---Maria <mvail@stny.lrun.com>
USA -

My son is 12 years old and has been suffering from migraines since he was 6 years old. This year seems to be the worst he has ever had them. Since January 1st he had maybe 20 days of being migraine free. He wakes up in the morning with both a headache and stomachache and can not go to school because of this. Tomorrow I have an appointment at the Main U for him in hopes they can come up with something that will allow him to function on a daily bases. I try to understand where he is coming from with these headaches, he is afraid to go to school because the headache will only get worse and he is afraid to vomit in school. ( So embarrassing for him) I finally got the school district to allow him to be homebound taught whenever he can't make it to school. Lately it is the norm that he will have a headache. He rarely has relief even on weekends when the stress factor is nill. I'm go glad to be able to talk about this with other sufferers and maybe someone out there will have an answer to these migraines. I just heard of a vitiman supplement called dolomite that is suppose to help. So far no relief. I would appreciate any comments from someone to learn what they do to function with migraines. I believe he will have them forever and has to figure out a way to live with these. He can't miss much more school. I feel so bad for him and wish I could take his pain and suffer for him. Thanks for allowing me to get that out. Please email, I would like to hear some comments from other sufferers.

---gayle <gayle@computerpro.com>
duluth, mn USA -

Hi! After reading some of these histories, I feel very fortuante to have only had five migraines in the first three months of 1998. My father and brother have suffered from them as long as I can remember. They are lucky-they vomit and that takes care of it.Try as I might, I just can't. I believe that my headaches are horomonally triggered-I get them the day before and the first day of my period. Does anyone else get them like this? My doctor didn't seem to interested in confirming this for me. The doctor at the walk-in clinic I went to was more help than she was. I am a college freshman, chemistry major. I hope to go on to pharmacy school. Living in a dorm is difficult when you have a migraine-there is never any quiet. I found this site while I was doing research for a speech I am preparing on migraines, and I think it is great! By the way, I found that one site stated that ALL migraines are caused by caffenine withdrawal. Is that right? Thanks and good luck to us all!

---Vicky <vmdrinnen@cncacc.cn.edu OR VMD1978@aol.com>
Jefferson City OR Smyrna, TN USA -

This is a really bad day for me. In the hopes of helping others, I decided to write what it feels like to be in the middle of a full blown migraine. Ok, I also wanted to know if others out there feel this way too. So, any and all responses would be greatly appreciated. And I will respond back to you. I'm having thermodynamic testing tomorrow on my head. I have one jugular vein 5 times it's normal size and the other vein, non-existent. If you've seen the movie Predator, and saw how the monster looked at people but could only see their body heat, this is the same thing. They are looking for "hot spots" in my brain. They are also looking for blood clots and anurysyms. So, natrually, I'm scared to death. Probably the reason I am hurting so much now. So, let me describe the pain. Again, if you've been there, you know how I feel, let me know. Right now, since none of my family has these headaches, I feel rather alone. The pain is located over my right eye. A very sharp stabing pain. When I close my eyes, I get the vertago when I open them (the shooting stars and lines). The pain goes all the way down to the neck on the right. When I get up, I can feel the throbbing of the blood flow on that side. I can barely stand to hear my fingernails on the keyboard. I am wearing my sunglasses in the house! And I have my sons outside in the back yard to keep me quiet for a few minutes. It's so hard to explain to them why Mommy is crying and holding her head. They think it is something they did. I just pray they don't get them. This is one of the worse headaches I've had in the 17 years I've been treated for them. Don't laugh, but this is the best way to explain it.... It feels like, that at any moment, my skull is going to crack open and little aliens are going to come running out. And then again, it feels like I rounded the corner only to be greeted with a baseball bat across my right temple and that entire side of my head is going to cave in. I am usually a strong person. But today is one of the very few times that I have wished to just stop breathing. Just have an end to this pain. I have two very young children whom I want to watch grow up and one day become a grandmother. But living with this pain isn't living!! I can't even play with them today. Has anyone felt severe pain like this? I wouldn't wish this on anyone, but surely there is someone out there who knows exactly how I feel. I am sorry that you do feel this much pain, but if you're out there, just drop me a note to let me know I'm not alone. Thanks for reading this. And thanks to all of the new friends I have made since I found this page. Sincerely, Lisa

---Lisa <Sprkln31@aol.com>
Birmingham, AL USA -

Hi Everyone!! I am trying to put together some ideas to submit a story to this migraine page about the abusive way in which migraine sufferers are treated at the hospital ER's. I have already gotten some replys (I guess it only proves that it happens no matter where you are located in the country.) PLEASE email me any of your thoughts, and/or suggestions, no matter how detailed or short they are. I feel that we are our best center of support, and I would like-once and for all-to be treated with respect and dignity when I go to the ER. It takes all I have just to get there (driving in the car and waiting in the waiting room is just about too much) then to have to answer all the questions about drugs, street or legal, and then have them just look at you like you are just there for a recreational fix. I sometimes think I will go back when I'm not having a migraine, so they will know that I am not like that all the time and that I am a ligitimate person. Anyway, please let me know all your stories and I will try to put them together and share them with all of us. I think it will be a little comforting. Maybe we could come up with some solutions also. Thanks for listening and thanks to those of you who have already written to me. I am very appreciative.

---Tracey <TVallieu@aol.com>
OH USA -

For over a year now, Ive been seeing white squiggly dots and a double vision (for ex, a wave of a hand, another follows..almost lke a shadow)..this all happens 24/7. Ive had blood work, eye exams a CT scan and an MRI..all ok..the mri Im waiting to hear on. My doctor thinks it may be ocular migraines without the headache...has anyone ever heard of this? Please write if so...this is seriusly begininng to worry me!!! Thanks!

---Lesley <sugrmtn@aol.com>
sf, cs USA -

Hi. I am a 21 year old Social Work student who has been suffering from migraines since I was eight years old. I can remember being a child and having to forget about sports and playing, activities that I liked to do, because having a headache meants spending the day in bed. The sun hurt me and so did the heat. It was unbearable. My parents and doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. They thought it was my allergies and so I was give a needle each week for that. They sent me to a psych doctor who made me walk on the straight line of a tile floor (why, I have yet to figure out?) ... they sent me for CAT scans and to the eye doctors, to a physiotherapist and tried several medications. I was on propranolol, inderal and now I take verapamil every day as prevention. I have long since exhausted all pain pills like tylenol 2's, aspirin etc... I take Mersyndol when I have a headache, pills that you have to buy from the pharmacist but they are really expensive and they just don't work anymore. I have to take four, where one or two pills would normally work. The pain usually still doesn't go away. I know that I could find relief by going to the hospital but usually I'm in so much pain that I can't even move let alone drive to emerg. I thought that I would get used to this, that maybe I would grow out of it but it doesn't seem to be going away. Here at school I don't have time to watch everything what I eat, or stay at home to sleep the pain away. I got to school and I work part time, I have my co-op at a girls youth home (which totally adds to the stress) and this is only the beginning. The field of Social Work is going to be more stressful than anything I've ever had to deal with. Right now I feel like no one understands, that my headaches are just an excuse...no one sees how much it hurts and how I can't just keep functioning like normal. I have so much to do and can't do it because of this. Migraines are ruining my life. I'm so happy to have found this page. It has helped me to see that I'm not crazy and that the symptoms that I have are real, the pain is real, and I'm not a wimp because I can't handle the pain. I am at my whits end here, if anyone has some advice or suggestions of medicine that has worked for them, please feel free to email me. The codeine takes the pain away but only if I take more than I should, and then I feel stoned beyond belief and have no energy to do anything anyways. Help me, if any of you can...

---Lisa Hamelin <h008087@niagarac.on.ca>
Welland, ont canada -