Hey there!
So I’ve had a migraine that has been going for a couple days now. Nothing entirely new, but it’s frustrating. Dark room, low noise, tried sleeping it off, taken multiple medications for it including my Ubrelvy which normally knocks it. It took the edge off, but now I’m going on day 3 with the migraine with no perceivable end in sight.
Anyone got any tips that normally helps them to knock their migraine that’s worth considering? Normally I don’t care too much as I’ve put up with them for years, but this one has me all nauseous which makes it that much more miserable.
Thanks in advance!
Edit: Sorry for not seeing the responses on this sooner. I went back to bed afterward and mostly stayed in bed and holy crap the responses blew up. I also called my neurologist and told them about it much like some of the advise that others have mentioned, and they started me on a round of prednisone to help. Fingers crossed it gets rid of it. Seems to be helping, but only time will tell. If it doesn’t, I’ll see about giving some of these a try. Thank you so much!
Generally speaking, a migraine episode should take a maximum of 72 hours. This is actually one of the diagnostic criteria (4-72 hours). If it takes a lot longer than that, my advice would be to contact your caregiver and discuss this. Try getting enough sleep, listen to your body signals. Some neck stretches focused on the trapezius can also help alleviate a headache loop. This last suggestion always helps me out a lot.
This comment right here.
Any migraine (or headache) longer than 72 hours is not normal and should be looked at.
I’ve had 2x migraine periods in my life, one caused by a gum infection. Worst pain in my life Felt just like an ocular light induced migraine until day 4 or 5 when the pain got to ice pick levels of pain. Ended up needing oral surgery and tubes placed inside my mouth / sinus for a few weeks to belp drain pus and stuff.
Check any part of your face / forehead for pain and swelling.
The other was series of minor and micro strokes. I only experienced tingling, migraines and hand pain.
Had no idea! Get bad and frequent migraines checked out!
Fortunately I have been going to a neurologist for a little while, so it’s getting checked out. I also called them today and they set me up with a round of prednisone to help knock the current migraine, and that is helping a bit.
Unfortunately, yeah…without medical intervention, my migraines and headaches are pretty needy. Before the medications I am on now, I was typically getting headaches and migraines almost daily, which was absolutely not fun. It’s much less prevalent now, with the obvious exception.
Well it probably isn’t great that this is far from being the longest I’ve had then, with that being around 10 days. I have run this by my neurologist, and she said that unfortunately sometimes this can happen. Then again she also told me that the thunderclap headaches I sometimes get are likely also a way in which my migraines manifest, so maybe I should look into a second opinion?
That being said, I’ve had MRIs, EEGs and stuff like that to rule out physiological and electrical issues, so presumably I’m not knocking on death’s door just yet. I’m planning on having a sleep study done though, as I do struggle at sleeping, so that likely could be a contributing factor.
As for the neck stretches, do you have any links on how to do those? Happy to give them a shot.
Yeah, unfortunately, it definitely can’t happen that it takes longer than 72 hours, but it’s a good call to run it by your doctor.
Also, there is a clear yet complex relationship between bed, sleep and headache, so seems like a good plan to explore this a little bit further.
As for the stretch exercises, I couldn’t find the perfect video online, but there is an adequate one. I will share with some footnotes. https://youtu.be/MI9o8SOxldY
I don’t really like the commercial tone of the video, and I have never performed stretch 2 (but number one in the slightly altered version of number three really work for me). The way I do number three differently, is that after tilting my neck sidewards, I then proceed to tilting it forward, whilst still tilted sidewards, if that makes any sense. So first tilt it all the way to the side, then proceed to rolling it forward without tilting it back to center. While doing this pay attention to the shoulder on the other side, making sure you are not lifting it. You should feel the stretch on the side you’re not tilting to. Feel free to send me a PM if you still have questions about it.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/MI9o8SOxldY
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.