Chronic migraines
A person is diagnosed with chronic migraines when they have at least 15 headaches a month with 8 of these having migraine symptoms and this must be ongoing for three months or longer.
Chronic migraine symptoms include:
- Frequent headaches
- Hypersensitivity to light, sound and scents
- Nausea and vomiting
Migraines and me
I’m not quite sure when it all began, my headaches became more frequent; near daily then I’d have migraine attacks that also became more frequent too to the point where in a month I’d have about 25 days in which I’d have some sort of headache of migraine with aura.
Medication have helped to slightly reduce the number of headaches and migraines I experience as well as having less or not as intense auras with my migraines. I take a mixture of both preventative medication and also medication which I take when I have a migraine attack. It took a long time to get a referral to a migraine neurologist and its taken a while to get onto the preventative medication. The next possible treatment option for me is to have Botox injections. Thankfully my MRI scans have come back clear but at the same time you want it to show something to explain why I get all these headaches and migraines.
Sometimes headaches and migraines come on for no reason other times they are brought on by my triggers such as certain foods: anything in the onion/garlic food family and wheat/gluten (I have Coeliac), too much visual stress such as screens, reading, flashing lights, emotional stress, and tiredness - these are all things that can trigger a headache or migraine for me.
I have what I call my 'functioning migraines' which is just a short lasting migraine and I'm more-or-less able to function as normal as I possibly can. Then on the total opposite of my headache/migraine spectrum I can't function at all and I can't stand noise, light or smells and I have to be lay down still and I'm very nauseous and dizzy too. Along the spectrum of my headaches and migraines they can last anywhere from a few hours to even going on for several days. I also must emphasise that there’s a big difference between headaches and migraines; migraines are a lot more complex than just simply being ‘a bad headache’.With my migraines I can experience an aura. The aura is visual symptom or hallucination and for me I often feel like a light I being shone in my eyes, or I see black and white dots that look like fireflies floating around, my vision also blurs or I can have temporary vision loss in my left eye. I also have other headache/migraine symptoms such as pain, nausea and hypersensitivity. On rare occasions can also experience loss of motor function such as weakness or temporary loss of movement.
