Today is a good day. Today there is only mild throbbing in my right temple. Feels like a small ice pick jabbed in my head. Unlike a bad day when it feels as if I am giving birth through my head just after someone beat my skull and neck with a baseball bat. This is a small example of how it feels to live with migraines. It was an ordinary day at work back in 1987 when I received my first visit from the migraine. The day was unforgettable. I was twenty years old. Out of nowhere, my peripheral vision became blurry. It was hard to see. Shortly after, I began seeing black spots. I was scared. I thought I was going blind. Nausea soon followed. I told my boss I was not feeling well and needed to go home. The twenty-two-mile journey …show more content…
If an individual has never experienced a migraine headache, it is difficult to understand. Migraines are more than just a headache and can touch many areas of someone’s life. Migraines have played a significant role in how I go about each day, how I feel about myself and how I interact with people in my life. Migraines have affected my work life and have had a major influence on my personality, not to mention the impact it has made on my finances.
Migraines have had an effect on how I perform my duties at my job each day. Painful migraines cause many issues for me while I am at work not allowing me to perform at 100% of my ability. Most of the time, I have an annoying sort of background headache that sits behind my eye. This unpleasantness requires constant strain to concentrate on my work and not on the irritating throbbing behind my eye. However, this irritation is not the problem. It is the migraine that visits me at least once a week and its events foreshadowing the attack. My neck becomes stiff, giving me my first clue of what is soon to come. The neck ache triggers some anxiety because I know an explosive pain is just ahead. The pain and anxiety take away my focus from my job. My brain
The borders between the different forms are very fluid and the specific conditions are often misdiagnosed as a strong migraine, causing the patients to suffer significant pain before treatment is started. Which directly links to another problem: The treatment. Oxygen treatment seems promising, yet it is not readily available to the patients. Orally administered triptans are usually too weak and nasally administered triptans (e.g. ZOMIG) cannot be used in a sufficient frequency to relieve the pain during the whole day, especially in the case of Paroxysmal Hemicrania where attacks are generally of shorter duration yet of higher intensity. Therefore, patients still need to resort to taking a significant amount of painkillers which is medically problematic since an attack period can last up to several months or even years in the case of chronic conditions which 10-15% of cluster headache patients suffer from.
Migraine headaches affect an estimated 36 million Americans, or about 12% of the population, surpassing asthma at 8.3% (25 million) and diabetes at 7.8% (23.6 million). Migraines are much more common in women than in men--about 3 times more common. Nearly 30% of women will experience at least one episode of migraine headaches in their lifetime, most commonly in the third and sixth decades of life. However, migraines can affect anyone at any age and from any ethnic group. In addition to indirect expenses like missed work/school and lost productivity, the American Migraine Foundation estimates that migraines cost Americans more than $20 billion annually. Migraine sufferers are also more likely to experience anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, fatigue, and other pain conditions, and those who experience visual disturbances called “auras” associated with migraines are at an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Unfortunately, there is no cure for migraines. The best treatment options available only to seek to reduce frequency of attacks or treat an attack once one has begun, and medication use is often limited by side effects and difficulty of administration. The American Migraine Foundation itself labels current treatment options “far from perfect” and concludes, “Undoubtedly, better treatments are needed.” Filling this therapeutic void is the primary objective of NuPathe Inc. (very recently acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.) with Zecuity®, a sumatriptan iontophoretic transdermal system.
In conclusion, A Day in Acupuncture was an excellent experience. The author felt energized after her treatment. Recommendations made by Jane have been taken into consideration and some of them such as eating every 2-3 hours, water intake, and applying oil at onset headache are easily achievable. Diet, exercise and meditation are more time consuming, so is still a struggle to do, especially the elimination of caffeine and spicy food from diet. Yes, it is a battle but nevertheless a battle that is worth fighting if the result is no more migraine
Headaches happen when there is a continuous pain in the cranial area (Huether, 2004). Moreover, headaches happen when the nerve endings in the brain detect pain. Usually the pain can originate from the nerves and muscles of the head and neck and also from the meninges or the covering of the brain. Frequent bouts of headaches can lead to lack of concentration due to the pain which can impede in productivity in the work place and also academically.
Migraines, which are three times more dominant in women than in men, are characterized by frequent attacks of moderate to severe, painful headaches that are often associated with nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to sound and light. This headache pain typically occurs on one side of the head and is described as pulsing, pounding or throbbing pain lasting 4-72 hours if left untreated. Migraines may also present with or without an aura (sensory warning symptoms).1
Due to my own difficulty with migraines, I have personally experienced the anguish that accompanies instances of this nature.
Chronic migraines are a disease that has affected my life and the life of someone close to me. The illness has added stress, frustration, anxiety, and responsibility to my mother and our family. Migraines are a real concern that hinders the lives of hundreds worldwide. Primary migraines are a strenuous sickness, which creates negative experiences and prevent migraine sufferers as well as their families from living normal lives. This condition has changed my life for the worse and has prevented me from living without weariness and stress.
It’s been hard the past two years. Headaches are not fun. A headache can be just a brain freeze that lasts a couple of minuets of a migraine that lasts a couple of hours. My headaches are different they last form the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep and they might even be going on while I’m sleeping and just not know it. I’ve had these headaches for two years so far and its scary since they could be damaging my brain; I am already starting to forget things like taking my medication or texting my mom when I get home.
Providing employees with adjustable artificial lighting, such as a dimmer switch for ceiling lights, will allow the employee to select the amount of light preferred. Bright light seems to increase the pain, so employees prefer to be in a dark room during a migraine episode. According to The New York Times (2010), a “light-induced migraine is common, and light often amplifies the pain after a headache has begun” (When light triggers migraines, 2010, para 1).
Aura symptoms need to be documented in the history as with all other documentation of diagnosing headaches. Migraines are more frequent in the early morning, although the attack may occur any time throughout a day. Migraines cause throbbing head pain, nausea, changes in the appetite, discomfort to be in lighted area, and discomfort with sounds. The pain can be debilitating or moderate in pain depending on the severity, duration, states, current medication use and triggers. MOH are more common cause with migraines, although triggers are unique and vary from smells, sleep changes, medications, stress, anxiety, depression, hormonal factors, to unknown etiology, furthermore each patient treatment should be
Researchers monitored patients in both inpatient and outpatient surgeries, and looked at how many had stokes then how many were readmitted to a hospital over 30 days. Within the 30 day period, results showed patients with migraines were more likely to have a stoke compared to patients without migraines. The patients who did have migraines with aura were at higher risk to those with regular migraines. The readmission rates was 1.3
Marturana, A. (2016). What headaches can tell you about your health. Retrieved October 27, 2017, from www.self.com
Migraines are one of the most common, episodic disorders, in which the patient experiences a severe headache that may also accompany with nausea, and/or light and sound sensitivity. Migraine pain can be mild to severe in intensity and can last four to seventy hours (Buttaro, Trybulski, Bailey, and, Sandberg-Cook, 2013). It usually has a preliminary period in which patients can experience tiredness, decreased concentration, irritability, and noticeable yawning. Warning signs like these may occur several hours or even days before the full onset of the migraine episode (Sprenger and Goadsby, 2009). Patients can experience a migraine with or without aura. The aura is described as a visual disturbance where a patient sees shimmering bright light,
I have suffered from migraines since I was four.Just a little child at the time who couldn’t understand or express the screaming going on in my head. Pounding, pulsing, pressure as if something was trying to claw its way out. Lights dancing before my eyes and nasua rolling in my stomach. Today I have those words but even though I can express them few people understand.
Have you ever experienced a migraine or headache when you were stressed or upset? You often experience these migraines or headaches and repeated dose of medication does seem to help the problem permanently. If this case, you are suffering from a psychosomatic disease or disorder. A psychosomatic disease is a disease or disorder that involves the mind and body. Psychosomatic means mind (psyche) and body (soma). An example of a psychosomatic disease that involves the mind and body are migraine headaches. A migraine is a headache that has many symptoms. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and the sensitivity to light. People who suffer from this, they can experience a throbbing pain that is felt on one side of the head. The pain is generally made worse by physical activity.