I had both hormonal and stress migraines, when I got the hysterectomy that removed my hormonal migraines and left me with stress related ones - so I am down to maybe one or two days a month when things get stressful.
Hm. If I can hork down my meds the instant I start getting my aura notification [I get fruity citrusy smells with a sort of machine oil undertone] and lay down in a cool dark room with some very soft classical playing I can usually keep it down to a dull background sort of headache. If I can’t it tends to be the vomit/curl up in a cool dark room as soon as I can find one and whimper a lot until it finally manages to go away. It all depends on how early I can get my meds. Thanks to the house fire and insurance/detail work I spent a fair amount of time yesterday and last night shut into the hotel room in the dark with the AC cranked and snuggling my cat.
My migraines started at about age 11/12. I would get about 3 a month. As I got older the frequency declined to about 1 a month when I was in college. It has been about 7 years since my last one, and about 5 years before that for the 2nd to last one.
The only way to get rid of them is to fall asleep. If I can fall asleep it will go away. I don’t need to sleep very long, but get into a deep sleep. While in college I taught myself meditation techniques to help me fall asleep. Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with them that often anymore.
I think the reason my year spent in the US from 2007-2008 was so miserable is that I couldn’t get my go-to drug for migraine control: ketoprofen intramuscular.
That’s right. 83% of patients reported complete relief of pain within about 1/2 an hour. Diclofenac IM works equally well for me. It has saved my life from being a total suckfest.
When I used to get occasional migraines I would have to lie down in a dark room and close my eyes, sleep my way through it.
Haven’t had any since my late 20’s / early 30’s. I quit drinking 2+ sodas a day and quit eating McDonalds for lunch. Now I am on water 90% of the time and usually eat Subway if I eat out. I can’t say that is what “cured” it but I’m going to stay the course.
Back when I was researching it, decades ago, I ran across one book/article that said that most people follow a frequency timeline (the graph of it has two hills and a dip in the middle) and the frequency declines until somewhere in the forties or fifties they pretty much stop. That turned out to be the case for me. Here’s hoping you all get to experience that.
I’m glad you’re getting good care. I have a knee-jerk reaction to anyone with chronic migraine because it took forever for me to get decent care. There was not one headache/migraine specialist in Florida when this started in 2006. Not one.
Have you asked about trigger point injections to reduce the muscle pain/feedback loop? It really helps me a lot. Mine are given 6 weeks after the Botox.
It took me a few years to get down from 20-25 days a month to 5-15 (weather-dependent), so things may get better for you yet.
I’ve heard other people say their docs won’t give them opiates because of rebound headaches. I’ve been using them for years, and don’t have rebound headache if I stop (I get a little edgy because of physical dependence, but not any headache).
I asked my neurologist for his thoughts on the whole opiate debate, and he said that in his opinion, by the time you get to chronic migraine status, rebound headache is the least of your problems. Get the chronic migraine under control, then reduce the dose of painkillers. He likes to keep people as functional as possible, and if that means taking a percocet with your triptan, so be it. I was taking percocet on a 4x/day schedule for about a year, and it helped. Now I take it 3x a day and may be able to cut it further (if autumn weather cooperates; those week-long storms do me in).
I have one right now due to the change in barometric pressure. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the worst), mine range 3-4. One sided, and I get off my feed. I take Sumatriptan, and sometimes it works magic, and sometimes it doesn’t (like today). I’m at work, but if I were at home I would lie on the bed and rest. No tv, no reading, no sound. Just quiet.
Right now I’m trying tramadol. It doesn’t really help but what the hell.
I usually read or play Diablo with the sound off when I get a migraine. I can’t just lie there. I want to get up and pace. Also, opiates make me twitchy. If I just lay in bed, I start chewing on my fingers. I don’t normally get visual symptoms, but audio sensations feel overwhelming. I normally like a strong bass in my music but need silence when my head hurts.
I woke up with one this morning, thanks to the jumping barometer. It woke me at 4 am when it was just starting to gather steam, so the Imitrex busted it. Thank God. Even so, as a precaution, I’ve got the lights off in my office and am just working by the light coming in my office window. If that gets too bright, I’ll pull the blinds and put on my sunglasses.
Even though I didn’t ask about treatment, you all have given me some things to bug the docs about.
I’ve had a level 8 or so since Saturday. My preferred living environment would be the inside of a closet. I’m on a conference call and it’s making me nuts. Just the sound of voices makes me crazy.
Like others, changes in the weather are a big trigger for me. We had a low pressure area parked here over the last several days, then it broke. Just arg!
Also certain noises, like metal clanging. Also light at certain angles (flickering through the trees at an angle in the afternoon is bad juju). Certain smells even. Not enough sleep. Too much caffeine (more than 3 cups of coffee a day).
My auras are generally sparks. I don’t always notice them. When I do, I know I’m in for a hard time.
Depends on the severity of the migraine. I generally take NSAIDs as soon as I have a hint that I might get one. I also get neck pain that heralds a migraine, which I treat by alternating hot and cold packs. These actions often abort the migraine or make it less severe.
For a less severe migraine, I often do low-key, quiet activities, like read something. It helps distract from the pain. I lower the lighting in the room.
If it’s full-blown (which usually has sudden onset), I take a triptan, go to bed, moan, and hope that sleep will come soon. It usually takes a few hours for the meds to work.
Either way, I could not go to work because I can’t interact with people when I have one, or look at a computer screen. It takes all my concentration to tolerate the pain and not throw up the meds.
Oh! And, I get acupuncture for my TMJD and stiff neck and shoulders. It has reduced the frequency and severity of my migraines (which began when the TMJD did).
I get 1-3 severe ones per year, and 1-2 minor migraines (or auras without migraine) each month.
If your doctor is willing to give you Tramadol, you might try Firoricet. It’s a barbiturate with Tylenol and Caffeine. I don’t know if the barbiturate helps the headache or is just there to counter the caffeine, but I can take it late and night and fall asleep with no problem. I asked my doc for it because I found that Tylenol with caffeine was really helping my ‘bad’ headaches (The ones that weren’t migraines but Tylenol didn’t help) but as a non-coffee drinker my body got such a jolt from the caffeine, I couldn’t take it after 5 or 6 at night or I’d be up until 2am. It works great. Gets rid of the headache and I can still sleep.
I got lucky with my neuro, he’s very well known in the MS world. He does lectures all over the world. In fact, the hospital he’s working in now built a wing just for him as part of a deal to get him to practice there. Sometimes when I’m there, I’ll hear people checking in from hours away.
I’m lucky enough to have only had maybe a dozen or so migraines in my life (and only one full-blown one with serious visual disturbances), and it took me awhile to figure out that Excedrin Migraine (and laying down with something over my eyes) helps pretty well. Before that I would take Aleve or Tylenol or whatever was handy and maybe drink some caffeine, and put cold stuff on my forehead but nothing I’ve tried works nearly as well as Excedrin.
I’m glad I’ve never had a repeat of the worst…was driving to work and started getting those sparkly geometrical visual disturbances at the edges of my vision…soon thereafter I was soaked in sweat and trying very hard not to vomit at my desk. I left early and somehow I drove home to suffer through it, but it was bad. I’m hoping not to have another one like that, but at least I’ll know to get straight to bed and what to take to try and knock it out early.
Drugs. Sumatriptan (Imitrex) is very effective at aborting migraines, in my case. While I’m waiting for it to work, I lie down or do something quiet that doesn’t involve having to focus or move quickly.
The downside is that when my head stops hurting, every other part of my body starts to hurt. It’s a bearable pain, though, and it didn’t make me want to die the way the migraine does.
I’m on a prophylactic treatment now that consists of three daily meds; pamelor (a tricyclic antidepressant), corgard (a beta-blocker) and topamax (an anti-seizure drug). They work fairly well at keeping the migraines at bay,however, if I do get one, I’m fucked. Nothing works as an abortive (and I mean nothing). Ice to the head is my only relief.
I’ve always described my post-migraine condition as this. I feel like a semi was parked on my head. It’s moved now, but I still feel like a semi had been parked on my head.
Worth a shot, like I said, if they’ll give you Tramadol, they might be willing to give you Firoicet*. But it’s a whole different animal so it might not do anything at all for you. I only use it for non-migraine headaches that are bad enough that I need some caffeine, but it’s too late at night to take caffeine or I’ll be up all night. Again, like I said, I don’t know if the barbiturate does anything or it’s just to help counteract the caffeine. If it doesn’t do anything, it’s not going to be anymore help than Excederine Tension (Excedrin w/o aspirin (I can’t take aspirin)). IIRC, Tramodol is C-IV, Fioricet (BUT/APAP/CAF) is III and Vicodan/Percocet is II (and harder to get in general).
Regarding everyone that’s been talking about hormones. I started having migranes, once a week, debilitating, I have to go home from school, I’m going to throw up RIGHT NOW, I can’t move or I’ll die, migraines, in first grade. My pediatrician told my mom that they would either get better or worse at puberty. While I still got more than my fair share of them in college, at least I couldn’t count on having them once a week by then. When ever we talk about them (on this board), I hear a lot of women saying their’s got better/worse around menopause. I guess there’s something to this hormonal thing.
Also, when I was in first grade, (mid 80’s), I don’t think there was an abortive. My cure was to get my mom to pick me up from school ASAP, go home, throw up a few times and then sleep for 3 hours (to this day the smell of my mom’s bed and chewable grape tyleonal still smell like ‘migraine’). Then I’d wake up and not know if it was 7pm or 7am the next morning. I hated that feeling. If you do any research on Fioricet, don’t get yourself confused with Fiorinal. Same drug but with Codeine added into it (cet tells you that there’s acet*aminophen in it, even though you usually here it with Percocet…Fioricet is what you want to ask for, they’ll be more likely to prescribe it to you.
Sorry for the long post, this is a subject that I’ve been dealing with for a loooong time.
