Migraine takes so many forms and is so individual that it's hard to suggest solutions. Sufferers become their own expert. There is also a range of fairly benign symptoms associated with the condition which migraine sufferers just put up with. When I was a child, before I ever had a migraine headache or a visual aura, I sometimes had feelings of unreality where my surroundings appeared immense while I felt tiny, and other times when I would look at my hand which would appear huge while the room I was in seemed tiny and distant. I came to enjoy these sensations when they occurred, and thought everyone had them. It's called "Alice in Wonderland" syndrome and it's a fair bet that the author Lewis Carroll was able to come up with his depiction of this scenario because he was a migraine sufferer too. Having altered perception might be something that some migraine sufferers have, while others don't. This sort of thing has more of an effect than just a debilitating headache and neurological symptoms. It can also expand your imagination, and make you understand things that non sufferers do not. My mother, brother, and daughter have all described these experiences together with self evidently suffering from migraine.
When I was a young teenager it was almost guaranteed that Christmas and birthdays and some school holidays would be blighted by migraine. Visual aura, followed by nausea, retching, paroxysmal headache (which wasn't helped by all that retching) and loss of confidence for days afterwards wondering if it was all going to happen again.
When I was older they mercifully became less frequent but still knocked me for six when they happened.
If ever there was a case of laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone it is migraine. Non sufferers find it hard to understand what it's all about. To non sufferers it's likely just a headache, but if you have migraine it's some kind of hellish thing that can cause your normally reliable body to malfunction totally at random. We can sometimes pinpoint a cause, the easiest is dehydration, but picking a cause from chocolate to cheese, overtiredness to stress, alcohol to exercise, makes it so difficult to avoid. Sometimes a particular factor might set it off, other times not.
The name "classic migraine" makes it sound sort of old and interesting. Classically, it starts with a maybe a transient slight visual spot, a slight visual aura, a slight shimmer in the vision. You might first detect it while reading, or looking at a road sign. It becomes worse, soon becoming an often almost fluorescent coloured shimmering geometric pattern visible on the same part of the visual field of each eye, on a different area in different migraine attacks. It can be so bright as to be positively painful, and because its source is internal, thought to be due to a disturbance in the visual cortex, it's no good covering your eyes to try to diminish it. Coupled with this, a sensitivity to noise and light develops, and a headache develops often over one eye, maybe above or below an eye socket, becoming a relentless grinding pain. There may also be numbness or tingling of the face, lips or tongue. Other body parts may also become numb. You might be wondering if you're having some sort of stroke if not for the fact you've been through it all before. The face may become hypersensitive to touch even to bedsheets. By this time you would be in bed in a quiet darkened room. I would think the worst possible place to have to endure a migraine attack would be in a tent in daylight. By this stage there would be nausea and retching, as you can only vomit so much. This might ease after a few hours and recovery might occur by the end of the day. It can go on for several days though the longest attack I've had was 48 hours.
For a few hours after an attack you won't be too good at processing information.
Sometimes sufferers might only have some of the symptoms before they pass.
As I've said everyone is likely to be different. For many years as an adult I had less frequent but pretty debilitating attacks. As I got older, I tended to get the aura but less severe headaches. Over the years I've had various prescription medications but nothing has been particularly effective.
For myself, currently 74 and still leisure cycling, at present taking two pink Migraleve tablets at the first sign of visual aura preferably with a caffeinated drink seems the best way of heading off an episode. If it happens while I'm out, I just have to find a quiet spot to let it pass. Quite often it doesn't get beyond the aura phase. Bearing in mind that it takes about 20 minutes for any tablet to get into the system, the sooner I take it the better. When I've not been quick enough, a 400mg ibuprofen if a headache develops helps some. Eating something sweet at the time sometimes helps, too.
Because Migraleve contains Paracetamol do not take anything containing Paracetamol within 4 hours!
For sufferers it's not just the period of the migraine attack. If you've had one, you might have another one or more before it's done for a while. You're often left with after effects, slight headache or sensitivity when moving your head. Fleeting blind spots or "transient scotoma" for a few days afterwards, all well documented. You end up testing your vision when you go into different lighting environments for a few days. Migraine sufferers are some of the most likely people to have regular eye tests, as they are likely to be particular about their vision.,
