I envy all of you. You guys only get them a few times a year, I am getting them everyday. Well I’m off to the doctors, I just wanted to see what you guys said. Toodles. 
Considering the sheer hell of a bad migraine, those who get them more often have my sympathy and whatever drugs you want.
I should probably get some Imitrex, but I’m uninsured, and that stuff is expensive!
Exedrin migraine is just regular Exedrin. Read the back of the box (still a good product to use). The caffeine will affect a migraine because of the nature of the headache.
I use to get a lot of migraines until I started to recognize the onset of one. That is the key to getting rid of them. I have 15 minutes to do something. If I miss this window I am screwed. Every minute that I don’t do something adds hours to the event.
I discovered that my migraines were the 3rd of 3 headaches. It usually starts with either a sinus headache or general sinus problems which are often allergy problems (including food). This would immediately trigger a back tension headache (the base of the skull). I think there is a relationship between the nerves at the base at the skull and the sinus cavities that are back there. From here I will get a queer headache that feels like it is in the back center of my head. It is not a painful headache but it is distinct. THIS is the early warning that cannot be ignored. It wouldn’t surprise me if people with similar symptoms miss this. It is not enough pain that you would give it a second thought. I have regular headaches all the time and they don’t stop me from normal activity and are easily stopped with regular painkillers. A full-blown migraine will ultimately give me an equally bad tension headache that is even harder to get rid of than the migraine.
The cure. For me, it involves pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (Sudafed), ibuprofen (and caffeine if necessary). Sudafed is a drug with paradoxal side effects. It acts like speed in that it will make hyperactive people calmer and non-hyperactive people jittery. For this reason it may have the opposite effect on migraines for some people since I believe migraines are a function of blood vessel dilation.
I use caffeine in emergencies to speed up the process. The first cup of coffee (or tea) will often make it worse but the next 2 or 3 will kick butt. I’m not an advocate of using caffeine (or any of the above for that matter) because it is addictive and adds to the headache scenario.
Something else to consider if you find the above information useful. Different Sudafed products use different amounts of the main ingredient in them (pseudoephedrine hydrochloride). I tell you this because it gives you an idea of the safe dosage to take. Read the backs of them and you will understand what I mean. The same goes for ibuprofen. They use to have a commercial that said their product was half the prescription strength (what does that tell you?). Drugs like Tylenol are highly toxic if you take too much of it. You can DIE from a small overdose of it so I implore you to read and follow the instructions that come with any medicine.
If your migraines progress like mine then you have to watch what you eat. Allergies will trigger a migraine and many foods will add to the problem. I’ve found that certain treatments can sometimes stop the progression in its tracks. I have a steam vaporizer that I use to sooth my sinuses. I throw a towel over my head and breathe in the steam. I also use ice cubes if it is full blown. I will take a cube and cover every inch of my face, neck and the base of my skull. This will affect the muscle tension side of the headache which, for me, spreads from muscle to muscle.
To summarize, migraine cures require 2 things: the ability to identify the onset, and a medical regime that works. For this reason, I recommend you stay close to the medicine that works for you. I keep stuff at home, in my car, and at work. If I’m going to an event that separates me from my car then I keep a pill container with me with everything I need.
I would add that if you think it is triggered by sinus problems then I would add nose spray to the mix. You have to stop the triggering mechanism as well as deal with the vascular nature of the headache.
I have to add my applause to the effectiveness of the Imitrex injection- it burns like FIRE but works super quick. I am another one who vomits when I have a migraine so the injections are great (but I also work in a doctors’ office and can get them for free). I was caught last Sunday without any shots, and the only thing that worked was taking 6 Motrins all at once and fighting off the nausea for an hour. It was like a miracle- all at once the pain was gone and I got up and did laundry!
Well I just got back. He did a complete exam…and said I just have migraines, nothing else bad. Which is very good. I now have a sample Imitrex, for bad ones, and I am going to take another one before I go to sleep, to try to ward them off. I forget the name, and I can’t read the doctors handwriting, so all I know is that it is also an anti-depressent. Anyway, I am going to fill this perscription soon, so I can start being migraine free.
Anti-depressants? For migraines?
I could see where if you have a lot of them it’d be very depressing, but once you get the migraines under control, what’s there to be depressed about?
Does anybody else find that as odd as I do, or do some of them help with migraines as well as other things?
Apparently, it can treat both. A low dose of it helps migraines, the high dose helps depression.
If you don’t mind answering some questions whiterabbit you can get a coupon from GlaxoSmithKline good for one free prescription (it doesn’t say how many pills anymore, but when I got mine about a month ago, it was 9).
I also ask for samples any time I go to the doctor. Those pills cost a freakin’ fortune!
Not too surprising…
One neurologist had me taking a beta blocker normally used for blood pressure. Since I didn’t have high blood pressure to begin with, I felt pretty darned sleepy at times.
I went to give blood one day and the nurse who took my blood pressure looked at me and said “You’re dead!”
I took Atenolol and Verapamil at one time to try and prevent my migraines (both beta blockers used for high blood pressure), and the doctor (my GP) just kept upping the dose, since it wasn’t working for my migraines. My BP is normally on the low side, and I was so damn lethargic on them. When I started seeing a neurologist, the first thing he did was tell me to quit taking them.
I was also on a beta blocker. . .I slept 16 hours a day. I was on epilepsy drugs, which caused me to fall asleep randomly (like at my desk). Anti-depresants caused me to be in slow-moving fog 24 hours a day.
Someone asked how people with migraines deal with the constant pain. Most people, you just learn. For other people it’s not so easy. Sometimes, in the depth of one, I contemplated suicide. Not out of depression, but because I didn’t think I could take anymore pain. I told my neurologist once that she saved my life, literally.
I am actually really bothered by the recent trend of over the counter ‘migraine’ drugs. (Excedrin migraine, Advil migraine), which has caused a lot of people to call any bad headache a migraine, and/or tell me to take some of said OTC meds for it. This also causes the same people to think that their ‘migraine’ is what I’m feeling when I call out sick/cancel plans, etc. Therefore, I am being a baby, because they work through their ‘migraine’. It’s impossible to get them to understand that I can’t get out of bed. I could try, but I’d just fall down and vomit for a while, then pray my roommate came by to help me back into bed. If not, well, then I’d be on the floor for while. (This has happened. Once in a public bathroom. No one who’s laying on the floor by the toilet in a public bathroom is malingering, I swear to you.)
I’ll have to look into that before I get another migraine. Thanks! As for samples, yeah, samples are great. That doesn’t help if you don’t have a doctor, though.
I know exactly what you are talking about. There were times when I had an minor headache, regular aspirin or Advil wouldn’t do anyhitng for it, and it would just nag at me, sometimes for days on end. Maybe a “2” on a scale of 1-10. Not really “bad,” pain-wise, but hurting just enough so you know it’s there - just constant nagging pain. You just learn to deal with it.
And, yes, “migraine” has become a catch-all for “headache.” I once worked with a woman who always claimed to be getting migraines. She’d lean back in her chair, shake her head back and forth and say, “Ooooh, I have such I migraine! I need an aspirin!” And she’d take ONE aspirin and be “all better!” in 10 minutes.
So, of course, when I called in sick with a true migraine (after I’d peeled myself off the bathroom floor after vomiting, and stumble, blind in one eye, sweating and shaking, to the phone), I was viewed with suspicion.
“You say you have a migraine? Why can’t you just pop a couple of aspirins?” :rolleyes:
Verapamil is a calcium channel blocker.
Some anti-depressants are effective in preventing migraines (Elavil or Zoloft), as are some anti-seizure meds (the previously mentioned Topamax, or Depakote). It doesn’t really have anything to do with being depressed about having headaches.
And this is why I asked. Thank you all. A little bit of ignorance on my part has been eradicated.
I am taking Amitriptyline HCL. I just took my first dose last night, and so far no side effects.* knock on wood*
Argh. Looking back, my response seems a bit spikey. Sorry about that.
No problem.
Ug. I just got over the worst migraine I have ever had. I was so dizzy I was about to hurl. The glare of moonlight on my mirror was way too bright, and normal talking brought me to tears it hurt so much. I took a Motrin and went to sleep this afternoon when I got it, but when I woke up it was just worse, so I took Imitrex, which didn’t help what so ever. So I laid on my bed for about 5 hours. When my mom got home she came to check on me and turned on the light and I thought I would die. Oy vay. I hate migraines in every way. I think it is coming back. DAMN YOU BRAIN! screams