Update: success!! I went to the er and discussed treatment options with the triage doctor, bringing up some of the suggestions made in this thread. We decided on a multi-drug cocktail made up of benadryl, decadron, toradol and compazine. Within 10 minutes I was feeling relief. I’m so happy just from the absence of symptoms. Oh the things we take for granted. Anyway, a big thank you to those who contributed to this thread, with an extra big thank you to SunnyDaze.
Yay!
So happy for you!
(and I want pie too)
So do I! I finally have an appetite! 
I guess i will call myself lucky.
There is no pain for me.
The ball of nuclear light spiralling into the black hole effect makes seeing very annoying, but at least it does not hurt.
At least i am told it is a form of migraine
Aura-only migraines, yes. Those just sound cool to me! Haha, j/k
Aura-only migraines, yes. Those just sound cool to me! All of the fun and none of the hell. I am plagued by the polar opposite form of migraine, migraine without aura. None of the fun and all of the pain. 
You hit on a bunch of stuff I was going to mention. I know in other migraine threads we (Ambi I think as part of) have discussed Imitrex. For me it was a godsend. I’ve been taking it since it was $200+ a dose. Now that it’s just a few dollars I have a backstock of probably $50 doses. I refill it every.single.time. As much as I hate to have it all just sitting around here, I know that if I let it run down to a ‘reasonable’ amount, one bad bout of migraines that I can’t kick will wipe out my supply very quickly.
So, Imitrex. I also have Maxalt here. For me, Maxalt doesn’t work very well. Honestly, the reason I keep it around is because if a migraine wakes me up in the middle of the night I’ll convince myself I’ll be fine by morning if I can just fall back asleep, even though I know I’ll be worse. Reason being, I really don’t want to get up, turn on light fumble around with a foil package (and some brands require a scissors to open, who thought that was a good idea), get water etc etc etc. Maxalt dissolves in a matter of seconds, I can keep it next to my bed. Wake up, notice I have a headache, take one, go back to bed. Probably still have a headache in the morning, but at least I have something in me and I can take a Imitrex in then then.
Anyways, Jamie, in your shoes I would call my doc and request a round of prednisone or methylprednisone. They probably regularly use one or the other.
Also, my neuro (that I use for headaches), will bring people in if they can’t break a migraine and run an IV into them with Torodol and two other things that I don’t recall off the top of my head. But I know they’re nothing special. I see ‘migraine cocktail’ on the internet and they’re not that. I want to say it’s imitrex and steroids or something along those lines.
So, long story short, if you don’t want to take a trip to the ER, I’d see if your doc can can call in a script for steroids and if you don’t have any Imitrex (or whatever your triptan of choice is) some of that as well. Maybe a few different kinds.
Fioricet (in it’s various flavors, they may know it as “butal/APAP/caffeine”) may be another thing to try. It’s like Excederine with a barbiturate. The barbiturate can pull the tension out of your neck and help stop a headache.
Lastly, my GP, I’ve heard from others that have seen him for headaches that can’t break and I he’s done this for me for other pains that won’t go away, have used opiates. Granted, most actual headache docs won’t go near them for migraines because they tend to rebound, however, my GP, has done them just as an attempt to break they cycle, on the idea that if you can get out of pain for some length of time, it’s going to be better. Just like having pain somewhere in your body is difficult to get rid of if your all cramped up trying to protect it, which makes it hurt more…sometimes those really nasty headaches are difficult to break if you can’t move…sometimes just having it not be there, for any reason at all, and being able to get up and move around the house, watch TV, get some fresh air, may be what it takes to get out of the cycle. A cycle/bout is different that a regular migraine that just lasts a few hours.
I know, really long post (from a really long quote), but I’ve been getting these for 30 years.
Me too! I’ve had, literally, thousands of migraines (well over half of them debilitating, as in ‘leaving work guys, got about 10 minutes before I start puking and won’t be able to move’, get home, puke, feel like I’m gonna die, get kinda concerned I might not die, fall asleep, wake up 3 hours later, go back to work…debilitating).
Never had an aura.
I’d love to, then you can take the meds before the pain sets in. Sounds nice.
Well I addressed some of this stuff in earlier posts in the thread. I did already go to the ER and actually found relief in the drug cocktail they administered. It consisted of Toradol (NSAID), decadron (corticosteroid), benadryl (antihistamine) and compazine (anti-nausea). And I have had Fiorcet before too. They didn’t help much. And I don’t have a triptan that helps me (anymore). At one (very brief) point, injectable Imitrex was my godsend. But the effectiveness completely and utterly disappeared after the second time I used it. For the most part my prophylactic program has worked well to the point that I haven’t had to use the ER in many years. Because of this, I was unaware of some of the newer treatment options. I also think the fact that I had to remove topamax from my program about a year ago (due to kidney stone) is part of my recent trouble.
I include Reglan in most of my migraine cocktails, particularly when compazine was on backorder a few years ago.
I’m on Topamax as well. When I had a kidney stone (actually a few), my doc pulled my off of Topamax until he could get see the results of the kidney stone tests. Apparently, topamax creates one specific type of stone and it wasn’t the type(s) that I had, so I went back on it. My GP, OTOH, when he sees that I’m on topamax and have had stones, he bugs me to find another med. Even when I mention this to him he, probably rightfully, mentions that I’m clearly prone to stones, so why be on a med that’s going to make them more likely.
I think someone else mentioned it and it looks like you’re seeing it now, but, yeah, there’s quite a few different meds now. Imitrex has always worked well for me. Maxalt, not so much, but it did at one point. One of my sisters uses some of the other ones.
I don’t remember all the pricing, you could probably ask your doc for some samples or if price is a concern, check GoodRx . com, to get an idea for what they cost.
I know this doesn’t help the OP, but thought I’d post it for others:
A couple years back, following an operation, I had migraines with aura (+ pain) a couple of times a day for more than a week. I was really worried that the operation had given me a new, much more debilitating condition than the thing it had corrected.
I had tried a few drugs with zero effect, but within an hour of taking a tryptan (naratryptan) my migraines stopped, and I didn’t have another one until years later. Definitely try them if you haven’t already.
In the interest of not starting a whole new thread, can someone explain what the experience of a migraine is like? I’ve had regular type headaches from lack of caffeine or tense muscles in my neck and from TMJ. I know migraines are something on a whole other level and just wanted to hear some insight into what it’s like to have one.
It will differ a lot from person to person and type of migraine.
At the extreme end you have cluster headaches (which I believe are usually classed as a type of migraine); people who’ve suffered those say the pain is far more intense than breaking a limb or giving birth. It’s sometimes called the suicide headache and you can guess why.
My migraines are in a different world from that. They may have an aura first; this begins as a dot in my vision, not unlike the kind of after-image you might see in your vision after looking directly at the sun. Then over the course of about 30 minutes that dot grows to fill my view and looks a lot like this.
The aura part is not painful, though I may feel light headed.
The painful part manifests as a deep throbbing pain across all of my head, that becomes worse with noise or bright light. I can’t continue working or anything when it happens, but I don’t seem to suffer as bad as other people: it’s not Worst Pain Eva for me.
This all sounds like absolute hell. My aunt gets them; I thank my lucky stars that I do not.
What I do have is epilepsy. This might be Migraines 101 for you veterans, but I understand epilepsy works very similar to migraines in the sense that you have a ‘‘threshold’’ that is raised or lowered depending on any number of factors. For epilepsy it’s stuff like lack of sleep, poor nutrition, drinking alcohol, ingesting caffeine, not exercising, etc. Talking to my aunt it seems she has similar triggers to mine. Some people also get ‘‘auras’’ before a seizure; I have not been so lucky. I just drop unconscious with no warning and wake up wondering where the hell I am and who all the people around me are. (Fortunately, it doesn’t happen that often.) We have speculated that I was taking a medication (Wellbutrin) that seriously lowered my seizure threshold.
I wondered if ya’ll have identified factors that might lower your migraine threshold, and what you’ve identified those factors to be.
Oh absolutely. Triggers for my migraines include any form of relatively intense physical stress. Like being sick or a lack of sleep or the stress of intense dieting (it’s why I haven’t competed in bodybuilding for a few years now) or even a strong bout of crying. It’s hell, not only do I have to deal with the original stress but a fucking migraine on top of all of it.
I am currently using rizatriptan, 10mg, for treatment of migraine, and it works very well for me.
It does have some dosing restrictions, (no more than, 2 a day, 4 in a week, 10 in a month.) But I’ve never reached even 4 in a week. Not cheap, about $80 for 6 tablets. But for migraines lasting longer than 24hrs, it’s the bomb.
Hoping you find relief! Migraines are the worst!
Good Luck!
Don’t know where you are located Ambivilad.
My 87yo Mother used to get migraines. Now, when she feels one coming on, a couple of drops of marijuana tincture under her tongue stops it in it’s tracks.
Check GoodRx, I’m coming up with it being considerably cheaper than that (about $2.50 each) as long as you stay away from Walgreens. And I’m seeing that on the regular and the meltaways, as long as you go generic.
Turns out there are some very similar things going on in the brain with migraines and epilepsy. There’s a something called spreading cortical depression that happens in the brain with migraine. It’s a spreading depression (AKA decrease) of cortical function. Your brain stops functioning as well/rapidly on a cellular level. This leads to a whole range of symptoms: headache; visual disturbances; aphasia; light sensitivity; noise sensitivity; nausea/vomiting; tinnitus; numbness or tingling on face, head, limbs; dizziness; difficulty walking; frequency in urinating; irritability; memory issues. The list goes on. Not everyone has all of these symptoms. A person may have different symptoms depending on the intensity of the episode. The intensity of the symptoms will vary.
For example: I am an outlier, but I have some level of migraine every day. A good day is a mild headache, but I always am extremely light and noise sensitive, with bad tinnitus. A bad headache can last weeks. When it happens, I experience noise as pain (my noise sensitivity progresses). My headache becomes so bad that I begin to entertain ideas of opening a hole in my head to see if that would help. I lose the ability to find the words I want easily when talking. I could go on, but you get the idea.
A major takeaway here is that everyone’s migraines are different from each other AND can be different for that person day to day.
Auras are another area where you’ll find a lot of variance. People experience them very differently. Some people don’t have them. Some people have them, but never realize what they are. Many people have auras that are not visual. They can be sounds, or smells.
Auras occur during a prodome, or pre-migraine/watch out it’s coming period. There are usually other symptoms. People get really irritable, or they start peeing a lot more than normal, or their digestion gets screwy for no reason.
Migraines also come with a “fun” postdrome or “hangover” period. This happens after the headache. People feel tired, sore, cranky. Again, it varies. This can last hours to days.
Circling back to the similarity between what happens in the migraine brain and the epileptic brain, one type of medicine that often works as a preventative for migraines is anti-seizure medication. No one really knows why. From what I can tell, no one really knows why these medicines work to prevent seizures either.
Everyone has different triggers too. There are common classes of triggers (sleep schedule changes, for example) but there are no hard rules about something always being a trigger for every person. I’ll come back in a bit and discuss my triggers. Need to step away from the computer for a bit.