Five-year migraine - no cause found

[lrnunnery]

Hello, for the past five years, my husband has been suffering from the SAME migraine headache - it never goes away.  We've been to numerous neurologists, internal medicine doctors, chiropractors, gastro. Dr's. He's endured countless MRI's, CAT and CT scans, blood-work, and even a spinal tap.  The medicines that he's tried have done everything from swell him up like a tick, to waste him away to skin and bones.  He has migraine with aura, light and sound sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, imbalance, nightmares, all-over body pain.  The doctors tried him on a 3-day caffeine derivative back when it had only been 2 months and it killed the pain for 5 days, after which the migraine returned full blast and has not left him since.  From the different drugs and their intense dose levels, he has suffered kidney stones and a calcified gall bladder that resulted in its removal.  I saw that same Mystery Diagnosis show about the lady with the Schwannoma and had to ask - is this a possibility I should take to his Dr., or does this not sound like a likely symptom/cause match-up?  Any help would be so greatly appreciated - I'm grasping at every straw i can find at this point.

Thanks.


This discussion is related to Constant SEVERE headaches for almost a year and no answers???.

[LivingInHope]

Doctornee got my juices going here- in addition to headaches beginning with chewing, if he wakes up with a headache, he might be clenching or grinding his teeth.  I have severe TMJ issues myself and I clench at night.  The last time I went without wearing my flat planed stabilization splint for the TMJ, I got a horrific migraine (though I recently had a maxillofacial specialist claim you can't get a migraine from your TMJ).  

Another thing- if he's waking up with the headache (besides the posture thing & neck, likely already had addressed with his chiropractor) is sleep apnea.  Has he been tested for this?

I had an acupuncturist say her best success in treating migraine patients was with those with daily headaches.  Has he ever tried acupuncture with someone who really knew what they were doing?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
If your husband has a headache almost daily, what he has is in all probability not a simple migraine but a chronic daily headache (CDH). This can be the primary type—without any cause. One simple reason for daily headaches with nausea is compression of cervical spinal nerves. Another reason is TMJ, especially if the headache starts with chewing. The third reason could be severe acidity with or without GERD. The CDH could also be secondary to trauma, raised intracranial hypertension, high blood pressure, temporal arteritis etc. If the headache lasts for less than 4 hours then it could be a chronic cluster headache or a chronic paroxysmal hemicranias. If it lasts for more than 4 hours it could be chronic tension headache, chronic migraine or altered migraine or hemicranias continua. Indomethacin is the drug of choice in hemicranias continua. In fact the diagnosis is considered confirmed if a patient responds to Indomethacin. Discuss this with his neurologist if he has not already tried this. Also al the other conditions mentioned will have to be ruled out.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[LivingInHope]

Thoughts- did they ever do an endocrine work up or do a specific pituitary MRI to see if he had a growth there?  Tumors, very common to be on the pituitary- it's said about 1 in 5 have them, can cause migraine headaches according to a scholarly article I was sent a link for.   (Background I have migraines, though no longer daily and a pituitary tumor).  

Also, with the balance issue, I noticed in your list of docs, you didn't mention ear, nose and throat.  Has your husband ever had vestibular testing?  

Additionally, you didn't mention a rheumatologist- has he ever been to one to check for fibromyalgia re:all over body pain and migraines?

[yoganesh]

This must be a complete nightmare for you and your husband. I don't know if this will help at all, but I suffered from terrible migraines with aura - 2 to 3 a week for 15 years. I went through the same types of tests and took plenty of Frova, Imitrex and anything else my doctor offered, but they persisted. The only thing that ever seemed to lessen the frequency was supplementing with magnesium citrate. I never believed food was an issue--I had tried elimination diets and nothing made a difference, but 3 months ago my doctor suggested I try removing gluten from my diet because of other health issues, including kidney problems, that had started. When I did, my migraines stopped completely. I haven't had even a hint of one for 3 months. It might be worth taking a closer look at diet. So sorry you're having to go through this.

Debbie