Somebody cut off my head?

Thanks!

Yeah, did Elavil for a long time, then got switched to Trazodone because it had fewer side effects (no weight gain or dry mouth). Topamax didn't work for me, made me want to crawl out of my skin--was not a fun time! lol

Ah well, so far today it's just a feeling of dull pain/pressure on one side of my head. Makes it a good day!

Caryn

That's what I said, "depends on how bad".

Mine get blinding (but fortunately I'm a touch typist, so I can close my eyes), but I don't know that I've ever had one that resulted in throwing up UNLESS I was fool enough to try eating while I had the headache.

The only thing that goes in when I have a headache is hot liquids.

I'm with Pat to some extent on this. I've had "manageable" migraines - that are on the edge - when I can still functionthru, but I'm miserable. However

- I've also had the doesn't matter how cgood a touch typist you are - you can't be in light, or with sounds around you. And nausea is a standard symptom of migraines. It is one of the differential diagnosis tools - as in are you having a stress headache, or one caused by something else versus a migraine. For many people - nausea is a forewarning of a migraine, as are flashers and floaters. The nausea has nothing to do with what you may have eaten, but has to do with the physiology of the migraine.

So, while I don't doubt your medical woes, or that you've had blinding headaches, I sincerely would believe that you weren't having an extreme, "blinding" migraine and working - touch typist or not.

I've gone to work with migraines - and been clearly not so functional but forced to take care of some things. But never when it's been the what I'd say are the worst of them. Could still be in the midst of one of those multi-day episodes, but not the worst. My officemates, and secretary just had to deal with me saying don't bother me, and my sudden running off to the ladies - because of the nausea. So, having been caught with the spontanesou "got to go be sick now" forepart of a migraine, I can sympathise with Pat's having been there. And anyone else.

Glad that works for you. For some of us - nothing is going down - just sleep in a dark place.

ellice

The days when I'm actually vomitting I stay home, but if it's just the pain and nausea I stumble in to work. The chairman doesn't love it, but somedays I just turn off the lights in the reception area because the removal of a few flourescent tubes isn't enough. Those are the days when I sit as still as I can and do the tasks that a trained monkey could probably handle! lol

Today I'm lucky, the sharp stabbing pains are about 20 mins apart, and the stomach is fairly calm. It helps that I'm drinking Coke which helps settle it, and avoiding food that is bound to upset things.

Caryn

Do you realize how lucky you are to have bosses who don't mind that their receptionist is drinking Coke at her desk while she's writing personal notes on their computer? I could never have gotten away with that at my job.

I also have another innocent question. Doesn't the flickering of the computer screen make your headache unbearable? I know I had major problems with that and I didn't have migraines, just blinding, garden variety sinus headaches.

Lucille

They replaced my flickery monitor with one of those flat screen ones. It's just awesome, doesn't bother me at all.

I'm productive enough that my bosses don't fuss about my taking a moment here and there to type messages. The receptionist before me didn't do squat, so the fact that I'm ultra productive (I will literally beg for stuff to do if I catch up) pleases them greatly.

Caryn

I have a very nice LCD flat screen monitor, but I'm still sometimes annoyed with movement on the screen. Sometimes just fast scrolling, or moving the cursor, is enough to make my head ache.

True, I try not to actually look at it while scrolling. I've also gotten quite good at closing my right eye and working that way. Headache is on right side, and that eye seems most sensitive to light. I've considering getting a pirate type eye patch, to block out all the light to that eye. Thank goodness my left eye is my dominant one!

Caryn

I found that a high glucose drink taken at the first symptom could often ward it off and to this day keep a small bottle of Lucozade in the fridge, just in case. A friend who was a nurse told me that you often get migraines if you`ve allowed your blood sugar level to get too low. Now I`m diabetic, if I wake up in the morning with visual disturbances, I know that I`m heading for a hypo, so it`s logical.

My younger daughter and I were discussing Migraines just now (She seems to get two or three really bad ones a year) and she was telling me how one came on very suddenly during a shoot - and she could do absolutely nothing but crawl under a hedge and go to sleep for a couple of hours!!! ;-)) She had to walk home as she just daren`t get in a car as she knew she`d just throw up.

I was always told to avoid chocolate and cheese, in the years when I suffered from migraines - yet when I felt better after a major one, the one thing I really wanted to eat was bread and cheese!!!

I found that any migraine relief tablets only seemed to postpone it for a couple of days (not very satisfactorily, at that) so in the end I found it was best just to put up with it while it lasted, and retreat to a darkened room with nothing more than soda water.

From what you describe, it just doesn`t sound like a standard migraine, Caryn. The stabbing pains seem to me to be even more like some form of neuralgia.

As for the snarkers - just do what I do and killfile. Better for your bloodpressure.

Pat

How old is your monitor, Lucille? It has been a long time since I've had one with such a slow refresh rate as to have an obvious flicker. There are also inexpensive screen filters available to lessen the effect if you can't afford a newer monitor.

Those blasted blinking ads on various web pages ... that's another story!

My monitor is a fairly new LCD model. My problem is one of extremely sensitive eyes. I had cataract surgery in both eyes which makes for a problem with glare, and I remained nearsighted so I could still read and do close work without glasses. That, plus a problem with nearsighted people not blinking as often as they should, makes for dry eyes and even more sensitivity. I also seem to have eyes that adjust very quickly to changes in light. I'm generally the one to lead the way in a darkened movie theater and sometimes I'm the only one who can see pretty much instantaneously when entering. My friends have accused me of being a cat in disguise.

It is better with this monitor, but cursor movement and scrolling, especially on a busy web page, still presents a problem. But it's a problem I can live with and I try not to make too much of a fuss about something that I can't do much about.

Lucille

The snarker needs a life! lol

The stabbing pains were always a foreshadowing of an inpending migraine. Some folks get auras or other visual cues, I got the sudden stabbing pains.

Caryn

Ah, that makes sense. Do you use artificial tears if you spend much time on the computer? Assuming you are on a Windows machine, check out the Mouse settings on the Control Panel. You can change the behavior of the scroll wheel and the speed at which the cursor moves. Under the Accessibility Options you can change the blink rate of the cursor. Tweaking those things might help a little.

Been there, done that. It does help some, but this is something I've learned to live with.

Lucille

ellice wrote: > nausea is a standard

I only know what my doctor told me, and she told me "if it throbs, it's a migraine, not sinus".

As I said, previous doctors had insisted that they were ALL sinus, and couldn't understand why I said that half the time sinus pills didn't help; she was the first to consider the possibility that there might be two different types.

I won't discount the possibility of misdiagnosis; she was, after all, a PCP and not a headache specialist. What she knows about migraines, she knows because she has them herself.

But, you do what you have to do, and if they call you into work when you don't feel well, you go and you work to the best of your ability. It was immaterial to the boss whether it was a sinus or a migraine, the only thing that mattered to him was getting his typing done.

I would think she should have said if it throbs, it's not sinus. Throbbing is associated with migraines because of the blood vessel situation but I would not put it high on the migraine list. I would say my head feels more like it will explode from the pressure building.

I think you're right, I can have a sinus headache and Tylenol sinus will relieve it but would never do a thing for a migraine. I use Migranal nasal spray for migraines but as with all the others including Imitrex it is losing it's effect slowly now.

They are very individual and definitely the triggers can be totally different. I kept looking for foods and keeping diaries but it was actually here, somebody mentioned fatigue and that definitely is mine. That and of recent years perfume, after shave etc. I really can't be around perfume at all. We are fortunate here that there was a big campaign "No Scents is Good Sense" and that plus hospitals etc. forbidding scents has worked very well, I rarely have to abandon ship anymore.

I suppose one could say it doesn't really matter anymore as I am not working but OTOH going through that is a big downer. Plus the Migranal is about $26 per time.

I get very sharp pain above/behind my left eye. However, in my case that is usually symptomatic of my CSF pressure being high, which means I'm in a psuedo-tumor episode. Very distinct, sharp pain. Very one sided.

With migraines - I tend to the nausea, and some kind of weird interference with my visual field starting. The psuedo-tumor episodes which can last kind of non-stop for some days just involve a really annoying, deep kind of pressure headache, with the sharp pain over the one eye (hence the worry that one day I'll blow that optic nerve). Not pleasant - but not so bad as when a full migraine erupts. OTOH, I'm not so crazy about the perpetual coming and going vertigo/nausea thing. The whooshing in the right ear - another thrill - kind of my own private little musicale!

Chocolate and cheese - I don't remember if it has to do with caffeine, and the mold in cheese. Just don't remember.

All this headache talk seems to be coinciding with my dull ache. Of course, it could be because DH is still not home, and I've been waiting to have dinner with him. Darn that job interfering with life!

Hope we're all well - ellice

My head usually feels like it's going to explode, whether sinus or migraine. The primary difference between my two types of headache is sometimes it throbs and sometimes it doesn't.

The only other notable difference is that if it's my sinuses, the pressure when I bend forward (e.g., to put something into the file cabinet or to feed the cats) is so extreme I nearly pass out from the pain. I lose my balance, pitch forward and smack my head on the wall or the file cabinet.

But I sometimes have that with the throbbing kind, too (who knows, maybe that means I'm having a sinus+migraine simultaneously?).

You learn to NOT look down at your keyboard while you're typing, and get a paper-holder that sticks to the side of your monitor so you don't have to look down toward your desk to check the notes and make the corrections. (In fact, since my last boss was computer literate, once I'd input the material, he was in charge of making his own edits because I was going to lie down in the file room till I felt up to getting myself home on the bus.)

Sometimes I have to cycle through different medications because of the tolerance thing. But, so far, I'm okay with the Imitrex.

Interesting. I personally think the a-hole I had for a boss a couple back was my trigger. Well, actually, who knows, but he always made everything worse.

Well, that's not too bad - what a sad thing to say. The Imitrex is close to $40 (US) a shot. When I tried the pills, which are much less expensive - it ended up that it was costing about $75-$100 per headache because of the multiple dose. Yuck. But, OTOH, when I'm really having a migraine, I don't really care what it costs to get rid of it.

ellice