Hey Guys,
I'm going to do my part to help the Migraine community find a solution, hopefully a partial or permanent cure for the existance and/or frequency of Migraine attacks.
On Wednesday, I saw the leading neurologist, Dr. Ivan Login, at the University of Virginia Medical Center. Yes, I'm going to be a guinea pig. This clinical trial, M.I.S.T.II, is being conducted in a number of Medical Centers across the country. This study is a combination of Neurology and Cardiac Disciplines. I am only the fifth or sixth person he has found to enroll in the trial in his location.
Before we are born, there is a hole between the two sides of the heart called a DPO. At birth, this hole usually closes up, but sometimes it doesn't close. This happens in about 6% of the population. However, within this population, this hole fails to close 60% of the time in people that suffer from migraines. The purpose of the Clinical Trial is to determine if closing the hole will reduce the frequency and/or severity of migraine attacks in this population.
In order to qualify for the Trial, you have to have taken preventative medications in three different catagories, and failed to receive any benefit from taking them. To find out if you have this hole (DPO), they draw a vile of your blood, the add some water to it. The blood is then shaken violently to create micro-bubbles. This blood is then sent up through a catheter into the heart to see if it exits on one side or both. If the hole exists, a device with a little double umbrella is inserted into the heart. Once it is threaded through the hole, the device pops open like an umbrella, then it is pulled back through, where the second side pops open. Then the two sides are screwed tightly together to close the hole.
After the procedure is finished, the patient is tracked to see if closing the hole has eliminated or significantly reduced the number of migraines the patient experiences. If the test is proven successful, then those patients who got the placebo will get the procedure to close the hole.
The only reservation is that it's going to be a pain in my butt to round up my medical records, because in order to start the trial, you have to supply your list of failed medications, length taking them, who prescribed them, dosages taken, etc... Heck, for me this goes back a lot of years, so getting the documentation is going to be a real drag.
Anyway, wish me luck folks as I'm doing this for you guys too!!!
Leigh Ann 
By the way, if you want to find out more about the study, or thinks you might be a good candidate, check out this link.
http://headaches.about.com/od/prevention/a/mistii_begins.htm