How about ending the day with a migraine?

Lately I've been ending the day with a migraine, a new development for me.

Yesterday I had a good day, no pain, not even a daily headache. Then around 8 or so, the migraine hit, and by 10 I was in agony. I didn't fall asleep until I heard my brother-in-law leave for work at 6:30 the next morning. (I live with my sister, her husband, and their 3-year-old.) I was miserable. Tramadol, Ibuprofen, and Imitrex didn't do much.

I woke up this morning around 10:30 with moderate pain, it's 12:30 now and I feel ok, thank goodness. I don't know if it'll come back. I had the same thing happen night before last, and last week.

This is a new cycle for me, I never used to get night migraines. I don't know what could be causing them except stress. I was online job hunting yesterday. I get upset emotionally doing that - it's the whole "can't find a job (still), no one wants to employ me, what did I put myself through school for," etc. thing, it's very depressing. 6 months and no luck. I don't want to be depressed about it, but it's hard not to be, and it's hard not to stress about where your income is going to come from when unemployment runs out. Esp. if you're paying for your healthcare out of pocket.

But anyway, this isn't meant to be a rant on unemployment and healthcare costs, I just meant that the stress is the only thing I can think of that might've triggered a migraine. I was online job hunting until 5. Migraine came on about 3 hours later. I ate dinner around 6:30 - salmon and vegetables. Salmon doesn't usually give me migraines. I seasoned it with cajon spices, which I've done before without problems.

Any thoughts? I was "this close" to going to the ER. Migraine was an 8, which I haven't had in about 4 or 5 months, not since I went back on topomax. I'm not used to anything over a 6 anymore, and it really threw me. If I had health insurance, I would've gone to the ER. I didn't go because I couldn't afford it.

Thanks for listening to me vent.

I don't know what causes these night migraines but this is close to the only ones I get anymore.
I am under a lot of stress, too. I don't know if thats any clue. I also take topamax split into
two doses. I was thinking the other day maybe it's because when the morning dose starts to
"wear off" I get one? I don't know. I was going to talk to my neuro at the next appointment.

I occasionally get BIG ones that last all day. I rarely get ones I wake up with, although it does
happen. Recently I had one that lasted a few days straight with no relief. That was terrible.
But, 95% of the time I get them at night around 6 or 7pm and I can't fall asleep until 4 or 5am.
Fioricet relieves the pain and relaxes me. At first, it was great it put me straight to sleep but
the last few times i've taken it the caffeine has been keeping me up. Eek! I quit coffee so
I have been more sensitive to it. Now my sleep schedule is all screwy and I still get these "night"
migraines about 3x a week

If you figure it out, let me know! I'm tired of being in pain all night long.

Exertion after the all day stresses?
You have some underlying condition with no apparent symptoms so you don't know you have it? it can be as simple as some viral infection, i.e. mild flu.
You are exposed to some smell barely detected that finally gets to you at the end of the day?

I dunno, but you know what - M doesn't stay the same throughout our life anyway, it transforms. So perhaps at this point in your life your pattern simply have changed?

I hope whatever it is you'll get to the bottom of it. Most of all, that'll stop.

Risa

In my 6 years the time has often changed I have not had the evening ones though.

I did have 2-3 am and also 7-8 am wake up.

currently 3-5 pm . also they are only 5-6 severe .

2007-2008 8-9 severe. doing better

Risa, Good point. They do change throughout our lives. The migraines I get now are soooo different from the ones I got in my 20's. Maybe now that I'm getting close to 40 (argh!!! I can't believe I'm close to 40!) they are changing again?

Gia, really? That's interesting. I thought this nighttime onset thing was weird and uncommon. We should compare notes.

I think it could be stress-related, definitely. What about depression? I've been very depressed lately. I'm trying to figure out if there is a connection between migraine frequency and depression. Maybe that's a whole different thread.

Bubbs, I'll send you a PM when i'm not suffering the migraine from hell.

OK

Hope you feel better soon.

I just spent 2 days staying over at a girlfriend's house. Very restful, my house is very stressful. Not a single headache, let alone migraine, while I was gone. So definitely stress seems to be a trigger.

We'll see what happens now that I'm back in hell. LOL