Migraine NEWS - latest research, on last page

Hey! Another piece of (somewhat late) news!
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_143745.html
What I find interesting about this fact sheet is a) the info on cuddling ;-) :-D (fits in with the CureTogether findings) and also b) the advice on ear plugs.

One of my warnings signs is when sounds starts to 'cut' through me, make my nerves jangle and heart pound. If I try to work through it, or don't pay attention, next thing I know, any sounds become too loud and almost solidly tangible, sharp like blinding light. I might not have a headache of any standard kind, but I am so sensitive to noise that it's become excruciating and I need to be alone. So when the screaming kids visiting next-door start...well, you can imagine. It's been hell the last few days, as the kids have stayed over with their grandparents: I sent D out to buy ear plugs as I couldn't even think, but it was still early. What a difference!!! Delayed full onset of the migraine by about 12 hours! I'm as good as deaf when I wear them, but I'm gonna use them a lot, I think.

Cuddling a cat works nearly as well as cuddling a person, in a pinch.

And apparently, playing with a companion dog also works well! ;-)

If you haven't tried Marinol yet, do. It's legal in NJ. Nothing else I've tried has been as reliable. This week I was spared total migraine torture by taking Fioricet at onset (an aura of rainbow prisms) and Marinol an hour later when nausea kicked in. I was functional soon after.

reading up on it, sounds like I will still be allergic to it given prior history with similar medications and 'vegetable matter'. Couldn't even walk past the Student Lounges at uni without being violently ill, and that was before we knew I was allergic to tobacco smoke as well. pity, eh??

well, this could be heading into 'woo' territory...although, considering how my doc reckoned Maxalt would help but I felt really bad on it, I'm not sure!!!
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_143932.html

Apparently, your doctor's attitude to the medication you're on is as important as the medication itself, for the way you respond.

I must be immune to woo. When my neuro prescribed Topamax, she said it would help, and there was no negative talk at all. But I was somehow fiercely resistant to it because of all I had read online.

But then again, maybe all the hype (negative or positive) for a drug on the Internet can have its own effect, whether to improve or damage the patient's experience. That's a sobering thought.

Have to admit that I found the info on this page extremely helpful:
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/headache/detail_headache.htm

The 'background' section, where it explains how/why we feel the pains of various headaches cleared up a lot of questions for me, even though I've read heaps on migraine. And there's another part that goes through the different classes of symptoms and signs, and how they link in with various life-stages or other illnesses... so some of what I experience as 'here we go again' is actually another type of headache, or another thing happening, which is then leading to the migraine (but doesn't have to, in other people).

There's also a big section on the different treatments and how they work, why each class is used instead of another medication; and what to try instead of medication.

I'm not happy to wait 5 months before I see the neurologist; but I'll have better info for him now I've read that site.

Weirdest experience last night: trying to sleep, feeling a migraine coming on, and it's still hot. I put on the a/c, and D is having a bad night (restless legs, it's like he's riding his bike in the Tour de France or something!)...I turn upside down to sleep with my head at the foot of the bed, closest to the a/c, so I really fel the cool air and can quickly get to deep sleep.

As I'm dropping off to sleep I feel a slow series of spasms start around my scalp, from the point where the migraine tension has built up. It's like all the nerves and muscles (whatever is there) is twitching unbearably, but can't do that properly because of the topamax. And then it spreads down my neck (left side), down my back, to my hips and tummy. Rest of me is headed for sleep so I can't do more than note it, but I wonder if that's what usually happens with my big headaches...?? Slept well for a couple of hours.

Wow, that is bizarre, Joanne. I'm suffering from inflatable head today. It's raining, which usually sets off my Meniere's remnants, but today I feel as if someone is using a superpowered pump to inflate my head, causing really nasty pressure pain. Owwwwwwwww.

Oh how awful!!! I commiserate with you on that! Have no idea how to cope with it, apart from trying to keep warm (feet andhands) and trying to stay still. Perhaps have some calming quiet music - something Renaissance (not choral) on? (early Spanish, or harpsichord, perhaps?) often works for me, when I feel disjointed. (Can you check for ear infection, or throat infection, too, just in case?)

Worked that D's 'restless legs' is probably PLMD - 'powerful leg muscle disorder', which is sudden, automatic and uncontrollable leg kicks every minute or less. Need to get that checked. Startles me awake every time, so Heaven knows he can't be sleeping properly.

Well, I loaded up on ibuprofen and Benadryl and lay on the chaise with a cat on my stomach and a cool cloth on my closed eyes for about three hours. That helped. I had just seen the ENT specialist that morning, so I was pretty sure I wasn't just plain sick. Rain, snow, wind all do this to me. Atmospheric pressure evident goes to my head.

I get restless leg activity from Jim a lot, too. If I am not asleep by the time he comes to bed, I'm kind of screwed, between the snoring and the basketball playing on his side. *sigh*

On a two or three-dayer just now, so bad that nothing seems to be working. I barely lasted at work yesterday, cried with pain last night and couldn't sleep. Can hardly stand or see today. I feel like a jackhammer is working it's way down through the top of my skull while a red-hot poker is ecising my right eye. Sounds are like solid objects being thrown at me, bruising me where they hit. I know you've all been through similar hell.

So you can imagine how I laughed when I read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/10/what-not-to-say-to-people-with-migraine_n_4745863.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Thanks for that... I may have heard them all.

Hope your latest episode ends soon.

Has anyone with chronic headaches tried Botox injections?

I had one hit me today with the hot poker in my left eye and excruciating pain around my left ear. Very similar to the cluster headache I had about 10 years ago (that I will never forget) but no tearing of my eye. Thankfully, I think I stopped this one before it got the best of me.

yourisolde, I haven't tried the Botox, but I do have a partially paralysed forehead. I know the treatment is meat to work but for the life of me I can't work out how, knowing what my migraines are like.

I'm trying to devote my attention instead to my friend who is now moving into Palliative Care, today. (We're comparing drug notes!! Well, we're both using tramal just now) In the middle of the night I was wondering how bad it needs to be before I go to Emergency.

ctrzaska, have yours got any better/less excruciating?

Slightly, but still on and off. But when they come, they really come.

I wonder if men's are also hormonally influenced? so that after a certain age, the ferocity is more likely to lessen?

(I'm hanging on to the thought that the "discomfort" will lessen one of these years)

For years, I tried all types of migraine meds and nothing worked unless I caught them really early in the day. Finally a few years ago, I tried Excedrin and caffeine together and that works for me and continues to.

joanne said:

I wonder if men's are also hormonally influenced? so that after a certain age, the ferocity is more likely to lessen?

(I'm hanging on to the thought that the "discomfort" will lessen one of these years)

You and me both. But I doubt it.

I can do the caffeine part, JGM, but am allergic to the acetaminophen. Rats!

Ctrzaska, since I suffer so badly in our summers, I'm wondering has the winter been easier for you? Or does the winter light affect you? (or for that matter, the extreme cold this year?)

JGM said:

For years, I tried all types of migraine meds and nothing worked unless I caught them really early in the day. Finally a few years ago, I tried Excedrin and caffeine together and that works for me and continues to.

@JGM The only thing that works for me is Fioricet. (It is considered very old-fashioned.)

Each tablet contains the following active ingredients:
butalbital USP . . . . . . . . . . . .50 mg
acetaminophen USP . . . . . . 325 mg
caffeine USP . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 mg

)
A colleague just told me, since I'm not doing paid work today, to sit at a table and load up on Teacher's... he finds it "VERY numbing"!

(oops - left out a word)

Someone's just told me about mouthguards for migraines... Anyone tried them?

Is the theory that grinding your teeth leads to migraines? I suppose it makes sense, but I haven't tried it.

My daughter suffers from migraines and she does grind her teeth at times, interesting.

Yeah, apparently there's a theory that if the TMJ is out of whack or if you have a 'tense jaw' (???), then that could lead to overall scalp tension/migraine episodes. Relax/release that tension, or resolve the TMJ issue, and you and reduce the frequency or intensity of the migraines.

But from what I've read, the research appears to be pushed by the company that makes the mouthguards specifically for this. If you use another variety, the results don't seem so terrific. And if you have a badly aligned jaw/hinge and have surgery to fix it, then that also sets up TMJ issues which contribute to the migraine issue, so it's not worth the trouble.

But I'm wondering if anyone has actually used a mouthguard and had any measure of success, or had any therapy for the TMJ/jaw and found it beneficial? It might help some of the other migraineurs who read this thread.

Oh, and apparently there's a TMJ/tinnitus/migraine link but I'm hazy on that - it flashed up on the mouthguard research then disappeared as I refined.

joanne said:

Ctrzaska, since I suffer so badly in our summers, I'm wondering has the winter been easier for you? Or does the winter light affect you? (or for that matter, the extreme cold this year?)

If anything I'd say the extreme cold may have had a small increased effect (and surely made them worse once they've come) but I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say there's a trigger there or a big difference.