Migraine

Hi,

I just joined the site and I am hoping I can get some advice. My 16 year old daughter has had a migraine for the past 3 months (7 days a week, 24 hours a day) Her pain averages a 7 on a scale of 10 no less than a 6. She has had about six migraine episodes in the past 3 years. They have never lasted longer than a month. This one seems to have no end in sight. She has experience many symptoms. When she first started getting migraines she had numbness on ones side, blurry vision, etc. Now it seems to be just dizziness, nausea, fatigue and pain. She has taken numerous meds...Topamax, Depokote, Imatrix,Keppra, Fiorcet...When she first started this last migraine we started with a new doctor. He took her off all her meds and started her on Verapamil, 2nd month he added Namenda, 3rd month he added Lyrica. No change after three full months. He has given her shots but they have no effect. It seems like we should be trying to end this migraine; however, the doctor keeps telling us to wait...the meds need to get through the blood brain barrier.

Any suggestions? If anyone has experienced similar migraines, do you have a doctor you would recommend? We are in Nebraska and are currenly seeing one of the doctors recommended on this site.

Thanks

Welcome Samsmom.

Preventives are the way to go when it's this serious. Sometimes a preventive can take up to three months to work - I'm not sure adding on to preventives every month was a good idea; if something works, then you're not sure what.

Also, a migraine that lasts more than 72 hours without a 4 hour awake pain free period puts patients at risk for stroke. Have you sought any emergency treatment for this very long migraine?

I'll post some links to info that may help.

Migraine Preventives

Status Migrainous

Types of Migraines and Headaches

Hi Samsmom, and welcome. So sorry to hear about your daughter. I'm in much the same boat myself - my daily headaches and migraines gradually progressed until the point of continual 24/7 pain. I've had this same migraine since November, and the last specialist I saw was unwilling to do anything other than give me preventives for it. I'm 24, by the way.

I will say that there seems to be some difference of opinion, whether preventives can work in a case like this. Deb is right that preventives can sometimes take up to 3 months to work, and in case like your daughter's (or mine) it is essential to find one. But what to do in the meantime? Good question.

Have you tried any other treatments to try to break this migraine? I've only just started that myself. I'll give you a few links; you may want to bring this up with your daughter's doctor. In my case, I've decided that I want to pursue more aggressive treatment than *just* preventives. That's not to say I'm giving up on preventives - I'm not - but in the meantime I'm trying to break this migraine to give the meds more of a chance to work.

IV Treatment of Refractory Migraines

IV Lidocaine

Obviously I'm not a doctor and can't give you medical advice, I can only share my personal experience. Take a look over these links, and the ones that Deb has provided you, and let us know if you have any questions, ok? We'd be happy to help you as much as we can.

HI Samsmom

I'm sorry to hear about your daughter. I went through something similar with my son starting in Nov 2006. His status migraine turned into a chronic daily headache.

Our local neurologist tried a new preventative for about a month, and then they sent us to Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. We had to fly there. Diamond has a floor in a hospital where they treat headache patients.

My son was hosptitalized there and received IV treatments for a few days. Unfortunately that did not break the cycle. He went through other IV drugs. He tried steroids to. Eventually, the constant migraine stopped. Over time the chronic daily headache also went away.

It seems like your doctor should be trying some of the IV drugs by now. I'm not familiar with any doctors in your area.

Best of luck to you and your daughter. I hope she gets some relief soon.

Jean Ann

Hi, Samsmom, and welcome!

I'm so very sorry to hear about your daughter and how she's been suffering from this.

Definitely, getting the migraine cycle broken is the big thing here. I would think that should be the goal. I see you've had the link to status migrainous from Deb.

There is one other thing that comes to mind with long, drawn-out headaches, and that's rebound. You mention Imitrex and Fioricet, both of which are known rebound culprits (Fioricet especially, of the two). I know that you said that the doctor had taken her off all her meds. I'm assuming that was three months ago, from you post. But...if one or the other of these is a rebound culprit for her, and she's had it since they were "stopped", even in just a here-or-there dose, which isn't unreasonable, it could be leading to an ongoing rebound cycle. If she's been taking anything at all over the counter for pain, that could well lead to rebound, too. And...in rebound situations, preventatives and abortives are known not to work well, if at all. Just a thought to kick around, in case anything might apply. Some people are susceptible to rebound, and can rebound off of a single dose. OTC meds are big offenders.

Please keep us posted how it goes.

Thank you all for the information. The links will help with the discusion I have with the doctor tomorrow. My daughter only took Imitrex and Fioricet infrequently. We stopped everything except those meds approved by our current doctor, so we are only taking the three preventatives. She hasn't even had an extra vitamin since January. We also started a very restrictive diet in January to see if a specific food was a trigger.

Thanks again.

Just wanted to add that my daughter also started with severe headaches episode when she was 16 years old. She had always gotten migraines before but they never lasted longer then a day or two. When she got the migraine that lasted longer then a week, when this illness started, we took her to all kinds of doctors. They never suspected migraines because of all the other symptoms she had (dizziness, light sensitivities, fatigue) her MRI showed lesion so they thought possible MS...

Anyway, she has been dealing with migraine disease and I say disease because she still deals with symptoms daily. We waited for the doctors to diagnose and treatment was not started soon, so they said this is what led to the fibro her pain receiptors are super sensitive. Anyway, if I had to do it over I wound have taken her to a Headache Specialist right away and demanded that they use whatever necessary to break the migraine (IV or whatever)....I believe if they didn't let her go so long with the migraine that she wouldn't be dealing with all these problems now.

I would find the best migraine specialist as soon as possible and take her there....don't wait

Sorry so long

I'm not sure what all your daughter has had done in the way of tests, but I would encourage you to ask your daughter's physician about the possibility of doing a couple of things (if he/she hasn't already): one is to see if what the doctor thinks about getting an MRI for your daughter; it is an expensive test and might not be warranted, but with such a dramatic change in her HA patterns it might be a good idea. The other thing would be to see if he/she will order a lab test called an ANA, or anti-nuclear antibody test. It is a simple blood test that can often help rule out conditions like Lupus.
Just a couple of things to consider and discuss with her physician. Hope that helps.

She must have lots of swelling from a continous migraine. Has she had IV high dose steroids? I would be concerned about the increased stroke risk.