Migraines are messing with my life
I am 49 years old and I used to have horrible migraines when I was a child. After having my first baby they subsided pretty well. I would only have one or two a year. In the last 2 years I have been having them a lot more frequently. I am seeing a neurologist that specializes in headaches and she is working really hard to find the problem. She has tried a few things that are not really helping for long periods of time. She focuses on the nausea and vomiting and is giving me Toradol 50mg only, every 10 hours, for pain relief. I have been trying to get her to understand that anti nausea does help but if the pain does not get under control, I start vomiting because it hurts so bad. I don't even know what my signals are when I am getting a migraine because I usually wake up with them. I have missed too much work. I am usually very dependable but I can't even make plans for the weekend because I don't know if I will be able to follow through. My boss has been great but he is getting frustrated as well. I did print a list of signs off of this sight that have never been brought up to me before so I have more things to watch for. I love my job and my life but I am really feeling like a burden to everyone involved in my life. What am I missing here?
Hi LilySunshine,
Thank you for your questions and being part of the Migraine.com discussion forum. I am sorry you are having such a difficult time. Migraine can be exhausting, frustrating and isolating. Let me see what information I can give you that will help.
Have you by any chance had an opportunity to keep a detailed migraine diary? Doing so will help determine any patterns our attacks have, what our triggers are and what medications work and/or don't work. If we are able to identify and manage our migraine triggers, we'll be able to reduce our attacks frequency and severity. Take a look at this information on how to keep a migraine diary and then our article about triggers; https://migraine.com/blog/keeping-migraine-diary-basics/ and https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-management-essential-trigger-management/.
The thing about neurologists is, they may be fine doctors but have a hard time being experts in one area because they treat so many different conditions such as epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and other. True migraine/headache experts are board certified in headache medicine - which is different than being certified in neurology - and treat one condition all day, every day; migraine and headache disorder. It's important to note not all neurologists are true migraine/headache experts, even if they claim to be, and not all migraine/headache experts are neurologists. Let me share with you this information on how these doctors are special and how to find one; http://migraine.com/blog/how-are-migraine-specialists-different/ and https://migraine.com/blog/really-find-headache-specialist/.
You mentioned you are waking with head pain, have you had a sleep study done? When we wake with migraine pain, it may be an indication of a sleep issue. There are several sleeping disorders that can impact our migraines. You can read more about sleep and migraine here; https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-triggers-sleep-1/ and https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-triggers-sleep-2/ and https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-triggers-more-sleep-rules-tips-and-tricks-part-3/.
How does that sound?
Nancy
