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I do and I ****ing HATE them, and their incidous nature of the way they come on at the most inconvenient time or place. I consider myself resonably lucky that I am not hospitalised like some are.

If you also get the type I get with the visual disturbances described as an 'aura' and tingly fingers and inability to almost be able to spell your own name or street name.

I have a coupla findings to share. An old guy, nearly 80 , who was a CSIRO researcher who gets same type told me he had a theory diet was a cause. If he ate the skin of a chook the day before BANG , migraine the next day. He has found to swallow a spoon or two of lecithin granules (available in supermarket health food shelves) does the trick and aids a speedy recovery. Glad to say me too ! And my own discovery is with the visaul auras that go on, can fix those with pin hole 'sunglasses. Basically a cheap arse pair of sunnies with reflecto finish and behind is a series of pinholes designed to reduce light into eyeball. I say cheap arse coz that is what the quality looks like and cost me about $80 from overseas and pretty pissed orf to find the cheap arse quality. But they do the trick. Were not bought for this in mind, just a discovery of mine.


http://www.pinholeglasses.org/

Yeah I've been getting them for the last 35yrs but mainly they are caused by stress & pretty rare though I've had 2 in the last couple of weeks, I can go for years without one then bang..........I usually get about a 5min warning when things I look at have a blind spot, provided I gulp 3 panadine or 1 panadine forte they are usually pretty mild & go without any pain within about 30-40min, I just get the squiggles in the eyes, best to stay in a dark environment.

I've had them since high school and I'm 53, I get the squiggly lines and blind spots before hand, then used to vomit like crazy and then the headache. I don't get as sick as much now but still get the loss of vision and usually feel like crap for the rest of the day. Headache is not as bad as it used to be and usually can't stop yawning. I go home sick from work and sleep for hours.

Now causes:- I went into this a fair bit when I was younger. For me these days its late nights and lack of sleep and yes, stress.

But a doctor told me years ago that diet does play a role and you may like to avoid, Red Wine, Chocolate and anything with MSG (Monosodium glutamate MSG) in it. As I understand, it is a minor stroke as such, so don't take it lightly. And don't forget the panadol tablets.

So for me, when it comes, that's it the days over for me. Head home, have a couple of panadol, into bed in a darkened room and sleep it off. Good luck with it. Oh, and my mother and sister got them too.,

I've found that Codeine helps a lot more than paracetamol hence "Panadine" it's in my family too but I'm the only one not allergic to Codeine lol.

We are the supposed 1% that get the auras, but prefer the description as squiggly or blank spots in the vision. It is like the centre of the vision is hiding and the surrounds just blend in to make things look odd. I can go 18 months without one too. Tense shoulder/neck muscles seem to have a relationship. You two would get some real benefit from the pinholes. There is also a technique on a CD that plays binaural beats called headache release (google it) I have missed results from listening to the weird tones. Swear by the lecithin granules from any health food shelves. It is yellow after a colour change from dark goop colour, tastes neutral and keps in the fridge for long life. And in my case too, hereditary from my ma and her Dad. I hate the mini stroke description (scary stuff) and treat with respect

For the past ten years my fix has been a pair of panadols. Disprin and Vegenan used to make me puke real hard and the following day my head felt as if the 'internal kernal' had a delayed reaction when turning head, like there was some free play in there

Here is a fair bit about migraines from Dr Carole Hungerford on the Greg Carey Morning show on 4bc Brisbane a couple of days ago. The link is to an audio file. Should be some good information here for you.

http://www.4bc.com.au/Mornings

then click on the link to "Migraine Enigma"

I get them, sometimes with the vision changes sometimes not.
Sometimes no warning, sometimes I actually start going crosseyed.
They ALWAYS hurt like hell, make me photosensitive to extremes and
Panadine is the medication of choice for me too. That, and sitting in the dark with my head in my hands, cursing the universe for being so damn loud.

i suffer from this as well. in fact today i had to come home from work due to it.

i get the funny vision, as well, but i also get pins and needles in my arms and legs, and whop daddy dizzy spells. i dont get them often but they do come and i hate them i do want it to stop. usually i just go home and sleep the rest of the day, wake up and feel like shit for the rest of the day and sometimes into the next day.

ive tried a lot of things..nothing has every worked for me. just have to wait it out. which means it interferes with my life


dave

I've got my hand up too. I get them occasionally - usually about twice a year until I lost my sunnies, then they came frequently - every couple of weeks. Since getting new sunnies they have subsided but still more frequent than they were previously. My usual triggers were lack of sleep, dehydration and too much chocolate, usually two or more of the three there in some sort of combination... Being a chocaholic doesnt' help at times either.

My first sign or on set is my vision - usually I have a part of my vision that will go blurry, sometimes its hard to detect. Most of the time this blurry area is red as well, it sorta rolls over on itself into white and can be a small area of my sight or a large area. If I get some panadol into me then I'll be fine most of the time. If not I get the thumping headache, need a dark room that's quiet and a pot load of sleep.

The last three or four that I've had ended up with me not being able to sleep - it felt better to move around in the bed than to sit still. All of these occasions saw me over the toilet bowl, after which I'd feel better but still under a migraine effect, I'd be able to sleep after this and be ok the next day. On one of these occasions I ran out of options and was taken to emergency, sat around in a bright white room for 4 hours waiting for a doc, by the time I saw one I was feeling a bit better. He gave me some Codine for next time in the form of Panamax or something like it. That works a treat but two tablets will knock me out.

I also get these niggling little headaches when I wake up on a regular basis, they're not that bad that I need a panadol, I can't pin point them the night before and have not found anything that solves them until:

On the kokoda track I got the start of a migraine during the first day hiking! I had drunk 3 litres of water already. I took 2 panadol that took the edge off it but didn't rub it out - I thought I may have been over-reacting so upped my water intake before having the panadol. I spoke to my group leader later on who suggested that my body was after salts instead of the water. A bit of gatoraide sorted me out with the niggling headaches and helped with the miagraine that night.

Ever since getting back from the trek I've been having some gatoraide when I feel it necessary and have not seen one of these niggling headaches hanging around for the day. I'm in the process of 'fine tuning' a sorta dosage for me to work with. Before this I had not heard of salts being a fix for it. I recently met another person who has the same migraine problem with lack of salts...

I've also recently heard that coffee can help some migraine sufferers - coffee constricts blood vessels thus reducing blood flow to areas of the body. This effect can help some people by constricting the blood vessels in the brain, as you should know, Migraines are caused by too much blood to the brain for some reason - this reason for the extra blood flow changes between different people.

If you're not a migraine sufferer I don't believe you can fully understand how crippling this condition can be at times when it strikes. I'm not having a stab at you, I'm just saying this as I've got mates who believe that it 'can't be all that bad'...

A very good topic to talk about and share ideas with others to try out.

Cheers

Bennie

PS I hate migraines too!

My Dr prescribed me Summatriptan Succinate Tablets. I was shocked that they actually worked for me. I get tunnel vision in my left eye when they start coming on.

nipper

Honestly, ditch the panadol & get panadine it works so much faster, not too sure about the coffee thing as I used to drink a lot of coffee & coke, haven't had any for about 2yrs because caffeine gives me bad heart palpitations (another subject lol) god I miss it, and I've noticed no difference in frequency.........From the old hypo hahaha.

The salts thing - electrolytes - need to be aware you can overdo the salts thing too, work out a balance, dunno how you measure this though before your guts salt up, or the carotid artery or the bits in your kernel. I do keep powdered gatorade for assisting recovery when I remember the dehydration aspect - bad at that too at times. Interesting the description of tunnel vision in one eye - that may be peripheral vision shutting down. I too notice a better view of the world with just one eye when the vision goes to crap. Drove 160km up through mountain country with one eye shut and good sunnies watching the guide posts when one struck me down the coast - got some fatty chips into me (food) and came good soon after.

TRY THOSE PINHOLES ! even maybe a sign writer (vinyl applicator) may have some perforated vinyl to apply to inside cheap sunnies to try.

Yeah I've thought about the 'over salting' issue - my family has a history of heart conditions I haven't tried the fatty food session, I thought that'd be worse for me. I have found since going for the gatoraide that when ever I'm craving chocolate its better for me to have some gatoraide - there must be something in the chocolate that I need and my body craves - and that its from chocolate that I've become used to getting it from...

And the coffee thing, its not for everyone and I don't think it'll work if you're an everyday drinker of coffee...

Cheers

Bennie