Coffee visions
I used to have migraines every month and in a bad month, it could be two to three times. At one time I thought the migraines were caused by sugar so I spent years limiting sugar and chocolate. I still got the migraines when there was a change in the barometric pressure, mainly when it went low.
I've read that if you have problems with your sinuses that the low pressure will make it worse. It is the same with migraines. I've had full blown migraines where I could feel the heavy beat of blood rushing through my head. My vision would narrow and then I would feel extreme nausea. I would find myself trying to vomit the bile in my stomach.
When I am in the middle of these episodes, I haven't found anything that will help it except a cold cloth across my forehead and caffeine. I can drink coffee when water would just come up during one of these episodes.
I've heard that others have halos when they are going into migraines. I don't have that warning. If I did, maybe one of those pills would help. Also since I have had kidney problems for the last eighteen almost nineteen years, I cannot use ibuprofen. Tylenol doesn't help these type of headaches. It doesn't even touch the pain.
So caffeine has been my drug of choice for years now. It smooths the smaller headaches and when I have a migraine, it helps me to live through the pain.
It was after a particularly bad month that I finally talked to a new primary care doctor about them. She already knew I couldn't take an ibuprofen for it because of my kidney problems. As a side note, ibuprofen and other NSAIDs of this type can cause more kidney damage in a kidney patient. I refused prednisone. I have a history with prednisone and I refuse to take it unless I have something severe. I used it one time to settle a gout issue. Plus ten years of being on prednisone for my Vasculitis disease was enough time for me to start to hate the drug. I not only have problems with weight gain on the drug, but I also will get hallucinations and paranoia if I am on a high dosage too long --say a year or more. After ten years? I think I'll pass.
So she did a little research and there was a small study on how Vit B-2 insufficiency will cause migraines in certain populations. I don't know who that certain population was-- but she recommended that I take Vit B-2 (Riboflavin) daily. It took about a couple of months and my migraines disappeared. Even the low-grade headaches I was getting became less.
Fast forward to today. Yesterday I ran out of Vit B-2. Yes, I had a headache most of the day. It hadn't gotten to the migraine level, but I could tell that I hadn't taken that little pill. If you are asking, I drank a lot of coffee yesterday.
So what does that have to do with visions? It was clear to me yesterday-- and today-- that when I find a remedy that works, I need to keep using it even when the headaches are gone. It is just one small pill of 100 mg that keeps me from pain. One pill.