4 ms·

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

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.

_Microft 7y ago
> every Sunday afternoon at 2:00 Migraine can suck a lot. I'm glad I only get them once in a bluemoon. The pattern is interesting, though. Did you have a special sunday habit? Like having the same or similar meals on sundays, so that it could have been triggered by an ingredient? Going to church, where maybe incense was burned? Anything?
- GlenTheMachine 7y ago
  We went to church. It was low church though so no incense. For a while I thought I might be allergic to the church carpet. But even on the rare Sunday where we didn’t go to church I still got my migraine.
burnte 7y ago
I've had them since I was very young too. When I was a child they were accompanied by really high fevers, up to 105F and would last for two to three days, where I'd just mostly sleep in misery (they'd make me incredibly tired and sleepy). The doctors would check for meningitis with spinal taps, they'd check for encephalopathy, tumors, anything they could think of, nothing ever came back positive. I was put on inderal for a while, but that didn't really do anything. I'd have one every year or so, then since my teens I've only had one every few years. The past few years though I'm back to the yearly migraine, but no fever and they only last a day. I'm not entirely convinced they're not just a side effect of our enhanced cognition, something like a problematic feedback loop, maybe even something related to epilepsy. The bigger the brain, the more than can go wrong.
- FreeFull 7y ago
  Given the fever, it could also be something related to the immune system.
  - GlenTheMachine 7y ago
    Yeah, fever is a very unusual symptom to be related to “regular” migraines. Something else was going on there probably. But who knows? Maybe unusual electrical activity in the brain can cause increased core temp?
    - FreeFull 7y ago
      Core temperature is controlled by the hypothalamus, which is part of the brain, so that is certainly possible too.
  - burnte 7y ago
    Yep, that was an idea, but aside from the temp, nothing abnormal was detected. It terrified the docs the first couple of times it happened, they were afraid I'd die. After I didn't, they were less scared, but still concerned. No answers ever came. The fevers came with the migraines for about 6-7 years. Only once did it get to that 105 range, probably the third time, never again, and each time it was less. The theory was that my body didn't know what was happening and the immune response of a fever was triggered by mistake.
thebean11 7y ago
Up until I was twelve I would get the exact same thing, headache that slowly got worse, building up to nausea, eventually throwing up and feeling better. Doctors had no clue what was up, never heard of anyone having the same thing. Thankfully gone now, but replaced with a few immune system issues that I'm suspicious are caused by the same underlying problem

_Microft 7y ago

> every Sunday afternoon at 2:00 Migraine can suck a lot. I'm glad I only get them once in a bluemoon. The pattern is interesting, though. Did you have a special sunday habit? Like having the same or similar meals on sundays, so that it could have been triggered by an ingredient? Going to church, where maybe incense was burned? Anything?

GlenTheMachine 7y ago
We went to church. It was low church though so no incense. For a while I thought I might be allergic to the church carpet. But even on the rare Sunday where we didn’t go to church I still got my migraine.

burnte 7y ago

I've had them since I was very young too. When I was a child they were accompanied by really high fevers, up to 105F and would last for two to three days, where I'd just mostly sleep in misery (they'd make me incredibly tired and sleepy). The doctors would check for meningitis with spinal taps, they'd check for encephalopathy, tumors, anything they could think of, nothing ever came back positive. I was put on inderal for a while, but that didn't really do anything. I'd have one every year or so, then since my teens I've only had one every few years. The past few years though I'm back to the yearly migraine, but no fever and they only last a day. I'm not entirely convinced they're not just a side effect of our enhanced cognition, something like a problematic feedback loop, maybe even something related to epilepsy. The bigger the brain, the more than can go wrong.

FreeFull 7y ago
Given the fever, it could also be something related to the immune system.
- GlenTheMachine 7y ago
  Yeah, fever is a very unusual symptom to be related to “regular” migraines. Something else was going on there probably. But who knows? Maybe unusual electrical activity in the brain can cause increased core temp?
  - FreeFull 7y ago
    Core temperature is controlled by the hypothalamus, which is part of the brain, so that is certainly possible too.
- burnte 7y ago
  Yep, that was an idea, but aside from the temp, nothing abnormal was detected. It terrified the docs the first couple of times it happened, they were afraid I'd die. After I didn't, they were less scared, but still concerned. No answers ever came. The fevers came with the migraines for about 6-7 years. Only once did it get to that 105 range, probably the third time, never again, and each time it was less. The theory was that my body didn't know what was happening and the immune response of a fever was triggered by mistake.

thebean11 7y ago

Up until I was twelve I would get the exact same thing, headache that slowly got worse, building up to nausea, eventually throwing up and feeling better. Doctors had no clue what was up, never heard of anyone having the same thing. Thankfully gone now, but replaced with a few immune system issues that I'm suspicious are caused by the same underlying problem