Migraine 

A History of My Own Migraines

I've had Migraines for many years, they started in my twenties, as occasional, and I didn't react to them as migraines then, they were just hyper painful headaches, and were really very occasional, not frequent enough to worry me.

These continued on that sort of basis, until my thirties, when they started to become more noticeable, I was getting Migraines on a more regular basis.

Still not identified as migraines though. My sinuses were playing up badly and the Doctor concentrated on that (I'd not realised that perhaps the two things were connected).

I was sent for allergy tests, and was found to be allergic to Azo dyes, or chemical based food colourings, this was a NHS test and took place over some weeks and was part of a double blind trial.

Various things were tried to alleviate the "sinus problem", none of which had any affect. The headaches were becoming worse, and more frequent.

As the Doctors didn't seem to be able to help with the problem, I stopped going and soldiered on.

Then one day, not long after I had opened my New Model Shop (as in boats, planes, cars etc), I had a major episode, after feeling ill in the morning, I got worse, and worse started vomiting, my vision was totally blurred, I could hardly stand.

I had to close the shop, and spent the next 24 hours in bed, incapable of doing anything at all, even eating.

My first Major Migraine Episode, even at this stage, I didn't realise I was suffering from migraines.

For the next 5 years, the episodes became more frequent, but I shrugged them off, trying to convince myself that they would go away.

Doctors were still treating me for Sinus Problems, and sent me to see several sinus specialists, all of whom, said that whilst my sinuses were "not good", they didn't think it was the cause of the problem.

The Next Stage

About five years later, I had closed the shop, and was working for a Technical Authoring Company and I was finding that the episodes were occurring about twice a week, normally one on the weekend, then another during the week, usually a Wednesday.

I was desperately watching what I ate to make sure, that I ate no food colourings, leaving out different foods, drinks, sweets etc.

Now those that suffer from migraines, know that, Migraines vary, come and go, change frequency, become worse or improve for a while.

So, I would stop having, say meat, the migraines, might decide at that point to ease off. So of course I would put migraines down to meat, coffee, beer, whatever.

Of course they would return, and off we would go again, with a different food, because I was convinced I had a food allergy problem.

Even now, neither myself or the Doctor were thinking of these episodes as migraines.

A Light Dawned

I got an appointment with a different Doc, who asked and enquired and wrote stuff down.

After a while she, asked me if my Mother has suffered from Migraine, I said that she used to have very bad headaches, but I didn't really know.

Well after some thought, she asked me if I had ever considered that I might be suffering from migraines, she then explained what the effects of Migraines were, and bingo, it all started clicking into place.

I called, my mother, who confirmed that she suffered from migraines, and so had her mother.

Went back to the Doc and confirmed, there was a family history of migraine, so then it was pretty much settled that I was suffering from Migraines.

Now that migraines were confirmed, it meant I could try, the various over the counter migraine treatments that were available. None of these treatments were effective.

The migraines were becoming more frequent and the side effects were having an affect on my work and leisure time.

Eventually I was prescribed Triptans, these had a marked improvement, they would kill the head pain within 2 hours. This was a great help when I was working, and meant that I could pretty much function as a working person, it was a struggle at times.

Migraines do affect your moods and outlook on life (some Doctors deny this, I guess they never had migraines). The mood swing make it difficult in everyday life as one day you are laid back and easy going and on migraine days moody and on edge.

By this time I had set up my own Company Tudor Rose Technology, and I was analyzing and producing software for a niche market.

Working from home made it much easier to cope with my migraines, as I could work around the migraines, but it was a very stressful job and my migraines were becoming more regular visitors.

After a few years of running my Company I found I was eating, drinking, dreaming computer software and logic. My wife suggested that I try a voluntary job to give me a break.

I joined up to a local Charity drop in Centre working with young people who were disengaged, disadvantaged, had drug or alcohol problems etc.

I found that I got on well with the young people and really enjoyed doing the work. So I became more involved attending training classes laid on by the local council.

My migraines were a regular visitor by now gradually and slowly getting worse and worse, often I was using will power just to keep going.

All in all I spent about 10 years involved in all sorts of Youth Work working from a centre that specialized in helping young people, who were struggling with all manner of problems from drug/alcohol abuse, housing problems health problems etc.

I loved my work, but as anyone involved in this type of work will tell you it is stressful and demanding.

All through this period I worked through my migraines and just kept going, how could you not when you were dealing with young people whose lot was much worse than your own.

Eventually of course, my body decided it had had enough, my health deteriorated rapidly, I became quite ill mentally and physically, my migraines were winning, I could no longer work through them.

Strangely in the caring professions, a worker being ill is not looked on benignly, I can understand this as the work force is so short staffed and overworked, that they don't have time to look out for an ailing co-worker. So I resigned the from the job I loved dearly, as I was unable to function as well as expected.

My migraines were occurring more and more regularly, trying to make up for the times I had ignored them I suppose. My health by now was dire.

Triptans are great for killing the head pain of a migraine but that is only a small part of the whole attack, so each day was becoming more and more involved with just struggling along.

So for some years I have been unable to work, as doing any form of work requires an ability to available at required times and places, an undertaking that at present I am unable to give, as I have no idea when the next migraine attack will occur.

At present I have a minimum of one migraine attack a day, sometimes two. The attacks can happen at any time of day or night.

I have been treated with Botox injections into my head and neck muscles, and that has been very effective in helping to deal with daily pain, sadly the pain clinic is so overworked that it will be months before I can have further pain reducing injections.

This brings us to further complications in the form of "rebound" migraines. This where the medication that I take in it 'self causes further head pain and migraine attacks.

OOps that's a bummer :-)

I'm told that in USA they run a program of detox from prescribed medication reaction, where you are treated with a range of different medications and pain reducers thus enabling the patient to break the loop of medication induced illness/ migraines.

This is not available in the UK, so it would appear that I'm stuck with the problem.

I have a new Doctor whose approach is more positive and at present I am trying various medications taken over a period of time to try and reduce the pain and number of attacks.

As you will notice from other sections of my web pages, I try to achieve something around my migraines, I love photography around engineering, so I can produce images of items I produce in my small workshop and post them on Flickr.

Rose and I have our small camper van "Clarrie" and we try to get out and about to different parts of the country, so at least I can be ill in different places :-))

We only travel a distance covered in two or three hours, so that I can fit the travel time into part of my migraine less time. Sometimes we have to come home early or stay extra nights till I'm OK. The Camping and Caravan Club are very helpful in fitting us in.

So that's pretty much up to date.

At present I'm taking a Preventative medication to help to reduce my migraines, that has to built up slowly to lessen the side effects, and takes some time to work, so taking things easy and waiting for a good outcome, pretty much down to one attack a day, one a week would be nice :-)

We Have Good News and Bad news

My new Doctor referred me to a new Neurologist, who is very much informed about migraines and the effects of drugs.

The new neurologist arranged to admit me to hospital to detox from my maigraine triptans, something I was over the moon about, as I had given up hope of having this opportunity.

The procedure is not something to take lightly, as it means that you have to stop taking all Triptans and all pain killers, then cope with the resultant migraines (under medical supervision).

The pain involved during this procedure is extremely intense, it was like having 4 or 5 migraines all together, but at the end of ten days I was deemed fit enough to return home.

The procedure had stopped all my medically induced migraines.

The bad news - I still get migraines for several days a week and I have to be careful how many Triptans that I take (down from 2 a day to 2 a week).

The Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) do not consider migraines as a disability, (so no help from them then) but strangely the World Health Organisation does recognise migraines as a disability.

More good news - I now have GOOD days where I am migraine free, and these are really GOOD days when I feel normal and can do normal things, it's a great step forward and makes life so much better.

Even More Good News

The neurologists that are treating me have other medications regimes that may be of help to me in the future, so a great improvement.

So thanks to a new Doctor and new Neurologists my quality of life is much improved.