you know that was the first must have toy I ever wanted as a kid …but that’s the reissue I had the early 80s version in which you made a Kool-Aid(a Kool-Aid 3 pack actually came with it) syrup and poured it over crushed ice and the ice crusher was all metal and sharp My mom figured out how to cheat tho … she made kool aid ice cubes and just crushed those
but my aunt who gets migraines for days to weeks on end said shell try that next time as she likes icees and Slurpee’s and such
Cold helps a lot of people – sounds like the cold from the slushie brain freeze hit just the right nerves.
Me, if my migraine is bad enough, I want heat, not cold. Cold hurts.
BTW, don’t give up on the triptans, Ambivalid. One kind might do nothing for you and others might work ok. (Ignore this if you’ve tried them all…). Another option could be DHE-45, which is an older migraine medication that has to be injected.
Good luck. I had uncontrolled migraines for several years. It blows.
I’ve noticed this before on another type of headache. But it didn’t last long.
I am a little concerned that, if you do it too often, you’ll get a rebound effect, like happens with triptans.
I do wonder if your migraines aren’t the traditional kind, and if we dont give the same name to conditions that are actually different. Maybe yours is all blood vessel related.
How did beta blockers treat you?
Mrs. Bitchin’ gets bad migraines, I’ll have her try this on the next round and report back, if I remember. :rolleyes:
Thank for the tip Ambivalid
As another data point, this works for me to. Not 100% of the time, but enough that I noticed it and I do use. I’ll take Tylenol, I’ll take Imitrex, I’ll try ice cream if nothing else is working. I mean, I’ll eat ice cream anyways, but sometimes it really does help kill a headache. It also sometimes helps kill heartburn for me too.
PS, I also I’ve also mentioned this here, a few years ago. In fact, I was kinda hoping that’s what the link in the second post was going to be.
As far as the lidocaine treatment, that seems to be a very small study right now. You may want to read up on botox. From what I’ve heard it’s the results are kinda hit or miss, so you should read the stats and talk to your neuro. Also, last I checked, it was very expensive and required 2 (3?) sessions. The person I talked to suggested that if I wanted to do it, waiting until some year when I hit my deductible and still have enough time in the year to get all the office visits in.
There’s also a new TENS unit called Cefaly, but other than the name, I don’t know anything about it. A nurse that I know at my neuro’s office mentioned grabbing one for me to play with, but I didn’t know if it was a non-working sample or a real one and never took her up on the offer.
Taco Bell. Apply Directly to Forehead.
Seriously, though, I spent a couple months on Topamax a few years ago, the second time I had a case of a month-long headache, I pretty much told the doc that we needed to try something else, because the icepick to the back of the skull feeling I had was better than I felt on Topamax.
I’m not crazy. The OP brought up a vague memory of hearing this on Dr. Edell’s radio show roughly twenty(or more) years ago but I wasn’t sure.
I’ve got Cefaly unit that I am not using. If anyone is interested in it, please PM me.
The list of home remedies for migraines seems to be as long and idiosyncratic as the list of migraine triggers.
One website’s 'top 21" remedies includes both hot showers and cold packs. :dubious:
Ambivalid I’m so sorry that you’re still having issues. I’m about to hit 5 years of daily migraines, which means I sympathize.
By now, I think I’ve tried almost everything except brain surgery. Obviously, there’s quite a lot of things that don’t work for me, but I am in a tiny minority of people for whom this is true. If you are interested, I’d be glad to give you the name of a good reference book so you can get more informed on the disease itself. I’ve also recently found a really good group that holds an annual scientific conference that covers the latest updates and research. I can share the information so you can subscribe to their list and keep abreast on developments. They also have recently published the transcripts from their recent world conference, which you might find interesting.
Regarding the intranasal spray, if it works for you it’s something that needs to be repeated frequently. My memory is that it’s something like every 9-15 days. There are also options, once they’ve identified the nerve clusters involved, that last longer term. I recently tried cryo-ablation. The procedure itself was unpleasant. Extremely unpleasant. The result, in the end, was worth it. There are also surgical procedures. I can share details on those if you are interested. Some of them are literally brain surgery.
tl;dr I think there’s a lot left to talk to your dr.s about. I’d be happy to give you some more suggestions. In the last thread I focused on ER treatments, but you clearly need an updated treatment plan. I am not an neurologist just someone who’s learned a lot the hard way.
I just wanted to update to say that the relief from the brain freezes is legitimate and long lasting. For the first time in more than a month, I woke up migraine free. And I’ve been good today so far without having to induce any brain freezes. I am still amazed at this. And I am at nearly 10 years with the daily migraines. Many of those years the intensity of those daily migraines have been mitigated (but not cured) by my prophylactic treatment regimen.
I would absolutely like you to send me any and all information regarding suggestions and treatment options. The Zomig nasal spray was awful. It worsened the migraines, they provided zero relief. I just threw out the remaining samples as well as the prescription for them.
Why the dubious face? I think much is left to be known re migraines and their causes. I don’t doubt the legitimacy of any of those remedies, it just goes to show how different one “migraine” can be from the next.
When I was pregnant I got recurrent migraines, but didn’t want to take a lot of meds. Alternating cold and hot (as hot as I could stand it) packs, 10 minutes each then switch, brought tremendous relief.
You know, I’ve thought this exact same thing myself. “Migraine” is an incredibly broad term that encompasses (IMO) many different types of chronic headache. I don’t share many of the typical symptoms of migraine sufferers and virtually nothing has ever worked on me as far as an abortive (which is why I’m so excited by the slurpee discovery). My official diagnosis is “daily migraine w/out aura”, fwiw.
And the beta blocker is something that I’m still using. I can’t say for sure how individually effective it has been, as it’s always been part of a “cocktail” of about 3 drugs. Once the topamax was removed from my regimen due to kidney stones, the control of my headaches began to loosen. It wasn’t enough for me to want to totally upend my regimen tho, I feared such a shake up would cause even more loss of control. It wasn’t until I started dealing with my current gastrointestinal issues that the headaches totally and utterly got out of control.
This is a new one to me, thanks for sharing.
The reason I ask is that beta blockers normally don’t work as an abortive, but I know that people with anxiety take them on an as needed basis. I guess I wondered if you felt better after taking your beta blocker.
The lack of aura in your case is also what makes me wonder if the spreading cortical depression isn’t part of your migraines. My personal guess it that both that and the blood vessel issues are part of the normal migraine. Tests have shown you can have the headache without the blood vessels changing, but I wonder if you can also have the headache without the cortical changes.
I guess I just wonder if, since you have so much trouble with traditional migraine abortives, that maybe they’re not getting at the real issue. Do you have an actual headache specialist?
BigT you can certainly have migraines without aura and beta blockers are often part of the cocktail of preventative medications (as opposed to abortive) that are prescribed. You are correct that migraines affect everyone differently and no one treatment is effective. You are also correct that some types of headaches have symptoms that are similar to migraine.
I believe that Ambivalid has mentioned several occasions that he is seeing a neurologist connected with a well known clinic.
Ambivalid there are a few additional types of headache that are worth investigating with your doctor (if you haven’t yet). One is hemicranial continua, which very closely mimics migraines, but is treated completely differently. Here’s a link that talks about it. The other is occipital neuralgia. Link to a page that talks about that. Treatment is also different for that. (Actually, there are several types of neuralgia that could be contributing, but that one is often confused with migraines.)
I’ll send you the other info I mentioned.
A while ago I read about using a Neti Pot (nasal rinse) for stopping migrane pain.
I suggested this to my dad, and he did the rinse while in the throes of a headache and he said it worked right away for him!
But I don’t think he suffers from migraines. I think he gets cluster headaches. They have always come in spurts for him, like nightly for weeks then none for years. Neti Pot totally worked though.
Anyway, I wonder if this is similar to Ambis brain freeze? Basically you can pour salinated cold water up near your brain and stop the pain?
I’ve shared this suggestion with a half dozen friends who suffer from migraines and NONE of them wanted to try it. They would rather suffer than put water up their nose :-/
I’m going to share this brain freeze idea with them tho. I would be interested to know if the Neti Pot was helpful to Ambi or anyone else, though.
Fwiw I use the Neti Pot every night and have no migranes 
Um, can I humbly suggest that not one of those half dozen friends are actually migraine sufferers? IMNSHO and E, those are the type of people who call any headache at all a “migraine”. 
That’s exactly what I thought! To myself though.
I dunno. They do seem like pretty bad headaches that knock them down. But they would literally rather suffer than try the rinse.
My already told one of them about the slushee. They did reply “if I can get out of bed” so there’s that…
Who am I to judge?