Hi All :)
Well I got back from a weeks holiday a couple of days ago and wanted to share something I discovered about my migraines. I was fully prepared and expecting to have my usual 2 or 3 migraines for the weeks holiday so took my pain relief (triptans, asparin ect). First day was hot and sunny so went to the beach, however I did not wear my hat or sunglasses on the walk to the beach and hey presto....migraine starts after about 10 mins walking in the sun...took some imigran and managed to abort the headache thank god. The thought of lying on the beach in full blown migraine does not bear thinking about! So that headache was caused by the glare of the sun....
For the rest of the holiday I made very sure I had my sunglasses and hat on at ALL TIMES when outside, even in the evening....so I looked silly but didn't want to risk another headache. For the rest of the week I was totally headache/migraine free which is unheard of for me in the last 10 years. I've always known the sun can trigger my migraines so this was just confirmation.
However when I got back I noticed something.....after a blissful week of no headaches when i returned home and sat at my pc within 30 mins the pain started to return....leading me to belief my pc is also triggering my headaches....I'm quite a heavy pc user and have often wondered if my monitor triggers them but wasn't convinced because I can go days without getting a headache from my pc.
Then something else today, I have recently moved from the UK to Italy. For the past 5 years or so I've been doing my grocery shopping online so as to avoid supermarkets (I hate them with a passion) but unfortunately online grocery shopping has not yet caught on in Italy so I've been forced to drag myself round them. I was fine this morning until I went shopping then within 10 mins of being inside I began to feel that familiar pain/pulling sensation in my eyes and by the time I got outside a migraine has started. The supermarket has a lot of very bright fluorescent strip lights and it hurts me to even look at them. A similar thing happened repeatedly on about 3 or 4 visits to my local IKEA which again has all artificial lighting.
I was wondering if anyone else experiences this and what I can do to avoid it....its becoming obvious to me that I'm very sensitive to artifical light but obviously I can't live in the dark!!
Thanks
Julie
x