Migraine "Auras" Interfere with my life.... - Headaches & Migraines Message Board

nannie8 · 04-13-2005, 11:55 AM

Hello, I'm new to this and thought I'd post and see if anyone experiences this and perhaps has advice. From the time I was 19 years old (I'm 39 now), I have been experiencing migraines with aura. 99% of the time I get the aura with a mild headache following and sometimes no headache at all. It starts with a a minute visual disturbance that I can't explain, but I can tell when it's coming...then I get a tiny circle of wavy lines and blurred vision...it then explands larger and larger until my whole vision is obscured by blurry, wavy lines. This usually lasts from a half hour to an hour. I then get the slight headache that lurks around a few days sometimes...i can feel it if I cough or sneeze or have any jerky head movements. it often happens a few days in a row; almost like it's lying dormant waiting to "reactivate." anyway, it is horribly annoying...it interferes with work and driving, etc. and then the fear of it coming back causes problems too. sometimes i'll pop four advil at the onslaught and i even find that a small cup of coffee sometimes works to shorten the duration of the blurry vision. Any other ideas or clues on how I can minimize this, prevent it from happening or prevent it from coming back again and again after the first one? I would appreciate any input or advice. Thanks. Nan

Ratman · 04-15-2005, 02:07 AM

Consider yourself somewhat lucky. When I get the auras, I consider asking someone to knock me out with a baseball bat, because after about 15 minutes of having an aura a lot like you're describing I get an earth-shattering migraine that usually becomes so painful that my entire body go crazy and I end up spewing liquid from every opening I have. It hurts too much to go to sleep, so I have to stick through it for a couple hours until my body just shuts down. Then I'm out cold until the next day, and I have to deal with a regular bad headache for the rest of that day. Fortunately, I haven't had a migraine for a long time. I understand how it gets in the way of daily life though. When I get a migraine I'm basically out of the loop for 2 days. Unfortunately, I don't have any advice. Nothing ever helped my migraines or auras.

midwestmom · 04-16-2005, 10:24 PM

I agree with Ratman, when I get an aura, I'm down for the count for at least two days. I get a horrendous migraine, take meds, go to bed and usually the next day get another aura & another migraine. Then I have a "hangover" headache for a few days afterwards.

LeeAnn1365 · 04-17-2005, 11:13 AM

Nannie 8, I suffer from the exact same symptoms as you and I totally understand about it interfering with your life. Some people think that if you don't have that crushing ,sick feeling migraine headache for 2 or 3 days you should consider yourself lucky. That is not the case. The aura with or without headaches interferes with your life as much as the other. I don't mean to be rude but I have been reading on here for about 3 months, whenever anyone posts of this complaint everyone is so quick to tell them how lucky they are. We need help as much as the severe pounding migraine sufferers, believe me. I recently had to be prescribed an anti-depressant because I went into a panic if I was in a store and started having the aura. I have had to several times pull off the road and let the aura pass because my children were in the car and I feared for our safety. I also have had to delay leaving my house at a certain time because I had the aura. Trust me, it interferes with your life tremendously and anyone who suffers from this is NOT lucky. Since I began the Lexapro the auras seem to be better, I took Topamax which made me so disoriented I had to go the the hospital, I took Depakote ER and it made me so sick I could not function. I am currently just taking the Lexapro only because my neurologist feels that if I can take the edge off the stress in day to day life it will help the migraine auras, so far it has worked fairly well, I still have them but not near as frequent. The auras have a name as well, we suffer from OCULAR migraines. There are several kinds of different migraines and anyone who has any type of migraine suffers as much as the other. Just my 2 cents.

LeeAnn1365 · 04-19-2005, 10:07 PM

Sorry you haven't gotten more advice, Nan...