Need your thoughts please, my clever friends.

I almost never get migraine at any time other than the night.
They used to wake me, and still do if they are full blown.
BUT, can anyone advise me on this please?

Take this morning. I woke with maybe a 3 pain on the left side of my head.
This is 8am, and it isnt the head that woke me.
By 8,30 it is a 5, and by 9.30 it is a 7.
It is now 11.30. I have had breakfast and got up and dressed etc.
This is not a migraine, it is bearable, but I would rather not bear it.
I have no nausea or balance problems, just the pain.

Why does it come on after I wake?
I feel it in my neck, back of head, side of head and top. Also temple, but not like migraine.
What am I doing??? I dont understand this.

Yesterday (these are supposed to be my days off of migraine).
Same thing. In the end, because I had an errand to run, took 2 Anadin/Excedrin.
They helped in an hour or so, BUT it moved to the right....
Then stayed pretty much the same and gradually ebbed.
When I went to bed it was really just a bit of pressure pain.

So this is where we came in.....this morning, here we go again.
Could it be my neck? It used to be if I woke in pain, but not migraine, it gradually would often back off.
Now it backs on....

Anyone help please? This is not good news.
I am not getting my 3 days off any more, and it is depressing me....
Not sure what it is, why it is, or what to do...

Thanks all.

Pen

I have exactly those same kinds of pain in the same places and it is my neck. It also radiates down the muscles of my shoulders and back. I had an MRI two months ago and my neck is in very bad shape. Although, I get the pain in my neck, back of my skull, etc. and it turns into a migraine and is pretty much every day at this point. It also switches sides and no matter what kind of pillow I use, I often wake up with pain.

OTC meds don't really touch it any more, but if it's your neck, that would make sense since they help with inflammation. Just a thought.

Hi Pen,

Sorry to hear you're not getting a break. Just tossing out some ideas here....is it possible you have sleep apnea, maybe triggered by seasonal allergies? Or could you be a teeth grinder, which might explain neck pain? Any change to sleeping habits, like sleeping too long or sleep getting interrupted somehow? Any change to diet before bed? Staying hydrated?

Hope you get relief soon!

Angela

Thank you both. Cathy, I have wondered about my neck. Never had an MRI thought, they wont give me one I got an X Ray and a CT scan.
The OTC took the edge off, but nothing really deals with it. Sometimes it gets into my eyes as well, do you get that?

Angela, thank you. Not a grinder according to dentist and I tried a splint for a year to no avail with migraines.
Sleep problems, dont know, but I have Fibro, so quite likely. Sleeping a regular time best as I can. Have tried eating and not eating before bed. That's the enigma same as my migraines, no clues at all.

Thank you.

Yes, I do get it in my eyes also, especially right above my eyelid, up under the bone at the eyebrow. I often push there to help relieve it. Anything that bothers my muscles will trigger it. I was rubbing my grandson's back because he couldn't sleep, just a grandma kind of thing and because I held my arm out like that, I had a headache for most of two weeks. It gets up under my skull in the back (occiput) and makes all the muscles tight. Drives me crazy (well, crazier).

I'm not a good sleeper which is part of the fibro thing but lately I've been oversleeping because of the painkillers knocking me out. We just can't win.

Cathy, this is sounding so familiar. I just ate a sandwich and it has triggered a pain in my eyebrow (outer). I am sitting here holding it to ease the pain.....it is bizarre isnt it?

P

Maybe an option for the neck -- I wrote this before but I used to have the neck pain with every migraine. It was horrible. I would
dig my fingernails into it just to ease the pain of the neck. Anyway, when I had my car accident, they started acupuncture in my neck which I thought was going to be hogwash but went a long with it. It has been almost a year that I have had no neck pain. He would put several needles in my neck where I always got the pain and leave them in for maybe 10 minutes while I read a book--painless. I may keep going to him just to keep it that way.

Pen,

You mentioned fibromyalgia. Some quotes from The Magnesium Miracle by Carolyn Dean, M.D.:

"...using magnesium and treating yeast overgrowth can result in overall improvement of Chronic Fatigue and Syndrome and fibromyalgia of about 70-80 percent. Further improvement comes from treating low thyroid, estrogen dominance, and heavy metal toxicity."

"A study by Guy D. Abraham, M.D., showed positive results in the reversal of fibromyalgia with magnesium and malic acid supplementation." (Malic acid is found in apples.) "Fifteen patients with fibromyalgia who took magnesium (300-600 mg) and malic acid (1200-2400 mg) experienced improvement in their symptoms within the first forty-eight hours. Over an eight-week period of supplementation their degree of muscle tenderness and pain dropped from 19.6 points to 6.5 points, according to standardized medical scores." It's a very small sample...doesn't even qualify as a sample really....but it's something to consider.

Angela

With pillows, I have found that for the first few months, a new pillow will work with the neck pain. But, after a while, the neck pain starts again.

I first tried the foam side sleeper pillow and, lo an behold, I did not wake up with neck pain. However, after a while, the neck pain returned. I switched to the Chiari pillow and the same thing happened. I returned to the foam side sleeper pillow and again no waking up in the middle of the night with neck pain. I guess I will have to switch pillows every once in a while.

Any way, that is my experience.

Martin

Pen and Cathy,

You are both describing what I've been dealing with for a good ten years now. A MRI of my neck shows a bit of arthritis and a couple of slightly bulging discs. But the doctors always tell me "that shouldn't be causing me so much pain".

I get woken up all the time with morning headaches. sometime just moving around helps to wear off the pain, but lately they seem to hang around all day.

Usually it's starts with my neck knotting up and the pain radiates down into my shoulders and moves up to the top of my head settling behind one or both of my eyes. A bad one will start thumping then I'm reaching for the Imitrex injection or headed to the ER for Toradol. Most often it's a strong dull pain.

Over the years they have become chronic daily headaches. No preventative measures has helped. The only thing I can do is blunt the pain by first trying Ibuprofen, then I move to Norco, Imitrex Injectable, and finally Toradol.

I'm sorry I don't have an answer, but you're not alone.

Thanks all. Sorry to be brief. Bad head, jaw is killing me and no sign of the back improving.
Just called my son and told him I am not sure I will make the Christening tomorrow.....

P

You might want to have your dentist check to see if you have a temporal-mandibular joint problem. Just one more possible cause.

I hear that the International Space Station has an extra bed they are holding for you. Weightless sleeping does wonders for the neck and back.

Hal

Hal wrote:
I hear that the International Space Station has an extra bed they are holding for you. Weightless sleeping does wonders for the neck and back.

Hal

That sounds so great. Relief from the neck pain and being able to into space. That would be a dream come true for me.

Chris

Pen - Since you have endured pain as long as you have, have you considered a pain management program or at least ask for
a strong narcotic? When all else fails, at least you can function if you can get the pain down. I wish you could get the Migranol.

hi pen,

i also have fibro and one of my worst trigger points is the neck - i have recently been prescribed sifrol (prampipexole hydrocholride) 0.50mg before sleep at night and have been waking up pain free and like i have had a restful sleep - my fibro trigger points have also settled down somewhat from the better, refreshing sleep i have had and also wake up without that terrible hung over headache i usually have to deal with all day.

my fibro has been flaring up at the moment as i have stressful home renovations underway which is why i searched for a better drug to take other than pain killers which, by the way dont seem to help fibro, with the exception of Tramadol which i find very useful when fibro pain is bad. if i cant get rid of fibro pain in my neck it will trigger migraines.

sifrol are used off label for fibro as they were originally designed as an anti-parkinson's drug but i am finding them a great help at the moment

regards

annie

estre004 wrote:Pen - Since you have endured pain as long as you have, have you considered a pain management program or at least ask for
a strong narcotic? When all else fails, at least you can function if you can get the pain down. I wish you could get the Migranol.

Linda I have been waiting to get on to the pain management programme since last November.
Dr cocked up the referal, and then a new system meant I had to wait to go to hospital for woman there to refer me back. Mad!!
Now I have a letter for an assessment in November (yes a whole year). This lasts 3 hours so I should be so lucky....
Then if they decide to have me, they will see me in January!!!!!

As for the Migranol. It's coming here in an inhaler, not sure when, but soonish.

P