I have been getting migraine headaches since I was 7. (maybe earlier) In May 1973, shortly before my 9th birthday, my best friend died of a brain tumor. After that I was poked and prodded by various doctors and told that I was too young to get migraines. I had a CAT scan, a Brain Scan, an EKG, was sent to a psychiatrist (really bad one who was on the phone all the time and in the end said I was normal), had biofeedback, an allergy scratch test (where I was told "you're allergic to a lot of things), was on an allergy food elimination diet and tried a slew of meds. None of the meds worked consistently and I missed a lot of school and social activities.
Now I miss work and a lot of social activities.
Currently I get a few different kinds of headaches. Some are real migraines. and the triptans will often kill them within an hour or two. Others are very similar - pain is in the same area (temple). The big difference is that I can't feel the blood vessel throbbing. I can't always tell the difference. In 2003 I started noticing a real trend during my menstrual cycle. First I'd have a day of a low level non-migraine. During this stage I can function and even be around loud noises without the headache getting worse. But on day 2 the thing would explode and I'd be sick as a dog. All I can do is take pain killers to dull the pain a little bit until they eventually would turn into real migraines and then I'd take an Imitrex. The pysical stress that these headaches caused would often cause my neck to go "out" and I would then get daily migraines until either massage and/or chiropractic treatment reversed the damage. This pattern lasted over a year. Then things seemed to change for a few months. I still had more headache during that time of the month, but they were all real migraines and taking a triptan would kill the thing pretty quickly. But June 2006 I had the non-migraine headaches with my cycle again, and even a couple of that type earlier in the month.
I'll sometimes get headaches in the front center of my head. (Forehead area.) These types are often caused by exposure to chemicals like cigarette smoke. Dulling the pain is all I can do when I get one of these. Often after many many hours they would turn into real migraines and then I'd be able to take a triptan so it would go away.
1990: I participated in a double blind migraine study in Philadelphia and afterwards was prescribed Corgard (a beta blocker). In 1991 I switched to Inderal (another beta blocker) because the Corgard was losing effectiveness. For over 10 years I took 120mg Inderal LA twice a day as a prophylactic.
Because of weight gain and depression concerns doctors tried to switch me off the Inderal LA. All of the following have been successful at reducing migraine frequency in some people. They don't always know why they work, and nothing works for all migraine sufferers - and most have headaches listed as a possible side effect! None worked for me.
Fall 2002: Inderal LA was either reduced or eliminated during one of these experiments. When the experiment failed my Inderal dose wasn't raised back up to 240mg. It was only raised up to 160mg per day (actually, Dr. B (my PCP) prescribed 180mg, but Inderal LA doesn't come in 180mg so the pharmacy asked him to clarify how many mg he wanted me on and he said 160mg.
There was a reason I was on 240mg of Inderal LA. Less didn't work. But Dr. B wouldn't raise the script because my blood pressure was low. I finally asked to be taken off of it because the lower dose wasn't helping the migraines. I lost 20 lbs during the next 3 months without dieting.
In early 2005 I tried Topamax again and had none of the cognitive or physical problems that I had thought were side effects of the drug when I was on it in December 2002. I was on it for 3 months and noticed no improvement so I stopped taking it.
January - September 2006 I tried Keppra, another anit-seizure drug. At first I had a slight improvement, but that might have been caused by the massage and PT work I was having done also.
9/26/06 Neuro appt. Got a script for 80mg Inderal LA twice a day and one for Prednisone which he said helps sometimes. I was skeptical about that. He asked if I remembered if the course of steroids I had in Dec 2003 helped. I couldn't remember, but after the appt checked my notes and it was clear that the steroides had not helped. So I'm not going to fill that script. I also did not fill the Inderal script right away because the MS Challenge Walk was that weekend and I figured it was not a good time to add a possible downer into my med mix. Then I had a run of few headaches. (3 in 12 days) Unfortunatly that has ended (4 in less than 48 hours) so I might start the meds soon. I also talked to one of his colleagues about Botox. I don't think I want to try it. I'm actually thinking about trying to see that Dr. at GW that does a special surgery for certain types of headaches. I need to find that newsletter I got from them. The only thing I found online is something else- basically they try botox and if that works cut the muscles. Well, I kinda need that muscle in my neck. Plus the Neuro I talked to about botox never mentioned giving me a shot in my neck. After telling him where I think most of my migraines come from I asked him where the shots would be. He gave me a standard answer (pointing to the spots) - forehead and temples. I'm not letting a Dr. that won't listen to me come near me with a Botox needle! Online articles specifically mention back of the neck triggers, so I'm not a complete freak here.
11/1/06 Neuro appt. Got a script for 120mg BID of Inderal. My BP was only about 100/60.
Some of my migraines are caused by a physical trigger in my neck (on the right side). When everything is good I can crack my neck by just stretching it to the left. When everything is at its worse this type of movement can cause an instant migraine. In between these extremes I could still stretch my neck in this way, but I'd often get daily migraines. If I kept stretching and worked on other things that would help loosen up the muscles (i.e. self massage, tiger balm, ice / heat, flexeril, Aleve) I could sometimes get it to pop back and end the cycle. But headaches with other causes would send me right back into it.
Chiropractors: While I started going to Dr. Laurette D.C. because of lower back problems, he really helped my migraines. During times I wasn't seeing him they were much worse. In August 2005 he moved to NY. The person that took over his practice wasn't aggressive enough with his manipulations so I tried someone else that I also wasn't satisfied with.
At the end of January, 2006 I started going to Physical and Massage Therapy once a week. The first person I saw was doing cranial sacral work in addition to massage, but she moved to Florida so I'm seeing someone else that doesn't do CS work. I have noticed a HUGE improvement. Before starting certain neck movements would cause instant migraines. Then for a couple months the muscles are loose enough that I can crack my neck almost daily.
Early August things got really bad again. The P & MT place was causing stress and was not helping like it did at first. I ran out of drugs and went to the urgent care place for a Maxalt script and then to my neuro for a sample goodie bag.
At the end of September I went back to a massage therapist I had seen in January. That's when I had the 12 days with only needing 3 triptans I mentioned above. I'm going back to see her tomorrow.