new to list - new to treatment.
Hi all, I just joined the list a couple of days ago and thought today would be a good day to say hi! After suffering from migraines since I was 19 (I'm now 27) I am finally going to see my Doctor today to ask for medication. It took me a couple of years to realise what I was suffering from. I just thought I kept getting a dreadful virus - Doctors even admitted me to hospital twice with suspected meningitis in the early days! Now of course it seems obvious that these times when I thought I was dying or my head would explode were migraines. Since then I have either been pregnant or breastfeeding the whole time and unable to take anything but paracetomol (useless!) though I did try Migraleve for a while (useless for me too!) So today I am going to see my GP and ask for something stronger to help - but I know nothing about medication for migraine. Since stopping breastfeeding I realise that my migraines are menstrually related as I always get one the day my period starts. But I get them in between too - I find my trigger factors are missing breakfast or other meals, rushing about too much. I get hypoglycaemic anyway - if I miss a meal I get very cranky, can't concentrate, get the shakes and generally fall to pieces :o) I have sinus problems too but my migraines aren't always related to my sinuses. I know when a migraine is coming - I start yawning a lot all of a sudden and sometimes I find I feel quite high for a couple of days before. I also find I need to urinate a lot just before and during the early stages of the migraine. My stomach stops working though as any tablets taken are never digested at all! Then feel like someone has thumped me in the nose and the left side of the nose starts to throb. Then the pain takes over the whole left side of my head. I always vomit and then the vomiting occurs every 15 minutes for anything between two and six hours - 8 hours at the most. I can't bare light, noise, smells or the slightest movement - no one can even touch the bed as I can feel the slightest movement. Afterwards I feel weak and shaky for a couple of days. My last migraine was last weekend - bad timing as three friends and I went to see The Blair Witch Project (rubbish film by the way!) and I sat in the cinema with a bad migraine and missed the last few minutes of the film due to vomiting in the toilets! :o( As I had driven everyone I had to drive us all home too - no idea how I managed to get us home safely! I knew I had a migraine but for some reason I still went out that evening, stupidly hoping the migraine would just go away! Will I never learn? Well, I just wanted to join in to share what the Doctor says later with you all and ask your opinion of any treatment I get given. Thank you for listening! And by the way, I live in Manchester, England with my Husband and three young children. I was homeschooling them but this September the oldest two went to school as my migraines were interfering too often. My family are amazingly supportive of me when I have a migraine - even my two year old somehow knows to be so good and leave me alone when I have my bad heads! Bws Jane
Hi Jane~ welcome! Since you're in England I can't help you with the meds, different names? I have been doing ok with the "Triptans. I was on Imetrix for a few years, some side effects but then I developed a rare muscular reaction. So we tried Zomig, better but I got a rare (again) reaction of Phlebitis. I am now taking Maxalt & doing ok, it aborts the Migraine pain within an hour, not always but the majority of the time. Unfortunately my HMO limits the presciption to 6 a month! I have fought to get more but they tripled my co-pay to $105 to get 18 pills. (plus the over $300 a month we pay for the insurance) So they are expensive here but it may be different for you? I am 46, had this Brain Disorder for 33 years. You will hear from most of us all the preventatives (beta & calcium channel blockers)we've tried, pain killers, herbs, supplements, pain clinics, Chiro, accupuncture etc. Some things have worked for some of us but it seems if they do help it's only temporary. : I do hope you get a DR that will try to help you. There are still many people & even some DRs that think Migraines are *just headaches*. As you know there are so many symptoms besides the brain pain. We have talked here before about how important it is to have the support of family & friends. And we have vented about trying to deal with co workers, keep a job, just function enough to get to work. Hope we can be of some help to you. Take care~ ~Lyn~
Welcome Jane! How did you ever manage to make it through Blair Witch with the shaky cameras! Actually maybe you didn't since you ended up vomiting. :( Some people got nauseous without a headache! Sorry you were so sick. I hope that you find relief with some meds and a management plan, that your doctor will work with you in a partnership to find out what works. That's what it takes. It can take some experimenting. Treatment is so individualized, whether you end up with prophylaxis meds and /or rescue or treatment meds. There's more and more options all the time. I could really identify with some of your symptoms. Especially the vomiting. I get it with the bad ones and like you, I'll vomit every 15 minutes for several hours if I can't stop it with meds - if for some reason I don't have them on hand. It's called intractable vomiting - the chemoreceptor zone in the brain (which is the vomiting center) gets turned on and just won't shut off. It's exhausting and gruesome! :o Eventually feels like my stomach is going to come out inside out. I can stop it though quite reliably with Phenergan suppositories. After inserting one, I stop vomiting right away and it helps me fall asleep. It's a godsend. It also acts to potentiate the effects of pain meds. You might want to ask your doc about it. I too am weak and feel a bit strange for a day or two after a bad one. I think it must be what feeking post-ictal must be like - the period of time after a seizure. You're still not quite right. Things are still too loud, fast. bright...don't want to move fast... I'm glad you found this list. Let us know the outcome of your doctor appointment! Take care, Corinne (zencorinne@...)
You're not the only one who tries to go out thinking the migraine would just go away; I do that often. Once in awhile I get surprised, but often I don't. A word concerning drugs; there are a lot of drugs mentioned on this list by their US names, and sometimes those are different from what we call them here in the UK. Also there are some things commonly used in the US which we don't seem to have or use here. If you want help with names, etc, contact me and I'll do what I can. It does get a bit confusing. I can't think of a migraine clinic near you either; I know there are two in London, and one in Belfast. I think I heard there's one in Edinburgh, but beyond that I don't know of any. I'll see what I can find out. I live in East Kilbride, just south of Glasgow, by the way. Hope this helps. Eve -- There was a young lady called Perkins Who had quite a craving for gherkins. One evening at tea She ate twenty-three, And pickled her internal workin's. (author unknown)
We do have Maxalt (both tablets and melt) here, and Zomig. Our name for Imitrex is Imigran. Hope that helps. As a matter of interest, we are charged a flat rate for all prescriptions, but if you need more than 14 a year you can get a prepayment certificate, and if you fit certain criteria you can be exempt from payment. I was getting the prepayment certificates until I realised that because of my blindness, etc, and the fact that I can't always get out to get my own meds I could qualify for an exemption. It does help; I'd hate to be limited by money to what meds I could usel. Eve -- There was a young lady called Perkins Who had quite a craving for gherkins. One evening at tea She ate twenty-three, And pickled her internal workin's. (author unknown)