A little background, I had a severe head injury (skull fracture, coma for several days...) when I was 3 months old. I'm 19 years old now, and recently came to the realization that I have dealt with severe migraines for as long as I can remember.

First question: Can head injuries cause recurring migraines? I'm 99% sure they can, just making sure.

Second question: My head injury was 19 years ago. Could it still be causing the headaches, or is it just a separate issue?

I noticed they're triggered by almost anything. Too much bright light particularly sunlight, heat, noise particularly high pitched loud noise, fatigue, stress, even being lightly tapped on the head...the list seems endless...
They also seem to happen every week or so, sometimes if I'm lucky and careful about triggers I can avoid them for 2 weeks or so.

Mystery,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of your injury.

There is no way to say if your injury as an infant is causing your head aches. It is likely. A pediatric neurologist may have some better answers for you.

Have you been seen by a neurologist since you were young?

No, not that I remember. My parents tried to cover it up as much as possible because the injury was caused by my father.

I'm considering seeing a doctor about it though, at least for the headaches but it would also be nice to know what could possibly be causing them.

Hi,

I am sorry you are having to deal with these on going issues.

One of the most common side effects of serious food intolerences/allergies is migraine. Many people suffer them all the time because the very thing triggering them is part of their daily food intake therefore anything seems to trigger them.

Do you suffer with skin or bowel problems?

I do think the most important thing to do is be seen as Mark says by a neurologist.

There several medications available that may be able to help. My wife had a severe iron deficiency. After correcting that her migraines and frequency of them was much reduced. Contact a nuero or even your GP.

I'm convinced my migraines were either caused or severely exacerbated by my TBI, and this was 36 years ago. Mine are also triggered by stress or simple activity of any kind, even going to the grocery store. I've had more trips to the emergency room for particularly bad migraines than I care to remember.

Most of the time Imitrex works for me, but not always. They tend to be cyclic, also, and I actually am enjoying a headache-free period of my life. It's been several months since I've had one. Really hoping this keeps up.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

@ peacheysncream: no skin or bowel issues. I never considered that it could be from a food allergy; I've dealt with migraines for as long as I can remember and my diet has been pretty varied over the years. I'll try to see what foods have been part of my diet consistently and avoid them one at a time to see if that's the cause.

@ rmschaver: Hmm...I take a daily vitamin nearly every day, could there still be an iron deficiency? I'll look into it.


I talked to my mom about it (just the migraines, not what I suspect the cause is) and she told me about what pain relievers work better. I used to only take ibuprofen. Today I went and bought Aleve and Advil Migraine, as well as caffeine pills because I heard caffeine helps (I'm in college, I'll use them at some point anyway lol). So hopefully that will help until I figure out the cause and what I can potentially do to prevent them.

My wife had it all her life. She did not get diagnosed until she was 46 years old.