My sympathies! I've had them since I was a teen but they got
significantly worse when I got sick a few years ago. I've coaxed
them back into a few-times-a-year kind of thing from a year of hot
and cold running migraines; one blearily memorable one that year
lasted at least a week.
Weirdly, I kind of like the visual aura; it's interesting looking
and if nothing else it's fair warning of the onslaught to come. I
get photosensitive as well, and that's an excellent warning
sign.
My particular regime:
Daily I take Gastrodia elata or Armillariella mella, the former in
a concoction I get from my Chinese herbalist, and the latter I buy
at vitamin shops as Tian Ma Mi Huan Su. It's the proven
preventative for me; if I go off it the migraines return after a
few days. I am so very grateful to have it, though if it hadn't
worked, there are certainly a great many more choices now than when
I was a teen, and I would have started trying them.
If one does strike (after fasting blood tests is a typical time
now) then the following can mitigate it: a quart of electrolyte
replacement drink of choice; I use a froofy no-corn-syrup kind.
Lacking that, I mix salt and sugar together and lick it, and wash
it down with lots and lots of water. If the salt/sugar mixture
doesn't taste horrid, then it's helpful. Excedrin can be helpful if
I catch it early enough. So can aspirin and any caffeine source,
even strong tea. Have a lot of water in addition to caffeine.
Acupuncture is helpful, as is
acupressure.
I have a cousin who uses feverfew and B vitamins, daily, as a
preventative. I haven't tried this myself because I loves me the
gastrodia.
I have a friend who submerges herself face-down in an Epsom salt
bath. She even uses a snorkel!
I know I lurk here, but if *anything* helps a migraine sufferer....
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