Migraines: 'I thought I was having a stroke'
Living with migraines
Anna is goodtoknow's Food and Diets editor and has been suffering with migraines since she was a child. Here she tells her story...
My first migraine attack was when I was about 8, although my mum and dad didn't know it was a migraine at the time. We were about to set off on a family holiday and I had a pounding head and felt really sick and my eyes couldn't bear the light. We had to do 2 hours of driving and then a ferry. The constant movement made me feel terrible and I was sick before the ferry had left the harbour.
I don't remember getting any more until I was about 17 when they reappeared and began to get worse. About one weekend a month I would just have to go to bed and stay in a dark room until they went away. If I had my eyes open I'd see spots in front of them and if they were shut, I got flashes, as if someone was flashing a really bright torch on and off in them. I felt sick and my head pounded.
My doctor prescribed me a drug called Paramax, which works in two ways. It has a painkiller, but it also has an anti-sickness ingredient which stops you from feeling so nauseous and also helps the painkiller work faster.
Most people have triggers for migraines and even though I kept a food diary, I couldn't work out what was triggering mine, or why they'd got worse.
Then I visited a clinic I hadn't been to before to get a repeat prescription of the Pill. The doctor asked me if I suffered from migraines or headaches and I told her I did. She said it was quite possible that my migraines were triggered by the week you don't take the Pill when you have your period and the withdrawal of hormones could be the reason. It made perfect sense. She said the mini-Pill would've been an option, but I'd had enough and decided to come off it altogether.
My migraines didn't stop completely, but they did improve dramatically. Now, instead of losing one weekend a month, I probably have about 3 migraines a year.
Then, more recently, I had a particularly bad one. I was out shopping, when two of my fingers felt a bit numb. Then my nose went numb, followed by bits of my face, part of my tongue and part of my arm.
I thought I was having a stroke. I was terrified. My speech became slurred which frightened me even more. I walked out of the shop and collapsed, but I think that was due more to fear than anything else. I wasn't in pain, but I was very very frightened.
I phoned my husband and told him what was happening to me and he recognised the symptoms and explained that I was having a bad migraine attack. I went to the doctor the next day and he prescribed Imigran, which I now carry around with me in case of an attack.
Migraines are annoying because they sometimes mean I have to miss out on things I've been looking forward to.
But they're part of my life and I know how to deal with them and as long as I have painkillers and a dark room I can get to quickly I know that I'll be OK. And because I can spot the signs I can take action faster, which makes them less painful and over faster.
Anna Penniceard, 35, London
More help and advice
- Get all the facts on migraines
- Tips on treating heaches and migraines
- Find out more about tension headaches
- Do you have a story to tell? Send it to us
- Tips on trigger for migraines
- Get more help and support from the Migraine Trust
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stephen castleton, 5 months [Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]
hi i exsperienced the same with my headaches i suffer from very bad headaches daily im 52 year old male i went out side for some fresh air the next thing was my left bum check went numb then travelled up to me side then my left arm then my mouth and face this lasted only around twenty mins went to hospital had ct scan and all the tests came back clear they booked me for mri scan heart and neck scan all came back clear two weeks later i had another attack went back to hospital results all the same two weeks later i had another attack but the nubness went from one side to the other so they ruled out stroke and put it down to my headaches i now take when i feel attack is sumatriptan 50 mg i also take amitriptyline before i go to bed al my headaches have now gone