Migraine misunderstanding (smile)

[Sunny Clouds]

Given there are some migraine sufferers out there, if a smile over how out of date I am would cheer you up, read, otherwise scroll on by.

Last year, I was zoom chatting with some neighbours and one mentioned cluster headaches.  I made mention of how I used to have migraines and made sympathetic noises.  He and a couple of other blokes made "No, they're different things!" noises.

I was puzzled.  But surely cluster headaches are men's migraines?  The man next door used to have them when I was a kid.  I thought some more.  Yes, a male colleague in the 80s and 90s used to have them.  That doesn't mean I thought women couldn't get them.

I looked them up.  Rummage, rummage.  Ah, got it.  Cluster headaches were, back in the distant past, considered to be a form of migraine and at some point seen as in particular a sort men get, hence the term men's migraines. 

However, not knowing anyone with them since the 90s, and not myself having many migraines since the late 80s and none since the early 90s, I hadn't realised how out of date I was.  Oops!

[ditchdwellers]

Sunny, I'm one of those really lucky people who not only has chronic migraines (every day! ), but also has cluster headaches too! I'm just coming to the end of my latest cluster 'season ', which is just as well as I've almost finished my last large bottle of oxygen, and I'm down to a couple of small portable bottles in reserve.
I need to phone for replacements tomorrow.

[Sunny Clouds]

Ugh, migraines plus cluster headaches - have a gentle hug.

[Fiz]

Oh DD that sounds so tough.


I have only had a very few migraines in my life. I woke with one tonight and have taken cyclizine and 100mg tramadol and amazingly it has reduced the migraine down to sharp headache level which is bearable. Previously with my rare migraines nothing has helped but thankfully I have managed to ease this one. I know it's too painful for any sleep meditation to get me to sleep though! Migraines are so debilitating though, having to take to my bed with the blackout blinds down unable to cope with the light is hard. I can't imagine that daily. My sister and niece both get migraines regularly. My niece has found that a low dose of amitriptyline has reduced the number of migraines though.

[ditchdwellers]

Yes, it at adds to the fun!
No headaches are great for anyone though as there seems to be no escape from them.


I'm due to start a new medication for my migraines this week. The Neurological Hospital are sending it out in the post to me to see how I get on with it. Worth a try.

[Fiz]

Definitely worth a try. I really hope it helps.