Interviews With Migraine Sufferers

A few weeks ago, I set out to get some information about migraines.  I've been casually researching them since being diagnosed, and have found that though they are not necessarily misrepresented on a massive scale, I'm not generally satisfied by the way they were presented.  I wanted to hear the stories of real people with real migraines and real solutions, and I wasn't finding them.

So I took to my nine hundred and thirty nine Facebook friends, and tracked down five people who were diagnosed with migraines and willing to share their experiences.  I didn't really know what kind of information I was looking for, but I was excited to hear what they had to say.

Jeremy Marchese, the University Scholars Senior Staff Assistant at Stony Brook University, reported getting migraines since he was eight years old.  I was surprised by the young age, but found the same to be true for Kenna Dearborn, a high school senior from Southern California, who mentioned getting her first CT scan as a ten year old.  And Gerilyn Brault, a graduate acting student at Purdue University, tracked her migraines back to the fourth grade!  Craziness.

"I tried pretty much everything," Jeremy told me, "except prescription medication."  The only thing that really worked for him was acupuncture, which simply became "a little too costly."

I feel like this is the case for so many migraine sufferers.  If you asked me what I have tried to prevent my migraines, I would have said the same thing: pretty much everything.  Kenna gave me a lengthy list of things she's tried as well, including dietary restrictions, oral medication, injections, etc.  So far, none of them have been 100% effective, so she sticks to recognizing and avoiding her triggers: sugar, soda, white bread, and meat.

Gerilyn had a similar opinion: "I was initially prescribed medication," she said, "but I had them too infrequently to find any use in refilling."  She did, however, have a clear knowledge of her specific triggers: allergens and lack of sleep.  She takes Ibuprofen and Pseudoephedrine to lessen the symptoms, and "steam, pressure, and sleep tend to help too."

Jeremy found stress to be a trigger.  Isn't that the best one?  "Try to be less stressed" they say.  I remember thinking, 'I'm stressed, so I get migraines, so I can't do my work, which makes me stressed, which gives me migraines.  Yeah that should be pretty easy.  Oh also I'll completely change everything I eat and eliminate everything on this list from my diet.  But yeah I won't get stressed.'

Danielle McClure, a student at Hofstra University, never did track down a specific trigger.  "My mom always thought that my migraines were sugar induced," she said, "but I would keep track of when I had sugar and when I didn't, and it didn't seem to matter what I had eaten." She also mentioned stress, but found that ultimately it wasn't consistent.  "They would occur randomly, with no warning whatsoever... I think we eventually chalked it up to puberty, " she told me.

Her main method of treatment was ibuprofen, which was not completely effective.  Her doctor proscribed medication later on, and it "didn't make it go away completely, but it made it so my migraine lasted about three hours instead of the whole day."

Unlike the others, Danielle hasn't gotten a migraine in years.  "When I think back to getting migraines and getting blurred vision, it makes me shutter because they were pretty much debilitating... I'm so glad they are, hopefully, gone for good.

Samantha Schmitt's situation was unique in the group.  "The cause of my migraines is a combination of two different heart conditions that I have.  The first is called Dysautonomia with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, the second is Mitral Valve Regurgitation.  I also have a disorder called Mast Cell Activation which is known to contribute to migraines."  It was a lot to take in, but I think it helped her have very specific methods of prevention.  She ingests almost twice the amount of sodium of the average person in order to increase her low blood volume, and takes Nadolol, a beta blocker.

She has seen some improvement in severity since administering these treatments, but still gets migraines three to four times a month.  "Unfortunately," she said, "until doctors find a way to actually treat my conditions, my migraines will never be controllable."

I'm so happy that these people were willing to share their migraine stories with me, because I think this stuff is really interesting.  I wish I could say that through interviewing people I found an easy solution to migraines, but I didn't.  What I did come to consider, though, was that the diagnosis of migraines is a condition that, I think, you have to deal with every day, and not just when you have a migraine.

If you read this hoping to have some information about how to cure your own migraines, consider this: it's really different for everyone.  Every random person will have the definite way to cure you and most of them will be wrong.  Try focusing on your general health: for me, that meant eating better, for some, it means dealing with emotional and mental health issues.  But whatever it is, making small and large changes every day can put you on the road towards feeling better (also definitely consult your doctor while you do this).

Thank you for reading!  Let me know what you think about all this.  Have you experienced something similar to one of these people? Do you have any really strong opinions about migraines?  The internet is the place for them!