Migraines everyday, all day, for 9 months. Help!!
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Remember your worst migraine. How much pain you were in and how you just couldn't do anything. That's how I am everyday.
Right so I'm a 20 year old female, I'm and student and work as a waitress part time.
So, I started with a headache on the 18th January this year, pain killers didn't touch it. Woke up the next day and still had a terrible headache.
I have a terrible headache all day, everyday, without fail. It's got to the point now that I'm stressed; fed up, hardly sleeping, can't concentrate at uni or any time really.
Please understand that the pain never goes, the headache never ends. I have literally had a migraine 24/7 for 9 months now.
I wear glasses (short sighted) but I know it's not my eyes causing the migraines.
I've cut out everything that's apparently supposed to aggravate headaches. Stop drinking caffeine, stop eating chocolate and cheese. No change in the headaches.
This continued for a week or two before I went to see my GP who referred me to a neurologist.
The first neurologist thought I had tension headaches caused by stress.
At this point, I wasn't stressed at all, not with uni or work, nothing. So I didn't quite understand this diagnosis.
Anyway he put me onto tablets called amitriptyline, which is an antidepressant, and told me to gradually increase my dosage up to 50mg a day. This didn't help at all, had horrible side affects.
I then saw another neurologist who diagnosed me with migraines, put me into Topamax, which are an anti epileptic drug meant to also treat migraines. I got my dose up to 100mg within 3 months and the side affects were horrible and didn't help at all.
I've had a CT scan, which was normal. Had an MRI scan, which was normal. I've also tried Imigran and some migraine medication that melts into your tongue, with no affect what so ever.
After trying all this, an idea was put forward that I could have raised intracranial hypertension, so yesterday I had a Lumbar Puncture. The pressure was at 19 and a half (apparently if its over 20 it's high), so it's not thought its that. The migraines were worse for a week after the lumbar puncture, I couldn't even sit up without being in agony and being sick. Spent a week in bed unable to move.
I've got another type of MRI scan booked for the end of this month that's apparently going to look at the veins/blood vessels in my head to see if there is a problem there.
I feel like I'm not being taken seriously now by doctors, because "there isn't anything to be worried about, like a tumour" as I'm always told! As much as I'm so very glad I don't have anything serious to be worried about, I hate spending everyday in so much pain that I can't function.
Please don't think I'm over reacting/attention seeking/whatever, but I am literally fed up and can't cope. I can't get a minute of relief, I'm constantly in pain (different variations of pain, but pain all the same). As I'm writing this I'm crying my eyes out because I haven't managed to sleep more than 3 hours a night in that past 4 days. I'm exhausted and depressed now. I've even told my GP that I am so depressed now, I have thought on more than one occasion of overdosing just to end this pain. And he literally turned me away saying he couldn't do anything. I feel so defeated.
If anyone has had this type of problem before or knows someone that has, please let me know.
24 likes, 741 replies
Mansashah12 Becky-Louise
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sofr Becky-Louise
Posted
Becky-Louise,
I am in the same situation as you. I have been getting migrane headaches from the age of seven, but this year I started getting them every day. I go to bed in pain, and wake up in pain, and nothing seems to work. I have tried everything from painkillers to therapy, homeopathics to antidepressants, nothing works. I am a 20 year old university student, and I am finding that the pain is seriously impacting my ability to function. I am completely at my wits end, I don't know what to do. If you come up with something, I would be greatful beyond words if you would let me know.
angie95127 Becky-Louise
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julia04822 Becky-Louise
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haley23467 Becky-Louise
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I have had literally exactly the same thing going on with me but only for 4 months. I've had all the same meds and MRI's abd stuff. It has been absolute tourture. And I was depressed before any of this even started so my head just made it worse. I'm sorry and I know exactly how you feel.
aburas10 Becky-Louise
Posted
Hey Becky,
I came across your post and was wondering if you've had any improvement since you posted.
Cureless Becky-Louise
Posted
Have they checked your heart? I was a daily migraine sufferer, it wasn't until I had a mini stroke that the found a pfo in my heart, I had open heart surgery to repair and it immediately helped the migraines. In order to find the pfo they injected bubbles into a vain and used a t.e.e. to track the bubbles traveling through the heart.
I am so sorry to hear what you are going through. I have found the Benadryl has helped me. Sometimes Benadryl along with ibuprofen or Celebrex... these aren't usually the go to migraine medications, but they have helped my migraines.
jessican89 Becky-Louise
Posted
I had tha same problem and was diagnosed at the hospital with cluster headaches but my neorlogist refuse to treat me for cluster headaches and keeps giving me regular migrane treatment. I have been trough exactly the same thing as you, I'm now going to a different neurologist about an hour away from ho
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StevenRose jessican89
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The best treatment for cluster headaches is Sumatriptan injection. This gets rid of the pain in about 10 minutes. Of course its not for everybody and your Neurologist will decide if you can have it or not. You need a preventative medicine too and Verapamil is a good starting point and this might have to be gradually increased until you get a benefit but not so the side effects out weigh the benefits,
Good luck with your new Neurologist and do let us know how you get on.
Best wishes and take care
rachel91019 Becky-Louise
Posted
I'm not sure if you still check on replies but I've been going through this too. I've been suffering from chronic pain from a car accident 13 1/2 years ago. My migraines are usually caused by my jaw. Maybe experiment with things for tmj. I find the most helpful thing for me is chiropractic care, massage, and physical therapy. My massage therapist even massages my jaw from the inside of my mouth, you could probably look up hope to do that and do it yourself. Hope you find relief, chronic pain is very difficult to handle.
chelle7 Becky-Louise
Posted
Hi everyone! I am so sorry to hear about what you all are going through. I had migraine as well. I had been suffering from it since the 90's when I started university. Horrible! I must be in a dark room to avoid light and sound and wouldn't want to move (even going to the toilet), as it was just so painful in my head, the pain wouldn't stop that I would throw up. And this would last for a day. But now I have been very happy, finally I feel relief from this migraine. A cousin of my husband shared with me information about redox signaling molecules. I am not sure if you have heard of it. I am just amazed that it is helping me. I studied it and read articles about redox signaling molecules and finally tried it. Migraine is just one of my health problems (there are more) and I'm really willing to try anything to help me out. Since February of this year I haven't had any attack anymore and therefore have not taken any ibruprufen nor similar painkiller. I hope this will continue as I venture on this scientifically researched molecules. Before I was always afraid to yawn as that is my aura before my migraine started. But now so far so good, I can yawn anytime without fear of migraine attack. Good luck to everyone who is finding ways to get relief from this horrible pain. Good luck with your chiropractic care Rachel. I did that too. It did surely loosen up my back and my neck
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nuttyfruitcake Becky-Louise
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telsa_100 Becky-Louise
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I started developing non stop headaches about 3 weeks ago,,drugs were not working,nothing was working. MRI's CT SCAN all normal,blood work normal.Sometimes it is accompanied by neck pain. Tramacet has really helped me in reducing the pain but the side effects are so terrible and i do not want to be on drugs all my life.I have heard headaches before,nothing serious though until 3 weeks ago,,sometimes the pain is mild when i take the medicine but sometimes it is so much,,,and it is there 24/7..I just want my life back.The tramacet have given me some side effects such as sweating,chills,insomnia and fatique..sometimes i think it causes pain in my neck and back...I do not know what to do anymore.It has affected my life in all ways
jim03290 telsa_100
Posted
Hi, Telsa 100. Welcome to the group of long term migraine sufferers. Your story is all too familiar. I'm on 13 months now, and have some improvements to share in an upcoming text on this blog.
In the meantime I have 2 suggestions for you :
1. get a good MRI of the full cervical spine- the whole neck area. If you have to get a private MRI ($$$) do it. Get the MRI CD- much more info than the written report, and sit down with the radiologist to get him to point out problem areas he sees in your neck. I did this and found several mechanical problems in my neck. Two neurologists previously said my neck soreness was not the source of the headache. They were wrong. So, some physio with aggressive traction has been helping me a lot.
2. DOCUMENT !!..Write in a diary daily, record headache time of day, when it is worst and when it eases a bit. Also document what foods you are eating, what activities you are doing, etc. At first, it may seem that the worst headache surges are randown, but over time you will likely find some repeatable food triggers like gluten, chocolate, alcohol, sugar, caffeine, etc. Avoid these.Also write down environmental triggers like perfume, smoke, bright lights, , loud noise, and looking at a computer screen, etc. Avoid these. Also document any remedies that make things better, even for just a few minutes, simple things like running warm water over your head in the shower, neck massage or neck exercise, hard exercise ( it takes guts to go to the gym with a migraine, but can be worth it ).
Good luck with this- I will post some details soon, when I can look at the computer screen for more than 3 minutes without triggering another migraine attack.
Cheers, Jim 03290
crystal_92428 Becky-Louise
Posted
Hello. I hope you have found a cure and the reason for these migraines. I've had a migraine now for 4 months. I've was told I'm anemic by one Dr another Dr said it was high blood pressure. I went to urgent care they were so bad and I saw the Dr who first diagnosed me as being anemic. She said your not anemic who told you you were anemic. I was given sampatulia which intensified the headaches, the nausiness, shortness of breath, dizziness, everything. I'm sick of going to the Dr's they really don't know what's wrong.