Migraine

....I'm not alone with my crazy headaches! I've suffered from them 4 to 6 times a week ever since I was a young girl and after a particularly bad spell of migraines that left me feeling like a zombie, I've decided to take back my life and do something about them. I've cut out the bad (bye, bye coffee, chocolate, and *sob* diet coke) and ushered in the good by starting yoga, acupuncture, and 25 mg of Topamax per day. See ya, headaches...hopefully.

Has anyone had any success in managing their migraines with just acupuncture? I'd rather not be on daily medication (like Topamax), but I'm not sure if the acupuncture is goint to do the trick all on its own. In fact, all the poking occasionally makes the headache worse. Am I the only one?

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to read the posts on here and know that there are people who understand the gravity of saying "I have a headache." (Those people who tell me to take an aspirin and sleep it off make me want to scream!) I look forward to learning new management techniques, meeting fellow headache-friends, and bidding my migraines a blissful and forever farewell.

Cheers!
WWiggins

Hello, W_Wiggins, welcome to the forum! We're glad you found us. If you have any questions, ask away.

Welcome to the forum family W_Wiggins!

You have found a great place for information and support

Welcome to our forum family - let us know how we can help you.

Welcome to the forum!

Let us know if there is anything we can help you with.

I see you mentioned you are on Topamax. I assume since you are on 25mgs. you just started. Here is a Topamax profile which explains all about the drug.

Welcome again!

Welcome to the forum, W_Wiggins!

Let me add my welcome to the welcome pile!

Hi W_Wiggins, welcome to the forum

Good Morning W_Wiggins,
Welcome to the forums. You have found a great site to assist you in knowing directions you can take in managing your migraine disease. As you read through current and old posting you will see that many people have made significant life style changes. Certainly specifically identifying triggers could assist you in controling your environment to a degree.

Under Manage --> Migraine Triggers: Your Migraine and Headache Diary Diary is a great article on migraine diary's and how they can assist you in identifying triggers.

Again welcome and I'll see you around the forums.

Cindy

Hi WWiggins,

Welcome to the forum!! It is true, you will find great information here and great people. Sorry I can't help you out with the acupuncture question, but I am sure if you put it in a post there will be several answers to your questions Again, it's great having you here. See you on the posts!!

Dar

Hey WWiggins, seeing Dar's reply mentioning your question about acupuncture, I realized that I hadn't answered that part of your question. Whoops! I meant to before so I will now. (I've also posted a few times about this in our Complementary Therapies folder, so take a look there as well.)

I tried acupuncture for about three months, from November of last year to January of this year, to manage both my chronic daily headache and frequent migraines. When I started there in November, I suffered from 24/7 headache pain, nausea and vertigo, as well as terrible insomnia. I also had frequent migraines, including 1-2 severe migraines per week.

At first, I had good success with the acupuncture. My CDH was much improved. The nausea, vertigo and insomnia were nearly gone. The severity of my migraines had decreased even if the frequency had not. This was wonderful news for me, and I continued.

Unfortunately the acupuncture soon started having much less effect. (Over the course of the treatment, my migraines became daily, but I'm not sure this was at all related to the acupuncture.) The nausea and vertigo came back. The insomnia came back. They weren't as bad as before I started treatment, but they weren't improving any more. I started having weekly severe migraines again.

My acupuncturist began insisting that she couldn't "cure" my "headaches" as long as I continued to take medications. She believed that she would only be able to do so much for me as long as I continued to take medication. (She had told me on a number of occasions that she had been able to cure all of her other clients, none of whom were on any medication, so she believed that's why she couldn't help me.) So, for a number of reasons, I stopped going. I didn't want to argue with her about the medication issue any more, and I couldn't afford to continue to miss so much work (2 hours 2-3 times per week) when I wasn't getting much benefit.

It was absolutely worth it to me to try. Given the same situation, I would choose again to try it. If I decide to go back to it, I'll probably go to the acupuncturist my headache clinic has on staff.

Feel free to ask me any other questions you may have about it. Hope this helps!