Migraine

Hello all,

I am a 35 year-old woman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am a wife and mom of two. I have a girl who is 13, and a boy who is 3. We have quite an exciting house. I have had migraines since I was a teenager. I think I may have had abdominal migraines as a child. I used to have bellyaches all the time, and the drs were never able to find a cause. My migraines got better when I was in college and in my 20s. Last summer, I thought I was getting a lot of sinus headaches. On New Year's Eve, I was the absolute sickest I have ever been in my life. I ad a migraine that lasted three days and I didn't even know it was a migraine. I felt so bad I thought I had bad case of the flu. My doctor figured out it was a migraine, and he gave me Imitrex. I took 2 doses over 24 hours and it worked. He told me to start keeping a migrine diary, call in a week and he would see me in a month. I was okay by the end of the week, just very, very dizzy.

The problem now was, by the time I saw him in a month, I had four more migraines, all of them almost as bad as that first one. They are always right sided and my neck and scalp get all knotted up for days on end. So he put me on Topamax daily to try to prevent the migraines. The next month, I had six or seven migraines. The imitrex worked to get rid of the pain, but the it would come back. The migraine periods last four or five days. He upped the Topamax. Oh, and my insurance will pay for 6 Imitrex a month. That is a joke.

I had an MRI in March. It showed diffuse white matter changes (WMC) all over my brain and some specific spots in my right lateral ventricle. So my doctor put me on prednisone because I had something like eight migraines that month and he sent me to a neurologist to rule out multiple sclerosis. The steroids were the only thing that completely knocked out the migraines. I had three weeks of headache-free bliss. Well, it would have been bliss if the topamax and prednisone didn't react and make the whole right side of my face numb. But it sure was nice not to have a headache.

By April, I saw the neurologist, he sent me through more tests, mostly ruled out ms (can't rule it out completely ever because of the WMC) ruled our cerebovascular disease, and just changed my acute med to relpax. My insurance will pay for 6 of those a month too. I had to take 2 today, with 600 mg motrin. Naproxen has no effect for me.

I am looking into at least short term disability, because my job is very visually intense. I have been working only an average of 2 or 3 days a week. My husband doesn't work, he is already disabled. Our financial situation adds another whole layer of stress to the picture. We may lose our house. I'm not in a good place right now. I'm happy to hav found a place like this to hear others' stories and get advice.

I'm sorry for rambling for so long. Thank you for reading.

Be well ,
Melissa

Welcome to the forum family, Melissa

I'm sorry you have the need to be here but I'm so happy you found us. You've come to the right place for accurate information and tons of support.

Have you thought of seeing a migraine specialist? I began seeing one in January and he's helped me reduce the length of my migraines and lessen the severity of them too.

I'll give you a few links to help you begin:

Learning about Migraines-Where to Start

Migraines and Work

Types of Migraines and Headaches

Again, a warm welcome. I look forward to seeing you around the forum and hope I didn't overwhelm you with links

Welcome!

I'm so sorry you need to find migraine support, but I'm glad you found us. Laura has given you some great links, so I'll just add my welcome! Glad to meet you!

Gretchen in Mississippi

Welcome to the Forum, Melissa!

Sorry to hear you haven't been doing so well. I hope you are able to find some relief. This website has some great information. The support here is great. Just wanted to welcome you.

Hello, welcome to the forum. We're glad you found us. Join us often!

Thank you all for the info. I spoke to my benefits specialist at work, and the first thing she told me was I had to get my doctor to "buy into the idea". That's a direct quote. At least she was honest. So I called my PCP, and luckily I have one of those offices where you can actually talk to the doctor on the phone. He told me he would to whatever it takes for me to feel better. Boy, did that make me feel better! So next I had to call our disability insurance provider and start the claim. Now I just have to wait for it to get processed. I'll keep you posted.

I'm still getting migraines every day. They affect the whole right side of my head. Myface, my scalp, my neck, my teeth, everything. Sometimes they are very brief and will go away if I just rest or have somewhere to put my head for a while, but sometime they are those big monster migraines. Hopefully things will get better.

Thanks again for all of your help and support.

Welcome Melissa!!

I have to ask, how long have you been on the Topamax? Have you seen any decrease in your migraines on it at all?

There are over 100 medications currently being used for migraine prevention, so don't feel like it's the end if the Topamax isn't working.

You also mention migraines every day - are they very severe in catagory (on a 1-10 scale) or are they fairly low but consistant?

I know how you feel about insurance companies telling you how many triptans you can get a month, it stinks!!! Do you have record to your pharmacy availablity to see what triptans you can get the most of? With me, I can get 16 imitrex a month, but only 9 Frova. Too bad Imitrex doesn't really work for me and Frova is my best bet!

Also, seeing a Headache Specialist would probably be your best bet, since it sounds as if you are chronic at this point in your treatment.

Please let us know if there is anything we can help you with! We are here for you and know exactly what you are going through since we go through it ourselves!

Welcome again!

Hi, Melissa!

It's nice to meet another PA girl!

I just wanted to add my welcome...This is a great place for info and support! I sure look forward to your future posts!

jenny

Hi Eileen,

I have been on 100 mg of Topamax since March. My neurologist just started stepping me up to 200 mg a day, going in 25 mg intervals. I haven't noticed a reductio in my headaches.

I get at least one headache a day, if not more. They are usually about a four on a pain scale. If I rest they will go away and come back later, at a four. If I ignore them and try to go on about my day, with or without meds, they usually hit a 7 pretty quickly. They will hit a 7 or 8 no matter what with PMS or other trigger. I have some funny positional trigger. I can't turn my head far to the right. My migraines are all right sided too. The pain is always in my face as well, and sometimes runs down my arm. I wonder if that's migraine or something else. Can migraine affect more crainal nerves than the trigeminal?

Imitrex was the first triptan we tried and it worked, but only temporarily. Relpax is the new one, and my insurance covers 6. I'll have to check our formulary. They have it online, so it will be easy to look at all of the triptans together and see which has the best coverage on my plan.

Thanks for all of the info and support. I don't feel like such a freak anymore. I really was starting to feel like a big hot mess until I found this forum.

I'm glad you're feeling right at home here. It's a great place isn't it? I know I love to be here with everyone!

Here are some helpful articles about the pathway and anatomy of a migraine:

The Pathway of a Migraine

Anatomy of a Migraine

I hope these help