I am so sorry. I know how painful migraines can be and to have a constant one must be awful. My a frequently caused by stress and weather fronts (change in the pressure). Luckily meds have helped for me (unfortunatly they also make it harder to lose weight). So good luck!
I'm happy to see this thread popped back up! Migraines are very hard to deal with. It is hard for people who don't suffer from them to understand how truly horrible and frightening they are. I feel blessed because mine are not as long as some of yours, although they do last for 5-6 days frequently, and I frequently have to hit up the ER.
I don't respond to Topamax, Imitrex, Amerge etc. I swear I've tried everything and NOTHING works. A chiropractor helps a little. I find that exercise helps bad headaches a little, but obviously, when you're nauseous, vomiting, have vertigo, have tunnel vision etc., exercise is only gonna make it worse!
I typically get 2-3 a month--right around when I ovulate and TOM, and one thrown in there for good measure lol. Every few months, I'll get a doozie that is hard to describe but is so horrible
:hugs: to everyone who has migraines
Last edited by pinkflower; 10-31-2010 at 01:56 PM.
I've had menstrual migraines since I was 15. Cutting out dairy helped, and I know now that I can't have chocolate anywhere near my period - which is when I crave it, naturally. Stabilising blood sugar helps a bit too, especially wholegrains. Unfortunately there aren't any painkillers that I can take that do a thing for the migraines (or much else, come to that). Aromatherapy can sometimes help a bit, basil and lavender oil on the burner. White tiger balm on my forehead can help a bit too, but then there's the risk of accidentally touching my forehead and then touching my eyes or worse, and there was once a nice moment when my partner kissed me on the forehead when I had tiger balm on and he had cracked lips. Normally I just curl up on a heat pad in a dark room and zone out.
Actually, there's one thing I discovered recently that helps a bit as well. The Miracle Ball Method. This involves two balls about the size of a grapefruit, semi-squeezy. You lie on them and do deep breathing and the idea is that it gets your muscles in that area to relax in ways they otherwise wouldn't have. It's the best thing I know for back pain. I only ever use one at a time, so the other is with my neighbour who has problems with chronic headaches. When I get migraine, it's as if someone has flicked a switch and everything from my shoulders upwards has gone into spasm, so relaxing the muscles in my shoulders is always a good thing to do, and with mild migraines may chase them off entirely.
Does anyone else get the stabbing eye pain (left eye for me)? Apparently it's connected to an area around the back of your neck, not that I've found a treatment from that. Very annoying, that part of things.
I've occasionally used ginger if I get nausea with the migraines. I haven't tried ginger capsules or tincture for it yet, though I am now on both to help with poor circulation (started getting freezing cold when I started dieting, which it has completely cured), but I've been known to munch the odd bit of pickled ginger. It's not just the nausea alone, I need to keep eating when I'm migrainous, otherwise it gets worse.
Being on Depo Provera stopped my migraines dead in their tracks, but on the other hand I ended up getting half the symptoms of the menopause at the age 22 from it, and generally feel that it's the most dire contraceptive and shouldn't be in general use any more.
The closest I came to a continuous migraine was one February about 10 years ago when I had 20 migraines in 28 days.
Ginger helps me a lot, and not for it's obvious stomach soothing properties - that's rarely an issue for me. Ginger has some kind of anti-inflammatory effect that really helps me. I drink strong ginger tea (Yogi tea makes a great one) or eat crystallized ginger or sushi ginger while I wait for the Relpax to kick in. During my horrible February, I also started taking ginger capsules every day, and then tapered off once my noggin was under control.
Riddy - interesting that you're doing well with ginger. I believe there's been a bit of research into it for migraines, and isn't there some migraine product out there which combines ginger with feverfew. I'm taking ginger every day at the moment to stop the chilliness that is common with dieting, and I'm hoping that it will generally improve my pain levels. Ask me again in a week or two when I get my period.
For anyone who likes pickled (sushi) ginger, I urge you to make your own. It's dead easy and it tastes out of this world. Google "pickled ginger", I think it's the first recipe that comes up. A good tip is to peel the ginger using the edge of a teaspoon.
Hi everyone, I'm new to this... I've been having very terrible migraines for years now maybe about 10 years and finally my doctor put me on Topamax and Lord do they work.... ... But these weird tingling sensations that I've been getting on my fingers and toes are very annoying... Ever since I started taking Topamax ( well Topiramate ) I started losing weight insanely... My Doc started me on 3 25mg for 7 days then 2 25mg for 7 more days then 1 25mg for 7 more days all in the morning and then after that i started on 100mg at bedtime. I sleep well, but i don't eat, all i do is drink water and coffee all morning and all afternoon... I've lost 9 lbs in the first month and now im losing a pound a day so a total of 14 lbs... i know this isn't normal.... but i'm loving the no headache and the weightloss...
Ugh. I get horrible headaches/ migraines especially when my diet changes. It makes it difficult to stay focused and even exercise. It seems lately with the headaches I am extremely exausted, I feel as if I didn't even get any sleep at night.
well Justified2 look on the bright side, at least weight loss is one side effect most people wouldn't mind having! Good luck!
Migraines and weight loss...
... But these weird tingling sensations that I've been getting on my fingers and toes are very annoying... Ever since I started taking Topamax ( well Topiramate ) I started losing weight insanely... My Doc started me on 3 25mg for 7 days then 2 25mg for 7 more days then 1 25mg for 7 more days all in the morning and then after that i started on 100mg at bedtime. I sleep well, but i don't eat, all i do is drink water and coffee all morning and all afternoon... I've lost 9 lbs in the first month and now im losing a pound a day so a total of 14 lbs... i know this isn't normal.... but i'm loving the no headache and the weightloss... 
