Made me chuckle

I was watching a rerun of Doc Martin in which a man suffering a migraine walks into the doctor's office and asks for five paracetamol (acetaminophen/Tylenol to the Americans). Doc Martin asks him if he always takes paracetamol for his migraines, and he replies that he does and that it always works. Doc Martin replies that if paracetamol works, then he isn't having a migraine.

It reminded me of how many times I've been told to take Tylenol, or ibuprofen, or naproxen, or Excedrin, and how many people have told me they can stop their migraines with a cup of cherry juice or something else equally benign, and how I have to explain to them that even high-powered drugs don't help most of the time. Then they tell me about their daughter or their mother or their neighbor or someone who swears by coffee and aspirin or something. Then I have to say, well, I'm so glad that works for them, and then I change the subject, when all the time I'm thinking, "If coffee and aspirin works for them, then they're not having a migraine."

The most aggravating is being told " you just need to drink more water". Seriously!!? You think we live in this much pain due to not bothering to drink water? Arghhhhhhh!

Migrainegirl wrote:The most aggravating is being told " you just need to drink more water". Seriously!!? You think we live in this much pain due to not bothering to drink water?  Arghhhhhhh!

OMG, yes, as if during my daily migraines for 15 years I just did not drink enough water every single day!

I had somebody talk me the water thing once. The nearby co-worker lol'ed, abd then told them that they routinely saw me take in 64oz, just while at work. I admitted that I usually drink over 100 oz a day, as some of the preventatives I'm on can cause me to become easily dehydrated.

Um... actually.... a cup of coffee and and Anadin Extra (aspirin, paracetamol and caffeine) does sometimes work to clear my migraines.  And yes I really do get migraines!   Sometimes a strong cup of black coffee helps to clear a migraine and it also boosts the effect of other medication.  But then I drink zero caffeine other than as a cure for migs.  No coke, no coffee, no tea (only herbal).  But then as we all know, different things work for different people.  Here is my blog entry on how I stumbled upon coffee to help my migs.

http://anothermigraine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/miracle-migraine-cure.html

I'm caffeine dependant, I've gone off it, but didn't make a difference to my migraines, so I slowly ended up back on caffeine. I do know caffeine causes vasoconstriction so if you're normally caffeine free, it could help.

I've used a coke with my pills, knowing the acid and caffeine will help them hit my system quicker. Plus the coke helps my nausea.

There are times if I catch things at the prodome stage, and dose with the otc's early, they and caffeine will stop things at prodomee, rather that full migraine

Coffee and Pepsi definitely help me. They constrict the blood vessels and the Pepsi helps my stomach. Of course, I use them to wash down my Fiorinal with Codeine which has even more caffeine, so it's not the drink that gets rid of the migraine. I also try and stay away from caffeine if I don't have a headache. But I think if someone has a headache that goes away when they drink coffee, they just have a coffee withdrawal headache.

I laughed at the water and other suggestions that we've all gone through. I can feel my eyes rolling up in my head when people want to start telling me what I should do. I had one man say he was so excited because he knew he could help me and then asked if I ever heard of MSG. I laughed out loud. I went on to tell him foods that had MSG in that he had no idea.

Good for Doc Martin though, giving out correct information. I remember a movie here in the US where a little girl had a headache and he told her to blow into a paper bag, the headache went away and he pronounced her with migrianes. I actually have people tell me that!

Well, thanks for the laugh.....time for me to go drink more water. ---Cathy

Hi,

Thanks for posting. It made me laugh, too! I like Doc Martin, even if the character can be a jerk sometimes, but it is funny. The info is probably correct.

My father's headaches usually do respond to Aspirin and a nap. I only wish that mine did.

I can't tell you how many people say- well, try Excedrin or drink more water. Really? Cause in the 17 years I have had this disease I haven't tried those two remedies!

Pain free dats
sailingm

There was a cop who came to my workplace once to do a presentation, I forgot what it was on now, but at the end of it he took a non sequitor to tell us all to vote NO for medical marijuana in the state of Florida. He explained that if it passed, people could be prescribed marijuana for something as inconsequential as HEADACHES.. I was sitting in my chair so angry...

I was flipping through channels on the remote yesterday and stopped to watch Dr. Oz (whom I really don't like) because he said he was going to talk about relief for migraines. He brought someone down from the audience to help him. She said she gets migraines and just takes a Tylenol and it goes away. (She's so lucky.) Then Dr. Oz told her that instead of taking Tylenol, she should just eat some fresh ginger -- which, I guess, would probably do as much good as one Tylenol, for me, anyway.

That is pretty funny. Has ANYONE ever just eaten a piece of fresh ginger and an actual migraine went away? I remember that one migraine remedy, homeopathic I think, and it came in a little plastic squeeze bottle and it was mostly ginger. Did nothing for me but make me sicker.

I guess what's not funny is now people saw that and when it's a real migraine with the pulsing, stabbing pain, someone will look at us and tell us all we need to do is eat some fresh ginger......and they will think they are doing us a favor.

Siiiiiiggghh.

It is tiresome to keep having to listen to the foolish suggestions of those who have never really had migraines but no doubt they really are hoping to help so I try to be patient. Sometimes I'm more patient than other times. lol I do find that candied ginger can help a bit with mild nausea though but only if it is mild.