It's time for my periodic migraine rant.

Sleeplessness. Mood changes. Pain. Photophobia, phonophobia, Inability to sit still. All the usual signs and more.

It's midnight and I can't sleep. My head is hurting, and I noticed I'm near the end of the 28 day cycle of dosing for my Ajovy so it's "extra" fun. Even my normal pain meds aren't touching it. Bonus points: I have physics lab in the morning and need to be semi-functional.

I've never had a hangover in my life despite more than one overindulgence, but I can't get away from the migraine hell. I like beer and whiskey every now and again, but I'd trade it in a heartbeat for never getting a migraine again but a horrific hangover with even just a sip of ethanol.

On the plus side, I just got approval to start doing some moderate lifting (aggravated my back doing weighted squats and have been out for about a month), so I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

Do you have a pool?

I do.

Good. Morning.

quote:

Originally posted by vulrath:
Even my normal pain meds aren't touching it.

What do you take?

I found the triptan class to be effective at killing a migraine. The key to that class of migraine kill drugs is you have to take within 45 min of onset. The best part of a triptan was no pain relievers or stimulants. Killed a migraine in under 2 hours and no stimulant so I could sleep in that 2 hours. The most portable is maxalt but since it's a pill a 20+ minute delay in working once it gets past stomach. sumatriptan succinate Injectable is fast but not very portable. Zomig nasal spray is fast and portable but expensive. Zomig ended up being my favorite and used manufacturer's coupon to get price down.

For me, the ultimate was finding my migraine trigger. For 4 years, I had 4 migraines per month and then my stress increased which resulted in 2 hellish years where I had 11 to 15 migraines a month.

My former neurologist specializing in migraines was just a pill pusher and turned me into a human chemistry experiment with migraine prevention drugs. Had to use off label cheap prescriptions that rarely worked before insurance let me try drugs specifically developed to prevent migraines. Pill pusher MD also didn't blood test for effects on kidneys or liver and a drug to take away side effects tried to shutdown my liver. I ended up in the emergency room and admitted to hospital for 3 days due to drug induced liver injury. Got lucky and no long-term damage.

The good part about my story is my gastroenterologist took me off everything (prescriptions, OTC, and vitamins) while my liver healed. About a week later, I realized I hadn't had a migraine. One week turned into 1 month turned into 1 year and now I'm 6.25 years without a migraine. I've slowly added back in prescriptions, OTC, and vitamins. Crestor was my migraine trigger and stress made it worse. I also realized pill pusher MD didn't do any elimination to find migraine trigger but instead just turned me into a human chemistry experiment.

I take a PRN narcotic and Lyrica for a chronic back issue at L5/S1. I also typically have Fioricet for migraines specifically but ran out and waiting for the neuro to respond to my request for more.

I can't take triptans because they interact with more than a few other things I take that would put me at risk of serotonin syndrome.

I still haven't slept but after getting some crackers and coffee in me before class some of the symptoms lessened, at least.

I am pretty good at avoiding most of my triggers (not getting enough sleep, india pale ales, etc), but when I'm coming up on time to dose my preventative barometric pressure changes/incoming rain can knock me down. I usually get 3 good weeks out of 4, with the fourth typically coming and going with pretty mild headaches (mini migraines, I call them, because they have all the classic symptoms of migraines with aura, except on the 1-10 pain scale they are maybe a 3-4 - nothing to write home about)

I tried Fiorinal 50/325/40 for a period. Kind of a prescription version of Excedrin. I understand why the caffeine was in there but it prevented me from sleeping off the migraine.

I haven't had Fioricet in at least a week. I took my last pill and didn't call for a refill. It's not often I take it, anyway.

The insomnia is a known migraine symptom for me, not (typically) a side effect of associated drugs, nor of lifestyle choices like too much caffeine (of which I usually don't drink much these days; just a cup of coffee in the morning and maybe one Dr Pepper during the day if I'm feeling like treating myself). Obviously this can be a very variable thing; it doesn't help that I have a natural level of insomnia.

I finally did pass out for 5-ish hours shortly after my last post. It did wonders for my head, which still hurts but the stabby eyeballs have stopped, which is the majority of what I wanted. The trick now is going to be how to avoid swapping my days and nights.

Take a look at this treatment.

https://nerivio.com/
Worth a try,

I feel your pain. I get migraines when it rains, when I drink alcohol, skip meals, have sinus issues, and oversleep. I’ve been on Elavil and imitated for years. Imitrex had rebounds for me so I found taking excedrin as soon as I feel symptoms usually could stop one from coming on. Then I discovered Butalbital for bad ones. Now I’m taking Emgaly and Ubrelvy. I seem to get less on the Emgaly shots and Ubrelvy works pretty good to get rid of one. Still keep the Butalbital for emergency migraines. My cousins wife gets them so bad she gets Ketamine treatments and other meds I’ve not even heard of.

You mean Emgality? I'm on Ajovy now after 2 years of success with Aimovig. I tried Ubrelvy and a whole host of other drugs; the only one that did anything other than Fioricet was Cambia (Diclofenac potassium).

I love the monthly injectables. I hate the shots themselves, but love the relative freedom over the daily pills. I'm horrible about remembering to take my morning meds; shooting up once every 28 days instead has been a life changer. My body just built a tolerance to the Aimovig so we needed to switch it up a bit. Though now I'm going to have to change things around if I end up staying with my current insurance company as they are cancelling coverage for my Ajovy come 1/1. Emgality and Aimovig are still g2g for coverage.

Yesterday was a blur; I clocked somewhere in the neighborhood of 18-19 hours of sleep between midnight yesterday and 08:30 today. I'm doing significantly better now.

I was able to completely eliminate migraines using Red Light Therapy. Took about 2 years. Have not had a migraine since. No idea if it would be effective in your case.