If you suffer from migraines, you will know how awful they can be. Over the years I have learnt to manage mine so that I can usually avoid the pain. Everyone is made slightly differently, therefore my remedy might not work for you—but you won’t know unless you try.
Migraines have different stages. The first stage is usually unnoticed, but involves the hypothalamus. This is a small oval section of your brain; it’s responsible for regulating things like your temperature. When it begins overreacting you might not notice, or might feel tired for no reason, or crave certain foods. I notice smells that I usually wouldn’t detect. The next stage (for me) involves an aura. Apparently this is because the body starts dumping sodium in the brain. For me, I first get a bright spot in my vision (so I have to stop driving, and I can’t read or see very clearly) which develops into seeing the world as psychedelic images—everything solid looks like it’s made of lights (which apparently is a similar affect to if you take LSD). I also have dysphasia, which makes speech very difficult. This is my big warning.
The next stage is the pain, which when it hits is agony, not a pain I can ignore, one which most medicines don’t touch. When I had the tumour (and constant migraines) the medics gave me rizatriptan, which were brilliant. I had them in injections, so if I needed to do something (like cook dinner for 40 elderly people at the church lunch club) I could inject myself, and within minutes, like magic, the pain was gone. I understand that the pain is due to the capillaries in the brain constricting (to avoid all the sodium that was dumped there) and the medication opens them up again. Caffeine does a similar job, so most migraine remedies involve caffeine. The final stage, after the pain has gone, is feeling completely washed out and exhausted.
To give a little background, I have always suffered from migraines—one of the traits I inherited from my father. Although brains are either predisposed to migraine or not, they don’t usually strike unless something triggers them (and usually you need two triggers). When I had the brain tumour, this was sufficient to trigger them, and I suffered from almost back-to-back migraines. Not great. (A normal migraine is triggered by two factors, and there is a list on The Migraine Trust website. For me, missing a meal and lack of sleep were the main culprits until the tumour took over.) My headache stage lasted a couple of days and was pretty awful—I used to pull out my hair to try and diffuse the pain, and I would wander the house at night feeling wretched. After the tumour was removed, my migraines changed—I still get the first stages, including an aura, but if I do certain things, I can escape the next stage, so I skip the headache stage. Which is excellent. This is what I do.
When the aura hits, I try to relax, I have to try and switch off my brain. I try to escape to somewhere silent, I breathe slowly, relax my muscles, shut my eyes, wait for the aura to pass. As soon as the aura has gone, I take aspirin and strong coffee—trying to get blood into my brain to counter those constricting capillaries. If I can, I try to lower my head (hanging it over the side of the bed if I’m at home). I avoid speaking, trying to keep relaxed. Usually, this is sufficient. After about 30 minutes the tight feeling in my head passes (rather than developing into agony) and I have escaped a day of pain. The following day I will feel exhausted—so I haven’t escaped the migraine, but for some reason I can usually avoid the pain. I have no idea why this works—maybe when the surgeon sliced through my brain he cut the bit which triggers the pain. Or perhaps the tumour pain was so severe that now my body is unimpressed with a ‘normal’ migraine, so it doesn’t bother to register most headaches. Whatever the reason, I am not complaining—the other parts of a migraine are much easier to live with.
To those of you who contend with migraines, you have my sympathy. I hope you find a way to relieve the pain. Thanks for reading. Take care.
Love, Anne x
