Migraine

Hello! I am trying to find some help for my son. I have been doing a lot of reading, both here, elsewhere on the web, and at the library...but I have found from personal experience that there's no one that can help as much as people who have "been there".

Luke is 23 and is still living with us; he started having migraines a few months ago, with only one or two a few months apart. Almost a month ago, though, he called us from work asking if we could pick him up, as he couldn't see to drive home. Since that time we've been to urgent care and our family doc (who is in internal medicine); he's had an MRI (negative), been given Midrin (helped a little at first, then didn't), Relpax (made things worse), Vicodin (takes the edge off-sometimes), Zanaflex (knocks him out), and Dramamine (for terrible, persistent dizziness). He has tried to go back to work, but either the pain, the dizziness, or the visual problems keep sending him home again...so he now hasn't worked for over three weeks. He had just started a new job with our son-in-law, who has promised to hold it for him and put him on medical leave, but he has a small business and really can't afford to lose his employees for too long.

As of right now, we are awaiting insurance authorization for him to start on a preventative (don't know which one yet), but our doc says he'll see him in three weeks, after he's given it a try. In the meantime, he is spending most of his time in his room, where it's quiet and dim...and we are paying his truck payment and his Cobra payments so he can keep his insurance coverage.

So...if anyone has any advice or suggestions, we would welcome them! I can see from reading here that many of you are unable to work for long periods of time...that's a scary prospect for a 23yo guy, with a new job that he loves. He's discouraged that the MRI was negative (which was what we expected, anyway), but I tried to tell him that a negative brain MRI is a blessing...not like having an MRI on your knee or back that will show a problem that can be relatively easily repaired surgically.

Sorry...guess I rambled on a bit here, but thought I'd share a bit of what we're dealing with, and see if anyone can give us a word of encouragement!

Thanks,
Donna

Hello Donna I'd like to welcome you and your son to our forum family! Our goal is to provide everyone with the information and support that we all need to manage our Migraines and/or headaches. To that end, we consider this a “safe harbor,” where nobody tries to sell us anything, and we all use “family-friendly” language so parents are comfortable letting their children read the forum with them.

Please take a few minutes to review our policies and guidelines along with the other information in the START HERE folder. For information about Migraines, a good article to begin with is Learning About Migraines - Where to Start.

I'm happy to hear that your family doctor is prescribing some abortives for Luke to try. There are several of them out there, so while Relpax may not have worked, another one may. You can even ask your doctor if s/he has samples and that will save you the co-pay on the abortive.

You also might want to consider a neurologist or even a Migraine Specialist to help you get started in the right direction. I have a local neuro and I also have a Specialist in Dallas. The Specialist has given me so much of my life back. He's helped reduce the intensity and the length of my Migraines.

• What Can a Migraine Specialist Do for You?

Let me also give you our list of preventives. There are over 100 medications out there that are being used for Migraine prevention so one of them, or a combination of them should work for your son:

• Migraine preventive medications: too many options to give up!

I also use Vicodin as my rescue medication but it's one of those meds that we need to very careful with in order to avoid Medication Overuse Headache. Take a look at this article for more information about MOH:

• Medication Overuse Headache: When the Remedy Backfires

Also, here's an article you both can take a look at to help get you started in figuring out what type of Migraines Luke has:

Types of headaches and Migraines

Since he's having such a rough time right now, he may want to take a look at what some of us do on the days that our medications fail us or when we've reached our medication limits for the week. We've come up with a list of comfort measures:

Toolbox

One last thing for Luke to learn is what his triggers are. For instance, mine are poor sleep, not eating, changes in the weather and strong smells. Keeping a Migraine and headache Diary can help him identify those triggers. Here's some more information on triggers too:

Common Migraine Triggers

I hope I didn't overwhelm you with to many links, I just wanted you both to get a good start. I know how difficult dealing with Migraines can be, especially in the beginning. Please come back often and let us know how Luke is doing and if you have any questions, just ask

Oh, and never worry about "rambling", we want to hear what you have to say!

Hi Donna!

I am sorry to hear your son is suffering! I have never heard of needing an authorization to start preventive medication - that's a new one for me and I worked with insurance for quite some time - do you know what medication the doctors are trying to authorize?

I do see you mentioned he has tried Relpax and it didn't do so great for him. Did you know there are other triptans that may work? They are Imitrex, Treximet, Frova, Amerge, Axert, Maxalt and Zomig. I tried a few of them (Imitrex and Axert) that did nothing for me. Zomig helped, but made me feel worse before I felt better. Now I take Frova and that does not give me that many side effects.

I am so glad you found us! Looks like Laura gave you some great links to start you off - please check them out and come on back with any questions you may have.

We look forward to getting to know you and your son better.

Hi, Donna!

I see Laura has loaded you up with all kinds of great links. I just wanted to pop by and add my hello to your welcome pile!

Thanks so much to all of you! Lots of good information we need to dig through. We have been watching for the MOH, and he's been trying to take a day or two break off and on with the Vicodin. The Dramamine did nothing at all for the dizziness. He's going to call a chiropractor tomorrow to see if that might help at all...he's never had neck problems before, but with the migraines his neck is getting terribly tight, of course.

I'm not sure what the med is that needs to be authorized; I'm going to call Walgreen's in the morning and find out, and I think he's also going to call the doc back about the dizziness, and maybe about getting a referral to a headache specialist. The nearest one I could find on Google is in Denver, which is about 50 miles from us...but worth the drive if they can help him.

I'll keep you posted on what's working and what's not, in case we can be of any help to someone else, too!

Thanks again so much for all your help.

Donna

I found out the med we are waiting on is topiramate...will do some research on it.

huh - that's interesting. I had much success with Topamax for over a year. I hope your son finds it beneficial! It's one of only 4 drugs that have been approved for Migraine prevention. That being said, there are over 100 medications that can and may help with Migraine prevention. I believe Laura gave you the full link with that information.

Keep us posted on how the authorization goes!

quote:

Originally posted by Luke'sMom:
I found out the med we are waiting on is topiramate...will do some research on it.

Donna,

Please forgive me for not giving you information on Topamax yesterday. My brain was not working properly and I'm sorry for missing that information.

We have a ton of information on Topamax on our site, some of which you will see in the medications list that Laura gave you, but here is some more so that you have as much information as we have available as of today:

Dosage and Tapering Topamax for Migraine Prevention

Topamax Profile

Let us know if you have any questions about Topamax, or anything else! We are here to help!

Welcome to club

I'm sorry your son is having such problems. I have had great success on Topamax so far, so if you can get it approved I highly recommend it. I would also have your son talk to the doctor about other abortives to try. It took several different ones for me to find one that was successful and didn't give me any nasty side effects. Currently I am on Zomig. Each person is different though so keep that in mind.

I will keep your son and your family in my thoughts

Nicole