1614 My Crazy Migraine Journey (Part 1)

Do you get migraines? Do you know someone who gets migraines? Have you never had them, or maybe never heard of them, and have no clue what I am talking about? Well, unfortunately, I am one of the unlucky ones who does suffer from them. It surprised me that quite a few of my friends don’t get them and didn’t know much about them so I thought it might be helpful if I share my journey online and tell you what I know.

DISCLAIMER, THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE, PLEASE SEEK OUT PROFESSIONAL HELP. ANY OF THE METHODS OF RELIEF I TALK ABOUT TODAY ONLY TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK AND SPEAK TO A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL BEFORE TRYING THEM.

The very start of my journey was when I was younger (more than 10 years ago) so I can’t remember too much, and it may not be as accurate as in recent years. Although the start of my journey may not be helpful it is necessary to the story, I think. It is more just a bit of background. My migraines started around 11-12 years old.

I don’t remember much about them. I know I got them quite frequently and I tried various relief methods and saw a doctor about them, I know my mum suffered from them. I got anywhere between 1 and 3 per week. Less than ideal right? I got them regularly (weekly) until I was about 14. I can’t actually remember when they stopped completely.

Here is an extra storytime for you. I was at school; I think in year 7 (11-12 years old) I could feel a migraine starting. I got the black spots, I felt sick, I felt tingly etc. As I was told to, I went straight to the school office. They made me sit in the nurse’s room for the majority of the day without phoning my parents. They basically had labelled me a bunker because I was ill a lot growing up. They wouldn’t send me home and they wouldn’t call my parents. (We weren’t allowed to have our phones on us, so I couldn’t even speak to my parents).

Anyway, the next day I woke up with a migraine. My mum always said to me “Go to school, give it a go, if you still feel sick by the second lesson, get sent home”. That was the plan, so by the second lesson I still felt horrible, went to the school office and the lady said something along the lines of “Well, you had one yesterday so go back to lesson”. (Pretty much, they weren’t sending me home and I wasn’t going to be allowed to sit in the nurse’s office. Their aim yesterday was to get me bored so I would go back to the lesson).

I knew I had a maths test, so I went to the lesson (didn’t really have a choice) and I took the test and guess what I failed (I will add that maths was my best subject, I had never failed a maths test in my life). The next day or the next week it was Parents Evening. It was hilarious when my maths teacher thought she would embarrass me and tell my mum about me failing the maths test (don’t worry, I had already told my mum about it and she knew it was the case). My mum simply explained that I had a migraine, to which the teacher told me I should have told the teachers. Funny thing is, I did tell the teachers and they decided either not to believe me or to let me suffer with it anyway. So my mum simply replied saying “She did tell you, she told the office and for two days in a row you wouldn’t send her home”. The teacher really didn’t know what to say back to that, it was great. Later that year, I left that school and went to a different one.

A little fact that I have recently heard is that it is common to pass migraines down to children. If girls suffer from them from a young age, there is a 50% chance they will suffer from them for the rest of their life. When boys suffer from them, they have a good chance of growing out of them as they get older.

During the 3 years that I suffered badly with them as a teenager, I tried all sorts of relief methods. This time doctors called them ‘textbook migraines’ which would start with a warning, I would feel sick, my hands and feet would tingle, I would find bright lights painful etc. I tried the typical Migraleve (which is an over-the-counter medication). I tried a couple of prescription ones, but I can’t remember what they were called. The over-the-counter medications I tried include headache-related tablets (I usually just bought the shops ones so Boots, Superdrug, Tesco etc), Migraleve (if you know them, I used the pink and yellow ones), I tried the Kool’n’Soothe sheets, Nurofen/ibuprofen (whatever I had at home), and then the obvious ones such as sleeping, darkroom etc. I will put links to any of the medications I tried or similar to the ones I tried.

Here are the things I used:

Migraleve

Kool’n’Soothe sheets

Nurofen or ibuprofen

Headache/Migraine Pain Relief

A few other things I tried to fight back to the migraines is keeping a record of them, I tried a food diary but nothing came out consistently so I couldn’t work out what my trigger was when it comes to migraines. I had an idea that it could be stress-related, but I will explain later why I disagree now. I will also tell you more about food diaries and triggers. If you think you might be suffering from migraines, please speak to a medical professional as soon as possible. There are so many treatment options out there.

Now I know you are thinking, what could an 11 and 12-year-old have to do with stress. Well, much more than you think. Yes, 11 and 12 is still young, but you have just started secondary school, you have loads of new people in your life, and you have a lot more homework to deal with, in my case I was experiencing bullying. So, it is a different kind of stress but just because you are young doesn’t mean you are stress-free. Please keep this in mind.

I was quite lucky with my migraines towards the end of this part of my story. Randomly, they (migraines) stopped happening regularly. I think I’ve had 3 or 4 from 14 years old to 22 years old.