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Thunderclap Migraine

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2 min read

Scared. That is the overall feeling. After mildly suffering with hormonal headaches most of my life, at age 51 I have been struck with a whole new definition of migraine. On Easter Sunday of this year, I was hit with my first thunderclap migraine. I was at church and it came out of left field. I attributed it to the heat of the building, coming off of some anti-depressants, etc. It lasted 14 days before I went to my primary care physician. He prescribed Verapamil thinking I might have hypertension. The migraine finally went away 2 days after that.

June 14th- once again at church migraine #2, I immediately went to the ER the pain was so severe and was accompianied by vomiting. After several hours in the ER, a CT scan, and morphine, I went home with fioricet. The fioricet didn't really help, but the pain had somewhat subsided down to a "7" after staying home from work on Monday the 15th. I went to work 16-17th and then in the middle of the night on the 17th the migraine struck full force again. I stayed home with an ice pack on my head in the dark waiting for my neurologist appointment the next day.

The neurologist ordered a set of MRI's and sent me home with Naproxen. Seriously- I told him I want you to shoot me in the head to lessen the pain and you are giving me Aleve??? He assured me this was the best protocol at the time. I stayed home the following day, but had to report to work on the 20th.

Half way through my shift, it struck again. After another ER visit, CT Scan, Morphine, I was admitted as an inpatient where I spent the next 4 days. MRI's were all clean (yeah!) but the pain remained at a "7" until July 1st. It subsided to a "4" after going to an infusion clinic and receiving a cocktail of Reglan, Thorazine, Toradol, and DHE. I had my second infusion yesterday and I go for my third and final one today. After the 2nd infusion I did not see any further improvement.

I just wanted to share my short story so far and get any feedback that might be helpful to my new (unwanted) journey. Thanks for listening.

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