Quick Question - advice please!

Hello

Do people generally go to bed at the first inkling of a migraine attack?

I have been trying to go to bed when my head gets bad, and if I can sleep it is definitely helpful. I have many aura symptoms and they seem to be around much of the time, but I am also now having a few days when I feel almost normal.

It seems to me that if I went to bed when the aura started, then I might be in bed all the time!

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Hello there

First of all - so pleased your now getting a few 'normal' days

Re the bed thing - I have gone through many different cycles with this and have found it depends on the meds you are on.......

when I was on some of the heavy ones, I would go to bed at the very start, my fatigue levels where very high and I just could not cope with the pain and being sooooooooo tired at the same time -plus like you have said, sleep helped. At one stage I was in bed for 18+ hrs a day - hence why I came off that drug lol

Now, since the Botox has kicked in and my energy levels are up, I tend not to go to bed unless I hit a 7/8 on aura or pain. I kind of have a level which I can cope with then the scale tips and then I just need time alone.

If you want to try and stay out the bedroom, you could try at the very first inkling - drinking a pint of water (not too cold) and sitting quiet. Control your breathing and relax. I often do this and sometimes go into mediation, and it helps bring it down a little.....worth a go..............if it looks like its not going to go I take a triptan and head for the dark quiet room.....

I am finding that if I do this the attack can be over in a day - rather than days as it has been in the past.

Basically listen to your body and if you need to lay down - go - do not feel guilty about it. One thing I have learnt with migraines, they never stay the same.....

I only go to bed when it reaches about a 9 normally. But, I can only get some use out of a Frovatriptan if I sleep - if I sleep without it, it sometimes makes the migraine worse, and if I just take the Frovatriptan, it has no impact. So, for that reason, I go to bed at the point where I've decided to take the Frovatriptan!

Sarah and Tee

Thanks for your replies. It all seems really complicated I have no idea what a 9 or a 7 or an 8 is, and I think maybe I am jumping the gun, and my inbuilt controlfreakery is coming out here, and I think chronic migraine is designed to knock any of that right out of us. I certainly wonder if this condition is some sort of punishment for spending most of my life rushing about doing too much, being too bossy and wanting things to be how I wanted them to be.

Last week I was convinced that I had had four - nearly five days of feeling not too bad, but in fact when I worked it out it was 2/3 days! It was such a novelty it just seemed much longer I suppose, and I did get quite excited about it. I had a headache all the time, but seemed to be having a reprieve from the really disabling auras.

The doctor has not actually told me to track my symptoms, and I haven't managed to do so this month because I was disorganised, and also I feel that I lack the vocabulary or a framework to describe what is happening to me. I have looked at the migraine diaries and none of them really seem to apply to me, but this just may be me ...

There is also the problem that when it all starts up really badly I just don't recognise what is happening and I get really confused and stressed and just don't know what to do, in that I don't know what I am supposed to be doing at that time, or how to go about doing it. But I am not able to know that what is really happening is the migraine/aura thing.

Thanks for your help and support.
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