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[Tenrius]

Wow, that's a lot of replies. It's even a little hard to keep up with everything.

On topic of meds, I've been taking Sumatriptan and sometimes it helps. However, you can't really do that every day. It also doesn't work if the headache is already in full swing, which is pretty easy to miss. Actually, I often wake up in this state, when it's pointless to take any abortive meds.

 

[AdequateSubject]

Nasal spray? That sounds unconventional, especially the regular one. How did you even discover that it helps?

At a family get-together a few years ago I got one of the most severe migraine attacks I have ever experienced. My aunt who also suffers from migraines happened to have one of those sprays against migraines, and it worked amazingly well! Some time later I got another, less severe attack, and on a whim I decided to try regular nasal spray I had at home, and that turned out to work quite well.

 

[MMBosstones86]

Wow, that's a lot of replies. It's even a little hard to keep up with everything.

On topic of meds, I've been taking Sumatriptan and sometimes it helps. However, you can't really do that every day. It also doesn't work if the headache is already in full swing, which is pretty easy to miss. Actually, I often wake up in this state, when it's pointless to take any abortive meds.

I was in the same situation over the summer. Started taking Gabapentin daily which helped to reduce frequency and intensity.

 

[Tenrius]

Daily? Shit the only thing that gets me through mine is knowing that it'll be gone the next morning. Those of you who get them more frequently or longer than a day... damn. I'm sorry.

Sleeping get me some relief for the most part, but the most severe attacks can last up to several days. Falling asleep, then waking up in them middle of the night and realizing it's not gone especially sucks.

The worst part is how people don't understand how painful and debilitating they can be.

"You have to leave work because of a headache? Sure...Man up!..." Etc

Yeah, it's a huge issue. People often don't understand what we have to deal with.

I started getting incredible headaches with my first major "office" job. It got to the point that I assumed I was going to have to live with them for the rest of my life.

The headache journal is a great step, though I'd encourage you to keep track of everything in your life to try and identify correlations. Is your pain worse on one day? What did you eat that day? How about sleep?

For me, I slowly discovered that I wasn't sleeping properly when I'd go to bed. My headaches were brought on by jaw clenching and stress at night, which were made even worse with undiagnosed apnea. The two fed off of eachother and made life so much worse. This took me about four years of really trying to figure out what my body was trying to tell me, different tests, medicines, and a lot of hopelessness.

Simple tips worth their weight in gold: drink lots of water, avoid junk food, get plenty of sleep. More than you need, even. Exercise at some point during the day, even if its a 30 minute walk.

Do you mean that your bed wasn't comfortable enough? I think that my affect me because the bed I have now is godawful. I should be moving soon though and will have to make sure the new place is super comfortable.

Never had it diagnosed, but I think I might have these?

I get really photosensitive often and can't even look at my monitor when it's on 0 brightness/contrast. Can't look outside, has to be really dark in my room. Medicine does nothing, I could OD on ibu and it wouldn't change the pain level. I was getting these once every other day, now I get them like once a week. I can't seem to find a correlation.

Seems like the only cure is to just give up for the night and go to bed early. I usually wake up without the headache.

I'd highly suggest consulting a doctor. The photosensitivity part definitely sounds a like a migraine, sometimes I have that too (as well as milder visual effects).

Migraines/Headaches suck.

Had mine increasing in frequency for the past 5-6 years until over last summer I was getting daily headaches. Tried a couple meds, a MRI, and a Neurologist. What I learned, it's basically up to you to determine triggers and find a balance that works for you.

I tried a bunch of OTC stuff, but nothing would consistently help. I tend to over-hydrate more, especially before physical activities and that's helped, but really the meds I'm on are about as good as I've had in years.

Daily : Gabapentin 3times/day
Onset : Imitrex (Sumatriptan)

The Imitrex has literally changed my life and can generally knock out a headache within 30 minutes. Gabapentin has done a relatively good job holding things stable. Went from daily headaches to.....1-2 a week, which are handled by the Imitrex.

Basically, it depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. Meds can help, but to fix a problem you need to identify the source.

edit : oh, and subbing this thread because fuck headaches.

Sounds like you've made good progress! I've had somewhat negative experience with prophylactic meds so far. 1.5 months of Venlafaxine didn't really help things and totally ruined my sleep. Due to commuting/working a lot, I rarely get more than 6-7 hours of sleep daily (8-9 is optimal for me). Venlafaxine cut that down to 3-4 a night and it wasn't pleasant.

On a side note, I worked remotely before last June and had decent sleep at the time. As far as I remember, the migraine situation was roughly the same back then.

 

[MsKrisp]

I was getting mild ones with nausea almost every day, and about once every two months I'd have a 3 day bout of increasing pain ending in hours of vomiting before I'd feel better. Imitrex made me feel much worse, Replax only seemed to work one time. Got put on gabapentin and it's done wonders for me. My doctor gave me a sample of the nasal spray but I haven't had a severe enough migraine lately so I haven't tried it. He's going to wean me off the gabapentin over the summer, I'm honestly a little worried about it. It's the only daily medicine I've ever tolerated well.

 

[Jabronium]

I actually thought I'd outgrown my migraines, as it had been ~5-7 years without one. A couple years ago they started back up, occasionally with aura this time. Back to the dr, MRI, seeing a neurologist, back on the Imitrex. They're usually rare for me, not more than a couple in a month, but changes in weather pressure systems are my biggest trigger. This week has been pretty bad weather-wise but I think I'm over it for now.

 

[MMBosstones86]

I was getting mild ones with nausea almost every day, and about once every two months I'd have a 3 day bout of increasing pain ending in hours of vomiting before I'd feel better. Imitrex made me feel much worse, Replax only seemed to work one time. Got put on gabapentin and it's done wonders for me. My doctor gave me a sample of the nasal spray but I haven't had a severe enough migraine lately so I haven't tried it. He's going to wean me off the gabapentin over the summer, I'm honestly a little worried about it. It's the only daily medicine I've ever tolerated well.

Personal experience....if It's working, don't change it. I've had some times where I had to stop taking gabapentin due to waiting on refills and such and it's not ended well. Gabapentin isn't supposed to 'cure' you, just help. I'd be really hesitant to stop taking it.

How much are you currently taking?

 

[31GhostsIV]

Migraines, the bane of my existence.

Had my first at age 13, 24 years ago. I was always prescribed Migraleve (branded co-codomal basically) and they never helped much.

Finally, after years of wanting to remove my own head, the doc prescribed Imigran (sumatriptan). That shit works, although it does mess up my moods for a few days afterwards.

As I've gotten older, I've realised that the super headache is only a small part of it - I find a day or two before a migraine kicks in properly that I'll have low mood and lethargy/fatigue as well. My triggers include dairy and stress. Caffeine doesn't help but I am a coffee junkie and drink enough to know it's not a trigger. Grapefruit and certain smells like particular aftershaves or perfumes however (anything by Gaultier for example) get me every time.

 

[MsKrisp]

Personal experience....if It's working, don't change it. I've had some times where I had to stop taking gabapentin due to waiting on refills and such and it's not ended well. Gabapentin isn't supposed to 'cure' you, just help. I'd be really hesitant to stop taking it.

How much are you currently taking?

600mg a day. I'm supposed to go back to the doctor in 3 months, and he said at that point we would start weaning me off of it.

 

[Jabronium]

Grapefruit and certain smells like particular aftershaves or perfumes however (anything by Gaultier for example) get me every time.

Oh, yes, this so much. I couldn't figure out what in the world was behind my migraines in college. It was a huge revelation when I realized that the scent of my deodorant was one easily avoided trigger. Didn't do much to help with the weather changes and teeth grinding but still, it helped.

 

[mattwhite924]

I got diagnosed with migraine a few months ago and it really sucks.

I've been having strong headaches pretty much all my life with occasional auras and bouts photo sensitivity. I used to think that only the latter were migraine attacks, but most of my headaches are of that nature according to my doctor.

So I started a pain journal and was surprised with how much pain I have to be dealing with. Rating it on the scale from 1 to 10, it never really gets lower than 2-3 and I get 5-7 on a pretty much daily basis with dips to the 8-9 territory. Doesn't help that it's mainly caused by stress and I have a very stressful job.

So yeah. I've been taking some medication, but it didn't really do much. My doctor tells me that I do some Botox injections, but I'm not sure about that (it's somewhat expensive, for starters). I'm sure there are fellow sufferers on GAF. What was your experience? What ultimately helped you? If anyone has any experience with Botox, I'd love to hear it.

I used to get migraines fairly often, not as often as it sound like you do, but often enough. I haven't really had one in several years, but I'm not sure what stopped them. I did start doing a lot of cardio around that time, maybe it had something to do with it.

I also try to always keep Excedrin migraine around and take one at even the first hint of a migraine. I've found it can stop them if you catch it fast enough, however if you aren't fast enough then it won't help at all. I think this might be more effective for me than for most people though, cause I don't drink caffeine and I assume I don't have an immunity to it like most people.