Dear Bilsey and Auralady - from the sounds of both of your symptoms combined, I have had all of them and they are all encompassed in the inclusionary components of Chronic Migraine Disease. The flashing lights can be either migrainal or the commencement of retinal breakdown. I never prayed for a migraine, but that time I certainly did. The inner ear, or balance, is the vertigo portion of the migraine disease, and all of your vision situations point directly towards migraine, particularly the ocular migraine. For the pain, you really have to know what works for you. My system reacts well to Aspirin-based drugs but most on the market are Acetaminophen-based. Depends what settles individual pain as all of our systems are different and what works for one of us may not work for all of us. I wish you well - both of you. It's no picnic - not by a long shot.
I watched my mother succumb to the disease, but the best way to deal with it is to try to take it on - head on - and deal with the different situations as they arise. On-line research, combined with "living with it" has fortified both my ability to stay in the workforce for over 40 years, complete high school, some university, do charity work, all the time caring for abused and/or abandoned animals as my personal pets (therapy clinic, if you will), and yet dealing with bouts of pain such that a normal person would not be able to, know how to, or even care to tolerate. When you have chronic migraine disease you must educate yourself as thoroughly as possible and then build you lifestyle such that your "home base" is in fact your "tranquility base". It is a complex disease, with attacks of a mixture of nausea, disorientation, speech problems, memory deficiencies, patchy numbness in different parts of the body, vertigo (balance), sharp and dully pain (you tend to build up a pain tolerance level over time - at least I had to in order to be able to continue. You might call me a survivor, but lifestyle, diet, activities, hobbies - many things you would normally do with friends - tend to have to be curtailed in order for you to keep going. At work, the attacks were so frequent (some without notice) that the resulting fatigue from fighting them caused me to have to go into work earlier than the others and stay later than them, just in order to be able to "keep up" with their pace. It may seem like a living hell, but I have met so many wonderful people who suffer like I do, and still wear a smile and dry to do the very best that they can despite the fact that they too are in great pain, and accompanying disability, a lot of the time. Stress, I must add, is neither a trigger nor a cause of Migraine; HOWEVER, stress acts as a catalyst and exacerbates the triggers and causes, so that was why I injected "lifestyle" adjustment. I could go on for pages on the subject but I feel that you have the main skeleton of the situation that you may be forced to have to deal with. The medical profession will not be able to help, except with the prescript
ions for medication for the severe pain. It is really you, yourselves that need to find out which product works best to give you comfort. Dark room, cold compress, soft music, pets, fresh mug of Salada Orange Pekoe Tea (or whatever) and your pills - and in my case, my service dog and my 4 cats - are generally where I end up when it gets the better of me. I hope some of this can assist both of you. Trust me, I DO feel your fear and frustration heading into this "foreign land", but there are those of us here that care, and we have been through exactly the stage that you are both experiencing. Years of conditioning, tolerance, frustration, depression from it, exhaustion as well - as the attacks take energy from you while you are trying to get through them, all of this and more, and we are here for you anytime.
and I hope that this will ease your fear, as you are NOT ALONE.
Val and Bubbles
I have removed your email addy for your own security and would refer you to the Forum Rules. Ann
Post Edited By Moderator (Annuk) : 11/8/2011 4:06:46 PM (GMT-7)