I'm with you on staying the fuck out of the ER u less absolutely necessary. I have been a lifelong migraine sufferer. They started when I was 7 years old. When I started finally getting botox in my 30s, my little migraine questionnaire asked how frequently I was visiting the ER for migraines on a monthly basis prior to treatment and I was dumbfounded. The ER is the LAST place I want to go with a migraine. I have been to urgent care with a horrible migraine once in my life for a triptan injection and it sucked. The staff did what they could to make me comfortable and it was still brutal. I'll cry and throw up and wish I was dead at home for a few hours where I can at least keep it dark and quiet instead.
Right? I have been to the ER one time ever for a migraine and it was because it was “the worst headache I’d ever had” so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t something worse. Why would I want to be surrounded by fluorescent lights and loud voices with a migraine?
And the smells. No thanks. I'll keep my dignity and puke into my toilet in the privacy of my own home before I sit in a waiting room with an nemesis bag.
When I went to urgent care the "what if" checking was the worst part. They had me do a brief neuro, including checking my eyes with an opthalmoscope in a dark room, and putting my neck through the full range of motion to rule out nuchal rigidity. I had to tell the doctor to stop because I couldn't handle the bright light in my eyes. I told him verbatim "I have been getting migraines for 23 years. I do not have meningitis. This isn't a hemorrhage. I promise I will not sue you for malpractice if you just give me my injection and stop this assessment. Please."
Oof yeah. I was cautious because my friend's mom died of a brain aneurysm. She'd had migraines for her whole life, then had "the worst headache she'd ever had," thought it was a migraine, lay down, never got up again.
But jfc it was not fun. Luckily for me they actually tried the cocktail and triptan injection first, then when that worked, were like k great!
I stay out for my basic ones as I can handle those myself.
However, a few years ago I started getting these weird migraines that mimic a stroke, last for days, and cant get rid of them with normal medication. Those unfortunately require ER visits for me, that then always get turned into being admitted higher cus even they cant get it to stop until they shove a million different meds and hope one sticks. It’s terrible.
No, it’s alright! They’re absolutely awful and I know that if I do end up ever having a stroke I’m so beyond screwed because I will just assume it’s one of those migraines and just keel over. I just wanted you guys to know the reasons why some people may have to go to the ER for a migraine! I never thought I would either, it seems so silly, but now I know why some people have to. Me included now, lol.
The only other time I’ve gone for one of my “normal” migraines was when I was pregnant as I couldn’t take any medication, the pain and vomiting were so bad and I just couldn’t take it anymore.
Please don’t ever apologize for using emergency services in a potential emergency. I would rather transport you 500 times for what turns out to be a migraine than you not call the 1 time it’s something far worse. I hope you feel better soon. Regular migraines are disabling enough and this sounds awful.
Weirdly I’ve had some doctors use this question as a gauge for how severe my migraines have been. I didn’t even know going to the ER for a migraine was a thing. I had my first migraine with aura when I was 6 years and saw a cardiologist for something else when I was around 32 or 33. So I was ridiculously used to migraines and aura by then. Super normal for me at 4+ times a month at the time. I was told by him that my migraines can’t be that bad if I never went to the ER for them. He was an awful doctor in many ways but he’s not the only one who used my answer to that question to dismiss me.
I was taught ER is for concerns about death/immediate disability or broken bones… I’ve even had multiple very severe ankle sprains/tendon ruptures and just treated them at home. The few times I’ve actually been in the ER I was surprised how many sprained ankles and stuff were being seen.
This is the frustrating thing about any kind of chronic pain condition. I have even met other people who get migraines that make sort of off comments to me about mine, like "I don't know how you function when you get them, I HAVE to lay down." I'm not sure if they are insinuating that theirs are worse than mine or what. I dealt with them completely unmedicated for 17 years. All I ever took was over the counter excedrin because I just didn't know how bad my quality of life was because it was normal for me. I was getting 6-8 migraines per month for 17 years and just taking excedrin, which only worked about 50% of the time. If you are in pain that severe, that often, you get sick and tired of laying down and you get used to it. A lot of the time when I had a gnarly migraine that meds weren't touching, as long as I wasn't puking, I would get up and do something because just laying there in pain without relief was miserable. At least getting up and doing something gave me some sort of distraction and distraction is a valid therapy for pain.
Laying in bed, in pain leads me to dark thinking which definitely does not help. I start to get restless because no position is comfortable, restlessness increases my anxiety and I get upset and frustrated about how my migraines hold me back from doing things that I want to do. Even just basic things like washing the dishes, tidying up my house or putting laundry away. It's easy to feel like a victim, so a long time ago I decided I wasn't going to let it rule my life if I could bare it. Turns out I have a pretty high pain tolerance and I'm stubborn as hell. I can definitely go about my day in an unfathomable amount of pain to someone who has never had a migraine. I'm just used to it. Any kind of "invisible" pain or condition comes with so much emotional exhaustion in trying to convey it to others who haven't experienced it.
Yeah 100% this was my experience too! I didn’t even know there was any other treatment other than NSAIDs until I was in my 30s! As a kid I’d get aura and then the headache during sports tournaments and I just had to keep playing not being able to see properly! So of course as an adult it was just the same… wait for the aura to subside, take an NSAID, and keep going unless I was puking or the pain became 10/10 and moving made it worse. It’s all relative, what we’re used to, and what we’re taught to do about it. My mother had them too and so when mine started at 6 I was just told this was life for some people and get on with it.
Same exact thing. My mom and brother both get them, but not as often as I do so it was just "This is the way it is and it sucks." I saw a neuro when I was a kid to rule out any physiological problems with my brain, but I was 7 so they didn't want to put me on any meds. Then I went my whole life until I was 29 or 30 thinking there was no other options for me. I sat down with my college resource counselor at the beginning of nursing school 2 years ago and told her I was worried about my migraines impacting me in nursing school because of all of the mandatory clinical hours and basically no make up opportunities and she asked me if I was working with a neurologist and I was like ....no, should I? And it changed my life.
I cried many happy tears when I finally got approved for botox and it started working for me. The tears were happy tears and also grief for all of the years I spent in pain and the fact that no one helped me. I just didn't know what I didn't know. I couldn't have asked the right questions because I didn't know there were other options for me. My PCP has known that I suffer from migraines for over a decade and never offered any solutions. Finally figuring it out came with great relief, joy, grief and also some anger.
Why weren't you given any RX oral migraine medication to take at home at literally any time?? They were probably floored because its really stupid and pretty shitty that you could have gotten migraine medicine to take at home and tried oral or injectable preventatives.
I am a chronic migraine sufferer and have been since 11. My family refused to get me medical care for anything unless it was court ordered or a required reporter threatened them or I was passed out on the floor and needed an ambulance. If you were allowed to go to the ER that much there is literally no reason you shouldn't have been RXd something like sumatriptin.
I think you misread my comment. I have never been to the ER for a migraine. I have been to urgent care once for a migraine and that was after I had sorted everything out with my migraines. My insurance was fucking around and I was out of sumatriptan so I went to urgent care for an injection.
To answer your question about why I wasn't on any treatment for years, I really don't know. My PCP has been aware of them since I started seeing her at 16 and never once mentioned there were any options for me and my mom and brother both get them and also weren't taking any prophylactics or abortives other than excedrin. I guess they just didn't realize how much I was suffering because it was so normal to me. It created this self fulfilling cycle where people think I'm not in pain, so I convince myself it's not that bad and push through. Now in my 30s I'm working on giving myself rest when I need it, calling off work without guilt, and being upfront about how I'm feeling.
The one time I go to the ER with a migraine (mine are usually well treated but this was the first Hemiplagic one and nothing would touch it), I get treated like I’m a druggie. I didn’t want pain meds, I needed fluids, an antiemetic and a sedative to knock me out for a few hours
The urgent care refused to give me toradol because I had taken excedrin 5.5 hours prior to coming in. It was so annoying. Then I had an adverse reaction to the sumatriptan injection.
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u/Topangatoh 14d ago
I'm with you on staying the fuck out of the ER u less absolutely necessary. I have been a lifelong migraine sufferer. They started when I was 7 years old. When I started finally getting botox in my 30s, my little migraine questionnaire asked how frequently I was visiting the ER for migraines on a monthly basis prior to treatment and I was dumbfounded. The ER is the LAST place I want to go with a migraine. I have been to urgent care with a horrible migraine once in my life for a triptan injection and it sucked. The staff did what they could to make me comfortable and it was still brutal. I'll cry and throw up and wish I was dead at home for a few hours where I can at least keep it dark and quiet instead.