Hello, Im also new.. My Migraine Story

Hi, I just stumbled upon this site and thought I would post. Maybe my migraine story will be of interest to someone and maybe also helpful. I just turned 52 and have been having migraines since the age of 17 (yuck I can remember the very first one). They were very regular, always every 2 weeks, each one lasting for 22 hours exactly. They were the most revolting things. I didnt get strange lights or visual disturbances in advance.. just a disgusting extremely painful headache, always on my right side, nausea, dizziness, not being able to sort of focus/concentrate and register my surroundings... and continuous vomiting. It was impossible to do anything with a migraine. Nothing would help, nothing would make it feel better. I would have to go to bed and stay there, with a bucket, until it decided to go away (always lasting 22 hours). Why 22 hours though, every time, I don't know.. thats just bizarre That was not the end of it though, although the headache and vomiting would stop, the next day I felt so drained and worn out it would take another 1 - 2 days to recover from the migraine. Of course I went to doctors, homoeopath, naturopath, chiropractors, had a brain scan, all that and nobody knew the cause and nobody could offer me a treatment so I suffered and put up with them until I was pregnant with my first child. Amazingly they stopped 3 months into the pregnancy and didnt return until my daughter arrived aaahhhh a clue that they were hormonal.. well it was an obvious clue to me but, apparently, not to my doctor... DER. More suffering, more putting up with it until I was once again expecting with my second child. The same thing happened.. no migraines until a couple of days later, in hospital, after my son was born. Aaahhhh another clue, surely its hormonal. Oooppps doctor is still DERRR. A few years later we moved to the country and I had a new doctor. I asked him about a new tablet that had been in the news recently and we decided I should give it a go, Imigran (Sumatriptan). Hmmm I waited for a migraine, took one tablet and it actually helped. The migraine would take a couple of hours to ease off and then finally go. I wouldnt be feeling 100%, but I could at least function and do what I had to do instead of going to bed throwing up every 5 minutes. I told the doctor it had stopped the migraine and he said, thats a good sign because if you take Imigran and it doesn't work, its not a migraine... so now at least I knew they were migraines I tried taking the Imigran a few times but, alas, guess what, they stopped the migraine for the time being but it would always come back the next day, like it was determined to finish doing what it wanted to do... ugh more weirdness I figured what was the point, since they were so expensive at the time, just for one tablet (not sure if they still are) if it would just come back the next day... no point really, so I just kept one tablet in my purse for special occasions etc. Luckily a little while after that my doctor suggested I try another medication (beta blocker) Inderal. They have helped me a lot. They didnt stop the migraines, I still had them regularly every 2 weeks but they were much milder, much better, so I could still do stuff I had to do, still function and still go out if I had to. Anyway I still take my Imigran (twice a day) but the migraines have way eased off so that I rarely get them now and if I do they are very slight, completely bearable, sometimes hardly noticeable.. and only last a short time, a couple of hours The only thing with the Imigran is, that they sometimes give me odd hallucinations when Im in bed at night and not quite asleep. I am awake and I see things like spiders and people coming out of the walls, crawling up the curtain and walking along the ceiling. hahaha I just lie there, or sometimes I sit up and watch... Ive had them for so long now that they don't worry me, theyre not scary to me. Im used to them and find them quite interesting and amusing now. The pharmacist said Imigran can cause weird dreams, but that's ok with me. I prefer them to a migraine any day for sure.... and no, I don't take anything else. Imigran is the only medication I take.
So that is my migraine story. Sorry it is so long. I do waffle on a bit... I know many people have migraines much worse than mine, much more debilitating and more often, but I hope this post is of interest to someone and maybe can help a little. I am concluding that MY migraines were due to hormones, since they stopped completely during pregnancy and have pretty much stopped now that I am "old"

Anyway here's hoping all of you can get rid of those disgusting migraines, I know people who don't get them don't get it.. but believe me, I get it

Best wishes

hi Dilkusha, and welcome

just wanted to say I chuckled a bit at your post, you could be me!!

our stories are identical, right down to the stopping in both pregancies the drugs you tried, even the imigran supressing a migraine but then it comes back, I laughed at this because migraine DOES seem to want to finish what it started the stubborn things!!

I'm a little confused about one thing though, do you mean you take the betablockers twice a day and not the imigran? as imigran is not recommended to take every day, I only get 6 a month!! I am also on betablockers but just tapering off them as they do nothing for my migraines and give me weird half asleep hallucinations (patterns on the ceiling ect).

Thanks for posting, you have given me a little hope at least, I am now 39 and praying that when menopause comes I get some relief. I was also 17 when I got my first migraine and also remember it lol....I also had total relief after the 3rd month of pregnancy with both my boys. The migraines came back very soon after I had each child.

I have other food related triggers too though, am hoping that once the hormonal side of things is over I can at least reduce the frequence of my migraines.

Hello! Welcome aboard!

Hi chelle and Jul thankyou for the welcome.
Thanks for your reply Jul I tried to just write my experiences for interest and in the hope that maybe someone might find something in my story to help. It looks like you might be my twin lol I take Inderal twice a day, 2x 40mg in the morning, 2 before bed. (Actually I used to take Inderal but now take Deralin, sold as "generic" here... which is the same stuff, just a different name. The name of the drug is Propanolol). I hope Im not confusing you, sorry if I am. I havent taken Imigran for a very long time, gave up on them long ago.
A couple of things I forgot to mention in my post is, I also take aspirin. It seems to be the only thing that will sort of help. I read that aspirin shrinks the blood vessels in your head when theyre inflamed... or something... oh maybe it dilates them when theyre shrunk!!! LOL Im not sure and too lazy at the moment to google it. haha but dont hold me to that lol Im not an expert. Anyway aspirin does help me. The other thing I tried when I started getting the migraines was Cafergot... but... whoa.... GROSS!! and they didnt work.
Regarding the fact that you think your migraines might be due to hormones, couldn't your doctor order some tests to check your hormone levels? something like that... maybe theyre caused by some sort of spike or dip each month. Im sure mine were, since they were regular every 2 weeks, in the middle of the month and at the end. My doctor back then wasnt interested in my theory though and didnt order tests, and since I was younger and not so bossy back then, I didnt sort of push it, but then the Inderal came along and helped me so I didnt worry.
Anyway it was great to hear from you and good to hear someone has had a similar experience

Dilkusha

Haha funny that the stuff is called Propanolol.. with a lol at the end.. because it causes major LOLs for me with those hallucinations

Welcome to our forum Dilkusha.

I would very much like to read your post, but I find it too difficult to read it as it is, so I wonder if you can possibly re-edit your text, by dividing it into more smaller paragraphs, because most of us here find it quite impossible to read large block of text. Thank you.

I hope you did not mind my mentioning it.

Mini (UK)

Funny that you mention it....one of the other types of migraines I suffered from was hormonal and it took me ten years and changing gyn drs to get something done about it. Turned out I had severe endometriosis causing my estrogen levels to spike, therefore at the age of thirty I was in the hospital having a total hysterectomy. Now I only suffer from two different type of migraines.

Hello and welcome to the site. If your migraines are hormonal, you may find some relief with bio-identical progesterone. The rise in progesterone is why your headaches stopped during pregnancy. See this site for more info on that.

Www. Migraine-Headaches-information.com

I started taking the natural progesterone along with magnesium and vitamin D about 3 years ago, and my headache days went from 80% down to around 20%, and of much lower intensity. More recently I added Nadolol which is a blood pressure medication, and that has significantly reduced them from there.

My best advice is to keep trying things. Yes I know you have tried so many things, which we all have. But then suddenly when you have about given up hope, something will finally work. And it seems to be different things for different people. So hang in there, and keep trying. There is no relief in giving up.