Nothing works and I'm exhausted and losing my mind.
I wish I could see some hope that there will be a medication out there that would work and that me and my doctor just need to keep looking. However, I have not found that to be true. I started getting migraines in 2011. By 2013, I was fired from my job bc I started having migraines more and more frequently. About 6 months ago, they started happening everyday. MRIs and CT scans all come back normal and my current neurologist (I've tried 7 others so far) isn't even looking for a solution anymore. She's only trying to treat the pain and other side effects of the migraines. This march will be the 3rd month trying the at home injections but they are aweful. They always make the migraine worse until my body chooses to let it work and then it usually takes 2-3 hours to feel relief. I've read forum after forum on here since they started and I wouldn't consider myself to be a seasoned migrainure but I really am at my wits end too. I'm on so many medications, I could start my own pharmacy. My insurance only allows 12 injections a month so I have to wait a see if the migraine is going to be really bad before I give myself a shot which adds more stress to the migraines. Do the shots get any easier to take? They hurt so bad that I get anxiety attacks when I'm getting ready to take the shots. The anxiety attacks make the migraines worse. When I'm out of them, usually within the first 2weeks after I am allowed to get refills, I have to have my mom drive me 30 minutes to the closest er.
Everyone I've talked to says I'm using my meds too much too close together...but what else am I supposed to do?...puke, cry, rock back and forth, lay in bed in agony everyday Trying to spread out the amount of medication needed to stop the migraine only to be so exhausted from one migraine that I sleep unti the next migraine hits?
Why doesn't anyone research migraines to search for a cure like they do for cancer? I'm not saying cancer doesn't deserve to be reaseserched but at least cancer eventually kills its victim. My migraines started when I was 19. I cannot spend my whole life migraine to migraine with no relief, with no progress toward an end to them. Someone please tell me there's experimental drugs or trials or treatments out there other than more and more medications piled on top of each other.
Hi kkruse210.
Thank you for reaching out to us and being part of our community - we're glad you're here!
First let me assure you you're not alone; we understand how difficult and frustrating migraine can be. Let me see what information I can give you that may be helpful.
I'm sorry to say there is no quick fix for migraine. Migraine is a genetic neurological disorder that is managed, not cured. Hopefully with more research we will see a cure in our lifetime. Meanwhile there are things we can do to manage our disorder.
Let's talk about and unpleasant but necessary topic first - taking medications too often. This is a problem many of us get ourselves into if we take pain relievers and/or migraine medications, whether they are over-the-counter or prescription more than two to three days a week called medication overuse headache or moh, formerly called rebound. The issue with being in an moh cycle is our migraine attacks will be more difficult to treat and we can end up in a daily cycle of pain that is also hard to break. Being in daily chronic head pain is exhausting and debilitating - I've been in this spot and it's no fun, but I was able to get myself out of moh with patience and some hard work. Stopping the offending medication is the way to break moh. Some are able to do it cold turkey, but this should always be discussed with your doctor first. Take a look at this article for more information on moh; https://migraine.com/blog/help-how-can-i-not-overuse-migraine-medications/.
You may want to investigate seeing a migraine/headache expert. This is a doctor who is board certified in headache medicine, which is different than being certified in neurology. Neurologists may be fine doctors but have a hard time being experts in one area because they treat so many conditions such as epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and others. A true migraine/headache expert mainly treats migraine and headache disorders, all day, every day. Here is more 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/.Let me know what you think,
Nancy
