I just realized I have been having MIGRAINES for the past 35 years.

[kestrel91316]

I always have had bad headaches, but for some reason or another decided they couldn't possibly be migraines. No nausea. No spending the day in bed. Just misery at random times, especially in hot smoggy weather (I called them "smog headaches").

Twice over the past 8 years I have had weird visual disturbances unaccompanied by headaches. Then yesterday I had another of the visual disturbances followed by a killer headache. So I actually for the FIRST TIME, lol, looked this stuff up on the internet. What I have been experiencing is apparently classical migraine auras with the shimmery multicolor expanding thingey in my field of vision.

It just seems funny to realize that it all fits the picture now that I am paying attention. Most of my headaches are at a particular time in my hormonal cycle. This one, not so.

[Warpy]

1. My mother noticed I was getting them when I was four

because there were times I'd look for a dark place and stay there motionless, sometimes with my hands over my ears, for hours. She knew enough to look for them because everybody in my dad's family inherited the suckers.

I've never had the nausea, either, although they end with a bout of green apple quick step from time to time.

Basically, any headache that occurs on only one side of the head at a time should be suspect, especially if there are visual, speech, hearing, or motor disturbances before and/or nausea during or after. Most people who get them are incredibly sensitive to light and sound during them.

There are treatments now that can either abort a headache as it's beginning or stop one that's established.

[kestrel91316]

4. Fortunately mine tend to be quite responsive to Aleve (naproxen)

IF I make a point of treating at the first sign. This one, I didn't take anything for a couple/three hours. I was clinically observing what was going on and didn't want to interfere with the process, lol.

It's still slightly lingering even today. I strongly suspect a combination of MSG (miso soup packet), chocolate, and kippered herring over about 24 hours led to it. Plus weather change - it got hot.

[JerseygirlCT]

13. Seasonal changes can get me big-time - just one big long

headache for nearly a week as the colder weather sets in.

If you think hormones are triggering, I'm not surprised that an NSAID helps. Advil helped me, too, before I was told I could no longer take any NSAIDs. I think I remember reading that they effect the hormones if you take them prophylacticly at the right time.

[hedgehog]

7. My daughter got one when she was about 1 1/2 or 2.

She was being fussy and tried to throw a tantrum. That triggered a migraine that caused real pain. Her fussing changed tone and she held her hands to her head.

That's the last tantrum she ever had!

[ThomCat]

2. I'm very, very sorry. Migraines suck!

The only good news is that it seems like diet triggers a whole lot of migraines, so if you can trace the timing of the headaches to anything you ate then you can prevent them.

So far I've figured out that I can't eat anything with Sorbitol, Polysorbate 80, and Potasium Sorbate as ingredients. Those things always trigger my headaches.

[kestrel91316]

5. I think MSG in some instant miso soup plus soy sauce plus chocolate

plus kippered herring (all too close together, and all on "the list") are what did it. I'm still not quite feeling 100% normal. It was a doozy.

[sandnsea]

3. I guess I have a constant tension 'headache'

I don't have any pain, thank god, just tension in my temples, on top of my head, in my face. Doctor said it's a tension headache and prescribed me some medication. We shall see. I've had this so long I don't remember what it's like to not have it. She also said my memory lapses are normal, so I guess I'll quit worrying about that too. It would sure be nice to feel normal again.

I used to get cluster headaches in my eye. I only got them when the barometric pressure changed. That was miserable. Especially on the Oregon Coast when the weather changes once a week. Glad those things are gone. Maybe menopause took them away, never thought about them being related to hormones.

Do you think people had to live with all this crap 500 years ago? Sometimes I feel like such a baby when I read some history and think about what women had to endure in the past. Can you imagine having 16 kids?? Yikes.

[kestrel91316]

6. I blame our diet of highly processed foods for a lot of our health problems.

Back in the day, women with any say in matters spaced their kids through use of breast-feeding's ability to suppress ovulation. I have done genealogical research on my family way back in 1600s and 1700s New England and they had lots of kids, but they always seemed to come at least 2 years apart.

[kimmerspixelated]

10. My friends, everything is really nutritionally triggered.

When I get them they are hormonal, but I never miss a day without a Magnesium supplement and it has cut my frequency and intensity way down. The less chemicals in your diet-the better. I know-it's hard to always eat healthy!

[hyphenate]

8. I just saw an article on this subject today

and thought of this thread!

http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/news/20071119/migraine-sufferers-have-different-brains

I've always thought my own headaches were tension ones, but on talking with a doctor realised I was having auras without headaches a lot of the time--one of my heart medications, propranolol, was keeping the headaches themselves down, but it wasn't getting rid of the visual disturbances. When we discussed it, it made perfect sense, finally!

[fed-up]

9. I had first migraine w/aura 15 Y ago. Then last April had about 15 in a few months time

w/out the headache. I was in the beginning of packing to move and was doing a lot of lifting of boxes. Combine that with my degenerative, bulging spurred, arthritic discs and something must have been putting too much pressure on just the right nerve. Each episode lasted about 15-20 minutes. I did NOT have a headache except for the very first one 15 years ago. It got so that I could tell that if my neck felt "out" just a certain way I could be sure that the migraine aura would follow. That saved me a few times as I then chose to stay in the store or just wait in my car before driving. My biggest fear was that I would be driving and one would come on. So far that hasn't happened.

I finally figured out that if I layed (or is it laid?) on the floor on my back with a towel rolled under my neck and rolled my eyes to the top of my head I could ease the zig-zaggy flashing circular images that I was seeing w/eyes opened and closed.

The ones from last year finally went away, but just had another episode a few weeks ago.

[OnionPatch]

11. I realized something similar recently.

I had the classic migraines, the kind with the visual disturbance or the "zig-zag spots" when I was a teenager. Then I didn't get that kind again until I started into menopause. But I had very many of what I thought were sinus headaches during all those years in between. They felt like a throbbing spike behind one eye. I never related them to migraines because I didn't get the visual disturbance before them. But last year I got one and my sister talked me into trying one of my migraine pills that I had for the classic migraines I have been getting again. I was amazed. It stopped the headache cold when it would normally have lasted about eight hours. I assume that since the migraine medicine works on them, they must be migraines. Those meds only work on vascular headaches, right? Also, I found this article that says 97% of people who think they have sinus headaches actually have migraines. http://headaches.about.com/cs/diagnosis/a/sinus_migr.htm so I'm pretty sure they were migraines all those years. Wish I had known. I could have dealt with them more effectively.

Anyway, glad you found out, too. It really helps to know what you're dealing with. Good luck with them. I hope you find relief.

[JerseygirlCT]

12. I've had a doctor say that really, they're not that concerned with

classifying the headaches anymore. That "migraine" could be a much more wider dx than was thought: no aura, aura, one side or both, etc.

Hopefully you can find some help though. Some of the migraine meds can do wonders at times!