anyone get migraines?

I take Maxalt.  My migraines almost always start in the middle of the night and I wake up with them.  I have found relief with the fever reducing cool pads. 
 
If I have no prescription meds, and am not yet forced into bed, I take two ibuprofin (200 mg) and one hour later,  two acetometphin (200 mg).  This was the recommendation of a neurologist who was giving a head pain management lecture.  Avoid citris, chocolate etc.  A head pain diary can be very helpful at examining any patterns.  That may allow you to develop a premptive strategy.
 
I hate the vomitting  more than any of it.

I get them every couple of months or so.  My mom used to get them all of the time. 
 
The only thing that helps me is 2 Excedrin, not lights, quiet, and throwing up.  The worst is when I get them at work and can't leave.  I turn off the phone, shut off lights and close the door and wait for the meds to kick in.

I'm concerned for those experiencing numbness....have you guys have CAT scans or whatever done to ensure you are not having strokes and not migraines? Everything I read said that numbness of ANY kind but especially on one side only was a class a emergency. Make sure you guys are ruling that out! [sm=uhoh.gif]

Gina,
 
I've been getting migraines since I was 3 yrs old.  I've isolated alot of triggers so I have them semi-under control.  I only get them once every 3 months now, instead of 2 a week or more often.  Mine are triggered by food, stress, alcohol, and low blood sugar. 
 
I used to use 3 Aleve, and two Valerian to combat the headache.  Now I've gone to 3 Excederin Migraine and those seem to work rather well.  My recovery period has gone down from about 14 hours to around 6 to 8 hours.   I usually get the blind spot or blurred vision the day before I get the headache, but not the day of-which astounds most of the docs that I've seen.  I've been hospitalized due to the migraines only 3 times, my father and grandmother were hospitalized several more than that.
 
Did you eat, or drink anything different the day of or the day prior?  Anything that you've been stressing out about lately?  Or did you forget to eat yesterday?
 
I'm sorry you got one of these things, I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy.
 
-Ed

I take ONE capsule of feverfew a day. It takes a few weeks to build up, but after that NO migraines. If you start to get one, take one or two extra and your migraine GOES AWAY! It's SO liberating!

 
I tried that for a long time.  Unfortunately it didn't work for me.  Mine are very hearty and if I don't get one for a while, the next one I get is very severe and will fight through all meds.

Ah those flashy lights suck, dont they? is funny because it seems that mine have a exact time frame, flashy lights for 30 minutes, nothing at all for another 30 minutes and then pain for like 2 or 3 hours, i am a dude so i think mine have nothing to do with that period of the month []
 
When i was teenager it was horrible, only after puking the pain was going away, not i'm lucky because i just see the flashy lights but i barely feel the pain now
 
I found out another cause of migraine:
 
[linkhttp://headaches.about.com/od/migrainediseas1/a/migraine_pfo.htm]http://headaches.about.com/od/migrainediseas1/a/migraine_pfo.htm[/link]
 
It seems that a hole in the heart could cause them, i dont have a hole but one of my heart valves does not close completely so maybe that affects too

I do not know how you people live without ready access to codeine.

Oh, wild and crazy Oz - now we REALLY know what's at the end of "the yellow brick road"! No wonder all the Aussies I've eve known have been so happy-go-lucky. []

Codeine didn't used to be controlled here but apparently too many people were abusing it. Americans just don't know the meaning of self-control.

I started getting migraines after my car wreck. I get blurred vision, vertigo (which are scary if I'm driving), then the pain lasts for maybe thirty hours (or up to four days sometimes) and I barf sometime around the second day. My younger sister has been getting them since her periods started.

Excedrin helps a lot but I'm very sensitive to caffiene and if I don't stay on it past the danger period, I'll get an even worse one. Meanwhile the caffiene makes me jumpy, off balance, and grouchy. I'd really prefer a better solution but my headaches aren't really bad enough to justfy prescription meds - though I do have one that my doctor gave me for the really bad ones. It's realated to the narcotics I'm allergic to, however, and taking more than one dose makes me sick as a dog.

I'll have a "hangover" the whole next day.
My prescription is Relpax, and if I can take it when the first spots appear then headache won't develop.

I have been getting migraines for abotu 7 years. Typically I get 2-3 a month and because they are so frequent, I've learned to just "power through" them. I rest when I can, but sometimes I get them in the middle of work and there's nothing I can do. I've tried every migraine prescription out there and right now I'm on Relpax, which is great. I agree with Kelly about the "hangover" though. I always tell people "my head is better but I feel like I was hit by a bus".

I've had CAT scans, gone to chiropractors, tried physical therapy and been on all kinds of prescriptions. I've done food diaries, monitored the "time of the month" and can't find anything that triggers my migraines. I have never tried feverfew, though, so thanks to Jean for suggesting that!

I had one migraine like that years ago, and boy did it scare the bejezus out of me.  Like you, Gina, I thought for sure I was going blind.  I get migraines, but thankfully I haven't had another like that one. 
 
An OTC remedy that works great for me is Motrin and Dramamine. 

I've never had a headache, either.  I have given them to a number of other people.  Does that count?

Joyce 

I have also tried fever-few, but it really did not work for me. If I'm really really REALLY hurting and the usually dose of Excedrin migraine(FYI seems many of us trust and use this) does not work I do a cocktail:
 
2 sinus pills
3 Excedrin Migraine
and I down them with a reg coke
 
I know, caffeine overload, but it works for me. My migraines changed about 10 yrs ago, I t-boned a pickup truck that pulled out in front of me, I hit him at 55 mph. I got out with a broken nose, hairline fractures of the forehead and cheek, a blowout fracture behind my left eye and damaged to my sinuses on the left side, I considered it a small miracle that I lived, I was driving a compact at the time. I noticed a change in them about a year later and my Dr. at that time said it was due to the sinus damage and having my nose fixed. 
 
Sometime acute smells, cleaners, perfumes and the like can set me off now. I now it's coming when I can taste the "scent". Yucky stuff.
 
Dawn

For me I have tried lots of prescription drugs with either only moderate results, or most often yucky side effects.  I would like to try Replax some time perhaps.  

For me too if I catch it early enough, then 8 times out of 10 I can get it lessoned enough to work through it.   Other times it is so debilitating that I must take an incredibly hot shower (don#%92t know why it works…supposedly cold works…NOT hot, but for me hot is better).  Then I must lie down and attempt to sleep in a cool dark room with no noise. Often when they get this bad I have vomiting (not just my usual nausea).  If the vomiting doesn#%92t stop after a couple of hours, the only way I am going to get any relief is to try to keep down a Dramamine. This usually also has the effect of putting me out.  When I wake up 6-7 hours later I am totally out of it, but my migraine is gone!  

Most of the time though I can keep it tolerable by taking:  

1 Motrin

1 Excedrin Tension (this like all the Excedrin formulas has caffeine and acetaminophen, but this one does NOT have aspirin…I can#%92t have aspirin)

1 benedryl

Migraines? OTC? Hahahahaha!

My migraines LAUGH in the fave of prescription painkillers, muscle relaxers, antidepressants, anything short of MORPHINE. Yes, morphine. It has to be mixed with anti-nausea stuff, though, or it doesn't touch the stomach problem, and I'm still sick as a dog. My migraines turn my stomach into a raging beast, and they last at least four days, as much as two weeks. The *only* thing I've found that works (the food diary helps, a lot, but I'm still very hormone-related, with mine) is acupuncture. Makes the migraine I have go away, and I don't have another for at least two months. Awesome stuff!

Oh, and Relpax sent me into a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE worst time ever migraine, immediately after I took it. Apparently, it works on the blood vessels in the head, and it worked WRONG for me. Scary, scary stuff. I had to have a CAT scan, after the morphine and phenorgan.

White Flower Oil will calm one down, quite a bit, if I catch it in the "aura" phase. After that, forget it. Nothing's going to work....

Yeah, since I was 12.  I had to be hospitalized in 2000 after having a migraine everyday for 10 months straight.  They were okay for the most part until just recently and now they've gotten bad again.
 
I was actually just about to start a thread about this.  I've had a migraine every day for months now.  A spinal was inconclusive.  Meds aren't helping. Neurologist is stumped.  Nothing homeopathic is helping. MRI and CT comes back clean... so yeah. 
 
I know I don't post on here that often and have only been around since June, but can you all keep me in your thoughts please?  My poor senior citizen (Lhasa Apso) is going nuts and won't leave my side except to go outside.  At least keep him in your thoughts.[]