Migraine and body pain?
Hi there. I'm new to the forum. I've been suffering from migraines of varying types since my teens. I'm now 46. I'm reaching out to see if any of you struggle with a similar situation. Both my teen son and I struggle with what we call migraines, but it is more than just headache pain. With every weather change, we get body pain - achiness, muscle knots in the shoulders and behind the should blades, sore joints sometimes, a feelin of heaviness in our limbs - in addition to the cognitive delays (slurred speech, slow mental processing), fatigue, tension headaches and migraine. No one seems to be able to figure us out. My doctor, physio and naturopath are now calling it fibromyalgia, but no one has ever suggested he has fibro and his symptoms are identical to mine. I can live with it, but it is so hard for my son - it really holds him back. Does anyone else have these symptoms with weather changes? The only thing that works for me us Motrin in combination with coffee. Maxalt helps me when it is strictly a migraine, without all the other stuff.
1aqft2v,
I experience some of the symptoms you have, but not all. My shoulders and neck are constantly in knots, which only exacerbates the pain of the Migraine. My doctor has given me a muscle relaxer to use. It definitely helps, but makes me sleepy.It is possible that the pain symptoms all over your body & your son's, could be fibromyalgia. I've personally never been diagnosed with it and honestly I am not as familiar with the condition. However, below is an article written by a doctor discussing fibromyalgia. Maybe some of it seems familiar? There are drugs, like Lyrica, that may be able to help when the flare up are intense.
https://migraine.com/blog/research-opportunity-aches-pains-fibromyalgia/
I hope other people will chime in as well.
-Katie
Migraine.com ModeratorHi 1aqft2v,
A couple of years ago when my migraines were chronic, my back/neck/joint pain went through the roof and also became chronic. I started seeing a holistic doctor to help with the pain, which also had the happy side effect of also sending my migraines into remission. The focus was on getting better, not labels so I'm not sure what to call what I had. There must be a common thread between the two (migraine & body pain) though.
Eventually episodic migraines returned and some of my main triggers are hormones, wheat/gluten/other diet-related, and weather changes. AccuWeather.com has a migraine forecast by zip code that is pretty spot-on for me. (I think it has something to do with barometric pressure changes.) You might want to check your migraine forecast out.
I get several different kinds of headaches now. I'm trying to sort out what works for each. Excedrin + coffee works for one kind. Cold (ice packs, ice cream, cold air on my head) helps another. I may need expert help for the remaining, but I want to go to the appointment prepaared and I'm not consistent in journaling.
Thanks to both of you. Unfortunately, even minor fluctuations in weather cause symptoms and the area we live in is very changeable, so headaches are almost daily. Even driving can be very difficult - a two hour drive will cause all sorts of symptoms because we're crossing through different weather patterns. I've tried a few medications, but I seem to be very med-sensitive. both my son and I use motrin with coffee and I, too, use cold packs a lot. I worry a lot about overmedicating with the Motrin, but it's the only thing that works. I use Maxalt for acute migarines. I was doing accupuncture, which seemed to releave the tension headaches in my neck (which were triggering migraines) but then the body pain flared up and the accupuncture seemed to exacerbate that. I find it really hard to figure out what works and what triggers as I'm never sure if I'm feeling better because of a treatment or lifestyle change or if the pressure systems were just more stable. I'm lousy at journaling - brain fog doesn't make me very organized. 😀
I get exactly what you are describing.
