Case Histories - January 1998 (10/12)

Hi, I've been suffering from chronic headaches on a daily basis since I was a child. I am now 29 years old. 10 years ago I was "diagnosed" with migraines and was put on Inderal as a preventative and give Midrin for when the pain hit. I had a reaction to the Midrin and after 5 years of being on Inderal was told of some long term side effects of the medication that made me stop usage. After that I had taken every kind of pain medication I was given to try to relieve the pain. Nothing worked. I now use (and this will sound strange to most of you) Excedrin, every 4 hours, and apply ICE to my left temple area where the pain is. I don't know if the ice actually helps or makes it feel numb enough so that I can sleep. Heat only makes the pain worse for me. I had trouble finding a doctor who even seemed to care about the severity of the pain. Recently when these headaches would come at least twice a week, the last one lasting 37 hours, I went to see the doctor I am seeing for treatment of depression. He has put me on Amitriptyline. I have just started this last night, so I have no idea if it will work or not. I hope it does. Every time a headache hits, I am forced to leave work, get myself home, and into bed with ice. I am missing out on so much of my life by this. I call it "losing time". I hate it. My husband feels so bad that he can't do anything for me. Unfortunately, I get no warning that it is coming. It just hits. I get nauseous and I'm very sensitive to light and sound. If anyone has had luck with Amitriptyline, please let me know. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. The only thing that helps the pain is Demerol, but I have to be taken to the ER for that. The people where I work don't understand the pain I feel. I am very worried of losing my job, since I take so much time off. Their respons is "isn't there ANYTHING they can do for you". It's aggravating, because if there was, I would be doing it. I really don't enjoy being in pain. It's nice to know there is a place to come where people actually KNOW how I feel. Thanks for your time and I hope all of you learn how to cope if nothing else. 1/31/98 7:45 p.m.

---Melissa <Stardst@netins.net>
Monona, IA USA -

have had migraine headaches. I take Imitrex. Also Fiorcet, which is a painkiller. Sometimes I rub VicksVapor on my forehead and use a hot cloth. This helps.

---Drue <BeaverDrue@Aol.com/>
columbus, ga USA -

I have had migraines for over 20 yrs. and several doctors have had me on all sorts of preventatives (nothing did), medications, etc. I have finally decided I am NOT going through any more "let's see if THIS works!" stuff. I mainly take Midrin and Vicodin when the pain hits. I have accepted the fact that I am a migraineur...much like someone with diabetes is a diabetic. Trouble is, when you tell people you have a headache, you know how they respond: "So go take an aspirin!" Right now the only thing that really bugs me is practically having to beg my doctor to renew my migraine meds. He acts as if the migraines are just going to go away after all these years!

---Sandi Westley <swest@epix.net>
Wellsboro, PA USA -

I have headaches all my life. The doctor has prescribed Imitrex .25 mg. This helps if I take it at the first sign of a headache. I also take Fiorcet tablets. I have found that applying Vicks VaporRub to my forehead and a hot pad helps some too.. Any other suggestions???

---DRUE <BeaverDrue@Aol.com/>
columbus, ga USA -

I have had migrains since the birth of my son 18 years ago I have at least 3 a week. I have tried every drug and every doctor I can. I have had CAT scans so many times I could probably run one. I have had lower lumbar punctures, doctor for tmj I have had bite guards made I have been to eye specialist you name it I have tried it. I go to my sons ballgames and end up in the restroom sick or in the car you always fill guilty I know my kids memory of me will be that I was always in a dark quite room in bed It breaks my heart Doctors don"t want to give pain medication what they don't realize thats the only way I can go and be a part of my families life.

---Janice
kentucky USA -

I use internet at public library. Havin' fun, but computer screen makes daily headaches worse. Have had them for 32 years. Not daily til past few yrs. Headache Prevention Institute is all over the internet. Surely someone has been there (Detroit), tried that? It's guaranteed to work, or you don't pay. Headaches are from different causes, though I believe I fit their criterion for treatment. Please write to me! Thanks, Dianne

---Dianne <dcook97@yahoo.com>
Spokane, WA USA -

I am 31 years old. i have every where to get help no one seems to want to help.I want something besides medication. Sometimes I think they misdiogoused me. but they seem to think it is migraines. All I want is some one to give the true facts. Or tell me that I am not going crazy. Iam very DEPRESSED 90 percent of the time. So please can some help me and give me the true facts.THANK YOUTHERESA,

---Theresa Bancroft <Ffenes >
San DIEGO , CCA USA -

I get a migraine headache 1 or 2 days before my period with that comes along vomiting,fever..I will like to know what is going on cause I'm 29 yrs old and have 3 kids my smallest child is 5 months old, and i hurt me not to be able to play with him or the others as well, my husband just HATES to see me in that pain..Please if any one know any thing PLEASE let me know..I just tured 29 but in those days i fell like i am 100 yrs old...thanks bye

---christina innocente <christin@mci.com>
chicago, ill USA -

I have some possitive news for all you fellow sufferers. I found some very interesting reading regarding cures, and wanted to share them with you. Some of you may already be aware of them, but I wasn't until about an hour ago. It sounds real good to me. Try these sites! www.migraine.ca/hpylori.htm then see www.helico.com/hypernews/get/diagnosis/102.html then www.helico.com/hypernews/get/diagnosis/102/1.html I printed them out to take to my doctor. Perhaps there is hope for at least some of us. Please let us know if any of you have found this cure to work for you, and post it here. Thank you! Feel free to contact me at premoire@concentric.net.

---Jennifer <premoire@concentric.net>
San Francisco, CA USA -

Hi, I have been through the gamet of medical treatment for my cluster headaches with very little success. I have been getting cluster headaches almost every day sometimes more than once a day for about 6 years. I have found releif and would like to have others try my cure and let me know if it works for them. When I start to feel the pain which starts in my left temple and spreads to my upper gums I exercise. By getting my heart rate up for only a very short time my headaches stop in their tracks. I discovered this when I was out on a bike ride and started to get a headache and race to get home before it became full blown. Before I made it home the headache was gone. To make a long story short today I keep a jump rope near by and when I feel the pain coming on I jump only about 250 reps and then sit down, within 5 min. my headache is gone. Try counting, it seems to help.

---greg iverson <dino12369@aol.com>
san jose, ca USA -

Hi, my name is Bruce and I have been suffering from migraines and cluster migraines since I was about 10 years old. I have been on a ton of medication since my official diagnosis. I have taken amitriptyline, procardia XL, fioranol, tylenol #3 with coedine,vicodin, pereactin, midrin (which is totally ineffective), and darveocet. The neurologist I see has me on one prevetative drug and one painkiller to combat the pain when I get an attack. In response to Ryan Kamholtz's inquiry as to whether or not constant narcotic use has been prescribed to deal with the pain I can tell you that it has. I have been taking one form of narcotic or another since the day I was diagnosed. I was taking darveocet for over four years and recently switched to another painkiller (I'll post the name of it when I find out). The new drug works pretty well. But I sympathize with you Ryan in that I just want my life back. I am a 22 year old audio engineering student and the chief engineer at Webster University in St. Louis which means that I rarely get any sufficient sleep. Steady sleep schedules are one of the keys to controlling migraines. I can't ever get sufficient sleep much less a constant sleep schedule. It's like this big vicious circle with migraines around every corner and pain everyday of my life. By taking narcotics I run the risk of addiction. But I can tell you this. I would much rather live with an addiction to a prescription drug than the pain that those "monsters" torment me with. I don't think anyone really understands the amount of, and intesity of pain that we suffer unless they have experienced it themselves. There are times when it is paralyzing. I can't speak, can't think, sometimes I can't even walk or stand. I'm sick of running to a bottle of pills in fear everytime I see spots blotting my vision. It's to the point where the pain is running my life. My mother is the one that is most worried about me, but she is also the most skeptical. I know that she thinks that "oh, he has migraines" but she has no idea of what I go through and how the pain incapacitates me. I wasn't this way before either Ryan. I just want my life back. Thanks for listening and hopefully understading. Try to be like Rambo and "ignore the pain"

---Bruce Buechner <technomage4@hotmail.com>
St. Louis, MO USA -