Another Topamax Question...

I began taking Topamax in early October. 25 mg per day and titrating my way up to 100 mg per day now.

I am experiencing fewer migraine days...yay! I'll save the side effects for another discussion. :/

My question is this.....whenever I start to feel a migraine develop now, it kind of lingers around for days in the predrome stage. It's not quite fully developing into a full-blown attack. I'm on day 5ish of a dull throb that hasn't really developed into a migraine.

I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place....I don't want to take rescue meds and "waste" them. I don't want to start popping Aleve or Ibuprofen and risk rebounds. I've never really experienced this with my migraines before.

Any advice is appreciated. My flexiril/naproxen combo helps, but it causes rebound......

Tara

In the short time I was on it, I did notice the same effect. Like the migraine was trying, but couldn't succeed. In my case, found just doing something in the way of exercise or going out seemed to do the trick. When describing the feeling to my girlfriend, I described as feeling what normal people must feel like. A headache not always turning to a migraine and just kind of 'going away'.

It reared its ugly head last night and is in full force today.

Oh Lordy, Trutland!!! I had a real reaction to where you wrote that you don't want to waste the rescue meds! NOOOOO! It's never a waste. That long drawn out prodrome is what's telling you to take the meds! It's saying "here's a migraine and it's less severe" (which is what Topomax is promising) and if you're like me you'd find the migraine would respond much more easily to the rescue meds.

I've been in exactly the same boat regarding trying to figure out whether to take abortives with the low grade indications of migraine which sometimes didn't develop full blown. I was on Topamax for 10 months last year. For rescue/abortive I use Imigran which costs me $8 per tablet. I think I had added pressure from myself because I just really wanted to live a migraine free life and I was putting up with cognitive side-effects of Topamax and felt it was only "worth" all the side effects if I didn't have to take abortive medications. But in the end that was just wishful thinking. I came to a point where I realised that Topamax made my migraines less severe, less frequent, and less reactive but they were still migraines - and plenty of them. Migraine prodrome is part of migraine. Eventually I realised it made no sense to separate them out in my mind - it's just two stages of the same neurological condition which differ in pain intensity. So I decided, "Take those abortives!" I took a lower dose if I thought it will kill the migraine - but I no longer hesitated.

I also wonder what is happening to your shoulder and neck muscles during that waiting period of the low grade migraine - it must be a more tense time which could also contribute to the onset of the big one. Also, having to spend a week in low grade migraine is just no fun when you could kill it with your trusty abortive. So if you haven't already guessed (haha) I am recommending that you try to stop thinking in terms of wasting abortives - if you get the signs that you're getting a migraine, go ahead and kill it!

Hope you feel better soon!