Someone must understand what I'm going through
Hello. I'm a 40 year old male whose been suffering from migraines since I was 16 years old. My migraines started around the same time I had a minor head injury in high school( could just be a coincidence). I wish I could remember if the injury happened before I started getting migraines or after, but I cannot. In the beginning my migraines were only occasional and the pain was mainly behind one eye or the other. After time the migraines became more frequent. I also developed tension on both sides of my temples. This tension never goes away. Everyday 24/7 I feel like I have a vise clamp squeezing my head. I feel like doctors think I'm exaggerating when I tell them my headache never goes away. I have learned to live, for the most part, with the tension headaches, but the migraines make life unbearable at times. I feel like I've tried every therapy, prescription, and specialty doctor. I've had x-rays, MRI's, catscans, and bloodwork. I've been to chiropractors, even a specialty chiropractor, and physical therapist. I've tried countless preventative medications and none of them work. I've also tried countless medications to stop migraines. The only one that seems to work is treximet and sumatriptan and those are not always effective. I'm currently on botox and that too does no good. I'm hoping someone on here has similar symptoms and can be of some help. I'm desperate and willing to try anything. I just want to live a normal life without having to drink 2-3 energy drinks a day and 2-3 cups of coffee just to manage.
I'm sorry to hear that you have suffered from migraine disease for such a long time. I understand how difficult that can be as I too have suffered from my teen years and my husband has suffered since his early 20s. Some of what you have experienced sounds so similar to my husband. Trying numerous treatments and therapies with no beneficial results and having constant daily headache pain. He was diagnosed with NDPH( new daily persistent headache) along with chronic migraine. It is not a common condition. Can you recall a date when your headaches began? This is often one of the factors that NDPH sufferers have in common. They can recall a specific date when the headache began. It is also notoriously difficult to treat. It has been ten years and there has been nothing that stops his NDPH. Here is a link to an article he wrote about his experience with it. https://migraine.com/living-migraine/new-daily-persistent-headache-diagnosis
I'm glad you have found some relief with Treximet and Sumatriptan. He has found that Emgality helps to greatly reduce the pain from his frequent migraine attacks. You mentioned having a great amount of tension associated with your headaches. Another good tool my husband has found is doing mindful meditation and relaxation. He finds it does a good job of making him focus on calming the tension in his body as well as relieving some of the fatigue and improving his sleep. I understand that caffeine is helpful for managing migraine and other headache types, but taking in too much caffeine can have a negative effect and in some cases make headaches harder to manage just like in a medication adaptation headache cycle. We've been there many times along the migraine journey! I don't know if any of this helps you, but know that you are not alone! Thanks for becoming a part of the migraine.com community. Always remember to never stop fighting to find a better way to manage your migraine disease. Warmly, Cheryl migraine.com teamThank you so much Cheryl. I will definitely read your husbands article. I will also look into emgality. It’s always nice talking with people who go through similar struggles. I often feel isolated as my condition seems much worse than most. It sounds like your husband goes through the same struggles as mine. Thanks again!
