Flashing Lights In Grocery Stores

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I don't have epilepsy. I have a severely debilitating migraine problem. One of my triggers is flashing lights. All my local grocery stores have recently installed these little coupon dispensers with little red flashing lights on them. Something about the way the flashes are spaced so far apart or at random makes these things the worst migraine trigger I have ever encountered. I was wondering if any of you are having seizure trouble with these things as well, and have any ideas about what can be done about it. I have been complaining to all the local general managers and emailing some of the grocery store corporate offices about my problem, but so far nobody seems to care about one person who can no longer go into their grocery stores because of something so stupid and unneccesary as a coupon dispenser. Now my poor husband who is already too busy with work has to take over the grocery shopping.

Comments

Re: Re: Re: Re: Flashing Lights In Grocery Stores

Submitted by troublecat on Sat, 2007-03-10 - 18:25

Wow, the three of us have a lot of the same difficulities with flashy things. I can't go to movie theaters either. For various unrelated reasons, my husband and I don't watch regular television at all. We only watch movies or TV or HBO series that we rent or buy on DVD. My husband bypasses any initial commercials for me before I even walk in the room. These habits have really helped to keep commercials out of my life and have served my migraine sensitivity well. If I'm having a good day, we will watch some sci-fi or action adventure. If I'm already having headache problems, we will watch comdedy or drama. Sci-fi unfortunately is my favorite genre, and sometimes I worry I may have to give it up someday. I have had some migraine problems my whole life, just not as bad as the last 4 years. My triggers are bright lights, flashing lights, and motion, ie. driving or riding in a car (which interferes the most with my life). When I was little, I was constantly carsick and would get a migraine with it, I just didn't recognize it as such at the time, as it was such a vague, overall yucky feeling. When I turned 16 and started driving myself around, these problems went away. I would only have trouble when I rode as a passenger, on airplaine flights, and on long trips. Four years ago, I got a nasty migraine from an extremely turbulent airplaine flight and for a week after, whenever I got behind the wheel of a car, the migraine came back. Then I was ok for a couple of months, then it hit really hard, and I could not do any driving without getting a migraine. Migraines have been ruining my life ever since. I am 40 years old now. Doctors have told me that if you have migraine trouble in your youth, at some point in your adult life, they will get worse. Maybe the flight knocked something loose in my head! My doctor thinks that the hormone changes at my age could be the culprit. The doctors also say that menopause will be bad headache-wise, but they should get better after menopause. They all tell me that nobody realy knows the root 'cause' of migraines, why some people get them, however we can sometimes figure out our 'triggers.' For me, it doesn't matter what I eat, what the weather is, stress, lack of sleep, etc. As long as I stay home, keep the drapes closed, and am careful about what I watch on the TV screen, I simply do not get headaches. Problem is, I am unwilling to completely give up my life outside the house. I keep my driving to a minimum, but I do enough to give myself frequent headaches. I cannot use 'migraine' medications like you take. About 4 days a week, I expose myself to my trigger. So my headaches are an ongoing, sometimes daily thing. And they are not always separate incidents. I will often wake up with the leftovers of yesterday's headache, feel a lot better by noon, and then leave the house and bring the headache back or give myself another one, however you define it. It is not safe to take things like Maxalt, Immitrex, or Zomig every day. Also, with over the counter migraine medications, if you take them every day, eventually you will develop a tolerance, and they can also give you rebound headaches. I can only use preventative medication that you take every day. If I wasn't on one, I would not be able to leave the house at all. I would have a headache for 3 days just from driving accross town. The medications generally cut the severity by at least half. Any headaches I do get, I have to live with. Problem is, the type of medication that works for me, also wreaks havoc with my mood disorder (bi-polar). And they give me very severe dry mouth. So I cannot stand being on enough medication to completely fix the problem. After 4 years, we are still experimenting trying to find the right drug. I have also been getting Botox shots for the migraines over the last couple of months. It is a miracle cure for many people, but so far it hasn't done squat for me. But my forehead looks great! The goal is to just make me comfortable doing normal, daily driving. I am sad that I may never be able to travel again. I make myself miserable just doing local errands. There's no way I could handle any extended time of motion, be it by car, train, or plane. What I would give to trade with someone so I could have a severe migraine once a month or so, and be able to have a normal life the rest of my days! I lose so much would-be productive time to migraines, and have to severely limit my activities outside the house. I would sell my soul to have a migraine trigger I could easily avoid, like chocolate! I also get very frustrated that my problem is so bizarre and unlike most people's migraines, that people have a hard time understanding it and my limitations. I'm sure all of you get frustrated having an invisible disability. Sometimes I think I am going to punch the next person that says, "Why don't you just have someone else drive you?" People are so used to sick people who can be chauffered, their brain can't make the logical leap that the car still moves when you are a passenger and you feel it even worse! Long answer to short questions.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Flashing Lights In Grocery Stores

Submitted by kathyc on Sun, 2007-03-11 - 00:51

Here I am looking for answers for my husband's problems and I find more info about my migraines - what preventative meds are there? The doctor I have now is actually the 1st who has ever even thought to give me something. I can't ride in the back seat either. I also like sci-fi, I prefer it pretty much to anything else. But sometimes even it is too much as well.I'm starting to like BBC. They don't have as many flashy commercials and the shows aren't so special effect driven.My sense of humor leans that way too. The doc. said the same about the headaches getting worse w/menopause, only thing is I've been peri-menopausal for about 6 years now, I'd like to know when it actually reaches the pause part! I don't go out much either,also other unrelated issues. My son is affected by the lights in Walmart the most. Makes him physically sick.We had tests run, in case he was developing epilepsy, but nothing really found, so I'm afraid it's my footsteps he's following in and as awful as it sounds, we really would be happy if that's all it is, my husbands seizures are gran mals.Not something he wants to pass on. I know chocolate is supposed to be bad for migraine suffers but I absolutely refuse to accept it! Probably why I had that attack last week,now that I think about it. Crap. Maybe I could just have a little chocolate once in awhile. Like once a month or the rest of the family will suffer the wrath of my monthly insanity. Chocolate then becomes medicinal as far as any of us are concerned. My husband and son actually make sure there is some in the house, just in case. I admit the "anti-mom" is not the most pleasant of persons! And in that my poor daughter follows my footsteps too, to the horror and agony of my son & husband. I figure they must really love us tho, they endure us every month. Do you find the moom affects you? I know it does me, as well as my husband's epilepsy. He gets jerky, I get a migraine. We are a fine pair! Why is taking the Maxalt & others not good? I only use it if I have it,like I said it's too expensive to always have.But if I'm out driving and one hits, it's good to have. I just looked at the label, it is composed of aspartame. Doesn't that trigger migraines? I think that's why I stopped drinking diet soda.Hmm.Have to look that up. I'm glad that at least your forehead looks good tho!

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Flashing Lights In Grocery Stores

Submitted by troublecat on Sun, 2007-03-11 - 21:36

I am a manic-depressive so I get mood swings and sometimes they are severe. But oddly enough, they are in no way associated with my cycle. They are pretty random. You misunderstood me about the Maxalt and similar migraine meds. They are perfectly safe, good drugs for someone like you who only needs to take them a couple of times a month, or once a week or so. But they are not made to be taken daily, and are not safe for daily use. My headaches are so frequent, I would need to use the Maxalt nearly every day to control my migraines, which would be dangerous. I know a woman who gets migraines a couple of times a week and she overdosed on Immitrex and had to spend a week in the hospital to have her body de-toxed. Their portion of the bill that insurance didn't cover was 20 or 30 thousand dollars! All the anti-convulsant medications are used as preventative treatment for migraines including Neurontin, Tegratol, Depakote and Topomax. Topomax is the favorite, it works well for many people. Topomax has 2 notorious side-effects. It makes most people lose weight, and to use my doctor's technical term, it can make you 'stupid.' When I tried it, I had a very hard time formulating my words. I would go to say something and then my brain would blank out. I really had trouble thinking on that stuff. Depakote I think is an inherently evil drug. It makes most people gain weight because it changes the way your body metabolizes carbohydrates. The idiot male doctor I had 10 years ago when I tried it for my mood disorder, neglected to tell me that. I went from 103 lbs to 165 lbs in 9 months on that drug. None of the anti-convulsant medications that we have tried so far have worked for my migraines and most sedated me too much to be practical. But that doesn't happen to everyone. Keppra put me on the couch for 7 weeks. Tricyclic Anti-depressants are the class of drugs that work for my migraines. Problem is I don't always need to be on an anti-depressant. Because I have a mood disorder, these drugs can make me manic. I can get so manic from these drugs that it becomes just as debilitating as a migraine. These drugs also can give you really bad dry mouth. Examples of this class of drugs are Nortriptyline, Effexor, and Elavil. There are also some blood pressure medications that are used as preventative treatment for migraines. Inderol and I think Verapamil is also used for migraines. These kinds of drugs made me feel awful. I felt faint and weird and like I was going to have a heart attack! But again, that doesn't mean that will happen to you. I am extremely sensitive to medications and sometimes things happen to me on drugs that don't happen to anyone else. But Depakote will make you fat. That happens to just about everyone who takes it. There is a doctor in New Jersey that is doing nasal surgery to cure migraines. Apparently in some people, they can be caused by the nasal plates being too close together and touching, and the brain translates that into a migraine, or when the tissues swell from certain triggers, then if the plates are very close together they can touch and cause a migraine. It is still an experimental thing, but some people get a significant reduction in the frequency of their headaches. My ENT looked at my nasal Cat Scan and said that it doesn't look like that's my problem. This week I had a test done by a Cardiologist to see if I have a small hole in my heart called a PFO, which in some people may be responsible for migraines. It is still an annecdotal thing that they are still doing studies on. Apparently, when they fixed these things in some people, their migraines got better. My Psychiatrist has a patient who had a PFO that was responsible for her migraines. The cardiologist says about 30% of the population has these. Turns out I don't have one. I don't know if I was relieved or dissapointed. I would love to be able to fix this problem with some proceedure! Oh, my doctor also put me on magnesium to help my migraines. You would probably want to read up on it or talk to your doctor first to determine how much. I am taking 900 milligrams. Hasn't done anything that I can tell for my headaches, but is has helped my chronic constipation a little! I highly reccommend you consider trying Botox for your migraines. It works wonders for many people. But insurance doesn't usually cover it as it is still considered experimental. My neurologist charges $465 Cash up-front each time. It lasts 3-4 months. If you get it done every 4 months, that's $116 a month. If it worked for me, it would actually save me a heck of a lot of money on doctor visits as I see my doctor about once a week for my problem, as we are always experimenting and doing medication trials and she has to watch me so closely. I also tried accupuncture. Went to a headache specialist associated with a local university. I gave it 20 visits, as long as the doctor recommended. It helped a little bit at the time of treatment, but didn't affect the overall problem. It only helps about 50% of people. Hope this was helpful. Like I said, I have been going to doctors and throwing huge sums of money at this problem for 4 years, and have learned some things on the way. If you want more information on preventative drugs, there are a lot of migraine websites that will list them and provide information. I do not guarantee that I spelled them all correctly. I am very sorry to hear that your son is also suffering too from this. How you described it as making him 'physically sick' reminded me of what my migraines felt like when I was young.