[healthwork] ... I think that might have been a migraine :|

[kaberett]

[content notes: see top of tin]

Okay. So. I have had two definite for-realsies unambiguous confirmed migraines ever, both in my early teens, both with aura. The first one (with classic ring-of-distortion-and-sparkles) I didn't get pain relief until some time after the headache had started, promptly threw up the anti-emetic, and spent Quite A While wanting, quite sincerely, to die, so that the pain would stop.

The second one I lost my entire field of vision and also any sense of direction at all whatsoever, including "up", but got to painkillers within the ~45 minute window after the aura dissipated. After lying down for a couple of hours, I merely felt Fragile for the rest of the day.

Both were very clearly triggered by significant exertion in hot weather (>30°C) with inadequate hydration. Okay, fine, I've avoided that ever since.

... this afternoon I abruptly and inexplicably Needed A Nap circa 4pm, despite having only woken up at 11.30am after a reasonable amount of sleep, it not being That Part Of My Menstrual Cycle, etc.

I dragged myself back out of bed about an hour later, spent another hour or so sitting on the sofa in a vague fugue, and eventually realised that (1) my thermoregulation was completely shot, (2) I was feeling like death warmed over, (3) this was not explained by e.g. running a temperature, and (4) all the noises h u r t.

So I took some codeine and lay very still in the dark. And I experienced a stabbing unilateral headache that made my teeth throb. And eventually the codeine kicked in and I decided I was willing to put on sunglasses and eat dinner in the living room with all the lights turned down low, and still ended up closing my eyes without really thinking about it every time I wasn't actively needing to look at my hands to see what I was doing with my cutlery, and then huddled straight back into bed, albeit this time with Screens. (Laptop screen set to dimmest, bedside light off because even with sunglasses on it was No, and, right, also sunglasses on in. a darkened room.)

And then the headache started receding and then I started feeling ?mild nausea? and now I'm back in a room with normal light levels and normal glasses and I'm feeling a bit faint and wobbly and delicate but am also managing to e.g. think and do work again.

So, on the side of "nah, probably not a migraine, c'mon":

• no aura that I noticed
  
• no pain so bad I actually wanted death
  
• I didn't actually vomit
  
• it wasn't actually photosensitivity as such if it didn't hurt I was just being avoidant right
  
• sometimes I just Get Like That about sounds, I mean, I am autistic
  
• Everyone Gets Headaches
  
• it's been about 15 years since my last one and I didn't do The Trigger Activity

On the other hand:

• I was asleep during most of the window when I might have experienced aura
  
• and anyway my mother experiences migraines both with and without auras
  
• sitting in a darkened room wearing sunglasses isn't exactly my idea of a fun way to spend an evening spontaneously
  
• I am on a much higher baseline load of painkillers than I was the last times I had migraines
  
• and also my entire pain Interpretation system has been extravagantly and recklessly recalibrated since then
  
• teeth. throbbing.
  
• ... well fuck. :|

eta okay, well, once I'd slept and was minus some of the cognitive impairment associated with migraines I was much more convinced it was, in fact, obviously a migraine, and then pretty much exactly 24h on I got Fun Digestive Side Effects, so I suppose getting my buscopan prescription reinstated is on my horizon :|

Comments

[alexwlchan]

dear alex's brain

2020 is over now, no need to be doing the migraine pls

💜

[cosmolinguist]

I get migraines like that. Including teeth throbbing and especially "it wasn't actually photosensitivity as such if it didn't hurt I was just being avoidant right."

For reference (if that's not too glamorous a term), I get migraines with and without aura, or bad nausea (sometimes I throw up, sometimes I'm fine), even with and without head pain. That photoavoidant-if-not-photosensitive symptom is actually one of the most common/reliable for me. Being fragile afterward, postdrome, is also one of the more common and reliable indicators to me.

And my only discernable migraine trigger is stress. I'd definitely be getting migraines if I was at the stage you're at with your PhD.

[sfred]

All of this.

[lireavue]

I am just gonna sit here and give you ENDLESS SIDE-EYE for the nah-probably-not list and can break it down with further data on request but am assuming you pretty much have. :P

Also you have a truly massive stress-load atm, which is another known migraine... not exactly trigger but like, if you think about all the things Which Make Migraine More Likely as stacking up to a threshold? that.

(I get my HAIR HURTING I am v grateful not to get that AND teeth throbbing wtf bodies.)

[cosmolinguist]

Oh god I get my hair hurting with the really bad ones. I used to fantasize about shaving it all off when it got that bad.

[lireavue]

Legit the reason I finally gave up and chopped my hair into an asymmetrical pixie-ish thing is this. If I'd met Alex sooner I might've picked up the bog mummy braid back when it was still waist-length. :(

[jesse_the_k]

Another hair-hurter.

The auras completely stopped with surgical menopause, though the headaches continue -- much less frequently.

[harpers_child]

I get 3-4 migraines a week and have 3/4 of my head shaved for that reason.

[kaberett]

... my hair hurts just when I'm feeling Particularly Autistic >_>

And: stress hasn't previously been a thing I somatise as migraine at all, like, in a bunch of other ways YES but my most recent round of stress herpes is actually resolving at the moment (!) so it would. be an exciting. new way. for me to do the thing. and I would like to return it for a refund please. :|

[lireavue]

I mean generally I end up with AUGH THE AIR IS TOUCHING ME when that's the problem, but it gets... more. when migraine.

All my sympathies. Tomorrow morning maybe run through food/scents list to see if anything's changed, but given you tend to super carefully curate your environment ANYWAY I have doubts. :/ extremely rude of your body.

[kaberett]

Honestly top of my current Suspects list is that my sleep schedule has been... more... of a mess than usual recently (in that A has ended up dragged into Staying Up Late with me without work as a regular hard reset); otherwise, no, I don't think anything's changed, sigh.

[lireavue]

That is an extremely likely suspect yeah; I have... okay in the past two weeks of tracking, two days where there was definitely a migraine involved no fucked up sleep schedule (usually this entails a very early waking). ALL the others, including the days where it was "idk this might be migraine or I might just feel like crap for having slept poorly" were, well, that.

[fyreharper]

Everyone Gets Headaches sounds a bit like Everyone’s Cramps Are Painful and um. >_>

(I’m sorry, I don’t want you to be having migraines either, that sucks)

[momijizukamori]

FWIW I've never had auras with my migraines (my best friend gets auras and most of the symptoms other than pain, and we joke that between us we have 'traditional' migraines) and the only things that separate them from 'bad tension headache' is 1) they're unilateral and 2) they respond well to triptans. But also like, we don't know how they work (or how half the medications we use for them treat them), and the line between 'migraine' and 'other type of bad headache' is very fuzzy.

I vaguely recall that at least one of the tripans is OTC in Europe, so might be worth picking that up in case it happens again? Barring any contraindications of course.

[harpers_child]

Sounds very much like a migraine to me. I don't get auras and usually end up light / sound sensitive. Mostly just pain and feeling like I'd be better off if my teeth fell out.

edit to add: if you end up talking to a professional about this, there's a B2 and magnesium protocol that can help prevent migraines and/or makes them less painful. Both of those can have gastro side effects JSYK.

[alatefeline]

Yuck. If it's not a migraine, and it sounds like a migraine-ish, it is certainly still utter crap.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yeah, that sounds like a migraine - and if it's not, then my other candidate would be a cluster headache, which are also extremely painful (sometimes known as a "suicide headache") and sometimes accompanied by nausea and photosensitivity, among other fun things. Definitely *not* "just a headache" like everyone gets.

[rmc28]

My migraine experience is often without classic aura, but "visual input is Too Much, my eyes they will stay closed as much as possible", and a lengthy period of recovery during which I feel thoroughly exhausted, and have learned from experience that pushing-through is Counterproductive.

So I'm leaning towards this was a migraine.

Also also, when I went to the specialist migraine clinic in London back in 2004-5?? they introduced me to the threshold theory: there might be multiple things that incline my body to throw a migraine. Maybe just one of them on its own isn't enough, but maybe two or three or four too close together tips me over. For some people a specific thing or food might tip them all the way over in one go every time; for others they might get away with one or two if they don't hit the threshold.

So for me, triggers include "not enough sleep" and "sudden drops in blood sugar" and "excessive physical effort" and "high levels of stress", and generally I can get away with hitting one of them at a time but two or more is heading for trouble.

[silveradept]

Ow, that sounds entirely and completely painful, migraine or no, and I hope it doesn't reoccur.

[jesse_the_k]

It's a migraine and I sent it a very nasty note. Leave our K alone!