Migraines - Who gets 'em and what do you take for 'em?

In My Humble Opinion
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You all do know that the “migraine” formulas of these OTC brands are just exactly the same as the regular formulas, but in the fancy migraine package, and just costs more? Compare the labels.
Back to the OP. I take Topomax, 200 mgs. daily for prevention of migraines. It’s an epilepsy drug and works on the electrical impulses of the brain to stop the migraines from happening. My neurologist started me on it about a year ago. Its use for preventing migraines is fairly new, and it works wonders.

I was having about 5-6 a month. The full-blown killer migraines, lasting 24-48 hours, where I would have to lie down in a dark room, light sensitivity, vomiting, pounding head, shaking, sweating, hoping to die…you all know what I’m talking about. Now I have about 1 every 6-8 weeks.

I also use the injectible form of Imitrex for when one breaks through. I can’t take the pills, since I have severe vomiting with my migraines. I just barf 'em back up.

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Thanks for reminding me. Topomax is what Mrs. Moto is on right now.

When I get vomiting (rarely), I use the nasal spray version of Imitrex. Otherwise it’s pills.

I also started getting them around age four. It’s amazing to me how many medicines work effectively now with migraines. When I was a kid, there were only a few, and none did a damn thing for me.

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Thanks for all the responses. I may ask my neuro about trying Topomax - the anti-seizure drugs have generally worked for me in the past, but the ones I’ve been on so far (Depakote, Neurontin) work for a while and either stop working or start causing unacceptable side effects.

NinetyWt, definitely tell your SO to see another doctor.

Kinsey, I remember talking to my neuro right when they started marketing “Excedrin Migraine” and he told me exactly the same thing. It’s a scam.

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Regular Advil works for me. I get sound and light sensitive, and had aura once. I don’t have migraine that frequently, though, and I can usually just sleep it off.

My mother, on the other hand, is a whole other story! She has gone through almost every available drug out there, and now uses the Imitrex injection - the last couple of migraines she had, she had to take 2 injections in about 36 hours (if it wasn’t better after that, for sure she would have been hosiptalised). She gets nausea and cannot keep ANYTHING down, not even water, and needs to take Gravol by suppository to try to stop vomiting. She has been hospitalised in the past because of her migraine…if they last more than about a day and a half to two days, she gets incredibly dehydrated and has to receive meds by IV, along with food and fluids. She knows her triggers, for the most part, but some seem to be unavoidable. One that she has noticed is the END of a stressful period, such as end of the school year. She’s a grade teo teacher, so its very much GO-GO-GO! all the time, and so when things stop, her body just crashes into a migraine. She ahs received the cortisone injections this past year, which has relieved a lot of stiffness and chronic pain, but I don’t know if it has really affected her migraines as such.

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I have tried almost everything that was mentioned in this thread, and nothing worked. The only thing that got rid of them (I’ve had them since first grade, daily headaches, with frequent full out migraines) was when they gave me Botox injections in my forehead.
At the time that they did that, it wasn’t really widely known and mocked as a “Get Young Quick” fix, I didn’t really know what it was, but it left me headache free for a little over a year. I couldn’t find a doctor in the new town that I moved to that would do the injections, and then I got pregnant and haven’t been taking any drugs at all.

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My wife takes a drug called Amerge. It’s an abortive type med. She takes mussel relaxers at night to try and keep her from clenching her jaw all night and wears a mouth guard.

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Nothing. I just roll on the floor until it passes.

Actually, I don’t roll the floor, but I still take nothing for it.

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I get headaches every day. migraines monthly.

i take AC&C which is basically 222s. 8mg of codiene. I have since become grotesquely hooked on them and this only adds to my misery. but hey, such is life.

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My 'granes have diminished a little over the years, but I still will get at least one a month. I have a little warning, sometimes almost a physical ‘snap’ inside my head, other times the blurred vision or auras.

I need a dark room, quiet environment and some Tylenol #3’s. Usually it will climax with me hurling, and then I start to get better. It’s interesting to see the meds some of you are using, I have never even heard of some of it albeit in Canada they don’t have some of those available.

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Maxalt. 10mg of orally disintegrating tablets that taste minty! They wipe out migraines after about an hour. It dissolves them, not just pain relief. I believe it is a derivative of Imitrex…

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Another vote for ibuprofen (Advil). I take 4 or 5 when visual symptoms hit and sometimes a booster of 2 if it’s not working.

I got one once just as I was going in to teach a class (before I knew a treatment that would work for me). That was truly hellish.

FTR, excedrin migraine contains aspirin and caffeine, which helps some people (Drink it ASAP after you get symptoms.)

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I take Elavil (sp?), which is an anti-depressant but also helps to prevent migraines. (It’s not so great for me in the anti-depressant category, though.) Anyway, I still get bad headaches, the kind that feel like they are going to turn into a migraine, only the never actually reach the migraine stage. That’s something, I suppose.

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A suggestion to all you sufferers. Try taking a magnesium supplement- daily.

Althlo there is no evidence it does anything to stop a migraine- there seems to be a correlation between a magnesium deficiency and having migraines.

It also may help those who have problems sleeping.

Try it.

Kinsey is right. “Excedrin migraine”, altho it certainly seems to be a help for many, is just Exedrin in a different bottle. And, you can get a store brand of the same formulae for even cheaper. It’s aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol) and caffiene.

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I’ve had migraines since I was a child. The biggest step for me in controlling them was realizing I was highly sensitive to caffeine. And I do mean highly sensitive–I once blacked out when given “regular” coffee instead of decaf.

I went through intense withdrawal symptoms as I eliminated it from my diet. For me it is a powerful, addictive drug. I avoid it as I would poison, even chocolate. :frowning: When I get the first inkling of a migraine (tingling fingers, visual blurring), I indulge in one of life’s great pleasures–A cup of strong, hot, sweet coffee and some Godiva chocolate. Followed by a painkiller (tylenol, ibprofin, aspirin–doesn’t seem to matter). This usually does the trick.

If that doesn’t work, 8-12 hours of quiet and sleep is in order.

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And you should always get enough sleep, and stay hydrated.
Once I started going to bed about an hour earlier and drinking more water, the migraines lessened.

I also quit drinking soda. Refined sugar is a trigger for me, and I gave up soda about a year and a half ago. I started drinking water instead. I always keep a full water bottle with me. It’s really helped.

When Vanilla Coke came out, I wanted to taste it just out of curiosity, and I was shocked at how disgustingly sweet it was. I could barely choke down the mouthful I had.

Water actually tastes good and soda tastes sickeningly sweet now.

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As a life-time sufferer, I’ve tried most of the things mentioned above (except Botox). I’ve also tried self-hypnotism, biofeedback (twice), beta blockers, anti-depressants, pain killers, muscle relaxers, anti-seizure meds, ice-packs and a cassette tape with some guy assuring me that I was a child of the universe (yeah? maybe you are pal, could you get to the part where the pain goes away?).

I’m trying Topamax now, with triptans (Zomig, mostly) for breakthrough headaches. The problem is that each med is so expense that I may well have to chose between them. My sympathies to each and every one of you guys above. Wish they’d come up with something safe, effective and cheap.

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Excedrin Migraine is aspirin and caffeine. I beleive, if I were not so lazy to trot down stairs to check, it contains enough caffeine to equal one cup of coffee.

Hell, who needs coffee anymore? Just take one of these in the morning and then you get your daily aspirin as a blood thinner to start your day.
Anywhooo,

Prior to kids, my migraines were triggered by food and drink. ( chocolate or popcorn on an empty stomach and red wine of any kind are my two big no no’s.) Stress of social situations would do it too, though, as I’ve grown more into myself, this doesn’t happen any more.

But the biggest problem was menstrual migraines. Every month for a day, I suffered immensely. And, with the way I was raised, beleived that *nothing could be done to alleviate the pain because it is something that woman must suffer through *.

Until, I had a Detroit-Frankfurt flight that was scheduled on the day my period started. The minute I found out the date, I groaned. ( My periods, before kids, arrived like clockwork, down to the minute I would say they would arrive. What? everyone else isn’t like this? ) By the time the flight took off, my head was aching. I was practically freebasing tylenol to help …by the time we were over Canada, I hurt so bad that I decided to go in the bathroom and throw up to see if that would help. I spent the rest of the flight either on my knees hurling or laying curled up outside the lavatory in a fetal position, wishing for death. ( The altitude really effected my head.) When we landed, it wasn’t as bad, I crawled off , (Passport Control guy said I looked worse than my passport!) went to the hotel and slept for hours with the firm promise to go to the Doctor to get help.

I was given *Naproxen * which was perfect for quite some time

Then I had kids. Migraines went away until after #2 was born.

Came back with a vengence that coincided with two things: me taking birth control pills and funky barometric pressure front moving in. I spent two weeks in bed unable to move more than to the bathroom. Eating was impossible. So was sleep. I finally realized I was having a reaction to the b.c. pills, so I went off them and now, the only migraines I get are no longer menstrual they are purely from barometric pressure changes. I’d rather deal with menstrual migraines any day of the week.

**Imitrex * is my best friend on those days. The spray, the pill isn’t effective at all on me.

And no amount of reasonable, educated, scientific thinking can convince me that the birth control pills didn’t start this whole sinus problem. ( I haven’t taken them since.) I blame them, because I need a scapegoat.

But, on lesser migraine moments, I will take a scalding hot bath (to open up blood vessels), drink plenty of fluids, practice deep breathing exercises (which help get much needed oxygen to the brain.) and lay in bed with a heavy pillow on my head in a darkened room.

**TMI ALERT ** Compulsory Reading For Dopers with Poop Fetish

I don’t know if anyone else has this strange phenom, but after a migraine, *every time * I have a bowel movement that is almost like I’ve been stopped up for a couple of days (but haven’t), like I’m constipated, only with out the effort to …uh…get it out. It’s like Spring Cleaning down there, more comes out that usual. I *always * feel like I’ve just gotten up from a spectacular nap after one of those poops.

I’ve often thought, after 15 years of this phenom at least, that maybe when the brain and the colon are connected in if: I’m constipated YOU get to have a migraine. Like a traffic jam of sorts in the body, the system shuts down.

**Kinsey ** if you think Vanilla Coke is sickeningly sweet, try **Pepsi Blue ** it is possibly the most vile creation bottled on the planet.

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Crap. Sorry about the coding. I blame the birth control pills.

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Oh, yeah, I’ve had it. My kids love it. They just insisted that I had to taste it once. I had barely a sip. :eek: Where’s that barfing smilie? That stuff is hideous.

And I know what you mean about the Poop. Odd, isn’t it? :wink:

And yes, koeeoaddi the drugs are terribly expensive. Mine are covered by my Rx plan, but still. That stuff adds up. My insurance company only allows me 1 refill of Imitrex a month.
The Topamax is covered as an “out-of-network” drug, since it’s an epilepsy drug, and I’m not using it for epilepsy. What kind of screwed-up logic is that?