I woke up this morning with an amazingly powerful headache. After 20 minutes I thought maybe getting up would help, so I did. And promptly became nauseated. 3 Extra-Strength Tylenol chased by some Coke Zero did not help and I’ve now had both symptoms for 3.5 hours. The headache is finally starting to ease a bit, though I still feel nauseated.
I’ve never had a migraine before – and believe me, I don’t want to join that club. But I’m wondering – does this sound anything like a mild migraine? Is there such as thing as a mild migraine? Or did going to see Peter Pan at The Muny last night just do a weird number on me?
Half-Pint House 
It does sound like one, although it seems that most people who have migraines start getting them while they are kids or teens. The fact that you had nausea would be more common with a migraine than other types of regular headaches. It can certainly still happen, though. Hopefully you won’t have any more. You haven’t had other symptoms, have you? (I guess the doctor in me is coming out.) If you keep having this problem you should go to a doctor, but hopefully it was just a one-time thing. Unless you start getting them all the time to where they are debilitating, I wouldn’t recommend the preventative forms of medicine. Sinusitis certainly could also cause a headache, and if you also had inflammation in your inner ear, that could cause dizziness and nausea. Just a few other ideas.
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It might be a 12-hour virus. Happens to me sometimes–bad headache (with dizziness, often) followed by nausea/vomiting, doesn’t respond to meds, lets up after a while, goes away within twelve hours. Sometimes preceded by an anxiety attack.
However, I do get sinus headaches that are as severe as migraines. They don’t affect my vision much, apart from making me light-sensitive, but they do make me so dizzy I can’t walk straight. Non-drowsy Dramamine can help with the dizziness, since it’s an anti-vertigo medicine; the generic name is meclizine. But sometimes the only thing to do is sleep.
Incidentally, in case you didn’t know, the key ingredients in Excedrin are aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol), and caffeine. So the Coke wasn’t as strange an idea as it might sound to some people.
[/chem major]
[former St. Louisan]
Peter Pan at the Muny?! What FUN! 😀
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Any other symptoms? If not, it’s probably a regular old migraine, not a mild one. Once the migraine has escalated to the nauseated stage, it’s full blown. It stinks that you woke up with one; that’s pretty rare.
I get frequent migraines. If I catch them early, large doses of Excedrin washed down with Diet Coke sometimes help. If not, I’m usually throwing up within the hour. The only sure-fire cure is to sleep.
One of my friends swears by Imitrex, but I’ve never tried it.
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Jason gets migraines, and that sounds like one. He has to take the Imitrex shots to get rid of them, and it’s definitely worth it. There is a pill form of Imitrex, but the nausea precludes Jason from taking that. I think there is also a nose spray of Imitrex (not positive about that) but he can’t take it, either. For awhile he took some daily preventive pill (no idea what the name was), but it made him gain 20 pounds, so he quit taking it. His mom gets them, too, so I’ve assumed his are genetic. So sorry – I know they are awful.
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Yes….you are officially qualified. Welcome to the club. They are yucky!
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Well, who knows if it really was one, though it sure felt like what I imagined they would. The pain is finally gone, but I can still sort of feel it. The nausea took longer to go away, and I’m really weak even still.
I really really hope this doesn’t become a regular occurrence. And for those of you who suffer from these (and even worse from what I gather), you have my complete and utter sympathy.
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It does sound like one, although it seems that most people who have migraines start getting them while they are kids or teens. The fact that you had nausea would be more common with a migraine than other types of regular headaches. It can certainly still happen, though. Hopefully you won’t have any more. You haven’t had other symptoms, have you? (I guess the doctor in me is coming out.) If you keep having this problem you should go to a doctor, but hopefully it was just a one-time thing. Unless you start getting them all the time to where they are debilitating, I wouldn’t recommend the preventative forms of medicine. Sinusitis certainly could also cause a headache, and if you also had inflammation in your inner ear, that could cause dizziness and nausea. Just a few other ideas.
LikeLike
It might be a 12-hour virus. Happens to me sometimes–bad headache (with dizziness, often) followed by nausea/vomiting, doesn’t respond to meds, lets up after a while, goes away within twelve hours. Sometimes preceded by an anxiety attack.
However, I do get sinus headaches that are as severe as migraines. They don’t affect my vision much, apart from making me light-sensitive, but they do make me so dizzy I can’t walk straight. Non-drowsy Dramamine can help with the dizziness, since it’s an anti-vertigo medicine; the generic name is meclizine. But sometimes the only thing to do is sleep.
Incidentally, in case you didn’t know, the key ingredients in Excedrin are aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol), and caffeine. So the Coke wasn’t as strange an idea as it might sound to some people.
[/chem major]
[former St. Louisan]
Peter Pan at the Muny?! What FUN! 😀
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Any other symptoms? If not, it’s probably a regular old migraine, not a mild one. Once the migraine has escalated to the nauseated stage, it’s full blown. It stinks that you woke up with one; that’s pretty rare.
I get frequent migraines. If I catch them early, large doses of Excedrin washed down with Diet Coke sometimes help. If not, I’m usually throwing up within the hour. The only sure-fire cure is to sleep.
One of my friends swears by Imitrex, but I’ve never tried it.
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Jason gets migraines, and that sounds like one. He has to take the Imitrex shots to get rid of them, and it’s definitely worth it. There is a pill form of Imitrex, but the nausea precludes Jason from taking that. I think there is also a nose spray of Imitrex (not positive about that) but he can’t take it, either. For awhile he took some daily preventive pill (no idea what the name was), but it made him gain 20 pounds, so he quit taking it. His mom gets them, too, so I’ve assumed his are genetic. So sorry – I know they are awful.
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Yes….you are officially qualified. Welcome to the club. They are yucky!
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Well, who knows if it really was one, though it sure felt like what I imagined they would. The pain is finally gone, but I can still sort of feel it. The nausea took longer to go away, and I’m really weak even still.
I really really hope this doesn’t become a regular occurrence. And for those of you who suffer from these (and even worse from what I gather), you have my complete and utter sympathy.
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I just had what I called my first migraine a few months ago and it was pretty much what you described. It took me all day to get over it, and all I could do was lay on the couch. The next day I was so exhausted. I didn’t even realize I had experienced a migraine until it was over and I could actually think. Then, it happened again a few months later. Mine seem to be triggered by not getting enough sleep and a change in the timing of my meals. Really weird. So sorry you’ve now experienced this, too. I hope it doesn’t happen to you again! Glad you got to see Peter Pan!
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I have had horrible tension headaches with nausea. They only go away after I completely relax (the tension starts in my back/shoulders) which usually requires me to sleep. Pain meds alone do nothing, though caffeine seems to help.
Whatever the cause for your headache, I’m glad you’re feeling better now!
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It does sound like a migraine and I’m so sorry.
On a lighter note, you’ve been tagged! See my blog for details when you’re feeling better.
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I do hope it wasn’t a Migraine. Severity doesn’t indicate whether someone is having a Migraine. The headache part of a Migraine can be mild to severe, or even absent. Some people have Migraine attacks with other symptoms, but not a headache. See, Migraines aren’t exactly headaches. They’re flare-ups of a disease. Migraine is a neurological disease, and a Migraine attack can have lots of symptoms. Activity will make the headache of a Migraine attack worse. If it’s a “regular” headache, activity usually doesn’t make it worse. There’s a lot of great Migraine info online if you want to look at some. One of my favorite sites is http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com. An article there that might be helpful to you is “Anatomy of a Migraine” at http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/understanding-migraine-29375-5.html.
Good luck!
Abi
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I just had what I called my first migraine a few months ago and it was pretty much what you described. It took me all day to get over it, and all I could do was lay on the couch. The next day I was so exhausted. I didn’t even realize I had experienced a migraine until it was over and I could actually think. Then, it happened again a few months later. Mine seem to be triggered by not getting enough sleep and a change in the timing of my meals. Really weird. So sorry you’ve now experienced this, too. I hope it doesn’t happen to you again! Glad you got to see Peter Pan!
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I have had horrible tension headaches with nausea. They only go away after I completely relax (the tension starts in my back/shoulders) which usually requires me to sleep. Pain meds alone do nothing, though caffeine seems to help.
Whatever the cause for your headache, I’m glad you’re feeling better now!
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It does sound like a migraine and I’m so sorry.
On a lighter note, you’ve been tagged! See my blog for details when you’re feeling better.
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I do hope it wasn’t a Migraine. Severity doesn’t indicate whether someone is having a Migraine. The headache part of a Migraine can be mild to severe, or even absent. Some people have Migraine attacks with other symptoms, but not a headache. See, Migraines aren’t exactly headaches. They’re flare-ups of a disease. Migraine is a neurological disease, and a Migraine attack can have lots of symptoms. Activity will make the headache of a Migraine attack worse. If it’s a “regular” headache, activity usually doesn’t make it worse. There’s a lot of great Migraine info online if you want to look at some. One of my favorite sites is http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com. An article there that might be helpful to you is “Anatomy of a Migraine” at http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/understanding-migraine-29375-5.html.
Good luck!
Abi
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