Others with MIGRAINES--help!

I could have written that! Mine are worse in the mornings...I wake up many mornings and have to call in work and tell them I will be late. I take my meds and sleep a while longer and it usually works. The changes in weather do affect them it seems like. I have tried so many things and nothing seems to work. Been to numerous doctors with no help. Mine start in my neck. I have the nausea, sensitivity to light and sound...the only thing I can do is lie down and hope it goes away if my meds don't work. Shots don't help, pain meds don't help. I have just recently been to a chiropractor that seems to be helping. It's been 10 days since I have had a migraine. May be just a coincidence, but time will tell if it's the adjustments that are actually helping. 10 days is a big deal for me when I generally have them at least 3 times a week!

I definitely get them with weather changes, and also TOM. Last year, I had a migraine that literally lasted for a month before I decided to go to the doctor. She gave me a steroid pack which broke the cycle, and gave me a script for Imitrex. Now I take the Imitrex at the first sign of the migraine (usually extreme fatigue/irritability for me), and it usually keeps the duration to less than a day. It is safe to take with other pain meds, so I take it along with Excedrin.

My doctor had me on a daily medication to prevent them I forget the name of it. Then I took imitrix via a statinject pen (needle) when I got them.
They told me to avoid high potassium foods, foods with nitrates (processed meats) and a bunch of other stuff I didn't really eat anyway.
My lactose intolerance eventually got so bad I cut out ALL dairy. No milk at all from animals, not real butter, no cheese, no cream nothing. And poof they're gone.
I used to migraines like 2 times a week so bad I black outs and threw up for HOURS from them. Now I get one mild one like every few months.

I was getting them while on my period for a while, until my doctor switched up my birth control prescription to something with a different hormone balance. It cleared them up so I only get one occasionally now, not every single day of my period. I'm also more prone to them when I eat too much sugar and not enough other stuff.

My neurologist told me that melatonin helps with migraines. I don't sleep well, even when I've taken melatonin, so it actually works against me, since my migraines are almost always sleep-related, but if you generally don't have trouble sleeping, it might work for you. I don't know if you have to register to see this or not. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/804116 If I catch them early enough, I can get rid of them with Excedrin, otherwise I have to take Relpax. I'll go back to bed for about 20 minutes and it's usually gone. If I'm at work, I turn off the lights over my desk and use the light under my desk ledge, and that helps.

I too suffer from Migraines. I find that when I feel one coming on (the blurred vision, flash of light over eye) I take a dose of benadryl and then take some pain relief. This was something that my doctor told me I could when I was pregnant since I couldn't take the prescription meds that I was taking for prevention (topamax). She said that it would lessen the symptoms and also aid in the nausea. It has helped me, I find that I am not throwing up when I have my migraines like I did in they past.

Mine hit once every month or so and last for THREE DAYS. Ugh. Three solid days of sitting in a dark room drinking coffee, eating mint candies, and slugging water like crazy, with some asprin every 4-6 hours. I keep meaning to see a doctor about them, but they run in my family and I've only just started getting them in the last six months.

Until I tried Excedrin (and then finally saw a neurologist), that was me! Three freakin' days, and I'd get an average of 6 episodes a month. My insurance would only pay for 6 doses of Relpax a month. :huh: Once I got into better eating habits and started exercising regularly, I hardly got them at all. Now they're mostly from forcing myself to stay awake when I'm sleepy, and the occasional weather-related one.

I get weather related migraines, and they are always the worst in the fall - spring can be bad too, but fall is always the worst. Mine can get bad, but they are also very controllable. For me, if I pop some Tylenol as soon as I have even the slightest headache, I can at least keep the pain at bay. I can tell when it's a real migraine, however, because I'll still have the other symptoms - light sensitivity, nausea, etc...but at least I can function with those things.

I loosely follow a paleo-type diet....any meals/snacks that I make/pack are based on that general diet, but I'm not so strict about it that I will never eat out, either. My bad migraines became far more infrequent after moving to California - in Wisconsin I can remember crying myself to sleep and having to skip class because it was torture to be anywhere other than curled under the covers in a ball. I only get a semi-bad one a few times a year now, and if I follow my regime, I can usually keep functioning with it.

I also try to eat as much organic/grass fed food as possible, my mother noticed that she had more issues when she was eating more store bought meats and veggies.

Have you seen a neurologist? That would be my first step. If you don't have any of the "special" drugs, you might want to get some. Maxalt works wonders when I get one I can't shake, though most of mine go away with an Exedrin/Aleve combo.

Yoga helps, too. I've gone into a yoga class with a splitting head and within two minutes felt 100% better.

As far as having them under control, regular exercise and a healthier diet have worked wonders.

Do you have food triggers? Have you noticed you're eating something specific before they come on? And if it's in the morning, what about sinuses?

I noticed a HUGE decrease in my migraine headaches when I gave up ALL artificial sweeteners. I still get the occasional one here and there, but no where near what I was experiencing. I'm sure there are different triggers for everyone though.