Any treatment options?
My life has been a living hell for 9 years now, migraines have taken everything from me, and if I don't have wonderfully supportive parents to take care of me I'm sure I'd already be dead.
But now I've taken every medicine they've given me, every option they've presented, I even got a greater occipital nerve block. Nothing has ever worked.
The only two options I have left are Botox and trying literally every anti-depressent under the sun, and after more than twenty different types having absolutely zero effect, I hold little hope that they would result in anything other than more pain and messed up side-effects.
I can't take much more and it won't be long until I don't even have the tiniest sliver of false hope left from 'potential treatments'.
So I was wondering if anyone knew about any new or experimental treatments, anything rare, or not well known, something that even a specialist migraine doctor might not immediately think of.
Anything at all.
Thank you for sharing what you are experiencing. I understand where you are coming from. I've been there with my husband as we've tried treatment after treatment, and nothing worked. It is defeating to live like that. We stayed the course, and with the help of an awesome headache specialist and the team at the University of South Florida/ Tampa General, we found a combination therapy that has helped. It took a long time to get to where we are now, but it was worth holding on to the hope that OUR thing was out there. Having parents that support you is so good to hear. It makes a difference when you have those close to you supporting you even if they don't fully understand what you are experiencing. The newest options out there are the CGRP class of drugs. The injectables are biological, and the pills work like standard medicines. There are several types of CGRP options, and they each work a little differently on the CGRP neuropeptide. This gives you different options; if one fails you, you can try another or use them in combination with others like my husband does. Many people who have successfully found ways to manage their migraine disease have done this through combination therapies. If you'd like more information on migraine, look up Dr. David Dodick and Dr. Peter Goadsby. They are at the forefront of migraine research and are highly respected in that specialty. With all this being said, there is, unfortunately, no cure or magic bullet for migraine disease. Be encouraged, and don't lose hope! There will be a lot of trial and error, but you will get to a place of effective management and stability with this disease. Please stay in touch. Warmly, Cheryl migraine.com team 
Thanks for sharing. I hear how frustrated you are in finding something that reduces migraine frequency and severity, you're not alone! We're here for you.
I understand it may feel as if you've tried everything there is for migraine, the thing is there are over 100 medications, supplements, devices, complementary therapies and lifestyle modifications that can be used to treat migraine and most of us are on a combination of these. Don't lose hope!
When we start new medications, it can take up to 90 day at the therapeutic dose (sometimes longer) to see improvement. This means for some medications the dose is started low, and titrated up to the therapeutic dose. Also, potential side effects may lessen as our body adjusts to the new medications. I hope I made sense there!
I would also encourage you to seek out help from a doctor who is a true expert in treating migraine and headache disease. These doctors are different from general neurologists as they are certified in headache medicine, all neurologists are not. General neurologists may be fine doctors but have a hard time being experts in one area because they treat many conditions such as stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and more. A true migraine/headache disease doctor treats migraine and headache all day, every day. Here is more information on how these doctors are different and how to find one;
https://migraine.com/blog/really-find-headache-specialist
https://migraine.com/living-migraine/change-thoughts-new-care
https://headaches.org/resources/healthcare-provider-finder.
Please let me know what you think and I'm wishing you a low pain day, Nancy Harris Bonk, Patient Leader/Moderator Migraine.com Team
