. In fact I suspect that my migraines aren’t all the same thing. The headaches I get now are far different than the ones I got when I was five. Then, I’d get a dual-sided headache followed within an hour by the extreme nausea. Once I threw up I could sleep; the pain would be gone the next day. I was also light sensitive.

When I was a teenager I got a right-sided migraine without nausea or aura every Sunday afternoon at 2:00. You could set your watch by it. Again, I could sleep them off. By that time OTC painkillers that actually worked were a thing, and Motrin also knocked them out.

As an adult, I have no pattern, no nausea, and no aura. And OTC painkillers no longer work, but a rizatriptan plus two Excedrin works like a champ. But now? They’re triggered by poor posture. They start in my neck and end up over one eye but not always the same one. If I try to sleep them off they’re much worse on day two.

My son gets migraines about every third day, and neither the OTC nor the prescription painkillers work very well.

We don’t know what causes migraines. Some but not all can be stopped via interrupting the seratonin cycle. I think a big part of the treatment problem is that the diagnosis is clinical.

So many migraines are triggered by commonly used chemicals that are difficult to remove from our environment. Even if they're sporadically present, it can take hours for them to trigger a migraine, so the association is extremely difficult to draw. Fragrance chemicals are very common triggers, but again, they're very difficult to remove from our lives given their ubiquity and increasing popularity to the point where people can't fathom living without them. One of the worst offenders and most difficult to remove are fragranced dryer sheets. People who use them are virutally never relieved of being exposed from them given that they're in clothes, towels, and bedding, and the chemicals offgas months or years. It's exceedingly difficult to find personal care products that are free of these unnecessary chemicals. And "natural" products like essential oils are common triggers and probably no better.

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.