The Headache That Laughs At Ibuprofen Artwork

When Life Gives You Lemons

We do a bit of Research into handicapped travel issues and provide some solutions. Mobility, Hearing, Sight, Mental issues included. so far our episodes have included some information on Ataxia, Cerebral Palsy, Deafness, Dancing Sickness, Gulf War Syndrome, Long Covid and Wheelchairs. We are both Disability Advocates and realize there are too many diseases and conditions to cover and try to discuss the most common problems disabled people face and spread some awareness of disabled issues non-disabled people are unaware of.

CORRECTION
On a Previous episode I described how to enter our End Of Season contest. Step 1 click on the support our show link. Step 1 we require a one time payment (This has changed during our season) of $3. Step 3 (get you back to a one time payment) click on the $3 Subscription button. The following business day cancel the subscription (if you do it same day your bank may start thinking FRAUD. Step 4 Your done. Thanks for entering and "may the odds be forever in your favor",

All Episodes

When Life Gives You Lemons

The Headache That Laughs At Ibuprofen

July 15, 2026 • Kevin & Palmi Henry • Season 4 • Episode 11

0:00 | 27:20

Send us Fan Mail

A migraine isn’t a “bad headache” you can grit your teeth through. It can start with a visual aura, flip on nausea and light sensitivity, and turn simple movement into pain that feels physical and sharp. We get honest about what that zigzag warning sign looks like, why it’s so frightening when you know what’s coming, and how a migraine can knock out an entire day or more even after the worst pain fades.

We also unpack the bigger migraine picture: how genetics and hormones can shape who gets them, why stress and sleep changes are such common triggers, and why weather, chocolate, processed foods, alcohol, aged cheeses, and nitrates come up so often in migraine trigger lists. Just as important, we talk about the social side: the work stigma of calling out with a migraine, the isolation of being doubted, and the frustrating experience some people have in the ER when severe pain is treated with suspicion.

From diagnosis to treatment, we walk through what a neurologist looks for, when MRI or CT imaging might be used to rule out other issues, and what modern migraine care can include. That means acute relief options like triptans and anti-nausea meds, preventive strategies like CGRP medications, beta blockers, anti-convulsants, and Botox, plus non-drug supports like sleep hygiene, hydration, magnesium, riboflavin, mindfulness, and exercise as prevention. We wrap with a reminder that migraine science is still evolving, because the brain is still one of medicine’s biggest frontiers.

If this helped you put words to what you feel, share it with someone who still thinks migraines are “just headaches,” then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Support the show

Welcome And Podcast Mission

palmi 0:00

Welcome to our podcast when life gives you love. I'm giving Palmi. We consider ourselves disability advocates and intend to highlight some disability issues and things we find interesting that we frequently encounter when we're out and about. Also, some history on disability that we find interesting. This year we're gonna include more of the interviews of the people that the disability affects. We hope you enjoy it.

Kevin 0:32

Oh everybody, and welcome back to our cast, When Life Gives You Lovements. I'm Kevin. I'm Palmi.

Migraines Are More Than Headaches

palmi 0:44

And today we're gonna talk about migraines. The title of the episode is Inside the Migraine Mind. Why it happens and what happens and what happens.

Kevin 0:57

Well, if I'm not mistaken, you actually have migraines. Am I correct?

palmi 1:03

Yes. So as have you never had one?

Kevin 1:07

I've never had one. I always just thought there were a headache, but from what you're describing, a lot more goes on. And uh right up top, it talks about defining a migraine. It's a neurological disorder, not just a headache. Then it's gonna go into uh prevalence, how it affects approximately one in six adults in the US and why it matters, how it can affect your work, your relationships, and your daily functioning. Now, before we move on to number two, why don't you describe to be basically what it means by not just a headache?

Aura Pain Nausea And Early Remedies

Kevin 2:02

Well, it's it starts out with a mind starts out with like an aura. I have like a zigzag um in my eye, peripheral vision. I can see like a a zigzag pattern in my eye. Um sometimes it's both eyes, sometimes it's just one eye. If it's both eyes, I know it's gonna be a terrible, terrible headache. Other if it's just one eye, then it's not usually as bad. It's caused by stress, um, sometimes by hormonal. When I was younger, it would be happen during a lot during the time of month. It would um it puts you down basically. It hurts to think, it hurts to open your eyes, it hurts to um it just your whole head just is in terrible pain. Uh sometimes you throw up, um, you get nauseous. Um just opening your eyes, um, your whole head hurts. Just like somebody hits you in the head is like physical pain, not just like a headache, but like physical pain. Like you're um just touching your head hurts. So, like if somebody touched just touched your your temples, um, it would it hurt. Just this touching of your skin would hurt. It makes sense that it is neurological because I think it has a lot to do with the nerves in the back of your head inside your head. I know that uh some of the medication early on was caffeine and uh ibuprofen. So it would um the brain uh the nerves in your brain were um tiny, they got small, and so when you take caffeine, it makes the those nerve cells or those nerve uh things larger, and so the blood would is opened up and could flow more steadily throughout it. Oh, so the migraine makes them small, the caffeine makes them large.

palmi 4:06

Right. Um typical medicine for a migraine was excedrin, um headache medicine. That was typical what people women would use, men and women you would use. Um, and also that you would drink it with a cup of cap uh coffee or soda or something like that. So you were kind of double dosing the caffeine. That was a typical early on, because I got them as soon as like 12 years old. And so my mom would give me a coke along with excedrin, and then you would just lay in bed, cover your eyes, lay in bed until it went away. Typically it was 24 to 36 hours. And I typically you were it's just like having the flu, you just don't do anything. I can't imagine uh laying there that long.

Kevin 4:55

Oh, it's just miserable. I mean, if you had to get up, it was just utter pain, just to have to move your head, just the the movement of your head was that was you know just terrible. My mom had them horribly, and so I think and I believe they are uh hereditary. Um, my dad didn't have them until older, he was older in his life, but he he eventually did get them too. So I got them from both sides of my family, I think. And I think they have they also run with heart disease. If you have heart disease in your family, I think it it has a uh connection with migraines. My sister Laura had them, my sister Tammy has them, and I'm not sure if my brother has them or not.

Triggers Genetics And Daily Life Impact

palmi 5:41

Well, I can see why this would have an impact on work. Oh yeah. Because if someone who worked for me had called up and said, I have a migraine, I can't work today.

Kevin 5:59

Since you've never had them, you wouldn't get get it.

palmi 6:02

Yeah, I wouldn't understand that really you can work with a headache, yeah. Yeah. I would just say, well take two aspirins and come in. Take two aspirants and come in, something like that. Yeah.

Kevin 6:18

Well, now they the treatment, a lot of treatment online, you can see that there's actual um uh eye eye um iPads that they like eye um masks that they put on that massages your temples and uh produces heat and cold in your eye around your eyes, because your eyes are very much part of the headache. They're where the eye the aura starts. So that's some of the treatment that I see currently online that they can get. Of course, you know, they're making money off all that stuff, so I don't know if it I have not used it. I do know that my mom used to put uh cold compresses on my eyes, so I know that they or hot, cold or hot, so I know that that did help it.

palmi 7:05

So didn't lessen she alternate between cold and hot, yeah.

Kevin 7:12

But I don't know that it got rid of it any sooner. I think it just has to work through. She did do the coke and the etc. Now I have started recently, they went away for a long time after I had rose, but most recently they've started coming back again, and I see a neurologist for them. And um, they now have pretty good medicine. I just had one two days ago. Uh migraine, they have a medicine now where you take one and you get rid of the headache. Uh, I did take the medicine. I take an everyday pill to stop to stop them from happening so often. But I when you if they do happen, they I have a pill that you take one, but you can only take two total. I took the one, but for th two days now my head has still been hurting, not like uh a migraine, but like when I shake my head, I can feel still feel the pain in my head of what it what is left. So it went away, the major pain went away, but I still and it allowed me to function, but I still know that I have a it still I still feel like I've the the migraine is still there.

palmi 8:28

Can't imagine it. I mean it's uh like you'll pop some ibuprofen or whatever, and uh that doesn't even phase it. Hopefully, or if it's bad enough, maybe take a nap.

Kevin 8:46

Yeah. Well, that's what you have to basically sleep through it because it's so painful. So the science behind migraines is um can you say the role of how do you say that trigger trigger my nose vascular system and the cortis cortisol call cortical spreading through spreading depression?

palmi 9:16

Yeah, I'm not sure what that means to you. I don't even know the trigominovascular system is.

Kevin 9:29

I think it has to do with the the neural the ner nervous system. Uh it is genetic, it does have genetic factors, and that is why migraines often uh run in the family. Uh like I said, there's hormonal issues, uh, estrogen inflections, and why um migraines are disappointed affected by uh affect women. But I do know there are men that have had migraines also. Uh the environmental uh triggers are stress, like I said, um sleep disp disturbances, weather changes. I do notice that uh it's been really rain rainy here in the the what is it when that's so moist and humid the precipitation or the rain, it's been rainy and um in certain foods also affects it too. I found that chocolate, I think is my trigger food that if I eat too much chocolate or processed foods, it tends to um bring on a migraine also, but not all. I mean, it's not it's not you can never think it's just one thing because I've had no chocolate at all and I've had migraines, and I've had no processed foods at all, and I've had migraines, so it's just a luck of the draw, I think.

palmi 10:57

Okay, how do migraines affect your work parenting and social life?

Kevin 11:03

Well, basically, either either manage through it just and you're gonna be miserable, or just don't do it. Like my mom, she would be in bed for days.

palmi 11:17

Well did what age were you when you first had your first migraine?

Kevin 11:25

Twelve, probably. So I just probably didn't go to school. But I remember calling into work saying I had a migraine.

palmi 11:35

Yeah, how many days just not going to work?

Kevin 11:39

Oh, I have no idea. I never went to a doctor for migraines until remember I was here, and right after I had Rose, I kept having them constantly, continuously, and we I ended up in the hospital. And that's when I saw Dr. Lee for the first time. And he diagnosed me with um constant migraines and put me on a medication to stop them. So that was and I was what in my 30s by that point. So I never saw a doctor until I was in my 30s for migraines. And it makes takes uh an emotional toll also also because it's unpredictable. There's a lot of stigma behind it. Like, like you said, you being a manager wouldn't even understand it. There's a lot of isolation because people don't understand how um isolating it is.

palmi 12:29

Yeah, me not having had migraines or even know anybody that had migraines at the time, I uh wouldn't have really uh it's almost like you're you're not lending credibility or recognizing a person you need. It's just like uh Pompey doesn't want to come to work again.

Kevin 13:04

Right.

palmi 13:05

But you can't use migraines to get out of uh podcasting, just so you know.

Kevin 13:12

Okay, see?

palmi 13:13

Non dear it's gotta frustrate you at some point though.

Kevin 13:21

Yeah, it does. Well, you just get tired of fighting it all the time. Well, anytime people as soon as you see that air aura, it's like, oh god, you just dread because you know it's gonna happen, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. You're just down. But I uh it's nice that now I like I got I had it Thursday night when I was just about ready to go to bed. I was sitting there relaxing, watching uh a few things on my phone, and all of a sudden the aura happened, and I was and I knew you were waiting for me to go to bed. But if you go to bed when you're having that aura, you can't get sleep. Your eyes are just affected by it. So I went and took that medication and I sat up until it went away. And then I went to bed and got up the next morning, and it wasn't as bad as I expected, but I had to, you were out of medicine, so I had to go to the VA to get the medicine, and the whole day my eyes, I mean, just just being in the sun, my eyes ached and my head ached all day long. I was telling CeCe, you know, that my my head was just killing me. And you can't take additional medicine after you take this that medicine that I take. And you can only take two, and I was afraid if I took another one, if I if the migraine came back, I couldn't take another one if it got worse, so I didn't take anything. My head is still aching today because I didn't take that pill.

Diagnosis Red Flags And ER Stigma

palmi 14:54

In the next segment, we talk about diagnosis and medical evaluation. Now, okay, let's contrast this. Okay, this is the diagnostic process, which is probably up to date or and or what happens now versus how this would be handled in your head. Uh, for example, I think if myself or my sister or somebody were prone to migraines, it says, what neurologists look for? Well, I don't think we would have ever seen a neurologist. Perhaps a uh family doctor or something.

Kevin 15:48

Or ER, ER doctor, yeah. Yeah. So a neurologist is looking for red flags, meaning uh they're looking for someone to say that they have the um aura or this or they have past history, or their family has migraines, and then they're looking for images, uh, I um the um MRIs and um what are the the CAT scans and stuff like that.

palmi 16:18

Well, what exactly is displaying on an MRI for migraines?

Kevin 16:24

I have no idea. Uh I do know that the one few times I have been to the ER for migraine, they think you're drug seeking. And so they make you sit there a long time to figure out whether you're drug seeking or not. So, and because you're in a lot of pain.

Acute Relief And Preventive Meds

Kevin 16:40

So the acute treatment. Yeah. Acute treatments is the tri tritrans, which is what the medicine that I'm ta that I'm on now. The GAN PATS. I uh um anti-nausea medicine, it's usually what you get right away because you're usually sick to your stomach. Tylenol or um medicine like that. Ibuprofen. Yeah. Not ibuprofen, it's the Tylenol. Oh. Because it's not anti-inflammatory.

palmi 17:21

Okay, and the uh anti-nausea, I guess, would also be uh a key part of that.

Kevin 17:31

Yeah, because you feel nauseous, you're sick, you're sick to your stomach. Preventive mess um therapies are the CGRPs, uh, which I take, the beta blockers. My dad was on that. Uh, anti-convulsion medicine, uh Botox. I know that's a big one that was popular for a while, uh, where they'd inject Botox into your forehead, I think, to uh relieve the migraines. My sister actually did that. Tammy did that for a while. Did it work? For a while it did. And then there's the non-pharmaceutical approaches, which is the sleep, hygiene uh hygiene, hydration, magnesium, riboflavins, uh, mindfulness, and exercise, and build a personal treatment plan. So kind of like what I do do, I know what I'm if what to do when I get one.

palmi 18:30

Okay, how does exercise work with migraines?

Kevin 18:37

Well, if you're good in good physical health, um, it keeps your hormones regulated and stuff like that.

palmi 18:44

Uh so you want to do exercise when you're not having a migraine, it's more as preventative.

Kevin 18:56

Right, yeah. And it also reduces stress, which is main contributor to migraines.

palmi 19:04

Well, that kind of makes sense because uh yeah, from what you're describing, I can see exercising with a migraine.

Kevin 19:14

No, you can't you don't want to do anything to get your heart beat up because it makes it more painful.

Lifestyle Prevention And Tracking Triggers

Kevin 19:20

So lifestyle lifestyle and trigger management is to track it. Um, that's how you figure out what's your what's what is causing a lot of the the um migraines. Like I said, I I think it mine are caffeine and chocolate and processed foods. Nutrition considerations are caffeine, uh, alcohol, aged cheeses, and nitrates. There's been a connection to that, these are caught migraine triggers for a lot of the people a lot of people, stress management techniques and the role of constant routines, new therapy devices, uh such as the next gen CGRP drugs and genetic insights. The ever-evolving understanding of migraines is a whole brain disorder. And there's lots of stuff that sciences don't know, science scientists don't know about it yet. They're still learning. We were told that when you had your brain thing, that the brain is like the last thing to be explored.

palmi 20:31

It's a real mystery, as far as doctors go, and they're still exploring a lot of stuff about the brain. Right. That's why our people with the brain conditions or disorders or even diseases, all rooting, you know, it doesn't matter if they uh come up with some more knowledge about say ALS, it's gonna help people with Parkinson's, perhaps people with other diseases and conditions as well. Not necessarily in the way that you think of a cure.

Kevin 21:21

Just knowing the brain.

palmi 21:28

That they use for a list one of the side effects that it produces may help another condition. Right. So it's you know, it's like I know it sounds like uh trial and error, but hey, that's kind of what science is. Stumble upon something and then see if you can recreate it. That's what science is. What the scientific method is. Okay.

Migraine Reality Check And Closing Notes

palmi 22:10

Okay, I want you to pay attention to this. This is supposed to be our closing segment. I think it's very important to uh reiterate. Okay, most people have support groups, and there may not be a specific support group for migraines in your area. But you know, if we hadn't had this discussion today, I would have just continued thinking migraines are just another headache. And they're not, they're you know far worse than just your average headache, it sounds like. Yes. Well, only one short piece of housekeeping, and that relates to our Batman Wheelchair contest on the Facebook page. I realize it's early days. We set the end date for the contest to be end of July. So people have you know plenty of time, and we started talking about it well before we were even in July. So people would have plenty of time to work on it, and if they did run into problems getting it digitized, uh say something about that problem before it was late the day after some. So all I had to do is remind you that we're running. Yeah, as a matter of fact, I'm going to post that on Facebook today to remind everyone that we are running that contest. I did notify DC, who owns the uh trademark for Batman items, that we are not making any money off of that. And uh basically we're using it for our own entertainment purposes, and we're not gonna manufacture Batman themed wheelchairs. Perhaps somebody is gonna decorate their realtor with a Batman theme for Halloween or something like that, but as long as you're doing it for yourself, it's okay. Just don't make something like that and sell it to somebody else. Otherwise, you're making a liar out of me. Can you think of anything else needed saying, dear?

Kevin 26:08

Nope.

palmi 26:10

If we uh mentioned that we're moving on area, not yeah, I think we did last week. We just had words. Yeah, we don't have a date for that yet, but uh it won't disrupt the podcast at all. I don't think it's gonna disrupt the podcast. We'll just upload, we'll do more uploading of episodes earlier so we can take a few weeks off and get it done when the time is right. Not have to worry about podcasting or trying to move at the same time. But if you do post things or email us and it goes a few weeks before we spawn, that might be why you might have just emailed us in the middle of a move or something like that.