Do you get mini-migraines?

October 9, 2023 3:36 PM

I know that's an oxymoron, but it describes what I've been doing recently. In addition to full-blown migraines, that is.

A couple of days this past week, I've had head pain that feels just like a migraine. But 10 to 20 seconds later, it goes away. Then, maybe half an hour to an hour later (I haven't actually timed this) it comes back but in a different spot in my head. It happened maybe six or seven times a day. This is different from ice pick headaches (which I also get); those feel just like their description. What I'm suddenly dealing with feels like a migraine but is wildly compressed in time. Is this familiar to you?

posted by bryon to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

I have chronic migraine, and this could describe some days I've had. But it might also describe trigeminal neuralgia, thunderclap, or a different kind of headache. Either way it warrants investigation.
posted by Ballad of Peckham Rye at 4:07 PM on October 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

You likely know this, but "ice pick" headache may well be cluster headache. You may at least want to check it out. I used to get migraines before I started getting clusters. I look back fondly at my migraine days.
posted by jcworth at 5:00 PM on October 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

On the cluster headache front, "mini migraines" is a fair description of my experience when I'm teetering on the edge of a cluster headache cycle. At that stage, careful management of triggers can still save me, and eventually the whole situation passes because mine are seasonal and the triggers generally don't bother me the rest of the year. If I didn't know the broader pattern, the individual instances would be very perplexing. If you know about migraines, you probably know there are a wide variety of possible non-obvious variables to consider as potential triggers no matter what your actual diagnosis may be, but I'd definitely be suspicious that mini migraines are part of something larger.
posted by teremala at 5:13 PM on October 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I get these as well - I call them "dodged the bullet migraines" and welcome them, vs the full-blown migraines. I recommend logging them when they happen (ugh I know, boring and difficult) to see if there's a pattern vis a vis your cluster headaches, triggers, etc.
posted by nkknkk at 4:09 AM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I get visual migraines (with almost no pain, so I'm lucky, though the visual migraines occur with no warning and will ruin the day for me) that normally last at least 20 minutes, the peak visual disturbances I mean, but every once in a while I get one that lasts a minute or less- the blind spot appears and it's just gone very quickly. I wouldn't be surprised, as migraine is a neurological phenomenon, if traditional migraines wouldn't happen in the same way.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 8:20 AM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Literally just this hour returned from a doc appointment to complain about "my icepick headaches that a neurologist diagnosed in the 90s, but recently they lasted intermittently for 3 weeks and all over my head instead of in just one place?" And she said "cluster headaches." In the 90s I couldn't afford Imitrex nasal spray ($40 for one dose/1 headache!), even though it worked. Today she gave me a prescription and I intend to use it next time. I hope you find some relief.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 9:02 AM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I finally got in to see my doctor. Her best guess of the mini-migraines is that a full-blown migraine is trying to happen, but the Aimovig I'm taking is aborting most of it. I've had fewer migraines this month than usual, so the stuff might be working.

Thanks, all, for your responses.
posted by bryon at 4:58 PM on October 27, 2023