Does anyone else suffer from horrendous migraines?

Originally Posted by KittKatt

I received one of those "home remedies" e-mails once that had a list of things you could take for various ailments. In the e-mail, Gatorade was mentioned as a remedy for migraines/headaches. I don't know if it really works or not though, b/c I never tried it. But I do know that Gatorade is good for dehydration, and as someone else mentioned, if you stay hydrated your headaches won't be as severe - so maybe there's some truth to it..

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It helps with the dehydrated type headaches and has added electrolytes - though I prefer Propel. I've been ordered to drink at least two bottles a day.

Originally Posted by abbycats

I have noticed that I will get the severe ones before a weather change. My headaches stem from my neck, I have chronic pain in my neck that moves right up the back of my neck into my scull and then my eyes. I have tried a chiropractor and massage and nothing works.

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Have you had an MRI of your neck and seen an orthopedic spine specialist? You may have something more serious going on, in that case a chiropractor could seriously injure you and massage won't do any good.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Have you had an MRI of your neck and seen an orthopedic spine specialist? You may have something more serious going on, in that case a chiropractor could seriously injure you and massage won't do any good.

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My Doctor wants me to get MRI, Unfortunatly I don't have medical insurance at the moment. My doctor told me to stop seeing the chiropractor, the chiropractor made my neck worse. I am just dealing with it as best I can till I can get reasonable health insurance. My company offers terrible insurance which wouldn't cover all the above.

I get them from Storms too and have one right now. I have had so many Migraines in the last 2 weeks. Sometimes I make a mistake and they my Sinus Meds thinking its going to be a Sinus headache. When I see the Auras I know a Migrane is coming and sometimes can stop it before its real bad. I starting getting them at age 15.

Originally Posted by abbycats

My Doctor wants me to get MRI, Unfortunatly I don't have medical insurance at the moment. My doctor told me to stop seeing the chiropractor, the chiropractor made my neck worse. I am just dealing with it as best I can till I can get reasonable health insurance. My company offers terrible insurance which wouldn't cover all the above.

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I'm sorry you're stuck in such a position. I don't remember the thread, but one member was able to get an affordable scan by calling around and comparing prices. Unfortunately, the added on charges such as radiologist fee may get you.(I've noticed that sometimes the radiologists miss quite a lot - like an annular tear in a disc) Some stuff will show up on x-ray - spurs, vertebrae that have slipped, curving, facet joint arthritis - etc. Has your doctor prescribed you any muscle relaxers? For the headaches that come out of my neck, I find that the muscle relaxers help the most.

It may sound silly, but a good pillow that supports your neck will help a lot. I suggest that to anyone with neck pain. Another thing that helps headaches - put a wet wash cloth in the freezer for few minutes, shape it into a circle. When you pull it out it will fit around your neck and won't fall off.

I have TMJ so I get migraines all the time! I can't take the naproxen because it eats at my guts, and I can't take the flexiril because it makes me sleepy! It seems as though I just have tight muscles due to stress, because I dont grind my teeth at all! Getting a massage can help, but it has to be deep tissue massage for me and I have to have someone to watch the kids afterwards because Ill fall asleep! I have different Dr prescribed painkillers that I take... But anything that makes me feel tired the next day gets crossed off the list! I have ended up taking a sleeping pill and just sleeping it off, Ive also ended up at the dr with a good old shot of demeral in the butt, and it made me hyper! I was bouncing off the wall and my heart felt like it was going to explode, but my headache was gone!! Also, DONT LOOK AT THE COMPUTER TOO MUCH WITH A HEADACHE! IT MAKES IT WORSE!!
take a break, even if for a couple minutes!

Originally Posted by glitch

I can't take the flexiril because it makes me sleepy!

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Ask for a different muscle relaxer - there are others that have less side effects. Flexeril only makes me sleepy if I'm already tired, I chose it over another one (skelaxin, I think) because it was supposedly the less addictive one.

If you can still take NSAIDs, just not naproxen, ask for one that's gentler on the GI and always take it with food. I had to stop taking naproxen for the same reason but haven't had problems on relafen (nabumetone). There's a also the cox-2 inhibitors that are easier on the stomach.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Ask for a different muscle relaxer - there are others that have less side effects. Flexeril only makes me sleepy if I'm already tired, I chose it over another one (skelaxin, I think) because it was supposedly the less addictive one.

If you can still take NSAIDs, just not naproxen, ask for one that's gentler on the GI and always take it with food. I had to stop taking naproxen for the same reason but haven't had problems on relafen (nabumetone). There's a also the cox-2 inhibitors that are easier on the stomach.

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Thanks!! Ive kind of tried a bunch of different stuff and I have such a low tolerence to everything that I get knocked unconcious!! Ill ask my neurologist about those!!

Originally Posted by strange_wings

I'm sorry you're stuck in such a position.

I don't remember the thread, but one member was able to get an affordable scan by calling around and comparing prices. Unfortunately, the added on charges such as radiologist fee may get you.(I've noticed that sometimes the radiologists miss quite a lot - like an annular tear in a disc) Some stuff will show up on x-ray - spurs, vertebrae that have slipped, curving, facet joint arthritis - etc. Has your doctor prescribed you any muscle relaxers? For the headaches that come out of my neck, I find that the muscle relaxers help the most.

It may sound silly, but a good pillow that supports your neck will help a lot. I suggest that to anyone with neck pain. Another thing that helps headaches - put a wet wash cloth in the freezer for few minutes, shape it into a circle. When you pull it out it will fit around your neck and won't fall off.

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My Dr. gives me flexeril along with hydrocodone for real bad days. The flexeril doesn't even touch the tightness in my muscles. One of the reason he gives me those meds is because I was taking way to many advils a day. The last blood test I had showed my Kidney values off, which is probably attributed to the advil.

Those are very good ideas for neck pain! I also have 2 tennis balls that I put in a sock that I will roll around on to try to get the muscles to free up.

i have been diagnosed with fybromyalgia for close to ten years now and my muscles stay so tight from it that i get migraines alot like 1-3 a week. I have been prescribed so many medications over the past 9 years that i gave them all up because i had to be on so many that i was not myself. With the chronic pain that i have i never exercised because i thought i would hurt something else and cause more pain. which in turn made me even more sore and caused more migraines because i wasnt keeping my muscles stretched out to prevent knots and cramps. Finally after about 5 years of taking over 12 medications every day, not being able to drive most of the time from being drowsy to falling asleep at work and being threated to being fired that i finally told my doctor something had to give because i needed my life back. by that time i had my diagnosis ( which took about 2 and a half years of being a guinea pig with meds and therapy adn chiropractor to mri's and cat scans) I finally asked the doctor if i could actually injure myself by exercising and he said if i can get past the pain that it will cause me the first couple months it would benefit me greatly. so i plunged into it. I started walking in the woods(i lived in the country at the time and had almost 20 acres of woods) walking up hills and across rough terrain. I started into karate and was getting a rigorous workout twice a week for two hours from that, and started working out with my best friend on a soloflex bench every other day. within a month my migraines eased up to 1-2 a month, i was in less pain, losing weight, more energy and less stress. A little bit into my second month i went cold turkey on all of my medications and to this day i dont take anything for it. I get alot of exercise now. My muscles stay loose and i dont have to stay drugged up. My migraines would never go away before with anything but prescribed imitrex or maxalt, but now when i get them i get the light auras first and as long as i take excedrin migraine before the auras go away then i generally dont have the pain from it jsut the auras. Occasionally i will still get the pain from the migraine if i take the excedrin too late but i can usually take about a 2-3 hour nap when that happens and it will go away now.

Yes and it`s really annoying but I don`t get them too often. Well, apart from last week!

My eyes go funny first, it`s like I`ve been staring at the sun but if I take a handful of Syndol and go somewhere quiet until I can see again the headache isn`t too bad, it lasts a few days but I can get on with life.

I have them occasionally when I do not get enough sleep. If I feel one coming on, I take ibuprofin. It will stop it at that point and not get any worse but it doesn't take it away. Excedrin Migraine didn't work for me

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Another thing that helps headaches - put a wet wash cloth in the freezer for few minutes, shape it into a circle. When you pull it out it will fit around your neck and won't fall off.

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What a great idea! I'm going to put one in the freezer right now, to have available when I need it. I actually have one of those gel pads that can be shaped and frozen, so that will work perfectly! Thanks!!!

Yeah, I get migranes too. They've been getting worse lately, so I mentioned it to my doctor on Monday. (I was afraid that they might be connected to a fall I took over Forest and down the stairs a few weeks ago.) He sent me for a CT scan. There was nothing in the back of my head where I hit it, but they found something in the front of it. So I had to have an MRI on Thursday morning. I'm waiting for the results. We'll see what they say. (In the meantime, I've had a headache pretty much since he told me they saw something...it's probably psychosomatic. )

Yes, I get a lot of headaches. Most last for 3 days or more
A few months ago I had one so bad I went to the doctor and she gave me a prescription for Imitrex (sp?) That usually gets rid of the headache when nothing else helps.

I had terrible migranes when I was in Highschool so bad as a matter of fact that I missed 3 semesters of school and had to be home schooled

You know, I've always wondered if I have migranes or just bad head aches. Today I've had a head ache ALL day and I just want to strangle myself! It hurts so bad! I have taken pain killers already, but they don't seem to work. My eyes hurt from the light, my ears hurt from any sounds, and my sinuses hurt because I have a cold

Originally Posted by Pookie-poo

What a great idea! I'm going to put one in the freezer right now, to have available when I need it. I actually have one of those gel pads that can be shaped and frozen, so that will work perfectly! Thanks!!!

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I may have to try that also. However, maybe for my head. I don't know if mine stem from stress, neck, or somewhere else.

Yep...I also have FibroMyalgia, and old back injuries...so...yeah...I can relate!!!

I am on Topomax to help prevent them; however, even on this I still get a couple a week, although they aren't as severe as the used to be before I met Topomax!!! Lol! I am not one for medications, but after 'non-medicinal' remedies didn't help, I had to 'submit' to the fact that if I was going to live somewhat normally with the migraines, I had to do something...chemically or not. Unfortunately most abortive therapies don't even touch my migraines, so when they get really bad, the docs pretty much have to 'knock' me out and send me home...I dread the day that the stronger meds (usually they have to treat me with narcotics...blaahh) don't help at all; atleast they put me out for a while, so that my body can relax and start mending on it's own.

We won't even go into the treatment for th Fibro, although currently I am only on two meds for that...which I am VERY thankful, because there are times when I have to take more...

For the back injuries (compression fractures), I just have to really 'watch it', as well as keep active, and maintain flexability as much as I can, so things don't cease up...although, if any of you are familiar with FM, flexability isn't always easy!!!