Help.

My wife has been getting migraines for about a year now. She is 29 years old. Normally, she can break it a few hours after using medication. It seems as if the effects are more intense when her period is about to start. We've told this to the neuroligist also. She is on a lot.... of medicine. She went get a birth control shot about 7 days ago.. mainly because it stopped her period last time she had taken it.

She's been having a migraine for about 25 days and has been in the hospital for 4 days on the iv.. getting a numerous amount of different medications. She has been getting a very small amount of sleep. The migraines keep going for.. a 9 to 7 then they climb back up.. and they want to keep her in there until it breaks.. BUT I don't see this helping her. My opinion is that some of these med's may be helping trigger it.. even more.

A few things about her.. She is small, and skinny. She eats a lot.. but not the most healthy of meals. She has a problem sleeping causing her to take sleeping meds sometimes.. She has never had a problem with migraines before this. She's a very social individual and these migraines are ruining her life. We have a 4 year old girl together and she is the greatest possible mom for this little girl. She needs a solution!!

Hi John,

Sorry to hear your wife is have such a rough time. It must be incredibly frustrating to watch her go through this. Hang in there.

Ann nailed it. It sounds like your wife is in Status and the only way that she is going to get out of it will be through continued hospitalization and IV drugs. Out of curiosity, do you know what they have given her? Typically they will give steroids and DHE (there are quite a few possible cocktails). Is she under the care of a general neurologist or a headache specialist?




If the former, once this is all cleared up you should seek out the care of headache specialist. The difference in knowledge and quality of care is generally huge.

Migraine is often "set off" by a single or multiple triggers.

It sounds like one of your wife's major triggers is hormone related (menstral migraine). This is very common. Certain types of birth control tend to help migraine, others tend to exacerbate the issue (not sure where the Depo shot falls).

"She is small, and skinny. She eats a lot.. but not the most healthy of meals."

When this is all behind you may want to consider getting a specialized blood panel to check her blood sugar. What they would do is take her blood multiple times within a day to track fluctuations in blood sugar. Fluctuating sugar levels can be a trigger.

For us migraineurs it is often imperative that we eat healthy meals (processed foods are full of potential triggers and lack the nutrition we need to stave off migraine).

Why is she taking the sleep meds? Is it that the migraines are interrupting her sleep or is it something else?


Hang in there and best of luck!