Debbie- The migraines that I have usually put me on the couch for the day, and make me a useless person. I become very tired, the pain eases in slowly at first, which is when I know it is coming on, then-boom, it happens all at once, the pain is intense and it is very unbearable. Sometimes I wake up with intense pain and it is so bad I'm not able to get out of bed. The pain location for me is from the top of my head to the forehead down to the temples and it throbs constantly. The neuro put me on a migraine medication but I cant' remember the name of it. It starts with an 'A' and if I take it when the migraine begins it basically stops the migraine all togetehr. I also take 150 mgs of Topamax too for migraines/bpd. I'm sorry that your migraines are bothersome. They can be overwhelming at times when they happen and sometimes just more than imaginable due to the pain. Do you get sick with your migraines? My sister gets nauseated with her migraines.

Brainbegone-Thank you for your comforting words and sharing your story. It sounds like you have been throgh a lot. I'm sorry that you have been through so much. It appears many have been through a lot of ups/downs to get some kind of a dx here or for another form of dx. Frustrating.

you mad some great points about how to look at things in life. Thank you for giving a different perspective with the smallest things in life- that we all take forgranted. Yesterday I was sitting in my kitchen and noticed a squirrel on our deck. Normally I wouldn't think anything of it but I noticed how pretty the animal was and how much I'd love to share that beauty with my family- so I grabbed the camera and snapped some pictures of the squirrel before it ran off. Amazingly, that little incident was theh highlight of my day!! Silly, yes, but it made me appreciate the beauty in nature and life. So, I understand what you are talking about.

Thank you all for your encouragement.

Coffeegirl

Migraines and 24/7 headaches was why I started all this testing in the 1st place. I've tried about a dozen meds for that all told. I am on topamax, with Relpax for break through. I did a migraine study with the area authority on the subject, (got paid $25 lol) and did the whole food thing - gave up all the known food triggers, eliminated chemicles to see if there were sensitivities there, too.

Turned out I am weather sensitive with a couple of foods as secondary triggers (wine mostly).

Also they checked my blood pressure - which is low like the rest of my family - and other vascular stuff like Factor II, Brain MRA (to check vascular system there) and got me off BC pills to lower my stroke risk.

I started taking magnesium supplements which are supposed to support heart and vascular health and my daily headaches were greatly reduced. I take fish oil too. Between the supplements and topamax, I'm down from about 3 migraines a week to about one per month which is awesome.

I'm not saying what I do will work for anyone else, I'm just saying sometimes there is more to treating them than just what your doc knows or does for you. There are really great migraine sites now, and the info is worth checking out. I would not have been this successful in treating my migraines without knowing what to ask my docs to do for me or what to do for myself.

I wish all you migraine sufferers the best of luck with this. H/a is the pits!

Wow. What an awesome post! Magnesium I have in my cupboard actually, and I was told to take this last year as a preventative. I will again, try it that is, provided there are no serious side effects of it. Is magnesium completely ok to go ahead with? I've heard mixed reactions, but you get to a point where 1 doctor says yes, 1 says no, and then it's 50/50 and it's basically your choice as the patient.

I'm definitely weather sensitive, and I'm not sure if I have food triggers... I already do the fish oil.

Sorry not intending to hijack the thread! I just wanted to highlight the magnesium subject with headaches. That's pretty awesome to hear from someone who had good results

All I can say about mag is the only side effect was some looser stool. (sorry TMI lol) But that was not really a problem as some meds I was on made me kinda constipated, so I needed the help.

If it is a prob for you, try taking the mag every other day. I do not believe it builds up where it can hurt you, I'm sure I read excess is released through urine.

My PCP is well-read on supps and fully supports my use of the ones I take - a lot of docs just do not research them, they only advise you to use meds.

My doc uses supps and green tea himself (he's a cardiologist ) - he is approx 80 yrs old and still working, healthy, getting around fine, so I listen to what he says.