Migraines.
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Discovered a new trigger for migraines. The dreaded dilation drops that happen when you get your eyes checked. And the bright lights they use to look at your retina OMG, spent the afternoon inside with the blinds closed and my sunglasses on, but it didn’t matter, I got a doozy and ended up in bed at about 7:00pm. Migraines suck. They have gotten much easier to trigger since COVID (but not sure if they are actually related to that). Current triggers include chocolate, alcohol (I have basically stopped consuming either, which makes me very sad) and too much sugar (also cut way back on this) too much salt, plus stress and dehydration (easy to cause with too much salt). At 62 years old, losing a day to something like that really ticks me off. They aren’t frequent enough to do regular medication (and I don’t want to do regular medication), and usually I can catch them with the medication I have, so that they go away before they get too bad - but not this time. Yuck.
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A long time ago, I used to be plagued with migraines. I had the whole thing; scintillating scotomata, nausea, etc. I went to see a neurologist who specialized in headaches. Mind you, like I said, this was a LONG time ago. Having taken my history about various possible triggers (alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, sleep, etc), he told me that the worst thing I can do is change my routine. Keep your intake of triggers constant, and don't vary them. Don't under or oversleep, etc.
Worked for me.
I still get one about once a year, and I'm able to abort the attack with some NSAIDs when I feel it coming on. It almost never gets to the "headache" stage.
Remember, a migraine is caused by dilation and shrinking of the blood vessels in the dura. Stop that, you abort the headache.
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I have had 45 migraines in the last 23 years,
I think dehydration contributed to almost all of them. Other than that I can't be sure of any triggers.
I think I have had the visual aura with almost all of them.
The sequence is about the same, slight euphoria, visual aura with some loss of vision for 30-60 minutes then 30 minutes later the big headache, then some fatigue for a few days.
I had a mild one a few weeks ago while golfing. I just kept playing. It was strange because if I looked directly at the ball I couldn't see it, I had to look off to the side a little to see it. I played ok.
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@jodi said in Migraines.:
The dreaded dilation drops that happen when you get your eyes checked.
This might help, in addition to pain meds: make sure you have a very good pair of sunglasses: prescription, polarizing, fully tinted. (Just about any online store can make these now and they aren't nearly as expensive as they used to be.) As soon as you walk outside of the exam room, put them on, and keep them on, no matter what, for 3-4 hours.
Aside from that, well, weed can sometimes help, especially when the migraines are caused in part by an imbalance of some kind. Just puttin' that out there.