Chronic Migraines

I know what it's like to live with chronic migraines. I know the pain, the constant pressure, and the loss of any sense of a normal life due to migraine headaches. I know the nausea and the fear of what your head will do, and the fear of suddenly having to vomit. I crawled down into the dark recesses of depression. Into that solitude and quiet stillness you crave so no one else can be with you and your dragon. I would be too tired to fight, and in a vain attempt, with a few pills of Imitrex and Excedrin, I would try and make peace, and wait for it to pass.

I've suffered from debilitating chronic migraines for so many years, that I don't remember when it started and how many days I felt safe from their lingering hold on me. Doctors in stale white lab coats were my bartenders, trying new concoctions with a resigned look. As if the pain was all in my head..I would laugh if it didn't hurt.

I learned what triggers the dragon for me. I lived with a sort of canniness about the signs, and the auras that let me know when a migraine is near. I carried emergency medicine wherever I went. My I.D. and the car keys were not as important as a few pills that would help keep my dragon from getting too close. I remember going out to eat with several friends, then suddenly feeling on oncoming attack, and just as my plate arrived, I swallowed my pills, left some money and spent the next two hours in the car with the windows up, parked in the darkest place I could find. The pills the doctors prescribed took the edge off, but nothing more. They never stopped the migraines from coming. No matter how many triggers I avoided, they still came,....and they would bring the dragon too.

With a migraine, pain is usually dominant on one side of the head. Nausea, sensitivity to light and sound are all common symptoms of a migraine. A migraine lasts between 4 hrs to 72 hrs. The fatigue, onset of depression and mild migraine symptoms could linger for days.

Chronic migraines occur on a minimum of 14 days in a month. Think about that; half your time with your dragon, the other half lingering until the next migraine attack. That was me.

One, day, nearly 3 years ago, a friend brought me a bottle of herbal medicine. It was something that I'd never seen before, never even heard of. It didn't contain ingredients I'd seen on any label. My friend explained that he was working for a company bringing a new migraine product to market. The formula was ancient, and had been used in India for thousands of years, but no one was selling it in the West. He offered to let me try it and see if it helped. I told him, forget about it. I'm tired of being a guinea pig, I said. Nothing works anyway. He argued. I argued. Finally I gave in and said I'd try it, but I knew it was going to be useless.

The next day I had a bad headache, but no dragon, no migraine. Then I'm home, doing all the little things that take up your day, when I realize it's been a week and my dragon, my migraine hadn't come. A week turned into two, two into months and a year went by without a migraine.

Addendum 18 months later

The herbal product I took from India worked with such amazing results I had a hard time believing it. One year without a migraine seemed like a gift from the heavens. I had two surgeries since then, so I wasn't able to take advantage of the new freedom from migraines. The product did not take away my daily headaches, but it did remove my migraines. The funny thing is I would still have the signs (prodome) of an impending attack, yet it would never come.

Six months off of the herbal product and two major surgeries later, the migraines came back in their chronic regularity. I am told that the product will soon be available in the US. When it is, I will post a direct link so others and myself could benefit. I have no affiliation with this product.

Yes, that's me Kayaking the Southern California Coast.

2/14/2012. Rumor has it: The product I took that removed my migraines for a year is close to becoming available. I need it now; it was amazingly effective for me when I used it before. I will keep you posted as I get new information.

1/31/2012
MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for LEVADEX® orally inhaled migraine drug for the potential acute treatment of migraine in adults. According to the National Headache Foundation, approximately 30 million people in the United States suffer from migraine, a debilitating neurological disorder. Common symptoms of migraine include recurrent headaches, nausea, phonophobia (sensitivity to sound) and photophobia (sensitivity to light).

The clinical trials demonstrated impressive results and showed very little adverse effect.

From the company's website:

LEVADEX met all four primary endpoints in the efficacy portion of our Phase 3 clinical trial, showing statistically significant improvement in pain relief, freedom from phonophobia (sensitivity to sound), freedom from photophobia (sensitivity to light) and freedom from nausea as reported two hours after dosing. Additional endpoints showed that LEVADEX provided rapid and sustained pain relief for up to 48 hours after dosing. LEVADEX was well tolerated, with the most common adverse event reported being medication aftertaste at 6%, with 2% of patients receiving placebo also reporting medication aftertaste. The next most common adverse event was nausea at 5%, compared with 2% for placebo. There were no mean decreases in lung function, as measured by spirometry, between the LEVADEX and placebo groups. There were no drug-related serious adverse events reported in the trial.

Link to the article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/325302-buying-map-pharmaceuticals-ahead-of-fda-decision

The Migraine Disability Assessment Test revealed the impact of Chronic Migraine is much greater than that of Episodic Migraine, known as EM. The study conducted over a three-month period showed the following:

8.2% of those with Chronic Migraine reported missing at least five days of work as compared to 2.2% of those with EM.
33.8% of those with Chronic Migraine reported at least five days of reduced productivity at work as compared to 2.2% of those with EM.
58.1% of those with Chronic Migraine reported at least five days of reduced productivity in household work as compared to 18.2% of those with EM.
36.9% of those with Chronic Migraine reported at least five days of missed family activities as compared to 9.5% of those with EM.

This study was reported on September 2011, by Teri Robert / Reviewed by: John-Claude Krusz, PhD, MD.

Remember the guys in the stale white lab coats? The list of medications I tried are long with little to no help.
Amerge - Does not prevent future migraines and causes headaches.
Avapro - Is for high blood pressure, I've NEVER had high blood pressure.
Celexa - For depression.
Cymbalta - For depression. Hmm....Migraines cause depression, is this backwards to you?
Namenda - For seizures and for scary dragons.
Depakote, Efexor, Wellbutrin, Lexapro, Lyrica, Tegratrol, Topamax, Zanaflex and Zoloft. These "preventative medications" prevented nothing for me personally.

Let me ask you a question: What's your favorite car? Yes, pick what you would buy if money were not an issue, got it? Good. Now imagine you're driving away from where you purchased the car and you're a few blocks from home. Then the engine light comes on. It's bright red! What do you do? You just spent a fortune on this new car! You take it back to the mechanic where they all wear white lab coats (It's a nice car) and he opens the hood a takes his fingernail clippers and clips the wire to the light. No more light, no problem. WHAT? WTF? Does covering up the symptom that something is wrong with your car fix anything? No! You would never do that with a car, but that's exactly what the doctors try to do with migraines. They never even look for an underlying cause, much less try to treat it. They just try to cover up the symptoms with medications.

Sorry, we are not done, then there are the "emergency medications" I used to carry around in my pocket.
Amerge, Axert, Ergomar, Frova, Imitrex, Maxalt, Relapax, Treximet and Zomig.

After those there are these:
Ativan, Fioricet, Fiorinal, Reglan, Ultracet, Tramadol, Hydrocodone, Soma, Ambien, Medral and even Zofran for the nausea. I'm nauseated just from this list! I took each and every one of these medications, everything over the counter and I didn't even mention 39 injections of Botox in my head every three months! I'm not a pin cushion, people! (Although I will say this, I didn't have any forehead creases for a while. :)

Although my personal experience is dismal at best, each person is different, and I am not intending here to replace a doctor's advice, nor am I giving advice for anyone not to take any medications recommended and/or prescribed by a doctor. Of all the Migraine pain meds, Axert and Frova worked best for me.

Once you've tried all of the medicine your doctor can prescribe you start to seek other forms of help. I've personally tried:

Acupuncture: It did wonders for an injury and helped my daughter with psoriasis, but not for my migraines.
Acupressure: Again a tremendous help (even if painful) to an injury, although personally it did not help my head.
Oxygen Therapy: Do they really use that in Las Vegas casinos?
Mudwort Sticks: Oh, I remember the smell.
Cold Therapy: You can get those at the Dollar store. They do make your head cold. Other than that, I haven't had any results.
Yoga: I don't bend that easily, yet it's quite a workout.
Butterburr: The placebo worked better for me.
Chocolate: Yes, I bet you would love me to tell you chocolate cures migraines...Nope, but it tastes good.

Knowing what may trigger a migraine could be a great help to you. Things that "trigger" a migraine are not the cause of the migraine, and triggers are unique to each person. The best way to learn what may trigger your migraines is to keep a migraine log, which I will post links to.

My triggers are:
Sleep - I never seem to get quality sleep and wake up several times a night. (Yes I had a sleep study)
Sugar - Too much sugar sends me into a frenzy where I generally feel ill, then my dragon (Migraine) comes.
Alcohol - I have a selective taste for fine spirits, unfortunately it causes too much pain. Great deterrent from drinking too much.
Stress - I suppress my emotions and the stress builds up. Venting in a safe and productive way can be a great help.
Aspartame - Anything with aspartame gives me a severe migraine and very quickly, so sugar substitutes are out for me.
Noise - With four young daughters, well you get the idea. :0) I live in the heart of a busy city which doesn't help.
Hunger - It's hard to eat when you have a migraine or even just after when you are sick to your stomach.

A migraine diet is a list of what not to eat, what to avoid and/or what to limit. While many people have various food allergies, there are a a few foods that have been known to trigger migraines in most suffers.

Cheese ( I know, I love cheese too)
Sugar (We'll you knew that one right?)
Aspartame (Yes, there is controversy with this sugar substitute but I'm not going into that here.)
Artificial Sweeteners - that means avoiding diet sodas.
Tomatoes (Many of the night shade family can be a trigger, i.e. eggplant.)
Chocolate (bah humbug)
Caffeine (We'll good grief, what are we supposed to eat?)
Processed meats (Sodium Nitrate)
Alcohol
Fasting

If you know what triggers your migraines then avoid it or at least be wise in your moderation of those foods. One of the most important things is to eat, as fasting can trigger a migraine rapidly. Eating small portions several times a day (rather than 1 or 2 large meals) will keep your blood sugar stable, and it's also a great boost to your metabolism!

Living Well with Migraine Disease and Headaches:
What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You...That You Need to Know
(Living Well
(Collins))

For millions of Americans, Migraine disease, tension headaches, and other headaches are a debilitating part of every day. Teri Robert has been there -- in fact, she experienced her first migraine at age six. Now, in this groundbreaking holistic guide to the diagnosis and treatment of headaches and migraine disease, she brings a patient-empowering message to all headache sufferers: you don't have to live with daily pain. She provides you with all the information you need to know about getting the help you need, including:

Understanding side effects
Treatments for long-term relief
Risks and symptoms
Identification of the various types of headaches
Traditional and alternative therapies
Information on finding health care practitioners and support
Numerous case studies and expert advice

The Migraine Brain:
Your Breakthrough Guide to Fewer Headaches, Better Health

You know that your migraine isn't just a headache. But you may not know that migraine actually is a neurological disease. Affecting one in five women, one in twenty men, and one in twenty children, it's a debilitating, complex, and chronic condition that manifests in a combination of symptoms that can include excruciating head pain as well as other distinctive physical and emotional effects. Yet it's also a disease that you can get control of, improve, and manage, as Dr. Carolyn Bernstein has discovered in her seventeen years as a Harvard Medical School faculty member and practicing neurologist.

Praised for her excellence and compassion, the founder of the Women's Headache Center near Boston, and a migraine sufferer herself, Dr. Bernstein has helped hundreds of her patients get better. Now, with The Migraine Brain, the most comprehensive, up-to-the-minute book on migraines ever written, you will be able to do the same -- reduce the frequency and intensity of your migraines, learn how to prevent and curtail them and how to recover from them more quickly, and mitigate migraine's effects on every aspect of your life: in the workplace and at home and during sex and travel. Every migraine is different because everyone who gets a migraine has a distinctive "Migraine Brain" with its own sensitivities and triggers. That's why it's so important for you to develop a personalized wellness plan to radically reduce the number and severity of your migraines.

Dr. Bernstein also explains why migraines happen, why they are so often misdiagnosed, and why so few people get the right treatment for them. She reveals the latest research that shows that Migraine Brains share a hypersensitivity to stimuli -- the Migraine Brain can actually look different from others on a brain scan -- and is more likely to experience a cascade of neurological reactions that give rise to the common clusters of migraine symptoms. This breakthrough medical knowledge makes treatment and recovery possible with new migraine-specific drugs as well as with complementary treatments such as yoga, biofeedback, and an exercise regimen.

With the extraordinarily thorough recommendations of The Migraine Brain in your hands, you will be fully equipped with all the latest information you need to understand migraines and to help your family and co-workers understand that migraine isn't just a headache: it's a serious, yet treatable disease.

Migraine Brains and Bodies:
A Comprehensive Guide to Solving the Mystery of Your Migraines

Despite their widespread occurrence, migraines are often misunderstood in terms of both origin and treatment. Migraine Brains and Bodies examines the causes of these painful headaches, many of which can be corrected by the individual. In straightforward language accompanied by detailed illustrations, former migraine sufferer C.M. Shifflett defines the roots and symptoms of migraines as well as the interactions between the source of pain and the rest of the body.

Shifflett begins by dispelling common myths about migraines, contending that they are a symptom of numerous conditions including diet and nutritional inadequacy, infections or autoimmune diseases, sleep disruptions, and impaired muscle function. Explaining that migraines are more likely to come from the shoes and clothes we wear, the furniture we sit in and sleep on, and even the shampoo we use than from brains or genes alone, she discusses migraine triggers and thresholds, points out that some common migraine drugs can make the pain worse, and provides detailed information and advice about various methods of treatment, from physical therapy and massage to acupuncture and biofeedback. She encourage readers to keep food and headache diaries and provides advice for what to do and what not to do when it comes to seeing your doctor.

You can't see me
You don't know me
You may not even realize, that I am here

I am hidden
For my hiding adds to the effect of my labors
My existence not easily understood
My methods course and cruel

Fairness is not one of my attributes
I do not discriminate
Not bound by gender, by age or by race
Not even your religion can save you
I would pray if I were you

To those who I have chosen
To engage upon my war
I do so without purpose or reason
I am unforgiving, unrelenting
Ever constant, I never show mercy

I am more than an enemy
Closer than a friend
More intensely intimate than a lover
For me to leave you
You would have to die

To some I am a mere acquaintance
Visiting from time to time
For you I may only be a memory
I am a thought and nothing more

Relevance is by experience
To each his own they say
I can not argue this is true
It is one of my greatest strengths
Because I do not play by any ones rules

Do not grant sympathy
To those who have the pleasure of my company
Do not feel sorry, nor pity
There's nothing you can do

I am the subject, no, I am the host
Of TV talk shows
News program specials
On Sunday evenings
Always before the sports scores

And I am most humbly noticed
When the name of those who are famous
Grant their face to a bill board, a cause
As the new poster child for my awareness

And who am I?

I am pain.

This poem is Copyright protected

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