There is a pill for migraine ?

Wait a minute you mean there’s a pill for this?

August 26th, 2011 - Posted by terri

Mom used to get these. She just always took these pills she got at the drugstore because the pills the doctor gave her were too strong. She took one and then flushed the rest of ‘em down the toilet because it knocked her out and that would never do. She couldn’t watch the kids if she was out cold on the couch now could she! And so, that was the end of that. She never went back to the doctor.

Even though the woman had migraines almost every day that one year, she never questioned it again. She had migraines off and on until she went into menopause. That was just how it was. When I was thirteen she took me to the doctor in case they had something new. They did. There was anti-siezure medicine. After the same doctor sent me for an electro-encephalagram. This was 1972. The results came back that I had sub normal brain waves due to migraines. Okay. So I was prescribed an anti-seizure medicine. One pill later, I’m on the couch. It knocked me out. They were summarily flushed. Fast forward to 2003 or so. I’ve had the umpteenth migraine. Seriously. Every single menstrual cycle, at least one sick migraine on top of endometriosis. I finally decide to describe these headaches to a doctor who says, has anybody diagnosed you with migraines and told you about Imitrex? Well, no. Holy cow. Well, I figure this is the same pill that put mommy on the couch, but don’t really care at this point, right? It works. Fast forward another 8 years. There’s something called prophylaxis. Tegretol worked okay for about 6 months, then quit working about half the time. Now I’m on the fifth or sixth week of Topamax. Side effects are interesting, the first week about kicked my arse, and the aphasia is fun (sarcasm there), but i’m down to only three headaches in the last two months and two of those were self-inflicted due to errors in eating something I shouldn’t have, so I’d call this a success for Big Pharma.

Don’t really think we’ll ever get migraines figured out or pinned down to one cause. Allopathic medicine and research methodology is so focused on “one cause one effect”. I just don’t see that it’s going to get figured out that way. People aren’t made that way. These headaches have been around, or at least documented since hyroglyphics on pyramid walls, so it’s probably going to be a while longer before they get it right. They’ve made some pretty good dents in the symptomatic treatment though, and just being able to stand up and get out of bed on those days when I’m sure my head is going to explode and take my stomach with it is damn good progress. I hope my daughter gets a better shot at it!