A migraine or not?
Does anyone else have trouble figuring out whether or not they are having migraine-related symptoms?
Ex: I get fatigue and light sensitivity with migraines, but I also experience fatigue with my POTS and MCAS, and experience fatigue and sensory issues (to light, sound, touch, etc) with my MCAS.
So… how do y’all differentiate between migraines and symptoms off other medical conditions you might have in order to properly manage your symptoms?
that is surely a tough situation that many of us face who also suffer from other conditions that share similar symptoms to migraine disease. I think it comes down to us knowing our bodies and how the conditions we suffer from typically manifest themselves. Fatigue is a really tough symptom to isolate as it is present in many types of conditions. When my husband or I start a migraine attack the symptoms generally appear in the same type of time frame in relation to the pain portion of the attack. In other conditions like depression, symptoms like fatigue are seemingly always there just not a severe as they can be during a migraine attack. As symptoms go I will treat them as they come just so I can get some relief. I guess the bottom line is to trust what your body is telling you and go from there. Warmly, Cheryl migraine.com team tracking those symptoms will be a helpful tool that you can use with your doctors to assist in figuring out what conditions may be causing them. My husband uses the Migraine Buddy app on his phone to track his migraine attacks and their symptoms. It compiles the data he inputs into different reports that he can print and bring to his doctor or they can be sent electronically to the doctor as well. It has been a valuable tool. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas! Warmly, Cheryl migraine.com team I don’t think I have that app. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I hope that you have a Merry Christmas too!
Are you working with a migraine specialist or neurologist? This would be likely a good question to pose to a doctor to help tease apart which symptoms may be more likely to align with which conditions, although there will be overlaps.
I would think also keeping a migraine diary would help so that you can gain clarity on which symptoms are pro/postdromes to migraine. https://migraine.com/living-migraine/detective-triggers
Hope this may help. Thinking of you- Warmly- Holly (migraine.com team)
I lost my reply trying to read the rules before posting! Let me try this again...
I have a neurologist who specializes in migraines, thankfully. We've been working to try to figure out which neurological symptoms could be migrianes, which could be MCAS overstimulation, and which could be possibly worsening EDS-related spinal instability.
I try to write my symptoms in a notebook so I can get an idea of what symptoms relate to what conditions, but I'm hoping after Christmas to start with a new way of tracking symptoms. There are some nice symptom-tracking journals out there and I hope to get one for EDS and one for migraines. I hope that if I track the symptoms in separate books, I might do better at reading what my body is telling me.
Thanks so much for sharing the link. I look forward to reading the article. There is so much I need to learn about migraines. I just don't feel very well-educated on them.
I really appreciate your support and that of other community members. This seems to be a lovely community y'all have built here.Sounds complicated, indeed, to try to parse apart which symptom belongs to which condition when there are overlaps. So smart of you to be looking into these tracking journals. If you find ones that work for you, please share the resource with us so we can learn from you. Glad you are working with a neurologist who specializes in migraine to help partner with you through this process of identifying your symptoms and triggers to create a solid treatment plan. So glad you're with us- please do stay in touch. Warmly- Holly (team member)
