Daily Migraines?

Anyone out there suffering with these like me? I am sick and tired of them! Migraines since 16 but never this bad and not daily - it was like the perfect storm hit me in November and my whole body went into some kind of tailspin. Every single day I get prodome, aura and headache - usually hits me after lunch. I am on Cymbalta 30 mg for anxiety and now up to 15 mg of Nori. I've tried Topamax and Ami - both didnt sit well with me. While I am feeling better than I was in Jan/Feb it's taxing on the mind and body. I keep wondering how long I can actually keep this up without going nuts! I was on disability for two months because I couldnt function - now I'm easing back to work part-time. I'm scared I'm going to relapse. I keep telling myself when I start getting the prodome that it's "only migraine", dont freak out, it'll pass but sheesh, I've about had it with all of this!!!

How do the rest of you daily sufferers cope???

We all go through a process of what works and what does not. For me dealing with chronic headaches and migraines for over 25 years, I have learned a lot. One thing I have learned is that if I want to get better I have to do a lot of work. I have to take care of me first. I stared with finding a great doc. One that listend to me.

I pray a lot. Do alot of destressing things, like eating only natural and clean foods, resting a lot, just doing things that put my mind in a calm state. I learned for me that stress was a HUGE factor in my progress of getting worse.

Try to keep a migraine diary. This will help you and your doc to see what is keeing you in this cycle of pain.

I do have to say that for me I learned that my migraine Monster is not going away. So I had to arm myself with a lot of knowledge and never give up. My monster is not going to win.

I have had severe daily migraines for almost three years now. When they first hit, I was charging along in my career, surpassing my peers of the same age in my ideals of success and enjoying a healthy and active social life, traveling, making art, cooking, oh so many fun things. Now it takes all of my energy to get up a take a shower.
It is a hard transition to make and I am still struggling with finding ways to not go crazy having this dramatically different life. The hardest thing for me to adjust to was accepting that daily migraines are a serious and debilitating medical condition and that I deserve as much compassion and treatment as people with other disabilities. I have found that the Medical community and the world in general don’t take daily migraines very seriously. I have friends that after three years of this, still don’t understand that it’s not as easy as just taking an aspirin and lying down for an hour.

Set aside the awful, crazy making pain and the terrible medication side effects. I often feel like a burden or get lonely and bored and want so badly to work or even just go to the grocery store. But when I push myself and try to work, clean or even just take my dog for a walk I often get so sick I can’t get out of bed for days and have to go to the ER.

Now my main goal is to spend the little bit of energy I have on taking care of myself, not pushing myself too far and respecting my boundaries. When I let myself rest and be calm I am able to have a more hopeful attitude and more energy to deal with the doctors and all the other no so fun but necessary stuff.

Really, the only way I stay sane is to try to find little tiny things that make me feel a bit better. I’ve picked up knitting, I take a lot of fun pictures around the house, I write when I can look at the computer screen and have learned to enjoy solitaire. If I can find one little thing each day that makes me smile for a second, I can try again the next day.

It can be so frustrating, and depressing, and oh yeah...painful! Just to get through a day, but it is yet another day down! I have learned to do what I can, when I can, and stop worrying about the things I can't! Does that sound like a 12-step program? I often feel that it does! LOL I have obviously retained my sense of humor! Seriously though, accepting limitations is the hardest thing to do. It is hard to see yourself once able to do this and that. It is hard to accept that you might not be able to do all those things again, or for now. BUT there are other, very rewarding things you can do, you just have to discover them.

If you can't work, you can't. Yes, it sucks. I so wish to be a productive member of society, going to work everyday, and doing my part. Unfortunately, life gave me this, and i had to learn that maybe my part didn't involve going to work everyday. That does not make me any less of a person, or any less special, it just means I don't have a job. What frustrates me now is normal, healthy, pain-free people, who complain about their job and call off work when they feel like it or have something dumb, like stub their toe! (I doubt that happens, but you never know!) It is almost a slap in the face to me. I would take their job in a minute, if I could.

If you can try to accept that "this sucks, but hey, lets make the best of what we can", it will go a long way. You just do what you can. That is all there is. You look forward to the times when you do feel better, and you have to hold that in your mind. There will be times, though they may be few and far between, that you will feel better. Maybe just enough to sit outside for a few minutes, but when you get that, you enjoy it and hold it inside until the next time you can. good luck.