New here, just had my first migraine...

It was terrible.

I was rear-ended by a bus in March of this year and have had neck pain since. An MRI showed herniated discs at C4-5 and C5-6 with spinal cord compression and irritation of the nerve root to my right arm. I'm probably looking at surgery for spinal fusion later this fall, but the doctor wanted to give epidurals a try in the meantime.

I had an uneventful epidural 7 days ago. 3 days later, I was working on the computer when I realized that, as I looked at a word, I couldn't see the word to the left of it. This was in both eyes affecting the left field of vision, but seemed more pronounced in my left eye. As I sat trying to "see" the blank spot, I realized that it was a small oval that seemed to be getting larger by the minute. It was surrounded on the top, bottom and left by a zig-zag white line that was flashing. Like Christmas lights. Inside the oval was a distorted area that reminded me of the movie Predator. Remember how the predator was invisible, but you could see movement because of the distortion? Just like that.

Over about 40 minutes, the distortion surrounded by flashing zig-zag lights grew in size until the zig-zag lights disappeared from my field of vision. The distortion gradually resolved over about another hour or so.

2 days after that happened (5 days after the epidural), I started having a nagging headache that has been more or less par for the course several days a week since the accident. But the thing that made it awful was it came with nausea and vomiting. For almost 24 hours, I couldn't move off the couch. My head was pounding, no medicine helped, and I was throwing up about once an hour.

I spoke with the doctor who did the epidural, and he confirmed that I most likely had an epidural-induced migraine. He said they are more common with people who have had migraines before, but I have never had one before in my life. It was just awful. I couldn't even go to work, and I'm not one to miss work for any little reason.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Having no experience with migraine, I'm not sure what to do. I know the lay down in a dark room thing (but yeah, right, how the heck am I supposed to do that with a job and 2 kids?). What else? What are the best over-the-counter meds? I'm not a big pill-popper, but I'll do anything to alleviate a migraine in the future. I have a prescription for Vicodin. Is that preferred over OTC meds?

Thanks in advance!

Pangea

Hi Pangea,

I too suffered a herniated disk C6-7, that led to chronic headaches and migraine. The epidurals helped relieve the major pain and the shooting pain down my arm. But I still ended up with chronic migraine. I had never suffered from migraines or really even headaches prior to that event. Mine are without visual aura. It sounds like yours are with.

Bad news is I'm still having them 6 years later. My doctor says once your body "learns to have migraines", it doesn't seem to unlearn it.

The best med to take is widely varied by individual. What works for one person is a nightmare for the next. Unfortunately it is pretty much medication roulette to see what works for you. OTCs don't do anything at all for my headaches. I take 5 mg of oxycodone for pain, and Frova to help abort the headache if I feel it coming on, which works some of the time. For preventatives I take vitamin D, magnesium and bio-identical progesterone which brought my headache frequency down to 20% from 80%. I could not take any of the preventative medications due to awful side effects. Also ice packs or a cool damp wash cloth on the forehead are very soothing when you have a migraine.

So, I hope that helps some. You certainly have my empathy!

Pangea, I am so terribly sorry for what is happening to you. I cannot help it but I feel furious about this Doctor who so irresposnibly started the whole thing by experimenting with the epidural on you, knowing that it can cause migraines and never warning you about the danger. Hhe had a duty to do so. He obviously knew. I do not think I would trust him about any other treatemnt any more.
Also prescribing you with Vicodin, often one of the last line of defence against pain straight away, as it can cause dependency and always needs to be taken with great caution. He should have tried some other options first. Like a short course of Prendisone, or triptans for example.

Perhaps you need to think of changing him, and finding a neurologist who specialises in migraine - not all of them do, BTW.
I cannot give more specific advice about your case, since I had M since childhood, and as far as I know there was nothing specific that started them, except my extreme sensitivity to all environmental, food and chemical triggers.

However, since you are suffering from a typical prodrome - various signs, such as aura indicating that M is coming - and your other symptoms: vomiting, light intolerance and the perisistent pain, all indicate that indeed you are suffering from M.

There is a whole group of medicines called triptans, which has been developed especially for M, that might be worth trying and the good news is, that for many of us they are working well (even after many years). Try to look them up on the net, as they are several to try.
For me the most effective is Imitrex - sumatriptan (I am in UK, so it called here Imigran).

I am also on a preventative called Gabapentin, which makes my M less painful, and less frequent, but yes, it has side effects; it makes me sleepy and often tired.

There is also another effective M treatemntm but this must be taken under medical supervision (I had mine as an in-patient in hospital at the time, and it was very effective) and it is called DHE45 and it is given as an injection. This might be helpful in case, of persistent pain.

If I have more severe bouts of M which does not want to go away, which nowayday fortunately tdoes not happen very often, I know that I can break the pattern of the daily pain, by taking a short course of low dose of Prendisolone over 6 days period.
But P is a corticosteroid and can have very serious s/e, so it must not be taken often. But It can be useful in some circumstances.

I am also taking Vit D3 and try to eat presrvative free food, as well as to avoid all the many triggers that can start the next M attack, In this way I have managed, overy the years, to make my M more manageable.

But both Prendisolone and triptans are only on prescription, and although in UK we can buy Imitrex over the counter, I have mine prescribed, so I don't have to pay for it.

BTW you need to be careful about taking OTC painkillersy, since if taken frequently, they can cause a re-cound daily headache.
I am so sorry about your pain, it makes me so cross with such irresposible doctors.

I am not sure if any of this helps, but try not to despair at this stage, just look for the right doctor and deal with the problem agressively, staright away. It just possible that it might be a one off event.
Sorry this is so long, but I hope that some of it might be of some use.

I wish you all the best and hope you will soon find some answers and relief from pain, soon.
Mini