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Daily pain...I seriously need some advise.

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Migraine Headache
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Posted 4/27/2014 11:44 PM (GMT 0)
I am new to the forum so any advice is welcome. I have been afflicted with severe headaches for 30 years. I am a 58 year old female educator. I have taken all types of meds and still I hurt almost daily. I am on lexapro, klonopin, and gabapentin at the moment. I also have a prescription for relpax. I got nine pills of relpax and find that if I take the relpax, the headache will go away. But I can't take it every day what do I do when I get headaches almost everyday?? I woke up today with a bad headache and had to take the relpax...it worked for a while but I am feeling the headache coming back. My headaches are generally tied to the barometric pressure. I have been diagnosed with chronic migraine and was taking zonegran. It worked for a while. I was then offered topamax but it slurred my speech when I tried it years ago. My doc then put me on gabapentin and I have just gone up to 600 mgs. He said my next drug to take would be depacote if gabapentin didn't work. I am seriously afraid of taking depacote, just like topamax. My Gyn mentioned taking a beta blocker. I have low blood pressure to start with so I am nervous to take a beta blocker. I feel so desperate...I hurt almost daily and miss at least one day of work every week. Any ideas out there for me?
Posted 4/28/2014 10:25 PM (GMT 0)
Hi! I am sorry to hear you are suffering so much. And for so long! I have been dealing with chronic migraines for several years, they sort of came on out of nowhere. I see a neurologist and another doc that specializes in migraines at a headache clinic. They figured out a plan which has greatly improved my quality of life. After trying lots of different meds, I found the clinic, and have gone from having migraines every day to having only a few a month, and even those are much less severe and shorter in duration.

My treatment consists of: avoiding things like caffeine and narcotic pain meds (they trigger migraines for me), getting botox injections every 3 months (lifesaver!!!!), taking preventative meds (verapamil, baclofen, and namenda) a few times daily, and of course, I have rescue meds (naratriptan, zofran) as needed. The botox sounded kinda scary at first, but I have been doing it every 3 months for the past 1 1/2 years or so, and I cannot tell you how much of a difference it has made. It's 31 tiny little bee-sting feeling shots in the forehead, temple area, scalp, and a couple in the back of the neck, down to the shoulders. Takes only a couple of minutes, kicks in within a couple days, and the only side effect I have had is that I cannot raise my eyebrows...but who cares?!

I don't know if those treatments would need to be different because of the barometric pressure factor, but I wouldn't think so. I don't know.

I know the verapamil I take is some sort of blood pressure med, I've been meaning to look it up and find out how it works. I have some issues with lightheadedness and my bp has been rather low lately. I'm thinking maybe I just need to lower the dose a bit (under doctor's care of course!).

Feel funny writing this today because I have a bit of a migraine today, worst one I've had since January, but it's still not bad enough to interfere much with functioning--just kind of taking it easy today.

I really hope you are able to find treatment that works well for you. I am assuming that you see/have seen a neurologist who specializes in migraines.

Let me know if I can help in any way. I have no doubt that you can and will find something to ease your pain!
Posted 5/1/2014 9:56 PM (GMT 0)
I have cluster migraines and narcolepsy and fibro and as a result i on many o cations have taken adirall whe i had a migraine. Never got the connection till i was out of imatrex. The migraine responded to the adirall alone. No more imatrex for me.
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