Let My Migraine Take Its Course to Decrease Frequency
I started getting migraine attacks at 19 and for several years just suffered through them unmedicated as best I could. The attacks (about 8 a year) lasted 5 days, with 3 days of intense throbbing pain and throwing up with no ability to keep down any food or water.
At 24, I was introduced to Excedrin. This sometimes relieved the pain, but I very quickly became immune to any help from it and it seemed to worsen my attacks.
A few years later, I discovered that Aleve (naproxen) could sometimes ward off an attack if taken early enough. This worked many times, though I still had an unavoidable attack lasting 5 dsys once every couple months.
Finally, being financially able to seek answers (at 30 years of age) I went to an ENT for a CT sinus scan. I hoped they would tell me a sinus infection was triggering my migraines (because my attacks are always accompanied by severe congestion of my right side sinus). They found nothing. I was referred to a neurologist.
The neurologist seemed very uninterested with my concerns regarding sinus congestion, constant dizziness, and lightheadedness. I wanted to know why, and how, and what kind of migraine I have. He was in a rush. He said an MRI would be pointless. He diagnosed me with migraine and prescribed sumatriptan.
Sumatriptan. Where had it been all my life? Oh, magic pill of normalcy! I was elated to find a drug that truly made a migraine go away.
Alas. Instead of one migraine every 3-6 weeks, I now had at least the onset of an attack every 2 weeks. I voiced this concern to the neurologist, which he quickly dismissed as ridiculous. He said to my face that the migraine frequency was not increasing. When I had just told him that it WAS.
This week I have had the onset of a migraine 3 times, each time aborted by sumatriptan (after unsuccessfully trying ibuprofen or naproxen). I am scared. I do not want to take this drug every other day. I don't know if a doctor would even prescribe me that much.
I am looking for another neurologist. Meanwhile, I have tried to research this idea online, that allowing my migraine to run its full course, 3 days of vomiting and all, is the only way to lessen the frequency. I can't find anything to back that up. But in my personal experience, when I experience a full migraine attack, it is several weeks until the next attack. If I abort it early on, stop it in its tracks with medication, I'm just pushing it off- but it comes back in full force a few days later.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
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