Migraines and mortality

I realize that I think about death a lot. I am only 48 but I don’t think I will live to be a ripe old age because of these migraines. Stroke comes to mind. Some bad days, I hope that I won’t. I catch myself thinking about death a few times a day, whether it be in the form of someone else’s passing, or making sure everyone is okay in my own.

This last year in particular I keep thinking of, and seeing my friend who took her own life 12 years ago. I really don’t know what that means. No, I’m not suicidal. (I have been before in my life and I know the symptoms – I am okay). Other times I think of my brother who passed 20 years ago and I cry. I am a new grandmother and I know I have so much to live for, but these darn migraines bring me down hard some days.

I beleive my excalating thoughts of death have to do with my increasing of migraines and deteriorating of heath. I take more and more drugs with no cure or medical intervention in site, plus I’m experiencing other symptoms like a numb left arm whereby the doctor says it is just nerves. I still have a year before I can get an appointment with a Neurologist.

It is a constant reminder that I am growing older with an illness that can’t be cured. What are the statistics for migrainers in their senior years?

This is really out of character for me and has been going on for a couple of years in relation to increased migraines. Has anyone else experienced this, or has gone through this and it has passed?

Hi Angela,
I am always quite skeptical about statistics because one day they state something and the next day they declare exactly the contrary.

My grandma was a serious migraine sufferer and her sister was a bad sufferer, too.

My grandma died at 87 from a liver cancer. Never had strokes or similar problems coming from the brain. She did not even suffer from dementia.

My grand aunt died at 79 because of a stroke, after she had spent an entire year in a hospital taking care of her beloved dying husband. So, we have supposed that her stroke was mainly due to the grief for the loss, the stress of spending days and night on a chair to assist a suffering person and the lack of rest rather than to her migraines.

What scares me is that when I have a bad migraine I feel SICK. I mean, really exposed to death. Fortunately, I tend to forget about the scary symptoms when the attack has gone, but every time that I reach the bottom with throbbing pain, vomit, dizziness, aches all over my body, I feel that I'm close to death....

Topix wrote:Hi Angela,
.

What scares me is that when I have a bad migraine I feel SICK. I mean, really exposed to death. Fortunately, I tend to forget about the scary symptoms when the attack has gone, but every time that I reach the bottom with throbbing pain, vomit, dizziness, aches all over my body, I feel that I'm close to death....

You hit the nail on the head. That is what I feel like. That vulnerable feeling