constant migraines - desperate

Hi everyone.I'm a 21 yr old female and I've been a migraine sufferer for years now, and generally I would only get them a few times a year. This week, though, I've had migraines almost every day. I either wake up with them, or they come throughout the day. I've tried avoiding every trigger in the book, only eating healthy foods, drinking lots of water, sleeping the right amount of hours, etc. Nothing works. They keep coming back. It's so bad now that I haven't been able to go to work at all, and I'm rarely able to leave my apartment. Sometimes a day will go by and I'll be fine, but the next day another one will come. It's been 8 days now and I've had a total of 6 migraines. I've basically spent an entire week in bed, out of work.

The same situation happened to me about 4 months ago. I had constant migraines for a week. I ended up being sent for IV treatment at the hospital. That seemed to cut the cycle of my migraines and I didnt have one again until this week. Is my only option going back to the hospital for IV treatment again? Do I need to be experiencing a migraine at the moment I go to get the treatment? (My hospital where I live now is extremely far away and hard to get to as I don't have a car).
Has this ever happened to any of you? How did you get out of it? I keep thinking if I just let it run its course they will stop, but part of me doesn't believe that. Any feedback or comments would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm so desperate for a way out of this.
Thank you

You need to request that your dr send you to a neurologist. He may want a ct scan. A lot of drs are using anti seizure medications to prevent migraines. I think this is your best option.
At one point I was having daily migraines, some to the point that id have to go to the er. My neurologist put me on an antiseizure medicine and I now only get migraines about 1 every three months.

My heart goes out to you, dear, as I have had CMD for well over 50 years, and I get the "variety pack", never knowing what will hit, where it will hit, for how long, or what intensity. So in my case, "flexibility" is the operative word. There are so many triggers and causes for Chronic Migraine Disease, that if you bother to try and eliminate every single one, you will have no substantial life. Research Chronic Migraine Disease on-line, and it will give you a good peripheral view of it, being that it is both vascular and neurologically based. Research is beneficial so that you don't think you've got 4 or 5 different things wrong with you - but it's all CMD. I also have a 162-pound female NEWFOUNDLAND Service Dog, who alerts me to and handles Migraines, Strokes, Disorientation, Vertigo and Vision Loss. My vision is lost during Ocular Migraine Strokes when it suddenly all goes black. I also have been diagnosed with Macular Degeneration in both eyes, plus I have Degenerative Disc Disease in my lumbar spine and hips, so you might call "Bubbles" and I the Quack-Quack and Waddle-Waddle duo, at best. She is a rescue turned service, and my life has a much better quality with her by my side as she senses the vision loss episodes and immediately turns on her "auto-pilot" and gets me to safety or home, whichever is closer. This is all by instinct. No formal training. Has her own Service Animal Bus Pass and her Province of Ontario Medical/Legal Certification as my Service Animal. We wish you well. Try to remember that YOU have the migraine; it does not have you. Val and Bubbz at [email protected] .........Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

If you can take NSAIDs, you may consider asking to try something called Ponstel. I've taken it for migraines and I've had a lot of luck with the migraines responding. I've tried Maxalt without much luck, Axert, Frova, Zomig... When I am at my worst, I have to take the NSAID even though it's not good with my other condition. Are these migraines at all related to your monthly cycle? I've noticed mine are somehow related to estrogen it seems. I also notice that birth control pills with estrogen are a major trigger. You can also take certain antidepressants to prevent migraines. I was taking one for a while and I didn't have a migraine for quite some time but then I stopped it because I was tired of taking so many pills.

I am not sure but I hope so. I was on a low dose pill too but it seems that any estrogen at all upsets things and I get migraines. I was on pristiq for migraines.

It's difficult with migraines because sometimes you have a period of time between the migraines and it's hard to try the different treatments and then if something doesn't work, you always find out when you're already experiencing horrible pain. I think you should ask for a sample of ponstel and give it a try. Maybe it will help you. It is good to have in case maxalt doesn't help, this way, if you're in pain, you at least have a back up.

Sorry to hear of your chronic migraine. A study on chronic migraines in children showed that 93% of patients could stop their frequent severe migraines on an elimination diet (see first reference). For the first week of the study, the patients ate only 4 foods (ex: rice, lamb, apples, and brassica). If that helped reduce their migraines, they added foods back once a week until their diet was nutritious and socially acceptable. Similar results have been demonstrated in adult patient populations (see second reference). There is growing evidence that migraines are like a type of allergic disease.

I had a chronic migraine aura for about 2 years and learned that my diet was by far the best way to manage my migraines. I tried an elimination diet. I cut out 7 common allergens from my diet (Milk, Egg, Wheat, Tomato, Beef, Corn, Soy) and got much better. I now eat mainly rice, vegetables, and fish and have almost no migraines.


Best,
Steven

References:

Egger, J., et al. "Is migraine food allergy?: a double-blind controlled trial of oligoantigenic diet treatment." The Lancet (1983): 865-869.

Mansfield, Lyndon E., et al. "Food allergy and adult migraine: double-blind and mediator confirmation of an allergic etiology." Annals of allergy (1985): 126.

Monro, Jean, Claudio Carini, and Jonathan Brostoff. "Migraine is a food-allergic disease." The Lancet (1984): 719-721.