Ideas for Severe Migraine

[BeeKeeper]

Hey all,

I'm having massive migraines like i have never had before.  Truly blinding, cripling, and ones that have kept me sick for the last couple of days.  About two weeks ago my pdoc boosted the level of all my meds (lamictal, cymbalta, lithium, trazadone) back to where i had been because she and the therapists are concerned i'm unraveling or shutting down.  I was fine the first week and then hit a major stress trigger that I can't outrun.

I'm going to my regular doctor tomorrow for help, but was wondering if anyone else is/has struggled with this level of migraine.  Like I said, I've had them before on a regular basis all my life and lithium actually helped (though it gives me severe tremors at times)...but these are just fierce.

Thanks for any thoughts.

[bernie40]

Hi Beekeeper, I'm in the same boat - in fact have spent all of today in bed with major pain and nausea.  I saw my doc yesterday and have got a prescription for Pizotifen which is a form of antihistamine and is supposed to act as a preventative.  Other meds that can be prescribed to prevent migraine are Beta-blockers and also Topomax (topamax).  Normal migraine treatments have been useless and I can't take beta-blockers.  I shall be taking my first Pizotifen tonight so I shall have to see how it works.

If you are having more than about 2 a month (I was having up to 4 in a week!) then a preventative is the way to go.

[zzzmykids]

Hi there BeeKeeper and glad to see you back...but sorry about migraines.  Mine were female related and had from 11 to when the yanked the ol stuff right out!  I get headaches and a rare migraine but don't take meds for them anymore.
Here's my nonmed remedy when in grade and h.s. and pregnant.......hot fudge brownie icecream sunday with a can or bottle of cocacola. The "hair of the dog" the hot fudge brownie sunday can cause it but it can also take it away during one.
Don't eat tomatoes, onions, chocolate///unless in a migraine....pork, hot dogs, eggs or milk, they are all triggers'
At my worst it was daily in my twenties and took an unstable prescript cause the others didn't work nor did the shots.
Get an MRI, go see a chiropractic kinesiologist...no quacks please and see a neurologist.
Goodluck,
zzzmykids

[Mstrube]

I know this will probally sound weird to most, but i usually take a hot towel soaked in rosemary water and lavender, wrap it around my head and breath deep as i can until the pain subsides. My grampa did this for me for years. I've had migraines since i was little. It helped for those days i could barely move, see, etc!

[corlenbelspar]

I have migraines roughly four or five times a month.  I've had two that I ended up in the hospital with because one I couldn't withstand the pain of and had to be given IV pain killers and the other made my body temperature drop so much and caused me to be so incoherent and my pulse to be so weak that we thought my blood pressure had dropped dangerously low.  I've found if I take two Excedrin Migraine pills when they start to onset that it curbs them fairly well.  When I was having them because of withdrawal from my medication it worked for those as well.  Might not work for you since every medicine works different for everybody but you can try it.

[zzzmykids]

Like Mstrube's idea.  Haven't tried that one.  There is another one that works but didn't mention it because I have forgotten if you are married....sounds bizarre but discovered it in a book on migraines in my twenties......if all else fails........make love with hubby to both of your satisfaction and completion, while doing so your head will pound but w/o intensity in the drive there it will help at completion...ok thought of two others.....

One, have someone massage your big toes and make toe go in circular motion pulling up a little on it as it is being massaged.

Two, put clothespins on each finger for a temorary time, release and then do again.
These two I did in Jr and Senior high, they helped....my parents are against meds or thinking anyone can not handle pain so rarely back then did i get aspirin and tylenol was just coming out.  But I got my hotfudge sundays!!!!!!! oh.....it did not make me gain weight..I was a size zero on our wedding day and after having our first child, I knew I was fat at 112.  Geesh what I wouldn't give to be there NOW!!!!!
Get better and don't laugh too hard during a migrain or you will pound all day.
zzzmykids

[corlenbelspar]

I don't know if Tylenol or Aspirin would of worked for you anyway because from personal experience and what I hear from general consensus, migraines are resistant to that stuff usually.  Some people are even extremely unlucky and nothing at all works for them and they have horrible migraine headaches or they're allergic to the stuff that would work.

[BeeKeeper]

thanks all for the ideas/thought!  After a week of daily intense migraines and nausea...I'm finally getting some relief.  One thing that I did try that seemed to help break the cucle was Advil Migraine.  I't over the counter.  They are still there...but at a lower intensity and only at the end of the day so far...not all day long.  New work week is here...so I'll see how long that lasts! ;)  thanks again!