I was so releifed to find a web site designated to migraines. I have a 13 year old son who has epilepsy and migraines. He had migraines for about 4 years but the last 10 weeks he has had debilatating headaches daily. He wakes up screaming every morning. He is on a gambit of medication including a barbituate. We have been trying to send him to school at least until 10 to be counted for the day , some days he could go, some days it was simpy impossible. On one of he days after being out for three days he and another boy had a confrontation that got out of hand and both my son and the boy was put in what is called in school suspesion for three days. When the principle called me he said my son was a good kid and that the other boy was a problem but they both had to be punished. We were sure that the medicine had some effect on his tolerance level. We sent him to school those days with a bad headache just so he could get it over with . We also told him to stay until 10 o'clock and if he still had a headache to got to the nurse and we would go get him. After the first day, he said the teacher would not let him go to the nurse when he said he was feeling poorly. We told him the next day to just walk out, and called the principal and told him we instructed him to do so. The principal said he understood, since his grandaughter also suffers from migraines .He said he would talk to the teacher. The same thing happened the next day, but because my son obeys rules he did not walk out. He served his three days and Thursday he went to school and said he was pulled out of class and put in ISS again because he didn't finish his work. He stayed there all day and told us about it when he went to bed that night.

Guess what folks, he is no longer in school. The doctor is trying to get him a homebound teacher for medical reasons. However, the coulselor said that migraines are not debilatating and they do not qualify. I asked her if she would like to be here when my son is screaming in pain and then decide if they are diebilating.

If there is another parent out there who would like to communicate with me please e-mail me. I could use a friend who understands. I cry everytime I think of the way he was being treated at school. He is normally an A_B student and really likes school, but I am not going to have him abused.

God bless you all.

---A mom who knows. morehead@txnet.net

I am 42 and have been having many migraine attacks of late . One yesterday, one the day before and five since returning to the States from Ireland in September .

I was so glad to find your page though I didn't get what I had hoped for , that being a cure , it's good to know that I'm not the only one with this and by no means do I suffer the most .

My migraine began during puberty . The onset was a numbness in my fingers followed by the 'double vision' that I prefer to call single vision as I can only see one half of a persons face , one half of everthing and sometimes it's the right hand side and other times the left side , mostly I see the right side . This is followed by a feeling of nausea . A dark room is my prefered place to be as the headache kicks in and I start to vomit and then to wretch . The wretching would last about an hour or two and the headache about 8 hours . These attacks became so frequent that my mother was at her wits end and found a hypnotists 'Dr. Gibson' , and I rarely got an attack after that until recently that is. As I got older and learnt to recognise that I suffered from stress , I took up yoga and there was a marked improvement in me. I didn't even get rare attecks .

Although I have been under stress recently I don't believe it warrents these attacks . I feel such a cripple as I need to deal with this migraine and it itself is causing stress . I'm worried about my job etc. It is the perverbal ' vicious circle '.

I have not found drugs to be any use . I did get some relief from canabis once . I was offered it at the onset of an attack and my attack stayed at that onset stage for about 6 hours . This particular time the headache didn't reach the stage of feeling you are being hammered on the head with a mallet while an ice pick is being shoved in .

Does anyone out there hold any store by a computer screen causing migraine? or bad eyesight ?

Thanks to one and all.

---AHMULL@aol.com

My name is Rita and I just found this website while looking for information on Occular Migraines.

In 1984 I had my first Occular Migraine, my vision got all blurry and I panicked. A co-worker took me to the General Practitioner who in turn sent me to an Opthamologist. She ran all the tests and told me that she thought I had suffered from an Occular Migraine and, there was nothing else wrong. As far as I know, I didn't have another one. In 1991, I noticed that all of sudden I was seeing black spots and my vision was blurred. I went back to the Opthamologist and found out I had a retinal hemmorage and had 2 laser surgeries by a Retinal specialist. I lost most of the vision in my right eye except some peripheral vision. This past March I suffered another Occular Migraine in my left eye, it lasted about 30 minutes. I didn't go to the doctor because I told myself it probably happened due to being out in the bright sunlight. I have now had 4 more in the past month and finally went to the Opthamologist yesterday and he told me I needed to see my primary care physician because he couldn't help me with Occular Migraines. He said the retinal tissue looked healthy and I shouldn't worry. Fortunately, I have only had one time where I had pain with the Occular Migraine!!

I guess the bottom line now is, that I am very worried that whatever is wrong will affect my left eye and I'll become blind. I have seen 5 specialists and nobody can tell me for certain what happened to my right eye to make the Retina hemmorage. They all have different opinions. Needless to say, my faith in doctors is non existent. I would appreciate it greatly if you could share any information that you have obtained about Occular Migraines. It's nice to know that I'm not alone.

Thanks,

---Rita rita.scott@tek.COM

---Jeff jkeller@bendcable.com

I've looked at your page several times and never had the nerve to talk to you. I am 35 years old and I've always had periodic migraines. Since my son was born two years ago, I have had a headache of one form or another everday. I believe that I have tried all the treatments, midrin, depakoate, steroids, imitrex, elavil, zoloft, many others, and now stadol ns. Most have not worked at all, the stadol gives me relief but I must stay on it or I'm on the floor in the dark. I don't want to sound self-pitying, but my life always feels like it's falling apart. If I did not have my children I know I would have given up along time ago. Before this started two years ago, I was a proud member of AA for eight years. I still havn't had a drink but with all the drugs I've been on I feel alienated from that part of my life as well. Somehow I have managed to stay in school and work but it's getting harder. My husband is getting tired of me "whining" and I'm tired too. My doctor wants to install a morphine infusion pump like they use on cancer patients. Does anybody know anything about this. He says that the morphine never goes into your bloodstream , it just stays in your spinal fluid so you don't get wasted and the pain just never comes. I haven't been cleared by my insurance for this yet and cant seem to find much information on it. I have checked out my neurosurgion thourougly and he's top notch. I'm sorry if I appear to be rambling, yesterday was my birthday and it was totally ruined by a headach, AGAIN. Today I am very depressed and I'm so tired of this pain all the time. I really need a friend who understands this pain. Any takers?

---Joni Graygarden@aol.com

I have suffered from migraine since Grade 2 and probably before but didn't know how to explain what was happening to me. I have auras and tingling and numbness followed by a period of extreme wellbeing, to be followed by the headache and nausea. I am 48 years old and identify with most of the cases I have read in your site. I, too have suffered along with doctors who had magic cures and new drugs. I have had my back pounded, my teeth braced and all amounts of tests. The fact is I have Migraine.

Presently I am taking Inderal LA 160 mg once a day. I am still experiencing on an average of 2 migraine a month. When I have the headache for as long as I can stand it, I take an injection of Phenagan and 20 minutes later I take an injection of DHE. I have been doing this for about 2 years now. Recently, I have had times that the shots did not work as they have in the past and I am scared to death that they are losing their usefulness for me.

I'd like to know if anyone else has used this treatment and for how long? Some have said that going thru menopause might help. Is that so? How does estrogen pills or patches affect all this? Any other suggestions for treatment?

---Migraine Sufferer jimbojr@wp-lag.mindspring.com

---AYASHA AbdullahA@ComCell.com