Fellow migraineurs, how do you cope when you know nothing will help?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am in the midst of a week-long migraine and I am in absolute hell. The only abortive that has worked at all for me (Excedrin), has become utterly useless. I’ve eaten enough Excedrin pills to wake the dead and they haven’t touched the migraine.

I can’t eat, I can’t move, I can’t sleep, I can’t function. What I’ve been reduced to the past few days is strapping an ice pack to my head and just huddling in bed, hoping that I feel even a little bit better. My hopes have been dashed. And that ushers in an admittedly irrational but none the less powerful fear that I’m never getting better. This is the migraine that never goes away.

This fear is almost the worst aspect of the intractable migraine. I say almost because nothing really approaches the physical symptoms of the worst migraines. The worst of which, IMO, is the insidious, nasty nausea that is a byproduct of the head pain. But it adds an element of fear and desperation to my perceptions of pain, which only exacerbates everything. How do others who deal with migraines cope with this and not succumb to these irrational fears? And what do you do when you know nothing is going to help?

2

Mine are controllable if I treat them right away. My wife will sometimes get week long migraines. Excedrin, caffeine, and rest. It’s too late to take anything now, but do you have any prescription meds to take at the first sign?

3

No, when I say excedrin is the only abortive that has ever helped, I mean of both OTC and prescription meds. The only success I’ve had with any prescription med is injectable Imitrex and that only helped me the first couple of times I used it. It has been completely ineffective since that time.

4

The neverending assault on my body just wears-me-down. I am close to saying “the hell with it” and going to the ER to get an Imitrex injection. Knowing that it probably will do nothing has become less and less of a influence on me. I am now being motivated by pure desperation.

5

I hear ya. Get to an ER with some of these handy suggestions (or if you’ve got some of this handy, try some at home).

Promethazine AKA phenergan for the nausea. My neurologist told me it acted on the nausea differently than other anti-nausea meds (and migraines cause nausea differently), so it’s what she recommended. It seems to work better. My other neurologist also use this as a preventative. He prescribes 25mg daily to help stave off severe migraines.

Maxalt or frova. Frova, if it works for you, is an awesome triptan. It lasts far longer than any others on the market. If you have not tried these, you should.

My combo pack, which I can only use on a limited number of days per month is: 50mg promethazine, 1 frova (now Maxalt - unfortunately I’ve had to rotate off of Frova), and 1mg Xanax.

Side note on the Xanax - I mentioned to a neurologist some time back that Xanax helped me manage the symptoms and was told that she didn’t want me to use it because it “masked the symptoms” of migraine. At the time, I went with it. I now have a different neurologist and still have daily migraines. When I have a “bear trap” headache, my inclination is to say fuck it and go for masking the fricking symptoms.

Another thing to try when you’ve had a run this long is steroids. Dexamethasone via IV at the hospital or you can get a taper schedule with pills. This can really help. I have asked if I can just be permanently on steroids. No. I don’t think anyone took me seriously, but I intend to ask again.

Oxygen and fluids at the ER/urgent care also really help.

Some people really swear by the phenergan/benadryl combination. You could try that.

Good luck. Let me know if you need more info on any this or need any other suggestions. I hope you feel better soon. Feel free to PM as well.

ETA: don’t bother with the Imitrex. There is really a whole lot of other options out there. When you’re feeling better we can talk about the issues with Imitrex.

6

Thank you! I will definitely print this out and bring it to the hospital with me. The only thing that you’ve mentioned that I have experience with is the maxalt. And it does nothing for me. But thank you so much, I didn’t know a lot of this.

7

It will go away. But I would go to the ER, like now. Imitrex works for me, if it doesn’t work for you maybe they’ll have a better option and at least get you checked and hydrated like Sunny Daze said.

8

One thing that has been mildly helpful in the past was fioricet. However, I don’t imagine I’d have much luck going to an er and requesting barbituates.

9

Yep, logging off now. I’ll report back later when I get home.

10

When you have had a migraine for this long, they get concerned about strokes. They will want to know what has worked in the past and it’s fair game to tell them. Plus, if I recall correctly, you get a rebound from stronger drugs and you’ll be able to tell them that. I don’t think you need to worry about coming across as drug-seeking.

It’s also fair to say that Imitrex has stopped working, and that you’re not sure what will work now. That you need help and you’re willing to try a number of things. They almost certainly will try the phenergan/benadryl. That seems to be first line at the ER these days. They will also likely give you toradol (super-strong NSAID - never does squat for me, but it works for some people- we are all individuals, etc). The good news for phenergan/benadryl if that does work for you is that it’s something that you can use at home.

Go, stay, make them help you.

11

Thanks, I just copied down your recommedations. I’m bringing them to the er. Oh, and toradol does squat for me too.

12

I type too slowly. Hope you’re feeling better.

13

Thanks. I just came back to ask if it would make any difference if I brought in my prescription bottles that show I’m currently being treated for migraines (preventative meds)?

14

I fucking hate migraines. I think this one is going away. I am not sure. Knock wood.

I take 100mg of Imitrex, sometimes works, sometimes not, Toradol and Maxeran. That has done nothing this time. T3s sometimes deaden the pain enough to sleep.

Sometimes not.

I get Botox, and take B2, Magnesium, Amitripryline and get ART on my neck sometimes. Nothing works 100% of the time. I avoid MSG, red food colouring (that one sucked, I loved Swedish Berries) and trying to cut dairy to see if that helps. I get them a little less when I eat “clean” and exercise regularly - guess what I DON’T do when I have a migraine?

Sinus can trigger one, so sometimes the Neti pot helps. I used to love Roller coasters and stuff like that. Now, I have to be careful. No skipping meals, oversleeping OR undersleeping.

Weather, hormones and allergies are triggers. I am better than the weatherman at predicting storms. I just had my three month Botox yesterday. It was almost three weeks later than usual - that and a few thunderstorms took me out.

15

Ah, oops. I misread the title. I thought this was going to be about pie. Meringue pie. Lemon meringue pie. Is that what lemon meringue pie enthusiasts call themselves? Meringuers?

Anyway. I’ve never had a migraine. Have you tried pie?

16

Silly. Those are Latin Americans dancers.

17

Great. Now I have post-migraine hangover AND I want pie.

18

I’ve had luck with Zomig. That and a nice neck massage at the base of my skull. Hope you’re feeling better soon.

19

When I was a kid, I got really sad and depressed and considered banging my head against the wall, because maybe it would feel better when I stopped. My mother gave me aspirin and basically told me to pull myself together. I had a headache. I didn’t know the word “migraine.”

Then I went to live with my aunt and uncle.

My aunt took my to the doctor.

I got a caffeine-ergot concoction that I was supposed to take during the “aura” phase, which rarely worked, and darvocet, which I was supposed to take during the “pain” phase, if it got to that. It didn’t knock out the headache, but it made me care less, and usually eventually put me to sleep (along with the nausea medicine, which IIRC, was compazine), and I’d wake up with the headache gone.

Also, my aunt would sit in the dark, cool, quiet room with me, and hold an ice pack on my head. Just the fact that someone cared, and understood, even if she had never had a migraine herself, was really, really important.

Then, someone invented something called Midrin. It’s no longer available. It would knock out a headache. The drawback was that it also knocked out me. But so did darvocet, and Midrin didn’t leave me with a hangover. It also worked a lot faster.

It got taken off the market sometime in the early 2000s, but that wasn’t so bad, because by then Imitrex had been invented. Imitrex works for me, and it works every time. It works in like 20 minutes, and only puts me out of commission for about a 1/2 an hour.

I have tried Maxalt, Fiorinal and few other things, and nothing works like Imitrex. I can take the pill form too. I don’t need the injection. I have even tried powerful sedatives that put me out for hours, and gotten bounceback headaches.

Narcotics like Vicodin are the WORST. They make headaches even worse than they started out.

So, I don’t know nothing will help.

I have had an occasional headache that kept returning, and so I went to the doctor. She gave me steroids and tramadol. It worked. After a course of steroids and tramadol I didn’t get any kind of headache for months. I needed Ambien to sleep the first couple of days on steroids, but so what?

Back when I was a kid and there weren’t good medications? My aunt held ice on my head, and believed that I was really suffering-- even to the point that she would call me in sick for half a day the next day at school, because I hadn’t been able to do any of my homework the night before. That went a long way. Some people who have never had a migraine are skeptical about the amount of suffering you are experiencing, including some health professionals. Just being believed goes a long way.

So I hope this thread helps.

20

One thing that has helped me occasionally when I have had a multi-day migraine is the muscle relaxant Flexeril. The longer the migraine drags on, the more I tense up my muscles, which magnifies the pain. Relieving the tension sometimes helps ease the migraine.

Sadly, as others have said, nothing works every time. Imitrex 100 mg works more often than not, for which I am grateful. There used to an OTC product called Percogesic that gave me some relief prior to Imitrex being released.

My triggers, when combined, are insufficient sleep, rapid movements in barometric pressure, and too much caffeine. Anything lIke Excedrin, that contains caffeine, just sends me up a wall.

To the OP, I hope your doctor was able to get you some relief.