Dangers of untreated migraines

I read this comment on the Health Central Website.

It is so important we try to manage our Migraines so
they don't become chronic, which can happen all to easily. Because
anyone who has three or more Migraines a month needs to be talking with
their doctor about prevention. There's growing evidence that Migraine is
a progressive brain disease. A recent study showed that Migraines can
cause brain damage, and that people with three or more Migraines a month
are more susceptible to this damage. For more information, see Is
Migraine a Progressive Brain Disease? and Yes,
Migraines Can Cause Brain Damage.

I find this interesting because it makes sense to me. I would think it would be more important to have enough medicadtion to wipe out all of your migraines instead of having to endure some of them because of fear of medication overdose. An untreated migraine in my opinion is dangerous, not to mention lost time in your life.

Sometimes I wondered that if I was giving it all this attention that maybe I was making it worse. Like, if I hadn't taken pain killers or triptans, that it wouldn't have progressed to this point, and that it is my fault I'm in this state now.

Anyone else feel this way?

Now that I've written these words down, I realize how stupid that sounds, but I can see where I got it. Don't give the whiney child attention and it will stop.

Thanks for posting this, Linda.

Angela

I hear ya Angel;a. It is very confusing to decide what to do. I'm sort of in the middle. I never hold off with an abortive. I will hold off on pain killers though hoping I won't need them. I'm not holding off on killing the mirgraine though in fear of getting more of them. I've also read that NOT aborting them causes more of them??????

So. Just hi lights all the more how badly we need a good, migraine dedicated preventative, that actually works on more than 50% of the migraines, and has an efficacy of more than a few months...
We need more awareness and attention from others than just oursleves....

In the UK we have Migraine Awareness Week September 5.
It is a virtual event, and requires no more than a tick to attend on FB.
No travel, nothing more. Yet over 100 of my friends have declined. Some of them are migraine people.
It might be in part because Migraine Trust, who put the page up, did NOT make it clear initially that it is a virtual event. They have since corrected that.

However we still only have 189 people "attending". That is pathetic. It shows how little people are bothered..
https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=133133313374982&ref=ts
I sent this invitation to every one of my 250 friends on there. So far the most of the 189 are my friends.
What is everyone else doing??
Please if you are on FB, tick to attend, and send it to all your friends.

For those not on FB, here is the page that explains the week.
http://www.migrainetrust.org/C2B/document_tree/ViewADocument.asp?ID=264&CatID=93

I know this is a UK event, but Teri Roberts supports, and what goes around comes around.
This is not a problem to be kept to our own country. We all need all the help we can get.

I have taken posters to my Doctors surgery and have given some to people for their work bulletin boards.
We have to try to educate everyone, and this is one way to do it....

Maybe then one day we will get that drug that stops us pumping down pills that possibly do more harm than good. And protect ourselves from the kind of thing Linda has posted for us...

We need a break....

I'm amazed at how timely and relevant these postings are. I just saw a pain management specialist who was trying to describe the MRI of my head. He said there were small lesions "that I would expect to see in someone like you with 40 years of frequent migraines." He described them as small dead spots. Freaked me out. He said it is similar to the damage from a stroke, although very small. I never heard this described before and wasn't sure I believed him. And now this link describes it. He said from here all we can do is try to get control of them.
Thanks for the info.

If this scale of pain was anywhere else on the body they would be doing numerous tests to pin point the problem> And I can't believe
that there are still professionals out there that don't believe that migraines are dangerous. Nobody is going to change my mind on that one.