Wellness

[Shelbelle]

My friend and my DH are both still suffering after about 40 or more years, both are near 70 now. 

[Carmie]

My mother suffered from migraines. Then, one of my brothers and I started to get them at an early age.  

When I was in 7th grade, I remember my mother having to come to the school to pick me up because I lost conscience because of a migraine.

I had them most of my life. My children do not get them, but one of my granddaughters does.  She has been suffering with them for years and she is 15 now. They cause her to miss school a lot.  Her father, my SIL gets them too. 

My SIL thinks his are triggered by food.  My granddaughter will get them if she does not stay hydrated.  She by doctors orders must carry water with her and drink all lady long, but she gets them at other times too.

I think mine are inherited. I  would get them often and there was no pattern or cause that I could find.

As I have gotten older, they are less frequent and are more mild.  I haven't had one for a while.  The last really big one I had was while I was stuck on a plane on the tarmac for hours and there was no AC. It got hot in there in the middle of the afternoon.  It was not a good experience at all.  Maybe that one was caused by heat, dehydration and stress?

I was so sick I couldn't make the next connecting flight.  The airline hired a cab at their expense to drive me to the BWI airport from an airport in Virginia. They wouldn't let me on the plane while I was that sick.

I don't miss those days at all.  My final answer, in my case, the older I got my migraines were more milder and less frequent.

[sweetee2]

I started with migraines when I was about 14. My Mother had them also. She would tell me to chew 3 Aspirin and drink warm water. She would say the faster you get the Aspirin in your system  you would have no pain because Aspirin thins your blood. That worked for me.

At age 46 my Dr. found a mass growing over my heart.  From the test they found a hole in my heart also. At the same time I read a article in a magazine say that Dr.s had found out a hole in your heart, which is very common  can cause migraines. So I asked my Dr. if while he was there he could fix the hole which they did. I never had a migraine after that until husband retired a year ago.

[ItsME]

@sfnative   I had a couple other thoughts....  I'm very allergic to too many things, and overly sensitive to many others.  I'm another one who can't tolerate caffeine, for example.   

Are you taking any medicines that could be causing some of your migraines?  Years ago I was put on Singulair for allergies.  After a month on the drug, I developed the worst headache of my life.   It was massive.  I thought it was a bad migraine, even though it wasn't like my standard migraine.  My migraine meds didn't help. After a miserable week, I went to the doctor.  She told me to stop the Singulair.  Bingo!   

[sfnative]

@catter70 

Thanks so much for sharing your experience.  I recall very well when the injectable Imitrex was first released and the cost involved.  I'm so very sorry that it was cost prohibitive for you, but am glad that your migraines subsided later on in life.

Though I was able to try out the injectable form of Imitrex, it did nothing to mitigate my migraines, which puzzled my doc.  Now fast forward to 2 years ago, when I started using the Imitrex nose spray.  Boy, oh boy, am I a happy camper!  Works like a charm.

Hope you're holding up OK through all that's going on.

[sfnative]

@LindaSal 

Really sorry to hear that members of your family are plagued with migraine.  Such is the same in my family as well.  It is the curse of a migraine gene, for sure, or another gene relative to the vascular system in the brain.

[sfnative]

@Shelbelle 

Thank you so much for sharing your information, especially so, as it includes your poor husband.  I'm closing in on 40 years duration, so your information is of great interest. 

When the input slows, then stops, I'm going to collect then qualify all of this information, then present it to my Neuro-Headache specialist in June as a "Migraine Survey."  Am hoping to receive more input.

Thanks, again!

[sfnative]

@Carmie 

Hi Carmie,

I'm really sorry to hear about your migraine history, but can tell you that you and I are in the same bucket, as my first migraine was a doozy and I was unconscious for 2 days and in the hospital for just shy of a week.

Your 15 year old granddaughter...this is such a challenge, as laws prohibit the dispensing of drugs to "underage children" which would really help.  We've been through this with close friends with a teen and I've been through this since 1984 trying to find ANY trigger at all.  I did know that heat was a huge trigger, as was not eating on time (low blood sugar).  However, it wasn't until "LLT" or "Loves to Teach" here on the forums highly suggested that I focus on food INGREDIENTS like modified food starch, modified "anything," and so on in the ingredients list that I found in 2017 the beginning of being able to control the number of migraines I had (until I started to have migraines on the right side and forehead).

I had already done the food elimination thing to no avail as requested by 3 migraine docs over the years.  Thing is not one of them ever mentioned taking a look at ingredients.  So, when LTT suggested I start to eliminate modified food starches of any kind, including modified soy, modified protein, BAM!, in 2018 I was eliminating 80% of my migraines.

Also, and shortly after that, my neuro prescribed Imitrex nasal spray, which has been a wonder for me.  Just read the package insert, which is quite lengthy.  It is not recommended for children under the age of 18, which is par for the course.  Summit Biosciences, which manufactures the drug, completed two small clinical trials in teens 12 to 17, the results of which were inconclusive.  I hope that when your granddaughter reaches 18, she can qualify for the Nasal spray Imitrex (costs me $5), but perhaps can also qualify for Botox - great long-term treatmentwith Botox, I had 2 years migrain free, before developing a tolerance to it.

Thanks so much for sharing you and your family's history.  I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to summarize your experiences.

[sfnative]

@sweetee2 

Thanks so much for sharing your rather dreadful experiences.  My goodness!  I'm so sorry you had to go through heart surgery - exterior and interior.  The ductus arteriosus (hole between chambers) is not uncommon.  Have never heard that the condition would cause migraine, though it is responsible for compromised oxygen levels, so that might have been your extenuating circumstance.

Having your world free of migraine, only to have it come crashing down upon you at the time of your husband's retirement...I can sympathize 100 times over.  I'm not going into details, but my husband is impossible, drinking, foul-mouthed and discourteous in the extreme, since we're in the same house after retirement.

I do hope that you've a decent neuro or headache doc and that you've also at least one rescue med which works.  The Imitrex nasal spray has been wonderful for me and costs $5 per box at Costco for my refills.

I'll be thinking about you.  Take care.

[sfnative]

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@ItsME wrote:

@sfnative   I had a couple other thoughts....  I'm very allergic to too many things, and overly sensitive to many others.  I'm another one who can't tolerate caffeine, for example.   

Are you taking any medicines that could be causing some of your migraines?  Years ago I was put on Singulair for allergies.  After a month on the drug, I developed the worst headache of my life.   It was massive.  I thought it was a bad migraine, even though it wasn't like my standard migraine.  My migraine meds didn't help. After a miserable week, I went to the doctor.  She told me to stop the Singulair.  Bingo!   

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@ItsME 

Hi ItsME,

Thanks for getting back to me.  I'm unable to tolerate caffeine either.  On occasion, I've been given a caffeinated drink in error and when the caffeine hits, my body feels very weird.  It's hard to explain, but I have an overall feeling of being very unwell.  Plus, nowadays, my heart starts throwing massive PVCs...so not good.

I've had some really great docs over the years and we've been able to keep close tabs on my meds.  It's only been in the last 10 years that I've come up allergic to anything at all.  And, just in the last 3 years that tree pollen has created massive sinus issues. 

Your points are very well taken - especially as regards when I developed the right forehead headache - I was asking myself those questions and trying to make connections, but could make no connection whatsoever.  Extremely frustrating.  These are reasons why I started this thread, really, plus my curiosity re age-related migraine status.

Again, I very much appreciate the fact that you came back with additional questions and information. XXX