Dealing with Migraines

[Jbo]

Hey CP, I know that there was a thread from 2008, but thought I would start a new one.

Migraines. Have suffered through these horrible things since I was a kid. As I’ve aged the wild changes in weather have started making them worse. I admittedly take way to many painkillers for these, which only leads to rebound headaches.

Over the years I’ve gone the heavy drug route (imatrex) which I had to quit on account it made me feel like crap, worse then the migraine. Seems like the trigger can be hit or miss, coffee sometimes, drinking sometimes, not eating etc.

Would love to hear other Migraine sufferers tips. I’m a pretty healthy and active guy. Try to eat decent and get better sleep, but some level of migraine from dull pain to absolute brain destruction occur between every 1-3 weeks.

Any advice, thoughts, or found something that works?

[GoinAllTheWay]

Will be watching this closely. My g/f gets these with unfortunate frequency. The poor girl deals with them surprisingly well but feel awful for her when she's clearly in a lot of pain and not a damn thing I can do to help. She's tried everything, nothing seems to help her. I think the only thing she can really do is notice when a day has the potential to trigger one (big changes in temp/pressure seems to be the common theme) and try to start taking a painkiller before it becomes full blown.

I think a girl in our office gets some form of advil in the states we can't get here. I'll go ask her about it again.

Mad props to anyone who has to deal with this and still is functional. Don't know how you do it. I have a pretty high pain tolerance but not when it comes to headaches. Not common for me but when I get one, I'm useless.

[ah123]

I know some will scoff at this, but chiropractic care made a huge difference for my wife and nephew.

[Frank MetaMusil]

CBD oil. A friend of mine uses it for migraines with great success.

[Yellefan]

Originally Posted by Frank MetaMusil

CBD oil. A friend of mine uses it for migraines with great success.

Yep, CBD oil has reduced the duration and severity of migraines for me.

[slots881]

Hey,
I know what you're going through.
I deal with Cluster headaches (similar to migraines and sometimes mis interpreted as them.)
I've been dealing with them for over half my life.
Recently, I've been using Oxygen to abort the headache after onset. 12L/Min. on a non rebreather mask.
I had to get a referral from my doc to see a respiratory therapist to get the oxygen tanks
This has really been helping a lot better than the medications after onset.
I've also started a daily medication of Amitriptyline, which has greatly reduced the frequency of my clusters.
I use to average 2-4 headaches a week, and now I'm down to 1-2 every 2 weeks. Greatly improvement to me.
I've grown accustom to handling and dealing with the headaches and know they will constantly be a part of my life, but my current meds/oxygen has made daily life significantly better.

[wireframe]

A woman in my office got a botox injection for migraines and it worked beautifully. She hasn't had problems in the years since. I don't know a lot about it, but you might want to ask your doctor.

[woob]

Originally Posted by wireframe

A woman in my office got a botox injection for migraines and it worked beautifully. She hasn't had problems in the years since. I don't know a lot about it, but you might want to ask your doctor.

Just adding another confirmation of this method; my father gets botox for his as well and he says it's made a world of difference. He will still get the odd "bad one" but on the average, the injections have completely reduced the amount.

Edit: One thing to add on this, is check with your benefits provider (if you have one) on how much is covered. I think I remember him saying he pays a significant portion of this out of pocket.

[Grimbl420]

I've dealt with migraines since Jr high. I'm now 38. About 6 years ago I had to take a 6 month leave of absence from my job because of my migraines. I was getting what they call silent migraines everyday all day. They have all of the other symptoms like aura, weakness, inability to focus, and vertigo without the insane head pressure. I couldn't drive and the vertigo made even walking a challenge some days. I spent months and made several visits to various Doctors and Neurologists trying to get the correct diagnosis and within 2 weeks of getting a prescription for Amitriptyline the symptoms started to clear up.

Like a couple of posters before me I take Amitriptyline and use CBD to control my headaches. I tried about 2 years ago to come off the Amitriptyline to see if there was improvement but ended up at the hospital with cluster headaches (I honestly did not think it could get worse than full blown migraine, holy was i wrong). This time of year (Dec/Jan/Feb) is always the worst for me in Calgary, with the massive swings in weather and pressure.

The only suggestion I can add is the importance of hydration. Being dehydrated, at least for me, is probably one of the more important factors in the onset of a migraine.

[PsYcNeT]

Not a catch-all by any means, but Calgary's altitude contributes to exacerbating sinus headaches and mistaking them for migraines.

There is a significant amount of relief to be found with simple OTC anti-histamines (Reactine, Claratin, etc.) if you tend to feel it most during pressure/weather swings.

I would always try those out before moving to something more drastic.

[Matata]

There may be something to regular Epsom salt baths. I've heard they help and haven't had a migraine since I started taking them. Been a little over half a year, so I can't be certain ( I get 2-4 migraines a year), but it's not like it sucks to take an Epsom salt bath (big jugs of Epsom salt are cheap at superstore).

[Baron von Kriterium]

Originally Posted by Frank MetaMusil

CBD oil. A friend of mine uses it for migraines with great success.

My wife takes CBD oil for migraines and other issues. It took a few weeks to notice improvement, but it seems to help.

[woob]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Not a catch-all by any means, but Calgary's altitude contributes to exacerbating sinus headaches and mistaking them for migraines.

There is a significant amount of relief to be found with simple OTC anti-histamines (Reactine, Claratin, etc.) if you tend to feel it most during pressure/weather swings.

I would always try those out before moving to something more drastic.

Interesting idea. My S/O often gets the pressure/weather change ones, though that is not the only type she gets.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Not a catch-all by any means, but Calgary's altitude contributes to exacerbating sinus headaches and mistaking them for migraines.

There is a significant amount of relief to be found with simple OTC anti-histamines (Reactine, Claratin, etc.) if you tend to feel it most during pressure/weather swings.

I would always try those out before moving to something more drastic.

Interesting about the anti-histamines.

Due to crossovers from a different situation, I discovered amphetamines do something where either I am numb to the pain, or it resolves the pain of migraines related to weather. This is significant because taking 1-2 extra strength advil or Tylenol doesn't work at all for me to deal with migraines.

Prior to accidentally discovering amphetamines help the migraines, I found doing hot yoga regularly helped significantly. Physio on the other hand, not so much. I'm guessing this was due to my migraines in part being caused by stiff muscles in my neck and shoulders aggravating my migraines. Physio didn't work for me because my entire "system" was off. A neck/shoulder massage doesn't help if the reason they're stiff in the first place is to overcompensate for some other bad posture elsewhere in my body. Within hours of leaving physio/massage, I'm back to square one.

I also bought a memory foam neck pillow for sleep and casual usage at home. My neck posture while watching tv, playing games, computer etc. was pretty bad. The memory foam pillow helps to keep my neck in a better position to reduce stiff neck and shoulder muscles. I think I paid $20 on Amazon. Prior to that I think I spent something like $200-300 on experimenting with different types of pillows. Weirdly enough, I find a neck pillow or magic bag work best. This may mean that a bed or pillow is not helping the migraine situation. IMO, it's worth looking into.

Others
- Fresh air helps
- Going for a walk helps (Mostly I assume because you stop staring at bright screens)
- Reduction of alcohol and caffeine is hit or miss for me.
- Hydration helps a lot. Increasing my water intake from about 1-2L a day at work to around 3-4L a day did help reduce (but not eliminate) migraines. It also helped with recovery from physical activities and preventing issues when playing said physical activities.

My migraines aren't gone though, and it's not like it's a healthy thing to try and get amphetamines to deal with them. The anti-histamine thing is interesting, but I don't know if I'd want to be taking those regularly either. However, I might give it a try for the horribad migraines as it's at least relief when other OTC medication is completely useless in helping.


Good luck to everyone who has migraines. They suck.

[Jbo]

Appreciate the replys. Some great stuff here. Have not heard d of half the ideas.

How hard is CBD oil to buy.

Have also tried taking Benadryl at night for sinus pain. Can’t say it has done much

[Millertime]

I have had them since I was a young kid. Tried all of the triptans, topiramate, botox (basically anything my neurologist would suggest). Recently checked hormone levels, and discovered testosterone was quite low. Started T injections, have gone from 15-20 days with a migraine a month to 2-3 days. Topiramate was the only other med that showed any real improvement.

[vegasbound]

What really helped mine was Depakote (Valproic Acid). Last resort because it is high risk for me but its helped mine quite a bit, with that being said, I am on a high dose. Also on a highish dose of Nortriptilyene. On label, its used to treat bipolar/epilepsy and off label for migraines.

Botox as well. I am on my third round right now. The first round worked awesome, had one major migraine but that was in Scottsdale and I *always* get a migraine the day after I land down there. My second round- holy hell was that a horrible three months. I had major knee surgery as well and my drs dont think the Botox took full affect as I had surgery 8 days after and it wrecked my body. Third round- so/so. Pretty decent for the fact that Dec/Jan/Feb are the worse months for me because of the weather. I have a SCREAMING migraine right now but that's weather related. The Botox definitely does provide relief but the first 10 days after an injection I have a solid headache and it is brutal.

I've played around with Zomig (a triptan) quite a bit. If I know there is a weather change coming, I'll take one at night before I go to bed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. The other thing that has helped me (however, I do not recommend going this route) is tubes in my ears. (My ears are a mess, to put it mildly). I have had a 16 day migraine, get tubes put in my ears by my ear surgeon and bam- migraine gone. Something to do with the pressure? There is no scientific evidence behind this but my ear surgeon just rolls with my request.

Oh and Percocets. Percocets are my friend during migraines.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Some of you sound like a portion of your symptoms are from tension-type or cervicogenic headaches and a visit to a physiotherapist may be a good idea.

[Calgary14]

Have you considered speaking to a naturopath or acupuncture specialist?

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Have you considered speaking to a naturopath or acupuncture specialist?

You could also put all your money in a pile, douse it with gasoline and light it on fire to save time.