8 Years Of Everyday Headaches

I am a 21 year old male. Average 6 foot, 200 pounds. I have had these extreme headaches since I was in middle school. In the sixth grade i started experiencing excruciating migraines to the point of throwing up, passing out, blacking out, etc. etc. I assumed it had something to do with being in a new environment so I thought it was stress or something else not so serious so I never bothered to go to the doctor. Eventually the headaches worsened and became more and more frequent.

After about 20 doctors appointments over the course of 8 years and absolutely nothing. We tried allergy medicines, different diet plans, even different, more detained environments. I always hear the same thing from every doctor, "allergies." To me if it was something to do with allergies why didn't the medicine work. We also tried muscle relaxers such as Amitriptyline. It worked for a few days and I thought I finally found the problem. But just like everything else, it stopped working. Also my last trip was to the Echo Cardiologist because of a heart murmur that was believed to cause the headaches because of blood restriction. It is problem causing but not the main issue. I have taken so many pain medicines such as Tylenol, Advil, etc. and I feel like I've built an immunity to it all and I know it's killing my liver so i just deal with the pain.

To describe my headaches. I can now pin-point the exact timing of when it will come on by the way my neck starts to ache. Then the Trapezius area all the way down my back. I start to feel extreme discomfort in my eyelids, temple, the upper neck, jaw, and then it escalates to my entire head. It feels like someone is filling my head with air and the pressure is just building and building and constricting me. It gets hard to breathe sometimes and some days I black out or throw up. The only thing that stops the pain is sleeping at night. Somehow naps make it worse but a full nights sleep kills it. The next day It starts all over again. Some days I want to just jump off a building and end the constant pain. Hardly able to do the simplest tasks.

In all honesty I kind of wanted it to be a tumor so it can relieve me of the constant wondering of why its happening and hopefully have it fixed if possible. I have been to multiple doctors, hospitals,neurologists, cardiologists, and a few other specialists who all seem to have no clue.

This is something that seems to be taking over my life and I can't handle this much longer. It's killing my personality, relationships, and my work. Days without headaches seem to become less and less frequent. I am getting to the point of desperation to have this taken care of and put behind me.

I'm looking for any help as to figure out what this is.

Hi Jwb,

Your case sounds very like mine. I went for a good 8 years of pain every day on an increase pain scale, before I found a neuro who would listen to me about my pain and actually work with me to try to reduce the pain. At one point I was taking Dermol what felt like every day. It didn't exactly take the pain away, but like you, once I got to sleep for a good period of time, my pain would go away. I take bad reactions to anything related to an NSAID, so that really reduced the number of painkillers I could use. I also have lowish blood pressure and had some medication cause a few scary "crashes".

My neuro was sure that some of my migraines were from rebound headaches. After about 10 months of only taking replax for the migraines that if I could have I would have ripped my own head off, and nothing at all for all the other days of pain (only 2-4 tabs a month), my neuro has agreed I can take meds when I feel the pain coming on again.

Now for a little bit of good news....
I started having botox about 10 months ago, at 100U. The first round was a little bit of a disappointment. I was hoping that I would get the shot and that would be the end of the pain. It took about 2 months then I started having fewer days with pain between 1-5 on a scale of 10. Might not seem like a big deal to most people, but I actually had days that I could think clearly and didn't feel like I was in a fog (only about 4-5 days a month, but it was a start)

At the next injection we increased the dose to 150U and increased the number of locations the botox was injected into. I get most of my migraines on the right side so my neruo focused most of the injection on the right side. At the same time I had my Chiro work on my tendon for my TMJ. I was now getting 2-4 days a week that I started to feel normal. When I did get a migraine it was still on a 8-10 pain scale. I would have preferred to get the bad ones under control, but at least I was able to start functioning again and enjoy a few days of life. I started to feel a little bit of hope.

I also started a anti-depressant medication as well as my nortripilyene. Due to life and work stress, I ended up having to take a good look at my life and my stress management system. I also started working on some cognitive brain training. And a little more of the fog cleared, but I was still getting 1-2 bad (8-10 pain scale) migraines a week.

I had my latest round in November again at the 150Us. I have also done something that I think a lot of people forget about, I lowered the level of my head at night. I was using two sometimes three pillows every night. I have gone down to one pillow, and started using the injectable imitex. I seem to have a bit more control over my migraines. I have been down to 4-5 bad (8-10 pain scale) migraines a month. Last year at this time I only would have 4-5 days a month of almost no pain and every day in a fog.

I still have really bad migraines but I will take any type of improvement I can get.

I know its frustrating, but hopefully you will find something to give you a bit of peace from the pain.

Lab

Did any of the doctors prescribe a daily migraine pill. My dad took them for about two years you take it every night and you do see a difference and also when do your migraines start? If they start in the morning you may want to see if you have a sleeping problem. Also have you ever had your brain scanned because it could be a problem there.Well hope I could help and I hope you find your solution and feel better :)