Migraine

I saw Dr. Jan Brandes in Nashville earlier this month. She said that all my head pain, even the stuff I that I thought was tension-type, was actually migraine.

I saw my Botox doctor yesterday. My neurologist doesn't do Botox, so he referred me to an ophthalmologist/plastic surgeon. He does a lot of cosmetic Botox. He also does "medical Botox." Dr. Botox has diagnosed me with spasmodic torticollis, a muscle spasming disorder. It can also be called dystonia, pain caused by muscle spasming. BCBS covers Botox for ST and dystonia. A pittance, and my doctor doesn't take insurance.

I told Dr. Botox what Dr. Brandes said about everything being migraine. He disagreed, and said that his opinion would be that all my pain, even the migraine pain, was caused by the dystonia.

Lawyers have a saying, "Reasonable minds can differ." It's reasonable for one person to interpret something one way and another person to interpret it another way. That's how I feel about the difference between what Dr. Botox says and what Dr. Brandes says.

DH pointed out that they're both saying that it's a single process. Dr. Brandes comes from a background of treating migraine disease. Dr. Botox sees dystonia every day. It's reasonable for them to interpret the same pain in different ways, given their different experience and mindsets.

To tell you the truth, it's all the same to me. The Botox and muscle relaxers (Dr. Brandes has prescribed Skelaxin for when I have head pain) are the way to treat the dystonia. I'm also doing massage therapy for that. I'm taking migraine preventives to cover the migraine angle.

I'm hoping that the treatments meet in the middle and get the blasted head pain under control!

Gretchen in Mississippi

Skelaxin is good - well I'll explain.

I like it because I can take it and still work. It's not strong where it knocks me out. I can take it and have no problems working, driving.

On the other hand, I sometimes wish I either had something else in the same area/catagory that is a little stronger then this. Sometime the Skelaxin just doesn't cut it.

Then again, I'm using it more on an as needed basis, not as a preventive like my doctor prescribed. I think if I used it as a preventive, then I would have less options when I did start to feel pain. I'd have to jump right to the abortive. That's just me though.

Hope you figure it out! I'm sure a nice massage wouldn't hurt, right - oh I could really use one right now - all the tension from the holiday stress!

Gretchen, this reminds me of something I heard on the tv show House - which diagnosis you get depends on the specialist you see. Granted, it's a tv show and not any sort of medical reality, but it rings true to some extent. It's a little oversimplified, but I can see why Dr Botox and Dr Brandes would disagree on the cause of your head pain.

My acupuncturist thinks all of my migraines are caused by muscle tension in my neck and back. I don't necessarily agree, but the acupuncture does help my pain quite a bit.

I agree with you though - if I can figure out a treatment plan that gets rid of this darn head pain, then that's enough for me!

You say potatoes, I say pot-aa-toes, kind of thing.....