barbara_hambly: Migraine.alt

barbara_hambly (

barbara_hambly) wrote,
@ 2008-03-13 12:13:00

Current location:	Fortress of Solitude
Current music:	computer talking to itself

Migraine.alt
I would like to express my appreciation to whoever it was, back in 1951, who got the Migraine Fairy drunk and in a good mood when she came to my christening, so that instead of the regular, agonizing migraines that most people get, once or twice a month I get treated to the compact, 40-minute, pain-free light-shows which my doctor calls "ocular migraines." (I got the real kind as a teen-ager, although I didn't know that's what they were. I just knew that when things started appearing and disappearing, and fire started falling through the air, I was going to get a Really Awful headache very soon).

Every now and then, I get an "alternate presentation" of the usual marching-lines-of-fire hallucination. The first couple of times this scared the hell out of me, but the other night I was just curious: Wow, that's interesting. Hmm, never seen THAT color before. Why is that opaque cloud perfectly square? I clocked it at slightly under an hour, long for an "alternate." Didn't even get the very slight headache that sometimes comes in its wake.

Stress? Allergy? Ageing? Supernatural entities trying to get in touch with me? Who knows?

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	mystical illnesses mleiv 2008-03-13 07:45 pm UTC (link)
	I used to get really awful sleep paralysis. I think it was called a hypnogogic sleep disorder. I would hallucinate the most terrifying things while on the verges of sleep. It definitely shaped my mind into the disturbing, paranoid mess it is today. But it has given me a very unique perspective on alien abduction, hauntings, and angelic visitations. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: mystical illnesses barbara_hambly 2008-03-13 09:30 pm UTC (link)
	I've had bouts of that, though none recently, and not - thank goodness - for any protracted period of time. They do indeed give an interesting perspective on visions and visitations. But yes, they're deeply disturbing. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snowy_owlet 2008-03-13 07:49 pm UTC (link)
	My migraines now are almost always tied to fronts moving in. I love being a barometer! Really! It is teh n33test! (Reply to this)

melodywilde
2008-03-13 08:04 pm UTC (link)

Thank God I've never had a migrane, but I have a couple of friends (both in their 50's) who do. For both of them, it's food allergies. Irma can't eat cheese or wheat (among other things) and Ellen is getting to the point where she can't eat anything, although I think onions are the very worst trigger for her (even if it's just a teensy bit of onion in something like soup). Irma has the regular RX drugs, but Ellen just gobbles regular aspirin at the first hint that one's coming. Just FYI--you might try to think of what you've eaten when one of these hits.

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barbara_hambly
2008-03-13 09:35 pm UTC (link)

Indeed, wheat sets me off. It used to be when the wheat-level in my system rose to a certain point, but that point has been coming down steadily (and I did have wheat for lunch that day). They also seem to be tied to the vestigial estrogen-cycle (though I am past menopause); my likelihood of a migraine is highest in roughly 14-day cycles (that is, highest-estrogen or lowest-estrogen).
On the other hand, when you factor in stress and weather, it becomes very difficult to tell exactly which of what is causing those fire-toothed white mouths to come out of the darkness and talk to you.

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melodywilde
2008-03-14 12:17 am UTC (link)

it becomes very difficult to tell exactly which of what is causing those fire-toothed white mouths to come out of the darkness and talk to you.

I love hurt/comfort (you do realize that this is Robin's friend, right?) and I have to say that this is a delicious h/c-ish phrase. I just wish you weren't saying it about real pain, 'cause I don't like seeing good folks really suffer. {{hugs you}}

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deborahjross
2008-03-14 04:56 pm UTC (link)

Dave has been increasingly sensitive to wheat, too, although he does not get migraines. This reaction has been worsening over the years, to the point his GP recommended a workup for celiac disease (he doesn't have it). He decided to see what eliminating gluten would do, and it has helped greatly. No wheat, rye, barley, kamut, spelt. Oats seem to be okay. Celiac patients can't hazard oats because although oats do not contain gluten, they are frequently contaminated with tiny amounts in processing. Thanks to the current boom in gluten free products, I've been able to find ingredients for some very acceptable breach-machine yeast breads, and can't-tell-the-difference cornbread, waffles, and such like. At first, it was a conscious effort, with many dubiously successful experiments, but now it's easy. My next challenge is sourdough, which he loves and misses.

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londonbard
2008-03-13 08:08 pm UTC (link)

I get them too, almost always associated with the relief of tension after stress. Given the chance I used to lie down and then (almost certainly) lose consciousness/sleep for a while. By far the most frightening was when I had delivered an essay and got it in just within the deadline - and then my sight whited out on the wrong side of Oxford Street, (in London,) during a latenight shopping evening rush-hour.

I couldn't get passersby to understand what was wrong and was being jostled toward traffic that I could hear but not see, so I told a woman with a kind voice that dust had blown into my eyes and messed up my soft contact lenses. She led me across the road, probably not realising that I literally couldn't see anything but flicker. She even got me onto the correct bus and it had cleared before I reached the stop nearest my home...

Anyway, a couple of years later I had a bad sore throat and the doctor advised me to gargle with asprin. When the flicker started I used my asprin-gargle and then swallowed it rather than risk complete white-out while I was going to and from the sink.

It usually started with a flicker in the righthand corner of my eye and spread quickly until I could not see - but after I swallowed the gargle the flicker first stabilised as a little patch, then slowly got smaller and and ... went. Shortly afterwards I was told I have high blood pressure and given medication for it = the sadistic whiteout flicker hasn't come back for a long while.

It might by worth having blood pressure tests...

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	archangelbeth 2008-03-13 08:58 pm UTC (link)
	Hmm. I saw minnow-flickers, all silver and gold, at the edges of my vision once... When I had high blood pressure from pre-eclampsia, it was. An interesting connection. (Reply to this)(Parent)

barbara_hambly
2008-03-13 09:40 pm UTC (link)

Generally I get a fire-speck in the center of the vision, that widens into a line of incandescent barbed-wire which slowly retreats outward and disappears, though I have had the white-out phenomenon as an alternate presentation (that lasted only a minute or so).
I've had my blood-pressure tested regularly, and it's always rock-bottom lowest-normal.
I've often wondered whether migraines vary between men and women (since I know some theories link them to estrogen). I think statistically more women get them than men, but both Lewis Carroll and Thomas Jefferson were miraine-ees.

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coerdelion
2008-03-15 01:28 am UTC (link)

Hi Barbara

Those are precisely the same vision distortions I get occasionally - last time from a film at school that pretty much emulated flashing lights, although that's unusual. Like you, diagnosed as migrane and, like you, had the axe-in-the-head migranes as a teenager, but not now.

It's stress that sets me off with the vision thing ... you too?

Met lots of women with migrane, but no men. Go figure.

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	rhj_rs 2008-03-13 11:51 pm UTC (link)
	Other than blurring at the edge of my vision or sometimes greying, I don't get the ocular peculiarities. Plenty of pain, though, and I sometimes have olfactory hallucinations. Biofeedback helps a lot. When I was 17-18, I had one that lasted for eight months solid. THAT was fun... (Reply to this)

migraine.alt

carthur
2008-03-14 12:01 am UTC (link)

I don't get migraines, but one of my boys does. They showed up when he was about 4, and after some unremembered number I took him to see our family doctor. I have never seen such a look of relief on a doctor's face when I mentioned that they go away if he can sleep for an hour or two. The most likely alternative being a brain tumour at that age, and the fact they resolved with sleep indicated it wasn't the cause.

For him it is both food and weather. Red dye is the primary killer, which we figured out after canada day cupcakes with red sprinkles. Fortunately, we've never eaten much processed food.

Cathy

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writergirlie
2008-03-14 01:38 am UTC (link)

It feels as though I've been giving everyone this advice lately, but I swear by it: acupuncture. It really does work wonders--provided you go with someone who really knows what he/she is doing and isn't simply pretending to be some new age guru.

If you were in the Bay Area, I'd recommend my acupuncturist to you!

I do hope you feel better soon. It can't be fun. Four years ago I came down with viral meningitis and for three days, I suffered from the worst headaches of my life (they actually had me do a cat scan to make sure I didn't have some sort of aneurysm or blood clot that exploded). I can't imagine having those on a regular basis.

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barbara_hambly
2008-03-14 02:18 am UTC (link)

Actually, since the ocular migraines are completely painless, they're more a nuisance (and a curiosity) than anything else; the small, mild headaches that sometimes follow the light-show are light compared to sinus or stress headaches. My only concern about the migraines is that they make it unsafe for me to drive, and I've had a few come on while on the freeway. I CAN get, carefully, to my destination, but I don't like it.

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	writergirlie 2008-03-14 04:17 am UTC (link)
	Yikes... that does sound pretty scary, I'm sorry :( (Reply to this)(Parent)

	cahotage 2008-03-14 01:53 am UTC (link)
	I've never seen or experienced the light show and I think you're the first person I've ever heard describe it in such detail. No pain? Just lights? I wonder what your ocular nerves are doing to generate them? That is just so odd! (Reply to this)

	melpemone 2008-03-14 09:06 am UTC (link)
	Oh, I love the light show. I get migraines far less often now than I did as a teenager (I'm 25), but I get the prettiest colours. It's like a round, sparkly version of the old television test pattern. Of course, then my vision greys out and the vile, nauseating pain kicks in, so I don't exactly look forward to it. :) (I've never commented before. Hello! I enjoy your posts.) (Reply to this)

	papersky 2008-03-14 01:05 pm UTC (link)
	There's a story about someone discovering FTL through migraine alt, most people can't because when they get it their heads hurt too much. I can't remember the author, I read it when I was a teenager, but it's always been very consoling when I have a migraine! (Reply to this)

Migraines & Hormones

orfhlaith
2008-03-16 05:49 am UTC (link)

I'm sorry you're having to deal with migraines, even though the light show sounds interesting.

The estrogen connection makes a lot of sense to me, since the only time I used to get them (the killer, please smash my skull because it would feel better type) every single month, two weeks before my cycle started. Really fun PMS symptom that went away when I had a hysterectomy.

On the (thankfully) rare occasions I get them now they are stress generated.

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From a foggy spot in a forest that rather needs enchantment-->

doctorsunwolf
2008-03-20 08:04 pm UTC (link)

Well, the Migraine Fairy made it to MY christening, Barbara, as well as the You-Will-Be-Obsessed-With-Old-Books Fairy, the All-Wisdom-Resides-In-Obscure-Folktales Fairy, and Cats-Rule Fairy, to name a few of the odd folks tapping my wee head.

Strangely, I have the "Sunwolf" name--so one assumes it would be only a matter of time until someone who knows me turned me onto the World of Hambly; horribly no one ever did. A book search for my latest book turned up the Enchanted World of Hambly. As a recovering Trial Attorney, for years I had jurors wondering about my name (it's only one-word, as in, Judge to Attorneys: "Mr. Martinez, Mr. Jones, SunWolf, please approach the bench."). I escaped the battlefield of trial work, scars intact, and did the bloody get-your-doctoral-degree world at the University of California. Now I write books, grade papers, and teach strange courses I invent.

Thrilled to find you, dear lady!
Off to find the nearest bookstore . . .

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