Migraines

[I need to heal]

Day 3 now of waking with intense migraine, feeling of pain/pressure in right eye, blurred vision - no amount of nurofen helps - disturbed sleep, can't sleep - pain starts like a burning sensation at top back of head, it creeps along my neck & down the side - so tired I want to close my eyes but too much activity happens in the dark. Scattered lines orange & yellow flash like reruns - it makes me sick, a sense of vertigo. Go away - not today. Eye ache, it hurts to actually think - how is that possible.

 

[Teasel]

I feel for you! Struggled with migraines a lot myself - have you been getting them this bad a lot? Have you seen a specialist about them?

 

[Deleted member 541]

I've taken Fieoricet and Sumatriptan for yrs for migraines. They used to be horrible. I'd have maybe 10-12 a month. Puking, dark room, no noise, and LEAVE ME ALONE! Now I don't get them that often.. After having them for over 30 yrs, it's about time they just LEFT!!!!!

 

[FauxLiz]

@I need to heal I understand your pain. I get 20-25 migraine days a month with a pain level of 7-9 on a 10 point scale. Ibuprofen is rarely used for migraines. If you were to go to an emergency room they would give you fluids and benedryl antihistamine and if needed a nausea medicine. At home they will suggest magnesium, Vitamin B-2. I hope that you get some relief.

 

[I need to heal]

I hhave had a lot of trauma, most recently intense bullying in the workplace, cyberstalking & a car accident. When I moved away from D.v I would get tension type/stress headaches but panadol would get rid of them. These are full blow migraines for which panadol/nurofen does not ease & they wipe me out completely - lasting two to three days. It has affected my focus/concentration, among other things. I have assumed it is a symptom of my PTSD?

 

[I need to heal]

@I need to heal I understand your pain. I get 20-25 migraine days a month with a pa...

Thankyou. Magnesium sounds like the go. I will try a bath with magnesium salts.

 

[Kate Van Sant]

Depakote is sometimes used to keep down migraines. It's also used for mania and epilepsy. But it can make you fat if you're not careful.

 

[anthony]

These are full blow migraines for which panadol/nurofen does not ease & they wipe me out completely

I don't get migraines, but I do get some really nasty headaches at times that can last days. No, they're not migraines, as I get no other symptoms to constitute them being a migraine. Only ever had them since PTSD, so doctors have weighed in over the years basically with the outcome they're something like a migraine, not one, but related to my body handling stress or such.

Panadol, nurofen, forte, none of them work. Its actually the active ingredient that has no pain effect specific for brain type aches. A doctor got me to try Di-Gesic, which have an opium based, analgesic, primary ingredient. Super hard to get and they won't prescribe them if you pop them like candy. 2 of those, pain gone. If I don't, it can last a day to days.

Maybe something to try? One won't work for me, it has to be two. Trialled and error'd the shit out pills so I never need more than absolutely needed. Panadol will work on me to reduce a fever, nurofen will help with inflammatory issues, neither will do anything for pain though. My body apparently does not respond to paracetamol for pain.

 

[whiteraven]

I hhave had a lot of trauma, most recently intense bullying in the workplace, cyberstalking & a...

Have you been to a headache specialist? I have a couple of different types of headaches and 2 of them were diagnosed as migraines and that's how I've been treating them for a couple of years. In 2015, I had them for 10 straight weeks, every single day, without any let-up. I tried everything, and nothing worked. Started another run just a couple of weeks ago (I get them constantly, but this was a kind of headache that simply never stopped and there were a lot of other symptoms with it, like back in 2015), so I did some research, and then took what I found to my neuro. Turns out my migraines had been misdiagnosed. I actually have a neuralgia, which is treated differently. I also had a number of years ago explosive headaches (they came on quickly and lasted for about a second) that were caused by a congenital defect I didn't know I had.

All that is to say headaches can be tricky. Both the diagnosis and the treatment. And if you take the wrong med, you might not get the relief you need. I know how badly headaches can wipe you out and how much pain they can cause - I hope you find something to relieve yours!

My current headaches are exacerbated by stress and I use ice packs at night and at work, which really help me. Since my pain is nerve related, I take Neurontin, which is also an anti-convulsant, but used for pain as well, and alternate it with Aleve or Ibuprofen.

 

[Cabinfever]

Migraine pain is thinking pain. You can usually do nothing when you have a serious migraine. The more you try to push yourself, the worse it will become. Migraine is a neurological condition that is partly genetic, partly environmental. Attacks can be allergy or stress-induced, made more severe by head and neck injuries, bad posture, weather patterns, hormones, diet, medications etc... The list of things that can trigger a migraine is lengthy, and usually it is actually a combination of factors... or maybe no factor at all. Half the time it's a mystery! (Read that last sentence with sarcasm).

I have chronic migraine headaches (without aura) which I attribute in some part to trauma. For awhile I could not work, but now have found an employment situation where they allow me to be absent on a regular basis.
There is a lot of research on the link between autoimmune disease/disorders of inflammation and chronic stress (especially childhood SA). My migraines are all the time, but increase in frequency and duration during certain times of year (like October and April). Sometimes they are unpredictable while other times I can anticipate them. There are certain body postures (slouching forward and curling inward defensively) and unconscious behaviors (jaw clenching and teeth grinding) I have which likely contribute to the eventual development of a migraine. There are certain things I know about myself, for example: I know that I can't drink wine. Ever. I can't let myself get dehydrated or go without food for more than 12 hours. I have to maintain a very regular sleep-wake cycle. I should also always wear sunglasses on overcast days and attempt to minimize daily stresses.

So yeah, managing migraines is almost a job in of itself.

Firstly, I want to warn anyone who has regular migraines:
I developed a syndrome due to excedrinmigraine 'over-use,' which prevents me from being able to use any pain-relieving substance which contains acetaminophen, which basically eliminates everything over-the-counter in the USA. I was taking between 2-4 Excedrin tablets each week for migraines. According to my Neurologist that frequency is apparently enough to develop "Medication-induced Migraine." If I take pain medication now, it actually causes me to develop a migraine. If I could go back in time and change one thing, this would be it. Excedrin/Tylenol/Ibuprofen etc... are not as harmless as I thought they were. Read the warning on the bottle guys. The reason that the warnings about liver damage and internal bleeding get listed on the bottle is because that although rare, this condition will develop in some people with underlying genetic vulnerability. In my case (after a slew of genetic testing) it was discovered that I am unable to metabolize acetaminophen and codeine (this occurs in approx. 8% of Caucasians) due to lacking the P450 2D6 enzyme. This also effects my ability to take medications that are prescribed for depression, anxiety and as preventatives for Migraines like SSRIs, tricyclic anti-depressants. Also effected is the ability to use Imitrex and other Triptan medications.

I really wish someone would have told me this was a possibility before I took all those excedrin thinking that there wouldn't be huge health consequences.

That being said, as a person with chronic migraines who can't take any pain or prescription medication for them:

What Works For Me When the Pain Won't End:
Ice Packs. Must be the kind that are malleable but stay completely frozen for hours at a time. The cold slows the conductivity of the pain signals and drowns them out a little.

Magnesium. Vitamin B12. Folic Acid. Vitamin D3 (prenatal vitamins usually contain all of those)

Regular massage therapy with someone who specializes in more than "Spa massage". You will want a medical massage from a physical therapist or other massage expert.

Not taking hormones. (When I stopped taking BC I traded one set of problems for another, but the "extreme-ness" of the migraine pain and duration of the individual attacks dropped-off some)

There is something that my MD recommended that helps me tremendously with the pain, but I'm a little afraid to write it out because I think I'll get in trouble with forum staff... but I'm torn, because it really was one of the only things I that has ever helped drown the pain at all and I do want others no that there can be an end to the pain. I guess I will say this, in the USA this thing is available without a prescription in Alaska, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, Washington state and Washington DC. It is available with a prescription in most other US states.

I live in a state where this thing is legal. My neurologist recommended that I try this for pain. He did not need to give me a prescription because of the legality. When I first tried this for my migraines, I was a nervous because no one in the 12 years that I had had migraines had ever mentioned this thing being helpful before.
After I tried it, I realized that there had been a non-physically addictive substance much less 'hardcore' than the pain medications that I had been prescribed in the past, and which didn't eliminate the pain but greatly eased it, eliminated the nausea and allowed me to sleep. This is not for everyone and it is important to follow the laws where you live, and if legal, to make sure you know exactly what you're getting before trying it out.

I hope you feel better and that maybe one of my suggestions will lead to alleviation of your symptoms.

 

[FauxLiz]

@Cabinfever I applaud your detailed trip down migraine lane as it applies to you. What I have found which is why my previous post was so brief is that in my 30 plus years of suffering from migraines and attempting to find a cause and solution and having met hundreds of other patients that suffer from migraines similar to me and the bottom line was that no two of us out of all those patients I sat in waiting rooms, patient treatment rooms, hospital rooms and alternative/holistic medicine providers and stores none of us experienced our migraine symptoms the same. @Cabinfever you mention the incidence of medication overuse headache. This is not something that is limited to OTC pain relievers such as Tylenol and ibuprofen or naproxen any medication including migraine abortives in the triptan class can cause MOH. This is why doctors and insurance companies have monthly quantity limits. I have never found a sufferer that once the MOH had been resolved that they could not take OTC pain meds ever again with that being your case I am sorry you have that struggle.

As for all of the treatment options for you when things get really bad I agree with most of them. My daily med regime includes B-2 not B-12 (that is what was recommended by a headache specialist), magnesium, Vit D3, feverfew, and butterbur as well. I don't take hormones of any sort, I get regular deep tissue and lymphic (not sure that is the right word for it) but they idea is to get the lymph system to release their toxins.

I have also experienced several other treatments aimed at Migraine relief which includes trigger point injections in the scalp, botox injections in the scalp, shoulders, forehead and orbital sockets, I have had cervical facet joint injections, cervical nerve blocks, occipital nerve blocks, trochlear tendon injection above and along the eye orbit, spheno palatinate ganglia nerve block, and a posterior fossa cranial decompression surgery. I do have a legal medical marijuana certificate which would be great but I have tried upwards of 30 strains aimed at: PTSD, Anxiety, Insomnia and Migraines.

I don't want you to think I am attacking you, I am not I am thrilled that you have been able to find ways to fight back and beat down even if just temporarily migraines because that gives the rest of us hope for relief.

 

[anonymous]

I too suffer rom migraines. They seem to cluster. I will have them for months, and then be symptom free for a period of time before they rear their ugly head again. I have taken a lot of different medications for them.

1) My go-to drug is Fioricet. This one is my favorite, but is an abortive treatment. One must be careful relying too much on abortive treatments or you will end up with rebound headaches. If Fioricet works, great! If not, I move to Imitrex.

2) I have a love/hate relationship with Imitrex. It generally ( though not always) can control the migraine. Before the headache is controlled however, it makes me want to die. It causes a "triptan effect" which is quite marked with me. Basically, it feels like every muscle in my body tenses up, and I feel absolutely horrible for at least 30 minutes. Once this effect wears off, the headache usually subsides, and I am better. The trick with Imitrex is to catch the migraine early. If it progresses to far, nothing seems to be able to control it. I always play with fire by taking the Fioricet first ( less side effects), and many times I realize when it is too late that I made the wrong decision.

3) For the nausea, zofran is always my drug of choice because it works and is not sedating.

4) Vicodin ( hydrocodone) is usually my third line of defense to abort a headache. It works, but I guard those pills. They are hard to get a prescription for.

5). Generally, the doctors prefer that you take a preventative drug if your migraines are recurring. I think I have tried them all.

Verapamil worked pretty well, but I found my nightmares increased in intensity on it. It causes some digestive issues, mainly constipation, for some. I didn't have that problem, but quit because of the nightmares.

Topamax is used quite a bit too. I did not like this drug at all. I felt very stupid on it (in la la land). Topamax should be worked up to the therapeutic dose and a person should not start high. I made this mistake (or my prescribing doctor did). I saw glittery rain falling from the sky on a clear night. The pharmacist assured me it was too high of a dose of Topamax too fast. I quit and never saw glittery rain (or any other bizarre things) again. A lot of people like the drug because it causes weight loss.

Pamelor ( nortriptiline) worked well for headache control, and is also good for anxiety. Unfortunately, it was also very good at making me fall asleep at random times during the day. I was very apathetic on this drug (but without headaches or anxiety)

Treximet is kind of a mix of Imitrex and naproxen. I couldn't afford it when it was prescribed (at the time it was brand name only). My neurologist told me to crush an Imitrex and naproxen and take them together and it was about the same thing (and much cheaper)

Cymbalta actually worked well too, but also rendered me comatose.

I had Botox treatments. I think there are 27 injections around the head and in the neck. It is quite expensive, but it works for about three months. It hurts when they inject (think of alcohol being rubbed into a wound), but the best thing is that you don't deal with all of the unwanted side effects.

I was told that migraines like things steady. Too much sleep or too little can set them off. Too much stress or too little, etc. Living life on an even keel helps (which is easier said than done). You can also do an elimination diet. I was told that the vast majority of patients can control migraines with diet alone. A huge percentage can stop or greatly reduce them simply by eliminating caffiene.

Also, I don't know if you are female or not, but there can be a hormonal component to them. Birth control pills can make them much worse or much better (depending on the person). Many times, they disappear after menopause.

This may or may not help, but I have been fighting this battle for some time. I think reducing anxiety probably has a huge effect as well.