Happy Medium?
Is there a happy medium between incapacitation from migraine pain and incapacitation from migraine medicine? It seems like if the medicine I take works, it knocks me on my butt. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be knocked on my butt without pain than with, but the end result is the same. I miss work and school, I can interact with my kids or husband, and I can't drive anywhere. I've taken imitrex oral and nasal spray (neither works consistently), zomig oral and nasal spray (sometimes works but my insurance won't cover it) and I currently take maxalt. Maxalt works well, but I can't function. Please tell me there is a happy medium so I can at least kind of function!
Hi Alyssabcd,
This is a common issue many of us with migraine and chronic illness deal with. In order to relieve our pain and feel better, these can often dull our senses. Here's the thing with taking pain medications and/or migraine abortive medications (Maxalt,Imitrex and Zomig) more than two to three days a week; we can get medication overuse headache, moh formerly called rebound. There are a few problems with this. First when we take the above mentioned medications we may feel better for a while. However if we take them too often (more than two to three days a week) our body adjusts to them. Now we are taking pills every day that don't stop the migraine process and have created moh. The problem now is we have head pain every day due to taking medication that is supposed to help us, our migraines will be more difficult to treat, and the horrible pain cycle we have unwittingly created is tough to break. Does this make sense? Let me share information with you on moh;https://migraine.com/blog/help-how-can-i-not-overuse-migraine-medications/.
Another thing to keep in mind is that is we ARE getting more than three severe attacks a month, we need to discuss this with our doctor. He may suggest we take migraine preventive medication which can include coenzyme Q10, magnesium, B2 and others. Rest assured there is no over-the-counter medication that will stop the migraine process. Here is information on migraine prevention: https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-management-essential-4-preventive-treatment/.
I hope this help, let me know what you think!
Nancy
