Non triptan pain relief??
Hi! I need help finding migraine pain relief medication. I'm not allowed to take triptans because I have visual snow (ongoing/non stop visual disturbance), and the triptans make it worse and apparently increase my stroke risk because of the severity of my visual symptoms.
I have severe chronic migraines - I have migraines of varying degrees every single day. They're getting better -- some days as low as a 1 or 2 for most of the day! But there are still a lot of days during the week that I can't work unless I take something to help with the pain. I've tried the following pain medications, none of which work consistently:
-relafen/nabumetone (some relief, but only if take very early when migraine isn't already severe)
-cambia (some relief but very short lived)
-indomethacin (some relief, but short lived and very drowsy)
-naproxen (no relief)
-Lodine/etodolac (no relief)
-Xoloft (for muscle spasms - minimal relief, very drowsy)
Doctors and friends always ask what makes the migraines better, and the answer is - nothing! Would appreciate any recommendations for non-triptan migraine relief medication that I can talk to my doctor about.
Hi headcase1234,
Chronic migraine is defined at having migraine and/or tension-type head pain 15 or more days a month and it sounds like you may fall into this category. It's not just about stopping the pain, but stopping the attack. The thing is people who have three or more severe attacks a month need to discuss migraine prevention with their doctor. Let me share information on this with you; https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-management-essential-4-preventive-treatment/.
So once we have our migraine prevention plan set up we need to have medications to take when we have an attack. Seeing as triptans are out for you, there are other things one can do to help with this. We have information in this article that will help; https://migraine.com/blog/how-to-treat-migraines-without-triptans-or-ergotamines/
Do you take something every day to help relieve this pain - like a migraine prevention medication? The problem with taking migraine medications and/or pain relievers, whether they are over-the-counter or prescription more than two to three days a week, is we can create another condition called medication overuse headache, moh which was formerly called rebound. If we are in a moh cycle our migraines will be more difficult to treat and we can end up in a endless cycle of pain that is hard to treat. Here is inofmriaton on how not to overuse pain medication; https://migraine.com/blog/help-how-can-i-not-overuse-migraine-medications/.
Something else to consider is how up-to-date on migraine and headache disorders is your doctor? It may be time to see a doctor who is board certified in headache medicine, which is different than a neurologist. We have information on what makes these doctors so special in this link; https://migraine.com/blog/how-are-migraine-specialists-different/ and https://migraine.com/blog/looking-for-a-migraine-specialist/.
I hope this helps!
Nancy
