Migraine

I have aura migraines that happen with no apparent reason. I live in fear each day that I will have one. I've had 2 in one day before and just this weekend, I had one on Saturday, and another on Sunday. When I do get them, usually I'm at work and can't function. I can't lay down anywhere, and I'm a receptionist so I need to be answering phones and greeting people. Does anyone else live in fear each day that one will hit you? Thanks!

Diogirl

Bless your sweet heart! How I can feel for you as you live in anticipation of the next migraine. I think many of us have been in that situation!! I have personally found that the more I anticipate and wait for the next migraine, the more miserable I become. I live life either in a migraine or waiting for a migraine!

I'm so very blessed to have a medical regime that is working for me, as well as having things in my life that I really treasure and look forward to. I try to take my thoughts captive to those things rather than to the beast that wants to rage in my head. It isn't easy, but I'm trying to live more intentionally after a year and a half of living in abject fear waiting for the next wave of pain.

For me, it meant reaching out to the people here, to my friends, to my new doctor, to a therapist, and to God. It isn't a quick or easy fix, and I still have the tendency to scan my body looking for pain, but I try to remind myself to scan my body looking for relief and good news.

I know that sounds incredible Pollyannish, and I'm certainly not an optimist by nature. I'm just trying to make a choice one day at a time.

This is the perfect place to come and cry and share your fears. How many times have the sweet people here just listened to me and encouraged me! Please know that you are not alone! Please know that you are cared for and you can come to this forum any time you want to express what's on your heart and to find a group of cheerleaders (quiet cheerleaders!) who have been and are where you are!

If you don't have a doctor who is helping you find answers about your migraines, I strongly encourage you to find one who will!

All the best,

Cyn

Welcome to the forum Diogirl!

I totally understand what you're saying. I live with daily migraines, and I'm constantly wondering when it's going to get worse. I would love for just one day without pain. I wish I had some wonderful words of wisdom of how to get through it. I give Cyn lots of credit for getting through it the way she does. Most of the time I just have to take one moment at a time and hope that I make it through the work day.

Best of luck and know that we're always here when you need support.

Meli

Welcome "home," Diogirl!

One of our Forum Moderators will be along soon with a more formal welcome, with good ideas, so, in the meantime...

...I, too, understand the fear/anticipation of another migraine attack lurking around the corner. It's taken me years of migraine diaries, medication trials, working with my doctors, and adjusting my life to get my migraine disease under control.

And, yes, I still have migraine attacks. They usually aren't as bad or as frequent as they were even two years ago. They are even less frequent and milder than they were last Spring. My neurologist tweaked my preventive med in June, plus I changed my lifestyle.

It's hard to be patient with others and yourself when you can't see straight and you feel like your head is going to explode if you so much as breathe too deeply. It's hard to eat when you feel like swallowing will send your head into another round of misery.

Somehow, though, we manage to hang on. We manage to get the pills down, sip some tea or soup, and fall asleep.

Somehow, the migraine breaks. We find ourselves feeling human again.

Diogirl, you're going to make it through, I promise.

Rebecca, The Island Mama

Hello diogirl and welcome to our forum family! Our goal is to provide everyone with the information and support that we all need to manage our Migraines and/or headaches. To that end, we consider this a “safe harbor,” where nobody tries to sell us anything, and we all use “family-friendly” language so parents are comfortable letting their children read the forum with them.

Please take a few minutes to review our policies and guidelines along with the other information in the START HERE folder. For information about Migraines, a good article to begin with is Learning About Migraines - Where to Start.

I used to live in fear each day but I've learned to live with the opposite mentality instead. I now appreciate the days I'm not in pain and I'm grateful for them. It took awhile for me to understand that I can't control when a Migraine is going to strike but I can do my darndest to avoid the triggers when I can, seek better medical advice and keep on trucking and looking for the preventive medication that will work for me.

This forum was my starting point. It helped me find my wonderful Migraine Specialist, who is out of town and it also made me realize that my local neuro needed to be fired, once I did that, things started to look brighter. I have a great local neuro, a great Specialist, and a great family support system.

If you're getting more than three Migraines per month, it may be time to talk to your neuro about getting started on a preventive medication. There are now over 100 medications that can be used for Migraine prevention and virtually endless combinations of them.:

• Migraine preventive medications: too many options to give up!

You might also want to consider keeping a Migraine Diary because it can be useful for you and your doctor to track triggers, the effectiveness of medications, and any patterns to your Migraines and headaches.

Here's some more information you can take a look at:

• Common Migraine Triggers

• Types of Migraines and Headaches

I hope I didn't overwhelm you with to many links, I just wanted to give you a good start. Hang in there, sweetie, you've found a site where people understand what you go through and we're here to help you learn and to offer a shoulder to cry on when you need it.

Welcome again

Thanks for all the advise.

Hi diogirl! (do you like Dio, of Ronnie James fame? I LOVE Dio!)

Welcome to the forums.

Migraines can make us terrible anxious between attacks, as we anticipate the next one and set ourselves up for whether it will be a bad one or a terrible one.

Do you see a therapist or are you on any antidepressants? Not only can these medications help anxiety/depression (which many of us here deal with too), but they can also help control your migraine attacks. I highly suggest checking out the links that Laura gave you.

A migraine diary can be very helpful. It may not seem like you have a trigger pattern yet but it's possible you can find one if you begin keeping one.

Again, welcome to the board! Please get comfortable here and keep us informed as to how you are doing!

Welcome to our forum.

I think we have all gone through what you are experiencing at one time or another.

I want to second that keeping a migraine diary is very important in finding your triggers.

I also want to throw out the idea of Medication overuse and Transformed migraines. When I was having near daily migraines, my neuro at the time didn't see a problem with me takig 3-4 abortives a week. I ended up in a transformed migraine cycle of near constant migraines for over a year. When I switched, the first thing the new neuro did was limit me to two triptans a week. After a month, I went from 3-5 a week down to 2-4.

The best thing is to find a good doctor, which can be difficult. And hang in there. You have come to the right place

I think this kind of thing is mostly about perspective. Sure, you can live in anticipation of the next migraine to hit. But if you work at it a bit, you can also shift the focus, so that you're living in anticipation of the next migraine-free day. That's not always easy at first, as I know from experience. But I've learned that when you do get the focus shifted, everything seems more positive.