Migraine

Transformed Migraine (TM) is Migraine which began manifesting in episodic Migraine attacks, increasing in frequency and changing characteristics, and resulting in almost daily less severe headaches punctuated by severe and debilitating Migraine attacks...


Continue reading Transformed Migraine - the Basics.

Wow, this is starting to sound a lot like me! I know I don't have medication overuse problems though (if anything, I have underuse problems). What's the prognosis for the 20% who don't have medication overuse? Can this be treated as effectively as other kinds of migraine?

Transformed Migraine is perhaps more difficult to treat, but it is treatable. Preventives are usually the same as for other Migraine. One thing that can make it tricky is that the headaches (as opposed to the Migraines) of this condition would not be treated with Migraine abortives, so you'd need to decide which is which before taking abortives or pain meds. Also, with virtually daily headache or Migraine, it's really hard to stay out of rebound.

So -- you have pretty much daily headaches with episodic Migraine on top of the daily headache? Yikes. Has your doctor said anything about this?

quote:

Originally posted by Migraneur:
Wow, this is starting to sound a lot like me! I know I don't have medication overuse problems though (if anything, I have underuse problems). What's the prognosis for the 20% who don't have medication overuse? Can this be treated as effectively as other kinds of migraine?

Thanks for your response and this article!

I pretty much always have some head pain lately(mostly tightening with random stabs), like in the last two months, but that's always punctuated by very distinct migraine attacks. It's a little harder for me to distinguish what might be transformed migraine and what might be status migrainous. Right now I have headache pain, but I also went to bed with a migraine. I'm not sure if I still have migraine or if it's a new headache. I've assumed up until this point that I was experiencing a lot of status migrainous. I think I have to bring this up with my doctor.

At my consult a few weeks back, he didn't say anything about transformed migraines. I showed him my migraine calendar, and his comment was, "Wow kid, you're having a lot of headaches." I had a really hard time holding back a "duh." . (I average 23 per month). My official listed diagnosis is "Classical Migraine Intractable." I also checked with my doctor to make sure I wasn't over-using my Migranal and in danger of rebounds, they said I was within safe usage. Other than that, I don't use OTC's, I only use Fioricet for very occaisional TTH's, and they won't prescribe me pain meds. Mostly, I've just got my Compazine and lots of work to distract me.

My pharmacist said yesterday that the Norvasc is usually noticeable for migraine in about 2 weeks. I'm done with week 1 today!

I get transformed migraines. But not from med overuse, but because of tension headaches from FMS and the whole FMS sleeping disorder. Thus I was diagnosed with FMS when I was twenty, and the infrequent migraines I used to get just kept increasing as the years passed. Now they are daily. So you get used to trying to decide whether or not to use an abortive or a pain killer, trying to figure out it it is going to be actute or, ah, tolerable. There are migraines I know are going to be severe, a particular type that is highly motion sensative, but they don't respond to abortives anyway. One thing I noticed as they changed over the years, is that I get less auras before a migraine, and I used to get violently ill with every migraines, and now it is just very uncomfortable nausea.

Even though I just get the typical Migraine with Aura. I enjoy learning about other types of migraines. Just incase someone I know get's these types of migraines. You never know which types of migraines that someone is going to get. A migraine is just not a migraine anymore!

Myth,

Did you read the article? Transformed Migraine and daily Migraines are not the same thing. With transformed Migraine, you don't have Migraines every day.

quote:

Originally posted by Myth:
I get transformed migraines. But not from med overuse, but because of tension headaches from FMS and the whole FMS sleeping disorder. Thus I was diagnosed with FMS when I was twenty, and the infrequent migraines I used to get just kept increasing as the years passed. Now they are daily. So you get used to trying to decide whether or not to use an abortive or a pain killer, trying to figure out it it is going to be actute or, ah, tolerable. There are migraines I know are going to be severe, a particular type that is highly motion sensative, but they don't respond to abortives anyway. One thing I noticed as they changed over the years, is that I get less auras before a migraine, and I used to get violently ill with every migraines, and now it is just very uncomfortable nausea.

quote:

Did you read the article? Transformed Migraine and daily Migraines are not the same thing. With transformed Migraine, you don't have Migraines every day.

Now that I have read it, I am wondering. I always assumed it meant freuqent migraines with various symtpoms and varying intensity. Because although my aura symtpoms have changed over time, they are hardly infrequent... I mean it used to be just visual and nausea, but now it that as well as the whole numbness, tingling, twitching, hearing loss and other things. My new neuro said I have daily migraines, which is I rather thought was pointing out the obvious. So I assume I would be classed under daily migraines with aura?

I think you'd be classified with "Chronic Migraine with aura." That's the classification for Migraine with aura 15 or more days a month.

quote:

Originally posted by Myth:
Now that I have read it, I am wondering. I always assumed it meant freuqent migraines with various symtpoms and varying intensity. Because although my aura symtpoms have changed over time, they are hardly infrequent... I mean it used to be just visual and nausea, but now it that as well as the whole numbness, tingling, twitching, hearing loss and other things. My new neuro said I have daily migraines, which is I rather thought was pointing out the obvious. So I assume I would be classed under daily migraines with aura?

I've never been diagnosed with Transformed Migraine, only CDH and Migraine Without Aura. They're not medication overuse. I know better than that. Plus migraines a couple of times a week.

Sometimes, what I thought out was one of the daily monsters responds to a triptan. So it was really migraine. It's hard to tell, since I don't have aura and have only had nausea 10 or 12 times in the 25 years I've been dealing with this thing. Mostly in the car on the way to the ER.

Ice helps with both kinds of head pain.

When I find an effective migraine preventive, it also helps with the daily stuff. So I don't know if it's *just* CDH or transformed migraine. I haven't had a really effective preventive since the turn of the century (Christmas 1999). I had 3 good weeks a couple of years ago, but then everything fell apart.

We talked about reasonable expectations. At this point, I'd be thrilled if the daily stuff would go away, and I had a couple of migraine attacks a week that responded to triptans. That's just an intermediate goal. I'd really like to get to 1 or 2 a month. For now, I'd just like to get rid of the daily noise.

Gretchen

Hi gwp,

I've been in the turn of the century mode myself :-( Drs have given up; therefore, I'm in pain management. Luckily, I have gotten pretty good relief with a low dose of methadone and a low dose of paxil. I have never been able to tell any difference with dietary supps, but now that the pain level is down, I think I'll give them another go round. You certainly have my sympathies. good luck, take care Bob