Hey all,

I'm getting a severe headache/migraine, and I'm just sort of curious what the others here who have problems with headaches try to do. While I get headaches very frequently, this is only the 2nd one of my life like this. The last one was about 4 years ago, and it lasted about 3 weeks, getting worse and worse each day. The doctors had no clue what was causing it (I had all sorts of scans done, etc), so their only solution was to try to beat it down with some prescription meds (which did effectively nothing).

Basically the symptoms are the following:

Yesterday, I was feeling very dizzy and lightheaded. I have an extremely hard time concentrating (no actual headache yet, just weird symptoms I knew would lead to a headache). For several hours, I actually felt like I was going to puke/faint. I also had a horrifying hour of blurry visions/hallucinations, where I can pretty much do nothing except close my eyes and just hope for it to go away.

Last night, the headache started. I woke up this morning to a pretty bad headache, as well as dizziness/lightheadedness still being present. I'm currently on some prescription painkillers, but they literally do nothing. I know for a fact this isn't all the headache has to offer, and that it is just going to get worse in the coming days.

Basically, I'm just curious, even if you don't get crazy headaches like this, what do you guys and gals do when you get bad headaches? Do you just sit and lie down all day? Do you try to play games to take your mind off of it (even if you can't concentrate well on the game)?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I simply am dumbfounded as to what to try next.

stay away from bright light, try to limit the time spent on video games/monitors, but if thats hard then just ensure your playing with the light on. Most migraines i have are caused when i strain my eyes too much. If you've recently started wearing new glasses/contacts, it could be a problem with your prescription causing migraines. Also take some paracetamol and listen to relaxing music

i wouldnt recommend playing games. just take some pain killers. turn off the lights and lay down. if it stays for a long time i would recommend you go check it out

You should check yourself for brain diarrhea.

check this video its only a minute or so long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ySpjQi30Q&list=SP0711C45400B87D72

I never tried the chair technique so I don't know if that works, but I have tried the hair pulling technique and it did work for me.  You have to do it where your head is hurting though.  I usually get headaches in the front of my head to almost at my foredhead so I pull where my hairline starts on my forehead.

Sorry to hear that.
When I get a migraine it's usually telegraphed by a big flashing tear in my vision an hour before it starts. For normal headaches massaging the sore parts of my heads helps a bit and pushing on pressure points. For a full on migraine best is to try to sleep it off. Stress and fatigue seem to bring it on.
Mostly my headaches start from a sore neck, brought on by years of working behind a pc. It's been getting better since giving up programming and going to the chiropractor weekly.

My wife suffers from intracranial hypertension since about 10 years old. On the bad days Toradol can take the edge of a little. Full enclosure sunglasses help a bit, sometimes nothing helps but try to sleep. Listen to the first 48 in a dark room or any other sleep inducing show.

i suggest getting traded to the seahawks

There are exercises that can help reduce the pain. You can also take a cocktail of painkillers, a doctor once told me if the pain gets too bad you can take a dose of Acetaminophen and Ibprophen together since each affects a different pain type. But of course you don't want to do this too often since Aspirin products such as Ibprophen attack the stomach lining and Acetaminophen attacks the liver and kidneys.

There are a few different types of migraines also which changes what you do for them.
http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/diseases-conditions/migraines.html

Sorry to hear that. I suffer from cluster headaches so I sympathize. They're the least common of headaches, affecting less than 1/1000 people and have been documented as the single most painful condition known to medical science. Your symptoms sound different, though, since clusters don't last for days (the cycle does but the actual headaches don't) and only hurt on on side of the face behind the eye. Doesn't really matter if the room is bright or if there's loud noise, etc. When a cluster headache hits, you're going to be suffering no matter what for anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours.

I've never had blurry vision or hallucinations during clusters but the dizzy/vomiting feeling is present when they're really bad. There is sweating, shortness of breath - there's been moments where it really feels like I could die. They're easily the most horrible experience I've ever had in my life, without question. The only medical treatments for clusters are prescription drugs called sumatriptans or straight oxygen via a mask and tank.

Anyhow, an ice pack on my face is the only way to help alleviate my pain when I have a cluster but other headaches/migraines feel better with heat packs instead.

Last time I had this headache, they put me on 800mg ibuprofen, hydrocodine, and amitriptyline. All at the same time, these did absolutely nothing :/

I'm just on some hydrocodine at the moment, if for nothing but to make me know I'm at least trying to get rid of it, even though it probably won't help.

In all my research of headaches, I've definitely heard of cluster headaches, and feel incredibly bad for the people who have them. I've seen things that when they hit, rather than resting, some have to resort to getting up and walking back and forth because the pain is so bad.

Oh, also, I've felt it minutely a couple times already today, but while the headache itself is just a bad throbbing headache, the worst of the pain for this headache (or at least the last time I had it) came in about 5-30 second tingling "sensations" in the back of my head. They would put me right down, and happen anywhere from hardly at all to a few times per hour.