anyone get migraines?

I get sinus headaches about 2x a month and migraines about once every 6 months. [:'(] I hate them! I found Advil Migraine works very well for me..

I've been getting migraines on a regular basis since the 2nd grade. Nothing fun at all.
 
I've tried different things.. sometimes caffeine helps, sometimes sugar helps. Doctor told my mom to give me candy bars and sometimes it helps. Sometimes protein helps and I'll eat a spoonfull of peanut butter.. but usually for any of that type of stuff to help I have to catch it early enough.. otherwise it's a suffer through it thing.
 
I have found that Excedrin migraine or Excedrin tension works. The thing about those is it's a combo of acetiminophen (tylenol), aspirin and caffeine.
 
Imitrex always made me sicker and after my blood pressure and other problems my doc said I couldn't have them anymore. I have a prescription now called Ferocet.
 
Usually the best thing for me is as much darkness as I can manage, silence, and sleep.
 
And I second what Gina said about the one sided headaches or numbness... SEE A DOCTOR!!!  I work in medical billing and it seems like in the past 2 months I have ran across at least 7 instances where people complained of massive headaches and nauseau.. went to the hospital and found out they had brain hemmorhages.. only one of the ones I billed actually lived. My boss' brother died the same way.
 
I remember years ago working in a nursing home and here in the middle of all these old people was a 18 year old kid. He had been complaining of headaches and found to have a brain hemmorrhage that left him partially paralyzed. They can be scary if they are anything out of the ordinary for you.. get it checked out.

Sometimes protein helps

That is interesting!  Sometimes I will crave a burger when I am having a bad one and I swear I notice at least a little diference about 80% of the time if I eat a big plain burger.   I wondered before if it was the protein.

Wow!  I get migraines, but the ones I get make me feel like a big baby from the ones you guys are describing.  I get the light and sound sesitive, but luckily I've only felt naucious (never had to actually purge) a couple times.  Unfortunately, I usually have to force myself to work through them (I normally get them while I'm at work), which is NEVER fun.  I used to get them behind my eyes and in my temples (it actually would move between the 2).  Now it starts in my neck & moves to my temples (again, it will move back and forth until I get rid of it). 
 
I've been getting migraines for about 8 years now.  Mine are also centered around hormones.  It's usually when I'm on my placebo pill.  I get about 3 of them during my placebo pills and then it depends on the circumstances as to how many more I get (usually a minimum of 2).  Strong perfume smells are my worst enemy, especially the "little old lady" scents.  Sprite (don't ask me, I'm as confused as you are) and too much MSG also trigger them. 
 
I used to be able to take over the counter drugs for them, but now my body has become immune to them all (when it comes to migraines).  My guess is because I get them so frequent.  I used to take Maxalt MLT, but I was starting to become immune to that also (if I didn't catch it at the "aura" stage, I was out of luck).  I'm now on Fioricet which works pretty good, but the crappy part is that if it doesn't go away with the 1st pill I have to wait for 6(!) hours before I can take the 2nd pill.  My doctor gave me some samples to try and we'll see how those work.  The only surefire way to get rid of them for me is sleep.  I might just have to look into those oils and see if they work.  Thanks calliecritturs!
 
This is a very helpful list of foods that can trigger a migraine (you would be surprised what is on the list). [linkhttp://www.webmd.com/content/article/46/1826_50691.htm]http://www.webmd.com/content/article/46/1826_50691.htm[/link]

ORIGINAL: jeano
Look at Dr. Weil's site. He tells about it. I did what he said to do: quit coffee and started using feverfew.

Do you have a URL for that site jeano? My husband has migraines and has been on several RX drugs for them, with limited success. Chocolate was a big trigger for him, and caffeine, so he's cut that out, and he's cut way down on wine, only a glass or so every couple of weeks, but that doesn't seem to be a trigger. Aged cheeses can be too and a biggie is lack of sleep, which of course we still have with two young kids. We've found with him it's a threshold kind of thing: he can eat a little chocolate as long as he's not stressed, sick, allergies are under control and he's rested, but if any of his triggers get too high, then even the smallest amount of chocolate would set him off. Seems like it's that way for other triggers too, so he's still trying to figure out what the critical mass point is for all of them! I had one or two when I was pregnant and that's enough! My mom had the flashing lights type, so I kind of worry that they're out there waiting for me in my future.

I've been getting migraines for about 8 years now. Mine are also centered around hormones. It's usually when I'm on my placebo pill. I get about 3 of them during my placebo pills and then it depends on the circumstances as to how many more I get (usually a minimum of 2).

You know that the pill often triggors migraines, right? I would like to be on hormonal BC, for my crazy insane cycle, but I cannot, because it makes my migraines 1000x worse. If you think about how long you've been on hormonal BC, they might be very closely related....


I've decided that caffeine helps mine. I've had one, for a while. Yesterday, I had a cup of coffee and a coke. I don't normally have any caffiene, and my head feels so much better. Of course, I'm still nauseated (I need a Reed's Extra Brew Ginger Beer.... LOTS of ginger in those!) and feeling icky, but it helped.

ORIGINAL: jennie_c_d

You know that the pill often triggors migraines, right? I would like to be on hormonal BC, for my crazy insane cycle, but I cannot, because it makes my migraines 1000x worse. If you think about how long you've been on hormonal BC, they might be very closely related....

 
Oh, mine are DEFINATELY related to my birth control pills.  I changed my ills once to one that eased me off the estrogen instead of going straight to a placebo, but I still got them.  I just don't/can't take the chance to NOT be on BC and I refuse to take the shot (due to the weight gain and the loss of a cycle).  So for now I just suffer in pain, waiting for the day when my DH is out of school & we can reproduce. []

Most doctors won't even prescribe birth control pills to someone who gets migraines because of the stroke risk.  It's not the pain -- but you are exponentially increasing your own chance of stroke taking any birth control pill when you have mirgraines. 
 
I'm not saying that lightly -- I faced the same decision myself (and I was with a man I wasn't sure was capable of being a decent father anyway).  I didn't KNOW about the stroke-risk, and I made the mistake of telling my GP about my migraines and he tore up the prescription for the pill in his hand at the moment and read me the riot act "WHAT are you doing?  Do you know how easy it would be for you to have a stroke if you have migraines and are taking the pill?  NO WAY am I gonna prescribe them for you!"
 
I can tell you it made me angry as heck at the time because of the problems it caused in the relationship at the time ... but since then I've known women ... YOUNG women who had strokes as a result of the very same thing.  And honestly the idea of a badly timed pregnancy pales in comparison to the thot of spending the rest of my days with a severe disability as the result of a stroke.  He made me mad, but I would never have known I was taking such an extreme risk otherwise.

I have gone through at least 5 different doctors (2 in NE, 1 in VA, & 2 in GA) and each time that I tell them I have migraines they just write me a perscription for something that they think might help (I told them ALL what specific BC pills I take and that I suspect that is the reason for the migraines).  Before I started taking BC I NEVER got migraines.
 
Reading a little more about it on webmd ([linkhttp://www.webmd.com/content/article/98/104772.htm]http://www.webmd.com/content/article/98/104772.htm[/link])I guess I misspoke earlier when I said

(if I didn't catch it at the "aura" stage, I was out of luck). 

   I should have said when I felt the migraine coming on.  I do not have the flashing lights problem.

I had a small stroke a year ago in Oct and since then have had horrible migraines...about one big one a week and i cant take some meds because of a heart condition i have....thank GOD i can go to my doc for a Nubain injection for them (he only gives me one shot a week tho) thats the only med that helps me besides going to the ER for Demerol or Stadol shots (the Stadol nasal spray doesnt work at all for me, but ive heard it works very well for some people-you can get a script for that)...

I also lose a bit of vision and very light and sound sensitive when i have a big one...I hate that because im a stay at home mommy and i HAVE to take care of Sara no matter how sick i am...if they are bad enough to make me vomit and have to keep my eyes shut my wonderful husband will come home early from work to take me to the doc or ER