the seriousness of migraines

Just what I have thought from the beginning of my migraines. Read this:

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131604&page=1

I'm a common sense type of person and I have always thought migraines were dangerous just from the pain itself. I never did
believe they were harmless no matter who I heard it from.
I have also treated myself instead of going by what the doctor ordered. All I need them for are the prescriptions once "I"
know what works for me.

I'm actually kind of on top of mine thanks to myself. Now if I can just rid myself from them altogether

I`m wondering what they mean by brain damage. Like what kind of brain damage.

Don't know. Maybe we would be a lot smarter right now if we hadn't had migraines.

LOL

I have been told by the Veteran's Administration (doctors at the VA hospital) that I have many liesions cause by over 50 years of migraines. They said not to worry because it doesn't affect the brain. I wondered if they were trying to convince me or themselves.

Can you imagine over half a century of putting up with this horrible pain and having few if any people believing you. Many of my family members think I have been pretending all of these years. I have had employers tell me to find another job. The United States Army told me that I was lieing and wanted to draft me anyway. I joined the Air Force instead and was almost kicked out on a medical discharge, but refused it.

Yes, for all of us, it has and still is an uphill battle to get others to realize that we are not pretending. Especially the medical providers. I pray that the naysayers end up with some of the worst migraines so they can truely understand what we go through.

Are the lessions the "white imaging" they report on the mri's?

Ditto short term memory and ability to concentrate - the end of the road to becoming a total ditz is getting closer.

And yes Hal, I'm only at 25 years of none belief and I'm getting very tired. I really can't see myself getting in another 25, some days I think 10 will be pushing it.

Cheerful reports like this tend to substantiate that belief unfortunatley - although Hal, your still bashing away at a keyboard and that gives me hope.

I am glad I am not the only one. I am really struggling to focus and concentrate. My husband thinks I am a scatter brain.

Petzi

It's when your kids look at you and just shake their heads that it gets depressing.

I coped with their homework even at uni level, and now I can barely get through a short post on here.

I don't have kids, but I have cats. They have their ways of letting me know when I am forgetting to clean their litter tray or to open the cat flap.

throughout everyones life we get white patches on our brains, those of us who get migraines get more. they do not damage the brain in anyway. around the time of a migraine it isnt suprising tho that our memories play up when you think all the wiring is haywire at that time! nothing to worry about and those of us females only have to throw into the equation our hormones and that answers everything!!

Interesting article, but quite depressing.
They warn about the danger of migraines but they give no solution.
They talk about prevention, but we all know that preventative "cures" work only for few sufferers and often give awful side-effects.

They also talk about the importance of a correct treatment. Fine. My first neuro told me that a migraine attack MUST NOT be ignored. It must be ALWAYS aborted because one never knows what can happen to a widened blood vessel in the brain.
So why doctors are so resistant to prescribe meds sometimes????
I'm not able yet to narrow my blood vessels through telepathy. Maybe I should sign up for a class....

So dammed if we do, dammed if we dont Ivy.

Abort the migraine, but dont take too much medication.....

I wonder if people with other illnesses go through this kind of mental torture??


P

Even though the pain I get with migraines is not as severe as most of you, the other effects, in addition to being disabling, always felt like they were very bad for my brain. A bad migraine often reminded me of a concussion I had once. Very similar symptoms. Inclduing leaving me feeling cognitively "dazed" the next day.

Now I know that they not only feel bad for one, they really are!

Yet another motivation for me to get my insurance to start paying for the only preventative that's worked for me.

Is it at all odd that those of us on preventatives (not me) dont ever get told not to take them because of some sort of rebound/overuse.
None of them work for me, so I have to be hit with the over doing it stories constantly. So more stress, more migraines, more medication.
But it does seem the migraines are more dangerous than the medication.....possibly any of it....

Wish they would come clean on this....

Good point Pen. Why don't preventatives cause this so called medication overuse?

I have no idea Linda. Anyone????

P

Probably because they don't do anything to the pain-transmission channels in the brain. They prevent headache, not deal with it.

Another theory is that short-acting drugs that have an intense physiological effects are more likely to cause rebound than small doses of long-acting drugs.

It kind of makes sense to me. Say you have something going on that is trying to make your blood vessles exapnd. You take, say, caffeine, and the vessles shrink. But when it wears off, the underlying process is still there and the blood vessels expand more quickly as they "catch up" to their destined state than if you hadn't had the caffeine.

I suppose if you kept taking the caffeine non-stop this wouldn't happen. But then it would be hard to sleep ('')

But I don't really know and I'm not sure about rebound.

Pen,

Here in Oklahoma, they won't recognize migraine as a disability. If they did, it would mean that more people could receive disability payments and they would have to be treated as disabled persons. That means alot of people would qualify for many different benifits. Employers would have to make allowances for the disability. People that suffered from migraines could get disabled parking stickers for their cars. They could even get extra help with payments for necessary drugs.

Then the doctors do not know what to do with those of us that do not respond to the preventatives. I think few of us really do, as most people have posted that they keep changing drugs.

Now that the doctors think it is a genetic defect they are really in a quandry. They have identified a real cause for what most have thought was a figment of our imagination. What do they do now? I hope in the near future our governments and medical personell finally admit that migraine is a real and serious illness.

Hal

Probably because they don't do anything to the pain-transmission channels in the brain. They prevent headache, not deal with it.

Ah, okay. Thanks.

But not one of these drugs is actually for migraine I believe.
They give them to us to sort of use the side effects.
That cant be good can it??

Hal - here in Minnesota migraine is considered a disability if you have a certain number a month. Can''t remember how many. Where I work I could probably get disability if I wasn't able to abort mine. Wouldn't get paid for time off other than my regular allowance but could not get fired either.
If they were frequent you could stay home and collect disability. I know 2 people who are on disability for depression which would be
even harder to diagnose "for sure" than migraines. You can't beat Minnesota if you have health problems.

thats right zekses, it is painkillers that cause rebound, triptans and preventers are not painkillers they work completely differently. whoever takes painkillers for whatever ailment can get rebounds from them. triptans are for migraine. there are lots of drugs that fall into different classifications and are used for various ailments. there is not just an individual drug for each ailment and migraine the only one that share some its drugs with other ailments. pen if you read up on drugs and their uses youll be suprised, get an old bmf and have a read.

estre004 wrote: Where I work I could probably get disability if I wasn't able to abort mine.

. I know 2 people who are on disability for depression which would be
even harder to diagnose "for sure" than migraines..

Just using some of your words to make a point, Linda (not that you said anything I disagree with)


How can you prove that you can't abort? I can't abort anymore and it is my word against a doctor, basically. It is like trying to prove how much pain I am in. You have to take my word for it. There is no instrument to measure pain, or depression.

So, if a person does get disability, how much does that pay? I've seen the line up at the food banks and that is my personal fear.

I'm not saying not to try for it or the safety net isn't needed. I'm saying we need better health care and not a shuffle into poverty where we don't have the money or strength to keep fighting for better care. You need it....you GET IT!

Twenty years ago, plus, there was no discussion on migraine other than it was a headache. I love reading articles like these because it means that people are working on the solution. Twenty years ago there were no triptans and no hope AND no chance of disability. We have come a long way in a short time and I hope it keeps rapidly progressing like it has.

I have serious concerns about my nervous sytem and this just puts the icing on the cake. I have Trigeminal Neuralgia and Peripheral Neuropathy in addition to IBS, Fibromyalgia and Migraines. That's a LOT of nervous system disorders. I have had migraines chronically since I was 12 with a break between my children's pregnancies. I've had auras with migraines the whole time. I wonder how many of these disorders stem from migraines and it's effect on me or if my nervous system is just so darn sensitive that it can't take modern life without giving me fits.

Add in the decline in my memory function and I really worry about my future. And trying to get disability is just ridiculous. To even get SSA to look at you you have to unemployed for a year. How are you supposed to live while you wait to even start the fight? Am I wrong or maybe missing something? I would love to be termed disabled cause then I might be able to get health insurance through the County since no insurance company will look at me without charging way more than I can even afford.

Alli