Migraine support - Acephalgic migraine

Author

Acephalgic migraine

jacque1in@yahoo.com

2005-08-26, 5:53 pm

Prompted by the troll who considers only "classic" migraines "real"
migraines, I'm just wondering if anyone else on the group has
acephalgic, i.e., "painless" migraines?

I've had them since I was a teenager when I just called them "sick
headaches," because I would get a headache -- but nothing too dire --
with nausea and a general sense of feeling kind of light-headed, that
could only be "cured" by sleeping it off.

I didn't think they were migraines because they weren't all that
painful, especially compared to my sisters, who both have classic,
multi-day, severely debilitating headaches.

The first time I ever realized I might have migraines was when I was
out to dinner one night with a friend and had a lightning-bolt pattern
visual disturbance that was so intense, I thought I was having a
retinal detachment or a stroke. My friend took me to the ER, where the
ER doctor told me I was having a classic migraine aura. After that, my
regular physician determined that my "sick headaches" -- relatively low
pain though they were -- were actually migraines because of the
neurological components. And, wonder of wonders, I discovered you could
TAKE stuff for them, rather than just sleep it off! Who knew?

About four years ago, when I hit my late 30s, my migraines became far
more frequent, going from once or twice a month to as many as 10-15 a
month. I actually get even less pain than I did when I was younger,
but I have a lot more difficulty with the nausea, light and noise
sensitivity, visual problems, and being in a kind of fog when I've got
a migraine. But pain? Really very little, for which I am grateful.

Right now, I'm taking zonegran as a preventative and while it worked
well at the start, I just came off a brutal round of daily migraines
during the recent high heat and humidity days. I'm getting so I mostly
just function through it since I don't have much pain, though, but my
productivity on days like that just sucks.

Anyone else have this freakily obscure form of migraine?

Jacque1in

Liz Spindola

2005-08-26, 5:53 pm

Hi Jacque!

Your "painless" migraines are quite common. My mom, 87, STILL gets them!!
Add that to her macular degeneration and she's got a lot going on. I always
remember her calling her aura "flashing snakes". I inherited then migraines
from her and my father, but I don't experience auras.

There are lots of preventative things you could try. I'm currently taking
amitriptyline (Elavil) and verapamil, combining those with HRT that is
tailored to my particular blood levels.

Sorry that you suffer from these rotten things... but you're in good company
here!

Liz

<jacque1in@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1125083323.526596.101610@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Prompted by the troll who considers only "classic" migraines "real"
> migraines, I'm just wondering if anyone else on the group has
> acephalgic, i.e., "painless" migraines?
>
> I've had them since I was a teenager when I just called them "sick
> headaches," because I would get a headache -- but nothing too dire --
> with nausea and a general sense of feeling kind of light-headed, that
> could only be "cured" by sleeping it off.
>
> I didn't think they were migraines because they weren't all that
> painful, especially compared to my sisters, who both have classic,
> multi-day, severely debilitating headaches.
>
> The first time I ever realized I might have migraines was when I was
> out to dinner one night with a friend and had a lightning-bolt pattern
> visual disturbance that was so intense, I thought I was having a
> retinal detachment or a stroke. My friend took me to the ER, where the
> ER doctor told me I was having a classic migraine aura. After that, my
> regular physician determined that my "sick headaches" -- relatively low
> pain though they were -- were actually migraines because of the
> neurological components. And, wonder of wonders, I discovered you could
> TAKE stuff for them, rather than just sleep it off! Who knew?
>
> About four years ago, when I hit my late 30s, my migraines became far
> more frequent, going from once or twice a month to as many as 10-15 a
> month. I actually get even less pain than I did when I was younger,
> but I have a lot more difficulty with the nausea, light and noise
> sensitivity, visual problems, and being in a kind of fog when I've got
> a migraine. But pain? Really very little, for which I am grateful.
>
> Right now, I'm taking zonegran as a preventative and while it worked
> well at the start, I just came off a brutal round of daily migraines
> during the recent high heat and humidity days. I'm getting so I mostly
> just function through it since I don't have much pain, though, but my
> productivity on days like that just sucks.
>
> Anyone else have this freakily obscure form of migraine?
>
> Jacque1in
>

Sammy

2005-08-26, 10:51 pm

I have posted that my one daughter has debilitating headaches. My other
daughter has "silent migraines". Every so often she has a true migraine,
but never close to the intensity of her sister's. She will begin by getting
the aura, then she has other symptoms, but often even if she doesn't take an
aspirin, the headache won't come.

Her first one was when she was 16, and I immediately took her to the
Opthamologist. Fortunately the nurse heard the alarm in my voice and said
it was probably a migraine. She has had bad headaches, but often there is
the aura, and the headache doesn't settle in. I am sorry that I cannot
remember what other symptoms she has, but I think there are other things
going on too that affirm that it is a migraine.

Sammy
<jacque1in@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1125083323.526596.101610@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Prompted by the troll who considers only "classic" migraines "real"
> migraines, I'm just wondering if anyone else on the group has
> acephalgic, i.e., "painless" migraines?
>
> I've had them since I was a teenager when I just called them "sick
> headaches," because I would get a headache -- but nothing too dire --
> with nausea and a general sense of feeling kind of light-headed, that
> could only be "cured" by sleeping it off.
>
> I didn't think they were migraines because they weren't all that
> painful, especially compared to my sisters, who both have classic,
> multi-day, severely debilitating headaches.
>
> The first time I ever realized I might have migraines was when I was
> out to dinner one night with a friend and had a lightning-bolt pattern
> visual disturbance that was so intense, I thought I was having a
> retinal detachment or a stroke. My friend took me to the ER, where the
> ER doctor told me I was having a classic migraine aura. After that, my
> regular physician determined that my "sick headaches" -- relatively low
> pain though they were -- were actually migraines because of the
> neurological components. And, wonder of wonders, I discovered you could
> TAKE stuff for them, rather than just sleep it off! Who knew?
>
> About four years ago, when I hit my late 30s, my migraines became far
> more frequent, going from once or twice a month to as many as 10-15 a
> month. I actually get even less pain than I did when I was younger,
> but I have a lot more difficulty with the nausea, light and noise
> sensitivity, visual problems, and being in a kind of fog when I've got
> a migraine. But pain? Really very little, for which I am grateful.
>
> Right now, I'm taking zonegran as a preventative and while it worked
> well at the start, I just came off a brutal round of daily migraines
> during the recent high heat and humidity days. I'm getting so I mostly
> just function through it since I don't have much pain, though, but my
> productivity on days like that just sucks.
>
> Anyone else have this freakily obscure form of migraine?
>
> Jacque1in
>

judy.n@gmail.com

2005-09-24, 1:20 pm

My 17 year daughter has primarily acephagic migraines with a strong
vertigo component. She had brief episodes of vertigo as a young child,
a few classic migraines with aura in middle school and then developed
severe, almost constant "sick" migraines, that had almost no pain, but
she feels dizzy and nauseated. She was hospitalized for a "status"
episode last February. Vertiginous migraine is very common, especially
in women, and can respond to usual migraine treatment. Because she
doesn't have the classic one sided throbbing headache, despite all of
her suffering and disability, some physicians didn't understand that
what she has is migraine. I see an ENT expert in Boston who diagnosed
me with vertiginous migraine, and I almost never get a headache, but
have struggled with vertigo. It's real, migraine associated dizziness,
and there is starting to be a lot of research and recognition of it. My
daughter is on nortripytline, but still has episodes that knock her out
and is very motion sensitive. Your migraines aren't obscure. They're
incredibly common. If you Google "migraine associated vertigo" you'll
get a great article from emedicine on the topic.

Bear

2005-09-24, 1:20 pm

>From time to time I get sort of a reprieve and just get the light
sensitivity, the nausea and generally feel like crap without the
intence head pain following an otherwise normal migraine aura, I never
knew that those episodes even had a name other than "a break". Most of
mine are more along the order of your sisters though.
Bear

jacque1in@yahoo.com wrote:
> Prompted by the troll who considers only "classic" migraines "real"
> migraines, I'm just wondering if anyone else on the group has
> acephalgic, i.e., "painless" migraines?
>
> I've had them since I was a teenager when I just called them "sick
> headaches," because I would get a headache -- but nothing too dire --
> with nausea and a general sense of feeling kind of light-headed, that
> could only be "cured" by sleeping it off.
>
> I didn't think they were migraines because they weren't all that
> painful, especially compared to my sisters, who both have classic,
> multi-day, severely debilitating headaches.
>
> The first time I ever realized I might have migraines was when I was
> out to dinner one night with a friend and had a lightning-bolt pattern
> visual disturbance that was so intense, I thought I was having a
> retinal detachment or a stroke. My friend took me to the ER, where the
> ER doctor told me I was having a classic migraine aura. After that, my
> regular physician determined that my "sick headaches" -- relatively low
> pain though they were -- were actually migraines because of the
> neurological components. And, wonder of wonders, I discovered you could
> TAKE stuff for them, rather than just sleep it off! Who knew?
>
> About four years ago, when I hit my late 30s, my migraines became far
> more frequent, going from once or twice a month to as many as 10-15 a
> month. I actually get even less pain than I did when I was younger,
> but I have a lot more difficulty with the nausea, light and noise
> sensitivity, visual problems, and being in a kind of fog when I've got
> a migraine. But pain? Really very little, for which I am grateful.
>
> Right now, I'm taking zonegran as a preventative and while it worked
> well at the start, I just came off a brutal round of daily migraines
> during the recent high heat and humidity days. I'm getting so I mostly
> just function through it since I don't have much pain, though, but my
> productivity on days like that just sucks.
>
> Anyone else have this freakily obscure form of migraine?
>
> Jacque1in

jacque1in@yahoo.com

2005-09-24, 1:22 pm

Wow, I had never heard of an association between migraine and vertigo.
Thank you SO much for the tip on this. When I was in my 20s, I still
had my regular acephalgic type migraines that I do now, but only once a
month during my period. However, I was plagued by horrible vertigo
attacks that would strike out of nowhere and sometimes last for days.
A lot of times, they would start in the middle of the night, when I
would turn my head on the pillow and the room would start to spin. I
wouldn't be able to move my head around at all without the entire room
spinning and my eyes would do the classic tracking thing that assured
my doctor that it was "true vertigo." I carried antivert with me then
the way I now carry my midrin because I never knew when one was going
to strike. I haven't had one in years -- not since the non-vertigo
acephalgic migraines got bad. I wonder now if it was all just part of
the same thing?

The vertigo was far worse than what I deal with now. I actually worked
out a whole protocol for how I had to move for those times when I
absolutely HAD to move, like going to the bathroom, so that my
dizziness was minimized. (For me, the key turned out to be keeping my
ears in a certain position relative to one another on a plane.) But
that was only after having the experience of crawling on my hands and
knees with moments to rest and stop the spinning, which is definitely
one the most horribly degrading memories of that time period.

I am SO glad they are doing research on this! I wonder what life would
have been like if I had known what was happening.

You and your daughter have my sympathy and I am glad you are getting
the right treatment.

Jacque1in