So today I apparently experienced my first migraine ever. Yay (or not). It started shortly after I got to work, was most intense during the afternoon, and now (evening) it's dulled into just a regular headache. I've sometimes wondered if I might develop migraines because I sometimes get this intense stabbing pain on one side of my head that is so bad it makes me wince, but always comes and goes and doesn't last more than about an hour, and has never developed into anything. Today I didn't get the intense stabbing pain, but had intense pulsing pain all through the front and sides of my head. In addition to the super bad headache I was also extremely nauseated (I almost threw up three times, twice at work and once on the transit ride home ...), lights and sounds made me feel horrible and sick, and at times I felt almost lightheaded. If it hadn't been my first day at a new job (and a very low-key day at that) I would have gone home sick.
I talked to a friend who has migraines who said it sounds like a migraine to her. Extra-strength Advil didn't help at all. Here's hoping the lingering headache I have now goes away overnight and doesn't morph into anything terrible again. I hope this is a one-off occurrence and not the start of a new chronic condition (everyone I know with migraines seems to get them regularly). I'll probably mention it to my doctor the next time I see him, or if it continues or happens again, make an earlier appointment.
My blood sugar has been super weird over the past 24 hours, and I'm wondering if it could be related. I was 13.8 (248) before bed last night and did a correction, but still woke up at 14.0 (252) this morning. I almost never wake up that high unless I have a pump issue, but I had no ketones. During the day, however, I could not keep my blood sugar up. I went through an entire tube of glucose tablets and had to suspend my pump for part of the day. I tested a lot because I felt so sick sometimes and thought I might be dropping low. It ran low-ish but never actually dropped low because I kept heading off the drops. Then, this evening I was 9.9 (178), possibly explainable by overdoing this today, and am now 14.8 (267) after dinner, which is just random and weird.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day both for my head and my blood sugar.
I have big BG swings regularly and the only times I get bad headaches are after lows (and I used to think they were near-migraine level until today!). So I was wondering if it was the opposite, the headache causing the weird BG. But maybe it was the BG in combination with something else (maybe stress of starting a new job?) that set off the headache.
I hope you feel better. I've had migraines for years. I got them in high school, but didn't know they were migraines then. Then after an injury years later they returned. I used many treatments and at one point imitrex and lying down in a dark room was the only thing that worked. I had light & sound sensitivity, nausea, diarrhea, pain on one side usually, neurological symptoms including mania after treating the pain etc. They usually lasted a couple of days and could return. Fortunately they have been very infrequent lately and I can often treat them with just a pain killer now and rest. I also had optical migraines with an aura a 2-3 times without pain but with the other symptoms. If they continue, I hope they don't, I would try something like imitrex if it's safe for you- that usually worked on all the symptoms for me.
My friend who has migraines said hers used to last for up to a week. I can't imagine that! My headache still hasn't gone away (I took extra-strength Advil about two hours ago), but it hasn't gotten worse, either. I hope it doesn't return, but if it does, good to know there are medications out there. My friend uses one of them (not the one you mentioned, but probably something similar), but only when using Advil and sleeping doesn't work. My friend did advise that I should prepare to feel run-down tomorrow, too, so that's good to keep in mind.
Yes, they can take a lot out of you.. Just take it easy till it's gone. My thinking gets very foggy when I have them and I need to sleep a lot etc. be in a dark room and so on. Mine would sometimes go after 2 days and then come back so I guess they never left. But Imitrex really knocked them out. There are so many things that can bring them on, humidity changes, cold weather, hormones, foods, over stimulation of sensory input and so on. When I was in high school I took tylenol but it didn't help so I used to sleep them away. That was the only thing that worked for me. They're hereditary too, my mom had them and my brother used to get them with auras where his vision would be gone in one eye for a period sometimes. I don't usually get the auras.
I forgot to mention that I found two other case studies of children who lived for a few years with type 1 pre insulin. One by passed away after 4 months on the starvation diet, but his onset was 7 years prior to that and another boy lived on the diet long enough to be saved by insulin fortunately. (case #4 and case # 76) I had read a book about this several years ago for some reason- I was reading a lot about D when my hypoglycemia had started and had forgotten that I read all of that until I reread them.
Sorry to hear! Perhaps your migraine is related to diabetes, or quite possibly hormonal. I had them semi-regularly between ages 35-50. Often the migraines were related to my monthly cycle. At my doctor's suggestion, at the first sign of a migraine I take 600mg ibuprofen; in most instances, this stops the migraine from developing.
Hi Jen, sorry to hear this..ugh! I too get migraines, started getting them when I was 13. I very much believe that I was born with Type 1, this was an offset of it, but it took 30 plus years to show it's nasty head. I get the 'aura', where I see spots or zig zag lines (it's a trip) first, then one side of my body goes completely numb; lips, tongue, hands, legs, very scary cause it feels like I'm having a stroke, the worst pain and headache ever. They went away after college for me, 5 years prior to my diagnosis I was getting them again, bad where I'd end up in the ER most of the day, not able to keep anything down. I get really bad headaches still, especially when, for some reason, I go from high to low fast but I'm not getting the aura and haven't since I've been on insulin. I believe this is blood sugar related (and maybe has been since I was young). My neurologist ordered me to have some type of bubble heart test and found I have a hole in my heart, many migraine patients, especially who get the 'aura' have this and suggested fixing the hole in my heart - heart surgery, hoping headaches would subside...ah, no thanks. If they continue or get real bad, hopefully you can see a specialist.
I started getting migraines in high school, thought they were really bad sleep deprivation headaches. After I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, I realized they were always a result of lows, but I still had them pretty much every day. I had migraines almost daily for years, until I finally started taking metformin. All of a sudden, I was getting one migraine every month or so--that's it. That's continued even though I switched to Cycloset. Mine are definitely BG related.
I've found that if I take 2 Aleve (I'm allergic to ibuprofen) right when I notice it starting, it doesn't get any worse. However, if I wait until it becomes a fully-fledged migraine, I'm done. My father swears by this method--whatever you're using to treat it, take that BEFORE it becomes a bad headache. Biochemically speaking, pain increases pain signalling, which means that if you're in pain, it's really hard to break the cycle.
Excedrin makes meds that work well for some people, but keep in mind that there's caffeine in there. It's there for a reason (caffeine is known to help migraines in smallish doses), but it isn't a good idea to take it when you're going to bed. Honestly, the best migraine treatment I ever had was taking two Excedrins, then going to sleep for an hour. By the time the caffeine kicked in, I felt much better.
Good luck! I hope you don't continue getting them.
I got what I used to call "bad headaches" when I became a teenager. They continued throughout my high school years and it was not until I happened to see a psychologist for depression, that he diagnosed my 'bad headaches' as migraines. I had the light and sound sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and my migraines always started in the same place on one side of my head. It was not until the psychologist suggested treatment for the headaches that I put two and two together and realized my headaches were hormonal in origin. I would get symptoms like a stiff neck on that one spot in my neck, then a day or two later the headache w/vomiting would follow. Please keep track of your headaches Jen and see your doctor if they continue. There is no need for you to suffer. There is treatment for these nasty headaches. I wish you the best possible outcome.
I forgot to mention something else that has helped my migraines and many other migraine sufferers have said this too: sugar- probably not good for us now, lol. So that may suggest that it's related to bg etc. After I took the imitrex and the nausea etc. subsided I would often eat some sugary food. Drinking a caffeine drink like tea can help too- because it constricts the blood vessels. Migraines seem to start when blood vessels in the brain constrict & then open too wide although some people debate that idea. It has something to do with seratonin levels dropping also probably which is why imitrex works for many people. Drugs like caffeine and imitrex and many other migraine meds constrict the blood vessels and seem to stop a lot of the symptoms. I could literally feel the imitrex squeezing the pain away after I took it. My first aura was when I was driving on a highway and all of a sudden I saw parallel striped lines vibrating over my whole plane of vision. I had no idea what was going on, it lasted for about 20 minutes.
I do get bad headaches after "bad" lows. I used to call them near-migraine headaches because they are really intense and Advil and other painkillers don't seem to do much. But yesterday's migraine was much worse, not necessarily in pain level but in all the other stuff (horrible nausea, light and sound sensitivity, lightheadedness). The low headaches don't cause any of that.
Thankfully, I was much, much better today and also (not surprisingly) enjoyed work a lot more! I had a bit of a headache on and off today, but I was also concentrating on it because I do NOT want to have another migraine while at work (or preferably ever). In the past I've always waited until headaches are bad before taking anything for them, but after yesterday's experience I'll be much more careful and take medication much earlier in a headache.
I used to get migraines that I evedntually worked out were caused by low BGs overnight. I largely eliminated the overnight lows when I changed from MDI to a pump.
In my experience pain killers were pretty ineffective in dealing with a migraine. However, there are migraine-specific medications that I found to be really effective. I used to use sumatriptan (generic name), which is often available under the brand name Imigran or Imitrex. It used to be prescription only in the UK, but you can now buy it off prescription at a pharmacy. I don't know what the legal situation is where you are located, but I would check with your doctor.
Hi, I have had migraines for 35 yrs, before they were even called migraines. However I have only been diabetic since 2008. There is definitely a connection to very low BGs and migraines. Almost always after a bad hypo episode, a migraine follows, and I’m wiped out for at least a few hours.
What you might want to try is a neurologist, there are a lot of good migraine meds out there with little or no side effects that work pretty quickly. I am someone who has had migraines interfere with life and work, and last several days at their worst, before even having diabetes… I don’t suffer like that any more. The meds I am on help resolve the migraine in a couple of hours. I still feel physically wiped out, but no migraine.
I take sumatriptan which works for me 99% of the time. If I take OTC meds Excedrin or the equivalent is the best thing.
