Migraine Basics: What's in Your Toolbox?
We want to get to know you! Our Migraine Basics forum series features different questions for our community to learn more about each other's lives and journeys with migraine. What’s in your migraine toolbox? How do you take back control when migraine gets in the way of everyday life? Share any tools or tips that you turn to when migraine strikes!
Rescue meds, Advil, bed buddy, Tylenol,tea
ibuprofen, diazepam , I use either Imitrex tablets or the injection (if on the rare occasion I wake up in the middle of the night with a migraine, full on).
One medication that works
that's wonderful that you've been able to find a medication that works for you. It's key to living well with migraine. And of course, having it close to the bed is helpful to so it's always within reach when you need it.
Alene (team member)
Lots of meds that don’t work-triptans, CGRP’s, topiramate, blood pressure meds. My only preventative right now is Botox and an implanted neuro stim. My abortives are a cocktail of meds that typically only make me sleepy. I still struggle daily.
thanks for the reply. This is my second time using Botox and I do find it helpful. My baseline is down to a2 from a 4 daily. I am never without pain. My neurologist took me off Botox when I got my neurostim. The stim worked really well at first but I’ve had it for 6 years and it’s become less effective. I have tried to be an advocate for chronic migraine on Facebook because the stigma is still so great, especially in the workplace. Asking for accommodations is often not accept with real results that help us stay employed, especially when you haven't met eligibility for FMLA. - I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this. It sounds incredibly tough to deal with the failure of these medications and treatments while still struggling with daily migraines. It sounds truly exhausting to constantly search for something that works. Just know that you're not alone in this. Have you contacted or informed your treating physician that the neurostim is becoming less and less effective in treating your migraines? Maybe with this, he can adjust or change your treatment plan to help. Thoughtfully, Rebecca (team member)
ice hats, migraine tea, nurtec
For those who are using caffeine to help relieve a migraine (or more generally, a vascular headache) I would suggest looking into the possibility that you might be *addicted* to *caffeine* and it is the side effects and/or withdrawal symptoms that could be part of the root cause of your headache difficulty. YMMV. I am speaking from personal experience! I was physically addicted to caffeine for at least 20 years and I managed to figure out that caffeine withdrawal was causing a very severe and fully disabling headache every Sunday afternoon. Onset of withdrawal symptoms starts around 48 hours after the last dose. Complete withdrawal recovery took me about *3 weeks* of gradual dosage reductions (weaning) while going through headache hell the whole time. Caffeine is not a solution, it is at least a part of the problem.
I have a frequent episodic migraine pattern where I have migraines for several days in a row, then relief for several days. My migraine diagnosis was by the use of Imitrex, which worked the first time I tried it in about 1995 (about 6 years after the caffeine washout and discontinuation), and has worked reliably ever since. Other medications have had intolerable side effects and a couple of the preventives caused what I claim to be longer lasting medication injury.I totally agree!
