« Trexima Aborts Migraines Better Than Imitrex or Aleve Alone | Main | This Time Last Year, April 9-14 & 2-8 »
Migraine Hangover (aka Postdrome)
By Kerrie | April 6, 2007
The migraines that have been visiting the last couple weeks finally gave way to a 40-hour affair that’s tapering off. I’m now in what’s considered migraine hangover (or postdrome). I was reassured when I first learned that this is a normal event at the end of a migraine:
“The postdrome is a constellation of symptoms that persist beyond the
resolution of headache. Many of these symptoms appear initially during
the prodrome or with the headache phase. Commonly, patients report
anorexia [loss of appetite], nausea, muscle tension, fatigue, and cognitive impairment.
This phase has been termed the migraine hangover and can last
and produce disability up to 1 to 2 days beyond the headache phase. The
pathophysiology of the postdrome is unknown, but likely represents a
gradual recovery phase from the extreme neurologic disruption that
occurs during migraine.” — Clinical and Pathophysiological Anatomy of a Migraine Attack, Medscape
I particularly like the phrase “extreme neurologic disruption.”
The clinical explanation is helpful, but I’ve been trying to describe what it actually feels like to have a migraine hangover. Here’s my attempt to put it into words:
I’m still shrouded by a bad headache. The pounding doesn’t seem to cover as much of my head as it did, but it hasn’t changed location at all. In a sense its like an echo of what it was, but it feels different while feeling the same.
Instead of having trouble thinking, finding words or making decisions, like I do in the rest of a migraine, I’m lightheaded. Not in an unsteady on my feet kind of way, but that my thoughts are so airy and inconsequential they could just float away.
It’s a weak description, but I have no idea how to truly explain how I feel. Can you help me out? How do you feel when you have a migraine hangover?
To read the Medscape article, use one of the user names and passwords from BugMeNot. The World Headache Alliance summarizes a study that found that the “majority of migraineurs experience disabling post-migraine symptoms.”
Topics: Biology |
April 6th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I feel fuzzy and wiped out post-migraine.
April 7th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
My best friend and I have a term we use, which is “nana head”. It derived from her grandmother who had dementia and on some days she couldn’t remember how to button her shirt or her own name. That’s me after a bad cycle of migraine attacks. My head gets fuzzy and even simple tasks become complicated. There have been days when I can’t open an overly complicated juice bottle.
I mentioned in a previous post that I was trying neurofeedback. Turned out not to be the treatment for me. Not only did it not help my headaches, but it triggered a major depressive episode for me. My doctors and I have adjusted some of my meds to start undoing the damage, but I spent a good part of the last three weeks thinking about ways to kill myself. So now it’s on to find something else.
Hope this bad phase of yours passes soon. Hang in there.
Kelly
April 7th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I get apathetic and fatigued post-migraine, which tends to be made worse by the tryptan hangover from Relpax, but I’d rather have that than the migraine. It also seems to make my ADD symptoms - inability to focus on something, or to start any task - worse, even with my ADD meds.
A side effect during the hangover that’s entirely due to the Relpax is a flat affect - I get no expression on my face unless someone directly interacts with me. I just sort of switch off, with none of my internal emotional states reflected on my face when I don’t need it to communicate. A bit odd, but it doesn’t affect my life in a serious manner and it’s better than the migraine.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Thanks for helping describe this weird phenomenon. It makes me feel like what I’ve experienced isn’t so strange!
Kerrie
April 10th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I’ve tried many times to describe a migraine hangover to my friends and family, but unless you’ve had one, I don’t think you can grasp how it feels.
I sort of feel like I was just in a fight - the inside of my head feels a bit bruised or tender and my head and entire body feels exhausted and groggy. I’m glad to be out of the intense pain, but I still can’t focus or get fully back into my routine.
*********
That’s a perfect way to describe mine too. Thanks!
Kerrie
April 12th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I’ve never had a hangover, but post-migraine, that’s how I feel. I have to admit, there’s always a teeny bit of euphoria, like YAY that headache is finally gone! But wiped out, heavy, like when the humidity is so oppressive you just don’t want to move.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I’m in the midst of a migraine hangover now and I can describe it as almost being inside of a dense fog that I can’t escape from. Not only can I not think clearly, but its hard to move my body. I have to force myself to do things and when I do it is like moving through mud.
*******
Yuck. Moving through mud is a great comparison. Hope you’re doing better now.
Kerrie
September 16th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Does a list exist of famous people, for instance, celebrities, who suffer or suffered from migraine? I know of two possible ones: Elvis Presley and Anna Nicole Smith, but I am wondering if there is a list somewhere. Thanks.
******
Here’s a good list: http://www.migraines.org/myth/mythgood.htm
Take care,
Kerrie
September 30th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
I am currently in a migraine hangover. I feel tired, lathargic, and my arms feel like limp noodles with weights tied onto the ends of them. I also feel like my head is too big, & that if my eyeballs get any tighter, they will pop out.
*****
Yuck! I’m fascinated by the idea that body parts can feel too big. It happens to me, too. There’s a lot of evidence that this sort of body awareness (for lack of a better word) is another sense, just like smell or taste. Interesting, huh?
Take care,
Kerrie
Kerrie
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I too have experienced the migraine hangover for years. There is something about dealing with a migraine for hours on end that takes a tremendous toll on the body, mind, and spirit. I am in the mist of a migraine hangover right now, and reading others accounts just so I can let up on myself a little bit. I always have a lot of work to get done, but many of my days following a migraine are simply rest and recover days. I try to fight the fatigue, dizziness and fogginess in the head, but the combination of the after effects of the migraine and the side effects of the Zomig I take for my migraines wipes me out.
*******
I know what you mean about it taking its toll. You’re definitely not alone and you’re in no way to blame for having a migraine hangover. I hope it didn’t last long.
Take care,
Kerrie
October 28th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Migraine hangover cheats you out of joy. I’ve had a four day migraine, which every morning I treated successfully with Imitrex and naproxen, only to have the pain return the next morning when I woke up. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. Anyway the first two days I was able to carry on. Yesterday and today I feel whipped. Just plain exhausted. Just like walking through mud as the earlier post said. I’ve always thought of it as quicksand. Anyway I sought this site to see if other people get that weary misery following the pain withdrawal. So thank you. I know I’m not alone.
December 2nd, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Going through one right now…it feels like I have the flu without the runny nose or soar throat. I even had to stop and think where the keys were on the keyboard. I’m 33 and I just went through a 3 day migraine. This is my first one so this is really freaking me out…it just plain sucks.
December 16th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Going through it now; finding it hard to spell. Head is foggy, hazy and heavy and find it really hard to focus on anything. Making decisions becomes very difficult and on top of it all i feel tense, agitated and on edge, as if somewhere deep inside, someone is perpetually dragging fingernails down a blackboard. I find i overreact to things and can’t get past things. God i hope this passes quickly, but i know its only day one and there’s at least anotehr to go.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:27 am
I’m in one right now…
It’s really a numbness; a physical heaviness, and that sense that your mind could just “float away” at any moment….some relief that the migraine is nearly over, but this is accompanied by guilty feelings about taking yet another day off work…that could be the depression bit, huh?
Thanks to you all for reminding me that I’m not alone in this, that it is serious, and it most certainly isn’t “just a headache”.
Good luck to you all.
********
It could be depression, but could just be guilt. Many people with migraine or chronic daily headache struggle with it. I fight guilt all the time and have never beat it! Here’s a post about it that got lots of comments: http://www.thedailyheadache.com/2006/10/guilt.html. Searching my blog brought up 19 posts with the word guilt (http://www.thedailyheadache.com/?s=guilt). That’s actually fewer than I expected.
Hang in there. What you’re feeling is a normal “symptom” of migraine and of chronic illness in general. I hope that doesn’t sound like I’m minimizing what you’re going through. Really I’m saying that lots of people are in the same boat and there are a lot of resources to help work through it.
Take care,
Kerrie
February 25th, 2008 at 3:56 am
For me, I have trouble concentrating, my energy levels are low and I feel tired and drained. I constantly yawn and oddly my nose starts to run. My head has a dull feeling and my eyes are sore and strained. I try and battle through it with the hope that a good nights sleep will do the trick but sadly that is not always the case.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I stumbled upon these comments while looking up the term ‘migraine hangover’ on the web. Amazing how clearly everyone has explained this very real condition. I frequently feel guilty about closing myself off from my husband and boys because of a migraine and then even more so because of how drained and exhausted I feel afterwards. Weakness, feeling groggy, heavy arms and legs, dizziness…it’s all there.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Does anyone feel nauseous for days afterwards? This is the first migraine i’ve really distinctly sensed prodrome and postdrome phases. I’m 5 days post-migraine now and I keep getting feelings of seasickness sweeping over me and i find it difficult to focus my eyes…kind of feels like I’m going to go again…Nighmare.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I’m just coming off an 8 day migraine. I had a doozy of a prodromal light display that went into scintillating scotoma with a full curtain effect over one eye. That has happend twice over the last three weeks. I’ve been doing migraines for over 25 years, and the post-drome (other than for the afore-mentioned brief celebration that the BIG PAIN is going away at last)is about as big a bummer as the migraine itself, cuz I end up always feeling guilty and get up too soon to takecare of family and WHAM back comes the migraine…..
March 29th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
i thought i was dieing or had Alzheimers.just couldnt think, driving on a road ive alway drove felt like the first time though i knew it wasnt. felt weak dizzy confused. Ive had migraines since i was ten.Now 35 the day after was just as hard with out the pain.went to the doctor. i was blown away migraine hangover. Migraines are hard eough
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
I had my first attack in several months yesterday, triggered by the extremely bright light beaming into my office (no blinds, thank you very much.) After vomiting in my office trash can, I decided it was time to go home. I fell asleep at 1:30 pm and slept until 7 this morning. I still feel the headache, it’s there in the back of my head and neck, as if someone has scooped out my brain and poured concrete into my skull instead. My right eye is twitching continually and I feel like I spent 17 hrs running on a treadmill rather than sleeping in a dark room. I have zero energy and zero motivation. The only thing I really felt committed to doing this morning was climbing onto my desk and taping manila file folders all over my window. Nobody has said anything yet and I hope they don’t because I feel evil and I might say something inappropriate. I should be at home taking care of myself and I’m so far behind that this day is a total loss anyway. But I guess I should stop blogging and get to work. But thanks for reading, I do feel a teeny bit better for having shared my experience.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Thank you so much for saying that your right eye twitches. I have found that my right eye twitches right before an attack and continues for a few days later.I have my migraines on my right side so I wonder if that is doing it. I am currently in a migraine hangover and feel better hearing about how you all have them also. I relate to the feeling of being in mud and it is taking alot of energy to even type this. It sure does make my day so hard and I also have the guilt of how my family is affected by my pain.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:29 am
This blog is great. I’m in the midst of my annual 6 - 8 week long change-of-season migraine. I get a break from the severe headache a few days at a time, but otherwise, the pain is fairly constant with varying intensity. I just spent the last day and a half in bed. I’m back at work today. I’m still very sick, but well enough to sit up at my desk and at least make an effort to accomplish something. I never thought that maybe I could be having migraine hangovers in between full fledged migraines. I can relate to everything everyone has stated here in their migraine hangover descriptions. I’m about due for my regular monthly migraine, too, though. I feel like I’m only partially aware of what’s going on. I’m in a fog and can’t concentrate. The thoughts in my mind are as scrambled as my physical brain feels. Am I rambling here? Oh dear, I just wish I could be headache free.
April 26th, 2008 at 5:48 am
I am recovering from a migraine last evening. I cannot imagine those of you who have the 2 or more day migraine. I attribute the hangover to the meds that I take to make it subside. THANK GOD for IMITREX and FEVERFEW. I usually have no vomiting NOW as in the past. My hangovers make me very lethargic, feel like I am in a time warp and NO motivation. I have had migraines since I was about 16. The first one I had, I knew I was near death. The doctor I saw years ago would give me morphine and I would sleep for hours, followed by throwing up and dry heaves. I used to have them about every two week but now I get one every couple of months. I attribute mine to STRESS, some foods, bright lights, air pressure (changes. I have even had them broght on by wind. Excuse this rambling. I say all this so you will know that you are not alone. I wish you luck and good health.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:56 am
I am having my first attack. Scariest thing I ever went through. The intense pain seems to have eased but I’m still in a headachey cloud. hangover stage I guess. Still getting numbness and my hearing sounds weird. Foggy and uncoordinated. Like hell. Is there anything people take to ease these symptons??
May 4th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I just had mu first migraine this past wed, I thought I was having a stroke, a headache on just the left side of my brain, left facial tingling, left arm tingling and left leg tingling, I was so scared, EMS tok me to the hospital, all tests done, atypical migraines they diagnosed, I also had another migraine yesterday, I’m trying to recover, my brain feels different,like mush, I can’t get enough sleep, I wake up feeling drained , my brain feels like I’ve been running a marathon, I feel like I’m loosing my mind, no appetite, tired, loud noises just annoy me, I hope this phase passes by quickly.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Wow! Thank you to everyone for helping me feel like I’m not actually going crazy! Bad migraine last night (I get about 4-6 a year) and today I just feel like I’ve run a marathon (or two). Also, Thank goodness the pain and nausea are gone, but this is bad, too. Still mild headache, weird equilibrium, extreme fatigue,foggy brain, and constant fear that the migraine might come back at any time. I hope someone can eventually find an effective treatment for this. All they’ll give me is Midrin, and it doesn’t do squat! Best of luck to all of you fellow sufferers!
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I am so glad I found this blog. I am having a migraine hangover. I’m a stay at home mommy with energetic toddlers. It is taking all I have to keep them and myself together.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Does anyone ever feel depressed and apathetic even after successfully averting a real migraine with any of the SSRI-based meds (imitrex, etc)? I notice that even if i manage to take some medicine and go to sleep before a real migraine kicks in, I feel really emotionally run down, nervous and depressive the next day or so. Its still worth it to avoid a migraine, but any suggestions or ideas?
May 25th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Hi psykee - While Kerrie is away, I’m responding to comments so I’ll do my best to answer your question. I would suggest that the forum would be a great place to post this question and get the variety of everyone’s experiences.
What I understand is that a migraine attack is a process; the headache is only one phase of it. When you take a Triptan (like Imitrex) to abort the migraine, you aren’t completely averting the process, which was going on before you even experienced symptoms. You are ending the part of the migraine that causes head pain, and shortening the whole process.
However, as Kerrie quoted above: “The pathophysiology of the postdrome is unknown, but likely represents a gradual recovery phase from the extreme neurologic disruption that occurs during migraine.”
I have also read that the migraine itself depletes the serotonin in our brains, so we feel depressed from the lack of serotonin.
In terms of what to do about it - take great care of yourself. Do want comforts you. Share on the forum for support. And please know you’re not alone!
- Megan (www.meganoltmanfreemybrain.typepad.com)
May 30th, 2008 at 2:15 am
I’ve gone through periods where I had a migraine every day or nearly every day for weeks. I feel such relief that I now get them only about 2-5 times a month.
Hangovers:
* If I stop moving, I fall asleep. Literally. This lasts for about 12-36 hours. Bathrooms are dangerous because I fall asleep on the toilet and fall off (yes, I’ve hurt myself a couple of times), plus since I fall asleep as soon as I sit down, I could sit there a while before I can concentrate enough to get my business done.
* I usually go one of two ways: Even though I am incredibly sleepy, I don’t want to go to sleep and sometimes can’t stay asleep for long periods OR I will sleep for up to 36 hours with breaks only for food, water, and bathroom.
* I don’t eat right because I’m too tired to care and don’t have much of an appetite.
* My right eye begs me to close it. (Why is it everyone is talking about migraine on the right side, I wonder? Is migraine more common on the right side than the left?)
* I don’t want to have to concentrate enough to hold a conversation with anyone. I can get a migraine hangover even if I don’t get a full-fledged migraine. The muscle tightness that accompanies the migraine continues.
* My brain is in a fog; I can’t seem to remember what it was I intended to do just moments ago. Umm…what was I saying? Yes, I’m in the post-migraine period right now, so it’s both easier to describe (because afterwards I can forget what the symptoms were), and it’s harder to organize my thoughts and think of the word I want to use.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:41 am
For me this is the worst part of the migraine. Sure the headache is terrible…but the post period (postdrome)…agh! Usually, a 36 to 48 hr period of comeplete listlessness and nausea. I feel like I had a lobotomy and my head is a empty vessel…Nicholson’s character at the end of One Flew Over… comes to mind. I’m literally not there.
But in real terms…it’s really the absense of cognitive faculties and motor skills. All I can do is pray for time to act quick.
June 8th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I am coming off a week long migraine. I woke up every morning for the last week with the worst headaches i have ever had. Now i think i am in the postdrome stage. I have an achy feeling at the base of my head and blurry vision in my left eye. It makes it difficult to do anything. All i want to do is sleep. Hopefully this ends soon!
June 10th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I am so relieved to know I am not the only person who goes through this. I have for so many years tried to explain it to family, friends and co-workers…with not good results. I was convinced I was either nuts or had a rare disease. I even told my doctor about it and got a no where. THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET It is the migraine that makes me feel like I have poison under my skin and 100lb weights on my arms and legs. And a brain that resembles the one frying on the sidewalk in the hot sun.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
This blog is fantastic! I am just coming off another (now weekly) vicious migraine, and it occured to me I get the same “drained” feeling afterwords each time. I’m not sleepy, just drained and fuzzy-headed. I also get strange prickly skin sensations that set in a few hours after the pain subsides. Does anyone experience this?
June 26th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Colleen - that drained feeling is very common. I get it big time myself! As I understand it, the migraine depletes your serotonin, and low serotonin is responsible for feeling down, drained, etc. I am not personally familiar with the prickly skin sensations, except on my scalp, where I get prickliness and tenderness after the migraine.
- Megan
http://meganoltmanfreemybrain.typepad.com
June 28th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I have been a migraine sufferer since I was 15: that makes almost 45 years now. I find that during the migraine hangover it is so necessary to love and coddle myself a bit. Esp. when there are pressing tasks to be done and I’m not up to it, I start being down on myself. I’ve found one thing that helps me is having a simple meal at an “Old Lady” restaurant, the kind of cute place my mother used to favor when she was still alive (and I thought was Dumb as a twenty-something.) Give me flower gardens and gazebos, pretty prints on the walls, the attention to niceties and little things. Rose teacups and thin green ice tea glasses; a twist of lemon. I am always cheered.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:42 pm
You guys really reassured me. I’ve had migraines once or twice a year since junior high. I had a nasty migraine this weekend and for the first time am experiencing the hang over you describe. Feels great to know that I’m not alone and that it should pass soon.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
if any of you who experience migraines spends the majority of the night lying with their neck in a twisted position, you are lucky…….if you experience the majority of pain on the contralateral side of the head, and sometimes the ipsilateral, you can relieve problems by simply sleeping with your neck in a nonstressful position!…..
July 16th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
when an area of the body is the site of projected chronic pain….or lesser, also chronic symptoms….all of the tissue within the body beneath the area of perceived pain will not function normally…..the majority of perceptual problems experienced by migraine patients, visual, auditory, cognitive (especially), muscular, and psychological (especially) are caused simply by the projection of pain that is the typical areas of pain experineced by the patient…..the intense cranial symptoms effect all areas of tissue beneath and within the areas felt by the sufferer…..is it any wonder that pain felt over the area of the head that the frontal lobes lie beneath would cause distracted and confused thought processes and other mental mistakes….of course they would, its completely normal in the framework of the pathological process of the development of the fibromyalgia part of the musculoskeletal process we refer to as osteoarthritis……
unfortunately, each time the headache pain shifts location typically discloses another musculo-neuro-skeletal problem that has to be diagnosed and treated….hate to tell ya but musculoskeletal problems are complex and can’t help but involve several parts and pieces….
July 21st, 2008 at 10:16 am
I’m in the midst of a migraine hangover as well. They seem to be coming more frequently now that I’m in my second trimester of my pregnancy. Unfortunately, I can’t take the one drug that has always helped (Excedrin) because of the risk of miscarriage. Last week I had a four-day migraine which was relieved briefly by a visit to my doc and some IV Reglan + Tylenol.
As for the Postdrome, I get that tired, fuzzy-brained feeling too.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:01 am
I stumbled across this blog while doing a little research on prodrome/postdrome before I submit myself to yet another visit to the neurologist. I’ve been in what I would call “migraine funk” for going on 2 weeks. I’ve hit bottom and begged the dr to see me today. I feel like I’ve tried everything and nothing works or the side effects are intolerable. The postdrome descriptions I’ve read about here are very similar to the way I feel. I don’t know if another headache is coming or if this is the end of the one from yesterday. I’m either in pain or feel this migraine “shadow”. It’s constant, it’s relentless and it sucks.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:27 am
I suffer from migraines atleast twice a month. I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for almost a year but before that I was having migraines twice a week. Imagine having that fuzzy, nausea, blah feeling, not only during the migraine but a day or two afterwards for more than twice a week. I’ve seen multiple specialists and non of them could explain my feelings. It’s nice to see other have the same symptoms. To bad they can’t be corrected.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
For me, the main post-migraine issue is up to 3 days of somewhat painful pounding on the affected side of the head whenever I bend, cough, strain. It’s scary - it makes one think a vessel is gong to “pop.” I don’t want to even stand up/sit down, because it sets off the pounding.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I’ve had migraines since college, but I always though that they were some combination of back and sinus problems (because my neck gets stiff and my nostril gets stuffy on the side that hurts.) But last night I had my worst one ever, and my boyfriend, who’s had terrible migraines since he was a teenager, told me that this was typical of migraines. Especially considering I was nauseous and all my senses seemed “poorly calibrated.”
Finally after my digestive system flushed itself with admirable efficiency, the headache changed and went almost away.
Today I feel like my brain is a useless, swollen lump throbbing in my skull. There’s this incredibly fragile membrane between me and the pain. I’m mentally exhausted and can’t bring myself to concentrate on anything.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I’m new to migraines since I passed “the Change.” Brain fog and strange physical symptoms are par for the course, so I sometimes feel like this on a non-migraine day.
But, yes, today am postdrome and head is swollen, I feel bilious, nauseated and completely “blank.” Also having sinus upsets as described above. No energy whatever. Made the mistake of drinking some half-decaf. Bleah. Sticking with lots of water ice water.
Here’s the weird thing: I get the same nauseated and headachy feeling during and after a migraine that I feel when I smell a skunk that’s sprayed close by. In fact, skunk spray can throw me into a migraine-like headache, but without the preceding light show of auras and glitter.
In fact, just thinking of skunk and certain types of perfume can bring on a headache.
Anybody else have odor triggers or is this sensitive to smell?
*********
Odor triggers are very common. They are a huge problem for me.
Kerrie
September 24th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I have been fighting migraines since childhood, for almost 30 years now (I have MWA, migraine with aura), and have always had the migraine hangover. It’s just part of the cycle for me. My brain and head feel sore, especially if I have to bend over or, heaven forbid, if I cough of sneeze. It’s almost like I can feel my brain against my skull. And, I also feel tired and foggy from the headache itself and all the medication. Plus, I’m always on edge and for days, with every twinge, I panic and think “Is this it, is another one coming???????”
October 27th, 2008 at 5:17 am
I have just had my first migraine in five years last night and now I have my first post-migraine malaise. I wonder if I’m alone in that - aside from a dragging feeling of unutterable depression - my main worry is that I can’t read (online or off) without the words and letters dancing around and playing hide-and-seek. How I’m managing to type this is a mystery to me! I also find it a little troubling watching television as half the faces of the actors almost seem to disappear. Does anyone else experience this weird kind of “blindness”/visual confusion? I assume it has something to do with the severe aura visuals I get at the onset of migraine.
November 11th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I am currently in the hangover stage of a 4 day migraine. I get them about twice a month now and have just recently started a new (my 5th) medication called Topomax. However, it hasn’t quite worked for me yet! I was so happy to read some of these blogs (not happy to read that people were not feeling well) but happy to read that I was not crazy! It was so comforting to know that my symptoms are common and that I’m not dying of some unseen brain tumor! I always feel so depressed after a migraine, I feel like I have taken away precious time from my husband and children, I keep reminding myself that it’s not me, but these awful headaches that are completely out of my control. Good luck to everyone…
November 14th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I was comparing notes with my sister-in-law, another migraine sufferer and we couldn’t thing of any way to describe how we feel after our headaches. Hangover was the only word that came to mind.
My son has started experiencing the same migraines that I have. I picked him up in a parking lot tonight (he called because he couldn’t drive from the pain). He was throwing up all the way home.
What I wonder is if the hangover is a result of the Imitrex or the actual migrain. Hmmm…
November 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I have suffered from migraines for about 12 years now. I just started experiencing the visual aura phase about 2 years ago. I remember my first in 7th grade, my left hand went numb and I threw up , then overcome by throbbing on right side of my head, though at the time I thought I had a brain tumor or somethng, I had another about 6 years later. And have had them on and off for 2 years now. My god thw visual aura ias the worse. I get the glimmering zig zag in the corner of my eye which then fills in everywhere and I also get the partial blindness. Last week I had one, I looked at the clock and could only see 1:47 though I knew it was 11:47, so I knew I was in trouble and something was coming on. I had been migraine free for over a year! Now I have had 2 in two weeks and just don’t feel right. It’s been a few days, but I am still in a foggy daze and am very sensitive to light and sound, worse is that I am panicked about getting another one at any moment and being debilitated all day, I feel so useless and horrible when that happens. No one can understand how terrifying and mood altering these are unless they experience. I think focusing too much on the bright computer screen and lack of sleep are triggers for me (like I am doing right now :)). Anyone else experience that? I’m 24 and I would try anything to never get another one, does anyone have any successful remedies that have been prescribed to them?
Thanks!!!
November 18th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I am in a the hangover stage of a 4 day migraine right now and feel like i have been run over by a truck. Aside from feeling fuzzy, flu-like and lethargic beyond belief, I am struggling for words and can’t organize my thoughts. I have been suffering for 10 years now and it is so frustrating to be so helpless. The new Treximet (Imitrex+Naproxin) works well to cut the pain but the hangover period is agony. I too feel guilty about not being able to be helpful and attentive to my children and husband. Has anyone ever gone through a successful detox regime to speed this phase along?