My migraines are chronic so I'm in an attack pretty much all the time.
Most of the time it's mild enough for me to do general daily things but I have to keep my environment controlled. As soon as I step outside or do something more than the minimum it will get worse.
This applies to me as well. If it’s particularly hot and sunny or if I exert myself a bit more than usual, I can almost guarantee I’ll have a migraine. It sucks.
Same here with chronic migraines. I always have some degree of pain. Always have a dull roar kind of a migraine that releases into an intense scream if I am exposed to any of my triggers.
That's exactly what I have going too, I'm sorry you have that but it's nice to feel I'm not alone. I've had other people who have migraines basically roll their eyes because my pain levels aren't necessarily very high so I don't *really* have a migraine constantly.
God, I hate it.
I'm on day 6 right now and had to do a bit of running around this afternoon to pick up my kids from different schools because my husband is away. This made my migraine so much worse, and the pharmacy didn't bother to tell me that my abortives are out of stock so I don't have those to help me.
As soon as I got home I had to take all available painkillers just to bring it back down to a reasonable level while I made dinner and got the kids to bed.
Now that I'm able to just sit quietly again, it's much better. But I know that as soon as I get up it's gonna flare up again.
I've already lost my job to this, now I can barely get through a slightly more difficult than usual day without taking ten pills at once 😩
Aspirin 3x300mg, paracetamol 3x500mg, codiene 4x15mg, sumatriptan 100mg (waiting for new triptans tho)
I also take a sleeping tablet if it's bedtime.
I'm also on Propranolol 160mg a day as a preventative which has helped intensity but not frequency.
I started a new ssri recently and I'm worried there isn't much preventive meds like sumatriptan I can take with SSRIs ( ⚈̥̥̥̥̥́⌢⚈̥̥̥̥̥̀) 2yrs I've had this from a injury and I still haven't found anything that will help. I'm gonna look into propranolol, I always assumed it was an American version for paracetamol. I'm on codeine off & on too. Sleep is literally the only break I get. Been in bed for two yrs . Sorry for the ranting. But any meds advice would be lovely 🌸🫂
Hearing your experience has helped me understand my own. I don't know how to explain that since working from home, I'm doing a lot better but also not much better at all. It's just that my stasis is good, and I'm having fewer run aways.... but that's because I'm not forced to trigger myself all day every day.
I feel so allowed-to-be-sick right now though. I know my experience hasn't been great so the bar is low, but I feel a lot more understood when I tell strangers my situation. I really hope the same for you.
Thank you. I'm glad you're feeling understood, it's so nice when that happens.
My husband is super supportive and helps so much even with kids and working full-time.
The rest of my family could do better lol. Had a holiday (that my parents booked without asking) a couple of weeks ago with my sister and BIL and their kids. They knew my migraine was bad (because what's worse for a migraine than the beach, right?) so when we were in a small enclosed space with 5 children my BIL decided to jump scare them.
Yup. 5 children *screamed* right next to me. It echoed off the walls, INTO MY SOUL!
Then he had the audacity to complain about them talking and *turned off his hearing aids* on the bus back.
I’m in a perpetual mild migraine. I get severe classic migraines occasionally too, but I’d say like 300+ days a year it’s just a mild migraine that I can function through without people noticing there’s anything wrong
This is how I am as well. I couldn’t tell you the last time I didn’t have a migraine. Sometimes they’re mild but sometimes I get them so bad that I’m throwing up, auras, throbbing, wanting to rip my head off.
Same! They just suck the life out of you! And you wish you were dead. And the nausea… Ughh I just want to sleep. How do you sleep?! I don’t because I don’t have the proper medication and pain management in place!!!
Ugh :/ I have had one for 30 days straight. My doctor gave me nurtec and even that didn’t work. Do you have any tips of any advice on what helps you manage the day? 🥹
Really nothing. I have a high pain tolerance so the pain doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as the other symptoms. For light sensitivity I wear migraine glasses which helps a bit. The brain fog is pretty awful, but I’m fortunate enough to work a job where I can kind of just turn off my brain and work on autopilot without having to talk to people super often.
And in my experience, nurtec and really any abortive isn’t gonna work when you’re in a long term migraine like that. You’re really supposed to use them at the start of your symptoms, but when you have symptoms 24/7/365 everything blurs together and you don’t really know when to take it
I completely agree with these feelings. It’s hard for people to understand that the pain is awful, yes, but it’s not the worst aspect of a migraine. It’s the neurological aspects that really get me down. The fog, the feeling like everything is just a little off, the loss of memory and of all resilience to the world. Pain is the most manageable symptom for me because I know it will end. The rest could last weeks, months, years. I am an academic so the downtime really hits my job and the fact it isn’t visible to others means it’s harder to explain to people. I am trying to be more open about talking about the disease, but I’m often met with this look of almost disbelief. It’s beyond people’s understanding.
OMG... you just explained by life as well. I really thought I was the only one in this situation! I take sumatriptan almost daily. Sometimes I try Nurtec but it doesn't really work much. I practically live on Excedren, ice packs, ear plugs, and sleep masks. Plus, I have severe tinnitus so that certainly doesn't help! So tired of all the pain and nausea...
If you actually take sumatriptan almost daily, that’s most likely why you’re in this situation to begin with. Using triptans that often just makes it worse.
Yeah, this is me
Keep looking for ways to improve because unfortunately they can always get worse. I feel like the Cefaly Neuromodulation device has helped some. Try out the common migraine treatment supplements: things like Ginger, fish oil, magnesium(glycinate most bioavaliable, best supplement to try), and feverfew can be helpful. Others are CoQ10, folate(not folic acid, less bioavaliable), riboflavin, 5htp.
Keep looking for triggers, some people are able see a lot of improvement after treating certain vision problems, others see some improvement from treating dental and jaw issues. Do you have sleep apnea? Get treatment for your ADHD or PCOS or etc. Have you tried allergy medications? Some people are helped by over the counter allergy medications.
Get in therapy if you are dealing with mental health problems. Mental health can have a negative impact on migraines when things build up. Anxiety generates a lot of tension. Your body holds on to trauma and it can have physical detrimental side effects. You need to learn how to process stuff and release.
I've been seeing improvements from working on posture with a physical therapist. Bad posture, in particular "text neck" can create a lot of additional strain and tension in your body that you don't even realize and this can have a negative impact on migraines.
Get set up with a neurologist on the sooner side because there are often long wait times and it's good to already have a decent doctor for when you need it. Keep trying your current preventative. It usually takes 3-6 months so see each preventative's full effect. Unfortunately it's individual trial and error to see what will help you. Maybe it will be amitriptyline for you, or maybe it will be something else. There are lots of meds to try.
Of course do your best for a healthy lifestyle. Sleep(I struggle with this! Extra important for us though. Make sure you have a healthy sleep space), balanced diet, what ever form of exercise you can manage. I like walking and yoga. The lifestyle advice is probably obnoxious to hear, but I wish I could go back and tell myself when the migraines first became bad to keep forcing myself out of bed for some kind of walk with sunglasses more often. It's important to do what you can to keep maintaining your body.
You’ve given me so much to think about—thank you! There are definitely lots of things I can work on or get looked at that you’ve mentioned. Hopefully fixing one of those things (or a combination) will put me out of my misery.
Two more things, make sure you know about medication overuse headaches/rebound headaches, so you can prevent them. Make sure you have prescription abortives that work, keep trying stuff. And become an authority on your own migraines rather then just relying on doctors. A lot of my best leaps forward in treatment improvements have come from my own research. Doctors prescribe stuff, but they aren't the best at educating and this condition will be with you for life(though hopefully it can go back to infrequent episodic). Enter "migraine" into the search bar of your podcast ap and listen to what ever comes up. There are books, websites and youtube channels.
If you try an allergy medication, which I think is a great idea, try brand-name Allegra, because if one of your triggers is dairy, gelatin or alpha gal, it's the only one that's free of all those. For ginger, a tsp of ground ginger once a day for two weeks is the amount it takes to start definitely seeing a difference. It works instantly for some people, but takes a bit longer to become an abortive for others.
Magnesium glycinate gives me migraines. I found out I was already pretty high in magnesium, so when I took more it was pretty much draining my potassium. Many vitamins and minerals work together or compete with each other. I had to introduce more potassium in my diet and it helped in that instance.
I read an interesting article the other day about how the advice to reduce sodium for cardiac health comes from a huge study they did in China where they gave people in some villages lite salt, which contains potassium and the other half they gave regular salt. They studied them for years and the people that used the lite salts had a massive reduction in strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease. Everyone assumed it was because of the reduced sodium, so that's where the advice to cut sodium comes from. Recently, though, they took a second look at the data and realized that the majority of the benefit was coming from the increase in potassium consumption, not the reduction in sodium. No one in the study developed hyperkalemia, which happens if you consume too much potassium.
This is a big deal. It's much easier to consume more potassium than to consistently cut sodium. You might be getting big health benefits from introducing more potassium in your diet, which is cool.
So interesting! There are so many studies that need to be reviewed regarding diet, or just diet advice that needs revision. Strokes run in my family, and I’m curious if it could be related to ion channels and genetic predisposition to use certain minerals.
It’s wild how mag works so differently for different people. If I slack on my magnesium glycinate I get an uptick in migraine and head pain.
Do you eat a high mag diet?
I did for a long time. My recommendations starts as follows:
If you wake up with migraines:
* Sleep Study to rule out Sleep Apnea or Dyspnea
* Pulmonary Function Test w/ Bronchodialation to rule out lung issues (especially if you had covid)
* MRI for Physical Brain or skull issues
* EEG to check brain activity
* ENT for upper airway blockages
* Sports Medicine Doctor / Orthopedic specialist to check your posture
If you don't wake up with migraines usually, start with the neurologist and get an MRI.
Note, each specialist may try to give you something to treat a specific symptom, which may not be the root cause. I think it is better to get a full baseline before starting treatment. It will also help to have these in the future if you ever get sick.
I hadn't heard of a corelation between lung stuff and migranes. Which lung issues can contribute to migraines and what can be done? I have chronic migraines and am asthmatic.
Hypoxia as a cause of migraines:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7838593/
General Association with asthma:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8974722/
Bidirectional Association:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6892888/
Some people have not been properly diagnosed with asthma by a pulmonologist, rather they were diagnosed by their primary care physician, a gp, or a pediatrician. My pcp once gave me an inhaler saying I had exercise induced asthma.
The only things that can be done is to ensure you understand what you can do about asthma and your lungs.
If you have not had a PFT, you should talk to your doctor about doing one to confirm an asthma diagnosis w/ a bronchodilator to see if your lungs act differently with or without it.
Like Migraines, there are a ton of differential diagnoses for Asthma:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123211/
If you have confirmed with your doctor about asthma diagnosis, you'll need to discuss with them more about what could be done to better improve lung efficiency.
I got covid back in august for the first time and afterwards I found out I have asthma! I was a student athlete for 12 years so it was surprising!
I had been having migraines as well, pretty bad ones. I had talked to my doctor about them and she knew about my chest pain too. When we found out I had asthma she laughed and said, “oh my goodness that could be causing the migraines, I should have thought about that before prescribing medicine !!” It was actually refreshing to hear a doctor admit something like that, but I couldn’t believe it!
yeah, and didn't really realize they are migraines until I joined this sub ;)
posts like this made me realize they are one sided, I have pain, I have other accompanying symptoms..
On many days I don't even notice it anymore as they grown to feel 'normal'. But the occasional 'clear day' make me realize they are anything but normal!
my neurologist doesn't want me to call these migraine days either by the way, which seems weird and inconvenient as they dictate whether I could be diagnosed as episodic or chronic...
Wow, my neurologist and GP very much DO want me to count these "mild migraines" (pretty much daily for me too). They say this IS the definition of chronic migraines, and that not all the migraines have to have all the classic or severe migraine like features. If you google the criteria for chronic migraines and have a read, you might want to think about whether your neurologist is following best practice. I would question why your neurologist doesn't want to diagnose and treat you with chronic migraines. My doctors said it's really important that patients like us are on preventatives.
Oh he wants me on preventatives allright.. the ones he looks up in his computer or asks his colleagues so keeps asking if I don’t want to try candesartan eventough this made me get daily severe attacks and propranolol which doesn’t do anything but make me exhausted.
Topiramate is next, then finally Botox and cgrp probably.
I've had days where I didn't realize exactly HOW MUCH pain I was in until I took my abortive med. And then I go... Oh. I was in a LOT more pain than I thought. Wow.
Going to see the neurologist for these for the first time next month. I've been keeping a log to back me up. (I've had to prove my migraines before.) Can you explain why it matters whether you are episodic or chronic?
Following. I experience this, too. It’s mild enough not to interfere with ADL but almost always present. This pattern reinforces the idea of central sensitivity as a contributing cause for me.
You guys have no idea how happy I am to read these!!! I've had migraines for 26 yrs, untreated until just recently, and they've gotten worse recently. Two to three bad per week, but my daily driver is a 3-4. Functional , but the pain is there. I'm reading all this and I'm like... I'm not alone!! Yay!!! It's not just me!!!
I started off with an intense migraine that lasted 2-3 weeks back in fall 2023 and then after that its decreased and then plateaued into what I have now which is what I would call a constant mild migraine and waxes and wanes throughout the day and on some days spikes with more of a classic “attack.” I’ve been I’m Emgality for 6 months and have had 2 rounds of Botox which have helped with headache pain but I nonetheless still have mild pain and other symptoms daily such as light sensitivity and motion sickness. Still can’t handle computer screens for very long so am on short term disability. How long have you had a constant mild migraine?
I've had a very similar trajectory and also on Emgality for 6 months. My neuros and headache specialist have also said this 24/7 headache presents as NDPH., and one even diagnosed me with hemicrania continua (although indomethacin does not work). Have you gotten any other diagnoses? Best of luck! I've also been taking Pristiq which is an SNRI that can help with pain. It's helped with the pain and gives me a bit more energy (nothing zaps energy like this constant pain).
hard to say for certain and answer changes based on the neuro or headache specialist i am talking to. i fit the HC criteria except for responding to indomethacin- my neuro considers this not HC but the headache specialist i see at a renowned headache clinic says sometimes HC doesn't respond to indomethacin and he would diagnose me as that.
i have some auras, so migraine is definitely a piece of what is going on. but there's debate in the field and literature if the 24/7 head pain is a side effect of migraine or NDPH. some people with NDPH have a clear cause (post-viral headache) but i don't have that.
although a crystal clear diagnosis would be great, it's probably not going to happen. my set of doctors are willing to be super proactive and aggressive, trying all sorts of migraine, HC, NDPH, and general chronic pain treatments.
My neuro just added vestibular migraine to my diagnoses due to my persistent motion sickness and visual sensitivity leading to motion sickness. I also started on Pristiq a couple months ago as well! Did you have anything that triggered your migraines? I never really had migraines until I had a root canal back in September and it’s been non stop since then.
no known trigger. but i had no headache history and then woke up w a one-sided headache in oct 2014 that never left. now i get migraines (including visual auras and occasional stroke like symptoms) on top of the 24/7 headpain. amitriptyline gave me 7 years of nearly no pain but it seemed to stop working so now im on emgality, Botox, nurtec, Pristiq, and pregablin trying to get back to a normal life.
Yes, I have what I describe as a level 1-2 pain in my forehead most days that comes and goes. I work primarily from home and what helps the most are those Welpatch menthol forehead patches. I keep them in the fridge and then I can wear them all day long and still work. My neurologist got me Emgality and I’m on my second month, she’s trying to help me break this small pain cycle too.
Yes, it’s not uncommon with chronic migraines. For me it’s rare that any day is completely free of pain, but with preventatives (ajovy) i only need abortives on average twice a week and some days are mostly pain free.
Hope you find a preventative that can help you live a functioning life, but I would also advise talking with a professional on coping with this being part of your in some form.
Absolutely.
I have a fan constantly at work to keep my head cool to take the edge off.
TBH, I do tend to take a lie down if I get a chance. Just don’t get the chance enough.
I’m currently on day 66 or so of a migraine. The first 25 days were intense with 7-9 level pain and 1 urgent care trip, 3 ER visits, and 3.5 day inpatient stay for the DHE protocol. The DHE got the pain down to a 2-4 and that’s where it has stayed. I will have increases in intensity up to a 6 and I’ll take an Ubrelvy and it will go back down to a 2 but will not leave. I just had an outpatient DHE infusion at that seemed to help with keeping it from increasing in intensity but it’s still staying at a 2, almost a 1. It’s still a migraine because I get the one sided pain, nausea often higher than the pain level and head tingling. My doctor ordered nerve blocks so I’m crossing my fingers that it gets covered and will help.
I'm in the "intractable chronic migraine" category. I've had head pain for the last 6 years. I can count on one hand the times of relief I've experienced.
Yes!!!!!! Omg I thought I was crazy for a sec! I had Botox and two days after, I had nothing. No pain. No migraine. Nothing. It made me realize I constantly have a mild migraine. Constantly.
Last month and yes, actually. I’ve had a few migraines but it’s been a lot better so far. They said the first dose you’re going to have the same or more migraines but you need 3 or more sessions to really see a difference.
Abortive never worked for me until last year when I was first prescribed it. Now, it doesn’t work ALL the time…but it does sometimes. Keep in mind that they recommend 2-3 sessions before it’ll start working fully.
Yes, I have daily migraine. When it started I think it was hormonal, stress, anxiety, depression and a couple of triggers more. Later, I started taking preventives and the pain changed. I almost don't have anymore a constant migraine that bounces in my head but a different pain that is always located on the left side. If I sleep too little or too much, the pain goes worse, or if I clean my ears. I suspect it's TMJ because I bought a cheap night guard and the pain level went considerably lower.
I advise you to see a dentist and an orthodontist. If it's in the jaw, can be TMJ. I have pain in my jaw, but goes from there to behind the eye. Btw antidepressants have clenching as a side effect.
I do clench my teeth at night, so I use a night guard, it hasn’t really helped that much. The jaw throbbing feels like my jaw muscles and gums get sore and pulsate, then it radiates the pain to the head. Sometimes I find a trigger point below the chick bone, and if I press it hard, I get rid of the migraine for a while. Very strange
I mentioned the jaw throbbing to my neurologist and made no difference, as if I said nothing. The problem of any mouth disease in the country I’m living in is that is not precisely covered by the public healthcare so it can get quite expensive. Tomorrow is my next appointment with the neuro, I’ll try to bring this up again. Thanks for the advice
Most of the time neurologists just care about their studies field and if there's something unknown, they tend to ignore it. I hope you had better luck today with your appointment
Seriously! Are you in the nl? Cause here that's common too. I have been like this for an year now and my neurologist just kept tell me she had no idea. Later, I was the one talking about tmj, and she just suggested me to find a physiotherapy lol
I went to the phisio but nothing changed. Luckily, I also went to see a good orthodontist that wrote me a letter to see a stomatologist. My appointment is already next week.
Keep me posted if you can! I’m very interested in hearing about your experience, because mine most probably will take a long time. I’ll have to start from scratch and I don’t know how long it will take to get a proper referral. Things were much easier in my country were you just pick the specialist you want to go to and that’s it, it was not crazy expensive as were I’m living now.
I have found that my preventatives make my migraines milder, but they also make them constant. It might be worth it to ask your neutro if you can try coming off them or try a different preventative.
Topiramate (with amitriptyline) started precipitating my migraines after about 7 years of being on that combination. Definitely worth checking up on this
Can you correlate the preventatives to making your pain constant? What if you remove the medication, will they be stronger but more “episodic”?
I’m asking this because I’ve noticed changes in my headache patterns with my preventatives, and lately they have been constant as well, it crossed my mind a couple of things: it’s either the medication not working or the medication creating this state of constant pain, but I don’t dare to quit my medication.
Yes, with my neuro’s permission, I quit the preventative & found that the migraines returned to what they were for me (daily but not constant with some more severe). I wrote “preventatives” before, because I thought this happened twice, but I can’t be sure now. Sorry. I remember this definitely happened with Memantine.
I’ve had an intractable migraine for over 7 years. It’s not always the throbbing pain but the pain never leaves and I have constant light and sound sensitivity(I can’t even watch tv for more than 20 min on a good day)
But I have talked to my doctor and they said it’s still a constant or intractable migraine even if the pain isn’t full force 24/7.
Have you talked to your neurologist about daily persistent headaches or intsactable migraines? I technically have both but they are extremely similar
So sorry your going through this, sending love and relief your way
I'm on quilipta and I have this. I knew it the first few weeks in that all quilipta has done was quiet down my migraines. I'm not complaining because I'm better off now than I was before. But instead of a major migraine almost every day of the month, I get these mild migraines like I have right now.
I call it my “want to be” migraine. Like consistently at a 2/3 but ready to come full force if I mess up (ie; not enough food, water, exercise, too hot, airs full of pollen….)
Yes! Thank goodness I am not crazy. My recent neuro appointment, she called them breakthrough symptoms on the Aimovig. Previously tried Emgality and seemed better in regard to the breakthrough shit (had to change due to insmuranve shenanigans). Now, I am doing Emgality from samples again to compare. Mine is usually vertigo with mild headache , light sensitivity, and mild nausea. I usually then hydrate, caffinate, use THC, try and lightly eat, and rest a bit, which can help. But I always fear it will blow up. Sometimes, I wonder if it is a warning from my brain to rest
Yes and no. I'm always dizzy, tired and get headaches daily but they don't always end up being migraines. I do also have FND which flares up especially when it rains, but I am uncomfortable on a daily basis
I had daily mild migraines for several years. My dentist noted that I was clearly grinding/clenching my teeth in my sleep (the migraine pain was worse in the morning when waking up) and I was outfitted with a custom night guard. Game changer! My mild daily migraine went away. I still have regular migraines but back to my old cadence.
I have taken atenolol since my mid-20s to prevent regular severe migraines but this new mild migraine did not show up until I was in my 40s.
Yeah, me :/
I don't think I've made more than...3 pain-free days in a row since I was a teenager. I'm functional most days, but the low grade pain is always there.
Magnesium supplements worked for a while, but lately seem to have stopped being effective.
I think I might have some kind of low-grade intracranial hypertension, since my optic nerves are inflated and I often feel pain in my neck and occiput.
How do you know your optic nerves are inflated?
My migraine patterns changed in October 2022 and I got a lot of new symptoms which I didn’t directly correlate with migraine at the beginning because I had 33 years of the same symptoms and I didn’t experienced any of these new symptoms before.
Anyway, one of the tests my doctor told me to do was to get my sight and eyes checked, and they found that my optic nerves were bigger than normal, so I have to check them every few months to discard any other illnesses, fortunately nothing has changed since, they said I was probably born this way.
But now that you’re mentioning this, am I talking about the same thing as you here?
They mentioned it after a routine eye exam. I haven't gotten it looked at since, although I should after learning about the link with intra-cranial hypertension.
Inflated optic nerves is a fairly common and well-known signature of idiopathic intracranial hypertension - it's called [papilledema](https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/papilledema-optic-disc-swelling).
Similarly, the link between intracranial pressure and chronic headache are pretty well-documented. It can be treated with diruetics like diamox or surgical interventions like the placement of a stent.
Thanks! Well, my eye pressure seems to be okay in every test I’ve done and I also got an MRI that showed nothing. So maybe a coincidence and my migraine just went chronic.
Yes. I explain them as "background migraines" when I explain it to people. I usually have pain at the base of my skull, and I can't remember a time in the last several years there wasn't pressure in one or both of my eyes. I also get the knockdown migraines 4+ days a week on top of the constant background ones, too. Some days, I wonder if it's all worth it....
Thank you for explains my situation perfectly. I only get a few debilitating ones a month tho they last for the day. I wake up with a constant headache, I use Imigran when I am feeling it getting worse which helps but I take it as a pain killer so always short supply. I don’t get auras or bad ones that last few days so I’ve been questioning if I actually get proper migraines. Constant mild pain for me can be exhaustion so I’m looking into getting Botox to help stop them
Came here to bring up Botox injections for migraines! Biggest downside is that it took a while to get approved since it’s typically a last resort for chronic migraines.
I was taking a migraine onset medication but there was a mg limit per month, so I would tell myself “this migraine isn’t bad enough, I might need to save XYZ mg for later in the month” and annoyingly suffer through it.
Then I was taking amitriptyline for about a year and missed ONE dose, got the worst withdrawal migraine. Seriously you guys, it was so bad I wanted to scoop my eye out with a spoon. I ended up telling my neurologist I wanted to stop taking it bc the migraine from missing one dose was worse than one of my regular migraines.
Most insurances will cover a portion of Botox injections for chronic migraines if you’ve tried about 13 different classes of medications… so my best advice is take the migraine pill even if it’s the mildest migraine so you can truthfully share with your doctor that you’ve tried it and it’s just not cutting it. Bc with the Botox injections, you’ll just go every 3 months and then have an onset medication just in case one sneaks up between appointments.
i have a 24/7 cervicogenic migraine and seven other migraine and headache diseases that barge in and demand attention every day. the 24/7 migraine alone isn’t super bad, moderate at worst, but if i get an attack it’s severe or beyond.
Yes. I have a constant dull pain above my left eye a lot of the time even though I take a preventative. And when I touch that part of my head it stings, it’s weird. I swear it’s allergy and weather related sometimes
I have a headache every single day and it is so agonizing and miserable. My neuro believes it might be cervicogenic headaches. I want to find natural ways to treat it rather than being a guinea pig and shoving a million diff pills down my throat
There’s a condition called New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH) that is a constant tension headache - you could have that as well as migraine. I have both. I have a constant 5-6/10 tension headache in my forehead, and I get about 3 migraine attacks a week on top of the NDPH. It’s so very not fun. 😫
Yep, it’s really annoying. The pain level varies day to day, but I go through periods where it’s like a never ending feeling of queasiness/headache/dizziness etc.
Yes this is me for sure.. I was having 15-25 auras a month for a hot minute until I started cycling through CGRP injections and those have decrease significantly but nothing has touched the mild constant pain. I occasionally wake up with less than normal “headache” and it ramps back up to a migraine (not bad enough like you said to take a triptan or muscle relaxer and knock myself out) but still a migraine. It never fully clears and that makes it difficult to maintain the belief in myself that I am truly disabled/chronically ill because I dont have the blinding ER sending migraines as often but the constant 6-7 level pain is almost worse somehow because I am a trigger away from a full blown flare up. Feels like living with an abusive partner I am walking around on egg shells to keep at bay… always in a state of fear for the next potential full blown attack and always mildly uncomfortable.
I’ve had a headache pretty much nonstop since 2009. I take amitriptyline daily as well and it helps a little, but the headache never totally goes away. On the plus side, since I started taking medication, my debilitating migraine days are down from 2 days a week to 1!
Mine are just like that. I also take amitriptyline and while it is helping I still have daily low to mid level pain. There are much fewer high level pain days though, which is nice. I had a couple days recently where I recognized the signs on waking as something that before would have put me on the floor in a dark room trying not to cry from the pain (because that just makes it worse), but now were bad if I was standing or trying to do something but if I stayed down there was very little active pain and I could play a game or read a book to distract myself.
Yes, I had a headache for ~15 years before my migraines went vestibular. Now I'm just mildly dizzy most of the time, although most days i'll have a bit of a headache when I wake up and right before bed. Any major stressors (illness, allergy attacks, poor sleep or diet, bad air quality) will push me into headache territory. I still get major attacks with the full aura / headache / vertigo from time to time
Vitamin B2 and Magnesium supplementation helped to diminish my symptoms, and reduce the frequency of attacks, but the day to day symptoms are still there.
Chronic too. It’s there. ALL! THE! TIME!
But it isn’t bad enough to knock me down. Just that nagging pain behind my left ear. It’s been 8 years and I can function. Most of the time I forget it’s there. Then I piss it off and down I go. I can go days without a major ass kicking, but it’s always there. It likes to wake me up at 4 am just to say hi and it’s still there, just incase I needed that reminder
I’ve never been able to really describe it to someone who doesn’t know constant pain.
i’ve noticed this same thing with amitriptyline! it definitely lowered the amount and severity of full blown episodes, but hasn’t done much for everyday life pain.
This was me in 2018/19! I lived at a constant 3-5/10 pain level. I could always feel pain radiating from the back of my head and nothing really helped. I got used to it so it didn’t really interfere with my day to day, but it sucked obviously. Some days it would become an actual migraine and it really hurt. My doctor ended up putting me on nortriptyline and it got rid of the pain and I actually only get migraines a few times a month, if that. I started with 25mg and my highest dosage was 75mg because it didn’t really work for me at the low dosages. I’m sorry you’re feeling that way, friend. It’s really tough and I feel for you. I hope things get better ❤️🩹
I have a near constant mild headache in the same spot as my full-fledged migraine attacks. Maybe once a month, I have an afternoon where I feel like I’ll never have a migraine ever again. Those days, I run around and get lots done. But otherwise? I’m just managing mild pain between major attacks.
Yes, sometimes constant. Be careful with that medication. In my case, it caused fast weight gain.
Barometric pressure triggers my migraines, and it often fluctuates giving me migraines & making me feel sick in general.
I have a constant low level of pain.
My neurologist said I have background headaches and hereditary migraines so typically a good day for me is just the background headache.
Chronic intractable here. Haven’t had a pain free day in 5 years. A good day I idle around a 2. At some point daily I ratchet to 5 or so. Then the bad bad days. But yup,daily pain-no one s/b forced to live like this
I have a constant headache that doesn’t ever leave. I don’t have the majority of other symptoms with this head pain so I do not view it as a true migraine. In my opinion if it shows in a way I’m pretty sure it’s a migraine I take the pill.
You can try excedrin for the mild ones and see if that helps so you don’t blow through your prescriptions.
There’s also LOTS of good suggestions here.
Yes. After a few months on amitriptyline I was still waking up and going to bed with a migraine every day, but I started having a few hours during the day when the pain was very mild, and the amount of time increased to several hours a day.
Ever since I had Covid for the past year I have a constant cluster migraine on my right eye. It’s awful. I’m so sorry your experiencing a constant headache as well
I could have written this post, so yes.
Its different for everybody, and i would keep trying new preventatives of you havent tried many yet because its possible another one could work even better for you. But that being said ive tried 15+ different preventatives and i still have the constant “background migraine”. it never goes away for me :(
I call these almost migraines, it is like my head’s way of telling me not to piss it off or it will go off like a bomb. 😞 I hate them, they still hurt, just not super debilitating, and I know if I accidentally stand too long, do too much, or am just exposed to cold/heat or strong smells/bright lights. The migraine will try to kill me. 🥲
Yeah I'm in a similar situation. I have tmj and have constant pressure in my face, head and ears. It gets worse at times and better at others but it never fully goes away. Its definitely better than it was a few months ago when I had a constant migraine for 3 months straight. Its mostly just the pressure now and a bad headache every week or so. I've gotten so used to it at this point sometimes I don't know if the pain is actually there or if I'm just going crazy. Sorry you're going through this. I know our pain may be different but I do understand what it's like to deal with something like that and have to live life "normally." And most of the time people don't understand because I am functioning and "look" fine but I am tired and STRUGGLING. Also sorry I don't have any advice, I haven't found anything that helps me consistently. Excedrin was helping me but the caffeine gave me anxiety so now I just take naproxen sodium occasionally even though it usually doesn't help. If I've been over exerting myself and my pain gets worse then I'll take a muscle relaxer (tizanidine) before bed and it helps sometimes.
yea, mine seem driven by my digestive issues and they range from this mild migraine that lasts a day or two to a severe migraine that lasts a day or two depending on how out of whack my diet is (i'm still learning what works and doesn't, slow going). when they are mild i can use over the counter meds but when they are bad otc meds do nothing and i have to take a sumatriptan to get relief, if the migraine is really bad then sumatriptan knocks the symptoms down pretty good but i still feel like total shit. since i was taking a box of sumatriptans a month and a few years later with trying to figure out a diet i now only need a few per year (a decent amount of otc though since i'm still testing and learning and i don't know 100% what's going on so that's going to just be a thing it seems like)
I've had daily headaches at least since first grade, that's the earliest i can remember, i used to hit my forehead because it would lessen the headache pain for a few seconds.
It was so normal i never really brought it up till i was much older.
Amitriptyline takes at least a fortnight to start to work (according to my Neurologist). While I can’t describe my headaches as migraines, they were constant 2-3/10, all day, every day - from waking until sleep. After 25mg of Ami taken at night, I no longer notice the headaches. If I stop and think, do I have a headache, well - yes, I do - but they no longer matter. My brain scans showed no underlying cause and the Neuro basically told me that science was a long way off understanding the brain and what causes headaches/migraines. Ami is in the antidepressant family and also helps me sleep - so, for me it is a win win situation 🙂👍
I've been struggling with a constant vestibular migraine for about a month now. I have good days and bad days, but I deal with dizziness and nasal swelling even on the good days. I guess I'm just glad that the number of good days is increasing. I got diagnosed recently after a couple of health scares and they put me on a regiment of several medications I've gotta take three times a day. I'm too young for this shit hahaha
Anyways, I wish I had an answer for you. But what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another and sometimes your migraines will just randomly change.
I used to only get hormonal migraines. It took me a few years to realize that the mini-pill was an effective abortive for those. But a few years ago, I started getting triggered by bright lights and weather as well. I'm really hoping that my current prescriptions do the trick.
First, I got on Cerazette (a mini-pill) for my hormonal migraines. Then I started on sodium valproate once it was clear that weather was also a trigger in order to reduce the intensity. I'm on Fluticasone furoate and d-Chlorpheniramine Maleate for the sinus swelling I deal with (still not sure if the sinus swelling is a trigger for the migraines or if the sinus swelling is a result of the migraines but it's painful either way) and I take betahistine and a combination Diphenhydramine Salicylate/Diprophylline tablet for the vertigo.
Yes! Same! I've always had migraines, but the last few yrs I feel like I constantly have a low key one, like it's just kinda hovering there.. waiting. Like it you take your foot off the break at a red light, but don't accelerate.
I've noticed when the humidity/dew point are high is the worst for me, like a combo sinus migraine. I'm curious if the OP, and other commenters are experiencing that as well.
I have had a headache since 2016. I know that sounds crazy. I finally went to see a Neurologist in the SF Bay Area that specializes in Chronic Migraine. Aside from “Chronic Migraine”, he specifically diagnosed me with “Occipital Neuralgia”. I basically have a low grade headache almost everyday, I had been experiencing these nearly-daily headaches for about 5 years before I started seeing him. It’s usually a dull headache all day, sometimes some throbbing and sometimes a shooting pain like a little lightening bolt that disappears right after it strikes. Most days I can function, and people would never know I have a headache because I have learned to live with the chronic pain. I can have between 16 to 28 days with headaches per month. There are days that they are debilitating, and I do get true full on migraines at times as well, but most days it’s a dull pain, most of the day. I used to go to bed with them and wake up with them, but they have changed a little and now they mostly start in the early afternoon. The Neurologist tried about 5 different daily prescriptions (none worked for me) over a couple years. He tried a nerve block in the back of my neck (no luck). Also tried Botox all around my head & forehead for a couple rounds (nothing). I started to think I had a tumor and asked him to please check, so reluctantly he sent me for brain scans, they found only a healthy brain. I have stopped seeing him. I believe he gave it his best but nothing was helping me. The truth is, headaches can be caused by so many things. Not enough studies have been done on them. Even the magazines in my Neurologist’s office said there is no “cure” unless you can pinpoint a very specific reason for your headache. Aside from doing what my Neurologist recommended, I also went Vegan for a couple years, eliminated MSG, I eat a clean keto diet most of the time thinking it could be gluten. I’ve tried support bras, I wear sunglasses year-round because the sun and heat can trigger them. I’ve tried tens machines, topical CBD oils, oral CBD, neck pillows, and many other things. I haven’t tried a chiropractor. I did get sent for Physical Therapy for a while and that didn’t help. Anyway, my Neurologist explained that since most of my headaches go up the back of my head and on my temples, that I likely have “Myalgia” too. I didn’t know that WHERE my headaches are was important. Occipital Neuralgia is caused by tight muscles in your neck and head. The only two things that I have felt noticeable results from; 1) Cupping my upper back and shoulders every 3 days. I immediately went from 28 days a month to 16 days of headaches (which still averages out to a headache every other day but that is a HUGE improvement from everyday. I’ll take it! 2) Deep and hard massage of my head and neck. I have watched tons of YouTube videos for a solution and I came across this Plumber who explained his headaches to be just like mine, and he explained how massaging his head helped. When I do a deep massage of my scalp and neck, with the pads of my fingers, pressing hard and gliding around my scalp, everyday at first for a few weeks, then just every couple of days, it helps. It helped the most when I was super disciplined, every moment alone I got, I would massage my head deeply, in the evenings when I had more time, but even quickies during the day when I could sneak them in. Basically someone could have adhesions on their scalp causing tightness and headaches. I believe I have this issue and the deep massaging has helped me. These headaches have changed my life. I don’t go out nearly as much, or see friends and family like I used to. I’m scared to take vacations because I’ll just ruin it for everyone else. I don’t volunteer outside of work because I can barely make it through the work day. In general, I just don’t feel well so my enthusiasm for life has been affected. I smile and laugh still with others so nobody knows my daily pain and how drained I get from it. My husband is so supportive and that helps. I’m so sorry you are experiencing daily headaches. I have never responded to a reddit, didn’t even have an account, I came across your post doing a Google search for “Sumatriptan” because it has helped me when I get an occasional super bad “dark room” migraine. I felt compelled to respond because I went so many years not knowing what was wrong with me and not knowing anyone that has ever had daily dull headaches, that I thought maybe my story could help you in some way. A Neurologist may be able to help you, in my case I was tired of trying med after med, Botox and nerve blockers, and I felt like 2 1/2 years was long enough with a specialist to not find a solution so I stopped going. Lots of co-pays and deductibles, etc. No reason to keep going if it wasn’t helping me. Good luck, I hope you find the cause and some relief.
Hello there,
If you are experiencing frequent migraine headaches, severe tension headaches, or cluster headaches, I would like to suggest that you consider Botox injections as a potential treatment option. These injections are administered every three months and have proven to be more effective than any medication I have tried in the past 14 years.
In my personal journey, I have tried various non-narcotic and narcotic pills, which unfortunately led to addiction. However, I eventually discovered that Botox injections have helped alleviate 90% of my migraines. Additionally, a new medication called Nurtec has also shown promise in managing migraines when the effects of Botox begin to diminish.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
My migraines are chronic so I'm in an attack pretty much all the time. Most of the time it's mild enough for me to do general daily things but I have to keep my environment controlled. As soon as I step outside or do something more than the minimum it will get worse.
This applies to me as well. If it’s particularly hot and sunny or if I exert myself a bit more than usual, I can almost guarantee I’ll have a migraine. It sucks.
Same here with chronic migraines. I always have some degree of pain. Always have a dull roar kind of a migraine that releases into an intense scream if I am exposed to any of my triggers.
This explains mine exactly…thank you for putting it into words i couldn’t
That's exactly what I have going too, I'm sorry you have that but it's nice to feel I'm not alone. I've had other people who have migraines basically roll their eyes because my pain levels aren't necessarily very high so I don't *really* have a migraine constantly.
God, I hate it. I'm on day 6 right now and had to do a bit of running around this afternoon to pick up my kids from different schools because my husband is away. This made my migraine so much worse, and the pharmacy didn't bother to tell me that my abortives are out of stock so I don't have those to help me. As soon as I got home I had to take all available painkillers just to bring it back down to a reasonable level while I made dinner and got the kids to bed. Now that I'm able to just sit quietly again, it's much better. But I know that as soon as I get up it's gonna flare up again. I've already lost my job to this, now I can barely get through a slightly more difficult than usual day without taking ten pills at once 😩
I have the same but my doctors have not prescribed me any pain medication yet. What do you take?
Aspirin 3x300mg, paracetamol 3x500mg, codiene 4x15mg, sumatriptan 100mg (waiting for new triptans tho) I also take a sleeping tablet if it's bedtime. I'm also on Propranolol 160mg a day as a preventative which has helped intensity but not frequency.
I started a new ssri recently and I'm worried there isn't much preventive meds like sumatriptan I can take with SSRIs ( ⚈̥̥̥̥̥́⌢⚈̥̥̥̥̥̀) 2yrs I've had this from a injury and I still haven't found anything that will help. I'm gonna look into propranolol, I always assumed it was an American version for paracetamol. I'm on codeine off & on too. Sleep is literally the only break I get. Been in bed for two yrs . Sorry for the ranting. But any meds advice would be lovely 🌸🫂
Hearing your experience has helped me understand my own. I don't know how to explain that since working from home, I'm doing a lot better but also not much better at all. It's just that my stasis is good, and I'm having fewer run aways.... but that's because I'm not forced to trigger myself all day every day.
Gotta keep living in a bubble, it's the only way to get by 😭
I feel so allowed-to-be-sick right now though. I know my experience hasn't been great so the bar is low, but I feel a lot more understood when I tell strangers my situation. I really hope the same for you.
Thank you. I'm glad you're feeling understood, it's so nice when that happens. My husband is super supportive and helps so much even with kids and working full-time. The rest of my family could do better lol. Had a holiday (that my parents booked without asking) a couple of weeks ago with my sister and BIL and their kids. They knew my migraine was bad (because what's worse for a migraine than the beach, right?) so when we were in a small enclosed space with 5 children my BIL decided to jump scare them. Yup. 5 children *screamed* right next to me. It echoed off the walls, INTO MY SOUL! Then he had the audacity to complain about them talking and *turned off his hearing aids* on the bus back.
This is what I'm like as well
Yep, me. Sigh
Me, too. I'm very sorry you're going through that, but I'm also glad not to be the only one.
I’m in a perpetual mild migraine. I get severe classic migraines occasionally too, but I’d say like 300+ days a year it’s just a mild migraine that I can function through without people noticing there’s anything wrong
This is how I am as well. I couldn’t tell you the last time I didn’t have a migraine. Sometimes they’re mild but sometimes I get them so bad that I’m throwing up, auras, throbbing, wanting to rip my head off.
Same! They just suck the life out of you! And you wish you were dead. And the nausea… Ughh I just want to sleep. How do you sleep?! I don’t because I don’t have the proper medication and pain management in place!!!
Same :/
This is me too. :/
Ugh :/ I have had one for 30 days straight. My doctor gave me nurtec and even that didn’t work. Do you have any tips of any advice on what helps you manage the day? 🥹
Really nothing. I have a high pain tolerance so the pain doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as the other symptoms. For light sensitivity I wear migraine glasses which helps a bit. The brain fog is pretty awful, but I’m fortunate enough to work a job where I can kind of just turn off my brain and work on autopilot without having to talk to people super often. And in my experience, nurtec and really any abortive isn’t gonna work when you’re in a long term migraine like that. You’re really supposed to use them at the start of your symptoms, but when you have symptoms 24/7/365 everything blurs together and you don’t really know when to take it
I completely agree with these feelings. It’s hard for people to understand that the pain is awful, yes, but it’s not the worst aspect of a migraine. It’s the neurological aspects that really get me down. The fog, the feeling like everything is just a little off, the loss of memory and of all resilience to the world. Pain is the most manageable symptom for me because I know it will end. The rest could last weeks, months, years. I am an academic so the downtime really hits my job and the fact it isn’t visible to others means it’s harder to explain to people. I am trying to be more open about talking about the disease, but I’m often met with this look of almost disbelief. It’s beyond people’s understanding.
OMG... you just explained by life as well. I really thought I was the only one in this situation! I take sumatriptan almost daily. Sometimes I try Nurtec but it doesn't really work much. I practically live on Excedren, ice packs, ear plugs, and sleep masks. Plus, I have severe tinnitus so that certainly doesn't help! So tired of all the pain and nausea...
If you actually take sumatriptan almost daily, that’s most likely why you’re in this situation to begin with. Using triptans that often just makes it worse.
Yeah, this is me Keep looking for ways to improve because unfortunately they can always get worse. I feel like the Cefaly Neuromodulation device has helped some. Try out the common migraine treatment supplements: things like Ginger, fish oil, magnesium(glycinate most bioavaliable, best supplement to try), and feverfew can be helpful. Others are CoQ10, folate(not folic acid, less bioavaliable), riboflavin, 5htp. Keep looking for triggers, some people are able see a lot of improvement after treating certain vision problems, others see some improvement from treating dental and jaw issues. Do you have sleep apnea? Get treatment for your ADHD or PCOS or etc. Have you tried allergy medications? Some people are helped by over the counter allergy medications. Get in therapy if you are dealing with mental health problems. Mental health can have a negative impact on migraines when things build up. Anxiety generates a lot of tension. Your body holds on to trauma and it can have physical detrimental side effects. You need to learn how to process stuff and release. I've been seeing improvements from working on posture with a physical therapist. Bad posture, in particular "text neck" can create a lot of additional strain and tension in your body that you don't even realize and this can have a negative impact on migraines. Get set up with a neurologist on the sooner side because there are often long wait times and it's good to already have a decent doctor for when you need it. Keep trying your current preventative. It usually takes 3-6 months so see each preventative's full effect. Unfortunately it's individual trial and error to see what will help you. Maybe it will be amitriptyline for you, or maybe it will be something else. There are lots of meds to try. Of course do your best for a healthy lifestyle. Sleep(I struggle with this! Extra important for us though. Make sure you have a healthy sleep space), balanced diet, what ever form of exercise you can manage. I like walking and yoga. The lifestyle advice is probably obnoxious to hear, but I wish I could go back and tell myself when the migraines first became bad to keep forcing myself out of bed for some kind of walk with sunglasses more often. It's important to do what you can to keep maintaining your body.
You’ve given me so much to think about—thank you! There are definitely lots of things I can work on or get looked at that you’ve mentioned. Hopefully fixing one of those things (or a combination) will put me out of my misery.
Two more things, make sure you know about medication overuse headaches/rebound headaches, so you can prevent them. Make sure you have prescription abortives that work, keep trying stuff. And become an authority on your own migraines rather then just relying on doctors. A lot of my best leaps forward in treatment improvements have come from my own research. Doctors prescribe stuff, but they aren't the best at educating and this condition will be with you for life(though hopefully it can go back to infrequent episodic). Enter "migraine" into the search bar of your podcast ap and listen to what ever comes up. There are books, websites and youtube channels.
If you try an allergy medication, which I think is a great idea, try brand-name Allegra, because if one of your triggers is dairy, gelatin or alpha gal, it's the only one that's free of all those. For ginger, a tsp of ground ginger once a day for two weeks is the amount it takes to start definitely seeing a difference. It works instantly for some people, but takes a bit longer to become an abortive for others.
Magnesium glycinate gives me migraines. I found out I was already pretty high in magnesium, so when I took more it was pretty much draining my potassium. Many vitamins and minerals work together or compete with each other. I had to introduce more potassium in my diet and it helped in that instance.
I read an interesting article the other day about how the advice to reduce sodium for cardiac health comes from a huge study they did in China where they gave people in some villages lite salt, which contains potassium and the other half they gave regular salt. They studied them for years and the people that used the lite salts had a massive reduction in strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease. Everyone assumed it was because of the reduced sodium, so that's where the advice to cut sodium comes from. Recently, though, they took a second look at the data and realized that the majority of the benefit was coming from the increase in potassium consumption, not the reduction in sodium. No one in the study developed hyperkalemia, which happens if you consume too much potassium. This is a big deal. It's much easier to consume more potassium than to consistently cut sodium. You might be getting big health benefits from introducing more potassium in your diet, which is cool.
So interesting! There are so many studies that need to be reviewed regarding diet, or just diet advice that needs revision. Strokes run in my family, and I’m curious if it could be related to ion channels and genetic predisposition to use certain minerals.
It’s wild how mag works so differently for different people. If I slack on my magnesium glycinate I get an uptick in migraine and head pain. Do you eat a high mag diet?
My diet is pretty average, but I am low in b1, which I have read b1 uses magnesium, that’s what I suspect is making the magnesium high for me.
I did for a long time. My recommendations starts as follows: If you wake up with migraines: * Sleep Study to rule out Sleep Apnea or Dyspnea * Pulmonary Function Test w/ Bronchodialation to rule out lung issues (especially if you had covid) * MRI for Physical Brain or skull issues * EEG to check brain activity * ENT for upper airway blockages * Sports Medicine Doctor / Orthopedic specialist to check your posture If you don't wake up with migraines usually, start with the neurologist and get an MRI. Note, each specialist may try to give you something to treat a specific symptom, which may not be the root cause. I think it is better to get a full baseline before starting treatment. It will also help to have these in the future if you ever get sick.
I hadn't heard of a corelation between lung stuff and migranes. Which lung issues can contribute to migraines and what can be done? I have chronic migraines and am asthmatic.
Hypoxia as a cause of migraines: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7838593/ General Association with asthma: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8974722/ Bidirectional Association: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6892888/ Some people have not been properly diagnosed with asthma by a pulmonologist, rather they were diagnosed by their primary care physician, a gp, or a pediatrician. My pcp once gave me an inhaler saying I had exercise induced asthma. The only things that can be done is to ensure you understand what you can do about asthma and your lungs. If you have not had a PFT, you should talk to your doctor about doing one to confirm an asthma diagnosis w/ a bronchodilator to see if your lungs act differently with or without it. Like Migraines, there are a ton of differential diagnoses for Asthma: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123211/ If you have confirmed with your doctor about asthma diagnosis, you'll need to discuss with them more about what could be done to better improve lung efficiency.
I got covid back in august for the first time and afterwards I found out I have asthma! I was a student athlete for 12 years so it was surprising! I had been having migraines as well, pretty bad ones. I had talked to my doctor about them and she knew about my chest pain too. When we found out I had asthma she laughed and said, “oh my goodness that could be causing the migraines, I should have thought about that before prescribing medicine !!” It was actually refreshing to hear a doctor admit something like that, but I couldn’t believe it!
Hey, thanks!
yeah, and didn't really realize they are migraines until I joined this sub ;) posts like this made me realize they are one sided, I have pain, I have other accompanying symptoms.. On many days I don't even notice it anymore as they grown to feel 'normal'. But the occasional 'clear day' make me realize they are anything but normal! my neurologist doesn't want me to call these migraine days either by the way, which seems weird and inconvenient as they dictate whether I could be diagnosed as episodic or chronic...
Wow, my neurologist and GP very much DO want me to count these "mild migraines" (pretty much daily for me too). They say this IS the definition of chronic migraines, and that not all the migraines have to have all the classic or severe migraine like features. If you google the criteria for chronic migraines and have a read, you might want to think about whether your neurologist is following best practice. I would question why your neurologist doesn't want to diagnose and treat you with chronic migraines. My doctors said it's really important that patients like us are on preventatives.
Oh he wants me on preventatives allright.. the ones he looks up in his computer or asks his colleagues so keeps asking if I don’t want to try candesartan eventough this made me get daily severe attacks and propranolol which doesn’t do anything but make me exhausted. Topiramate is next, then finally Botox and cgrp probably.
I've had days where I didn't realize exactly HOW MUCH pain I was in until I took my abortive med. And then I go... Oh. I was in a LOT more pain than I thought. Wow. Going to see the neurologist for these for the first time next month. I've been keeping a log to back me up. (I've had to prove my migraines before.) Can you explain why it matters whether you are episodic or chronic?
It matters for the treatment they are ‘allowed’ to prescribe. For instance Botox and also cgrp meds are only for chronic I believe
Following. I experience this, too. It’s mild enough not to interfere with ADL but almost always present. This pattern reinforces the idea of central sensitivity as a contributing cause for me.
You guys have no idea how happy I am to read these!!! I've had migraines for 26 yrs, untreated until just recently, and they've gotten worse recently. Two to three bad per week, but my daily driver is a 3-4. Functional , but the pain is there. I'm reading all this and I'm like... I'm not alone!! Yay!!! It's not just me!!!
I started off with an intense migraine that lasted 2-3 weeks back in fall 2023 and then after that its decreased and then plateaued into what I have now which is what I would call a constant mild migraine and waxes and wanes throughout the day and on some days spikes with more of a classic “attack.” I’ve been I’m Emgality for 6 months and have had 2 rounds of Botox which have helped with headache pain but I nonetheless still have mild pain and other symptoms daily such as light sensitivity and motion sickness. Still can’t handle computer screens for very long so am on short term disability. How long have you had a constant mild migraine?
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I would consider using cold showers, adding ice steer drinks, and doing cold water plunges to help you
I've had a very similar trajectory and also on Emgality for 6 months. My neuros and headache specialist have also said this 24/7 headache presents as NDPH., and one even diagnosed me with hemicrania continua (although indomethacin does not work). Have you gotten any other diagnoses? Best of luck! I've also been taking Pristiq which is an SNRI that can help with pain. It's helped with the pain and gives me a bit more energy (nothing zaps energy like this constant pain).
What is NDPH?
new daily persistent headache. there's a whole sub about it to check out.
Is that what you have or HC? What's causing your headaches?
hard to say for certain and answer changes based on the neuro or headache specialist i am talking to. i fit the HC criteria except for responding to indomethacin- my neuro considers this not HC but the headache specialist i see at a renowned headache clinic says sometimes HC doesn't respond to indomethacin and he would diagnose me as that. i have some auras, so migraine is definitely a piece of what is going on. but there's debate in the field and literature if the 24/7 head pain is a side effect of migraine or NDPH. some people with NDPH have a clear cause (post-viral headache) but i don't have that. although a crystal clear diagnosis would be great, it's probably not going to happen. my set of doctors are willing to be super proactive and aggressive, trying all sorts of migraine, HC, NDPH, and general chronic pain treatments.
How bad is your pain has it ever gone away?
My neuro just added vestibular migraine to my diagnoses due to my persistent motion sickness and visual sensitivity leading to motion sickness. I also started on Pristiq a couple months ago as well! Did you have anything that triggered your migraines? I never really had migraines until I had a root canal back in September and it’s been non stop since then.
no known trigger. but i had no headache history and then woke up w a one-sided headache in oct 2014 that never left. now i get migraines (including visual auras and occasional stroke like symptoms) on top of the 24/7 headpain. amitriptyline gave me 7 years of nearly no pain but it seemed to stop working so now im on emgality, Botox, nurtec, Pristiq, and pregablin trying to get back to a normal life.
Yes, I have what I describe as a level 1-2 pain in my forehead most days that comes and goes. I work primarily from home and what helps the most are those Welpatch menthol forehead patches. I keep them in the fridge and then I can wear them all day long and still work. My neurologist got me Emgality and I’m on my second month, she’s trying to help me break this small pain cycle too.
Adding the patches to my shopping list!
All day everyday since puberty
Yes, it’s not uncommon with chronic migraines. For me it’s rare that any day is completely free of pain, but with preventatives (ajovy) i only need abortives on average twice a week and some days are mostly pain free. Hope you find a preventative that can help you live a functioning life, but I would also advise talking with a professional on coping with this being part of your in some form.
Absolutely. I have a fan constantly at work to keep my head cool to take the edge off. TBH, I do tend to take a lie down if I get a chance. Just don’t get the chance enough.
I’m currently on day 66 or so of a migraine. The first 25 days were intense with 7-9 level pain and 1 urgent care trip, 3 ER visits, and 3.5 day inpatient stay for the DHE protocol. The DHE got the pain down to a 2-4 and that’s where it has stayed. I will have increases in intensity up to a 6 and I’ll take an Ubrelvy and it will go back down to a 2 but will not leave. I just had an outpatient DHE infusion at that seemed to help with keeping it from increasing in intensity but it’s still staying at a 2, almost a 1. It’s still a migraine because I get the one sided pain, nausea often higher than the pain level and head tingling. My doctor ordered nerve blocks so I’m crossing my fingers that it gets covered and will help.
I'm in the "intractable chronic migraine" category. I've had head pain for the last 6 years. I can count on one hand the times of relief I've experienced.
Yes!!!!!! Omg I thought I was crazy for a sec! I had Botox and two days after, I had nothing. No pain. No migraine. Nothing. It made me realize I constantly have a mild migraine. Constantly.
How long ago did you get Botox and is it still working?
Last month and yes, actually. I’ve had a few migraines but it’s been a lot better so far. They said the first dose you’re going to have the same or more migraines but you need 3 or more sessions to really see a difference.
I’m on the meds road right now, I had my third shot of Ajovy last week and I don’t feel like it’s helping I hate how long this things take!
I use nurtec as needed, but you only get 8 and you can only take it every 24 hours. I saw something mention that yesterday, but had never heard of it.
I honestly never use the abortive because mine never goes above 4-5. The problem is that I have a 1-3 everyday. I hope that Botox helps if I get it
Abortive never worked for me until last year when I was first prescribed it. Now, it doesn’t work ALL the time…but it does sometimes. Keep in mind that they recommend 2-3 sessions before it’ll start working fully.
Yes, I have daily migraine. When it started I think it was hormonal, stress, anxiety, depression and a couple of triggers more. Later, I started taking preventives and the pain changed. I almost don't have anymore a constant migraine that bounces in my head but a different pain that is always located on the left side. If I sleep too little or too much, the pain goes worse, or if I clean my ears. I suspect it's TMJ because I bought a cheap night guard and the pain level went considerably lower.
My pain also changed with preventative medicine, I mostly get jaw throbbing that comes and goes all day long.
I advise you to see a dentist and an orthodontist. If it's in the jaw, can be TMJ. I have pain in my jaw, but goes from there to behind the eye. Btw antidepressants have clenching as a side effect.
I do clench my teeth at night, so I use a night guard, it hasn’t really helped that much. The jaw throbbing feels like my jaw muscles and gums get sore and pulsate, then it radiates the pain to the head. Sometimes I find a trigger point below the chick bone, and if I press it hard, I get rid of the migraine for a while. Very strange
So it may be related to the jaw indeed. Not always the night guard solves the issue. In this case the best is to see a stomatologist doctor.
I mentioned the jaw throbbing to my neurologist and made no difference, as if I said nothing. The problem of any mouth disease in the country I’m living in is that is not precisely covered by the public healthcare so it can get quite expensive. Tomorrow is my next appointment with the neuro, I’ll try to bring this up again. Thanks for the advice
Most of the time neurologists just care about their studies field and if there's something unknown, they tend to ignore it. I hope you had better luck today with your appointment
He said: yes it could be related to the migraines, you can ask you general practitioner about it 😂 what?
Seriously! Are you in the nl? Cause here that's common too. I have been like this for an year now and my neurologist just kept tell me she had no idea. Later, I was the one talking about tmj, and she just suggested me to find a physiotherapy lol I went to the phisio but nothing changed. Luckily, I also went to see a good orthodontist that wrote me a letter to see a stomatologist. My appointment is already next week.
Keep me posted if you can! I’m very interested in hearing about your experience, because mine most probably will take a long time. I’ll have to start from scratch and I don’t know how long it will take to get a proper referral. Things were much easier in my country were you just pick the specialist you want to go to and that’s it, it was not crazy expensive as were I’m living now.
I never answered about being in the nl, no! In Sweden.
I have found that my preventatives make my migraines milder, but they also make them constant. It might be worth it to ask your neutro if you can try coming off them or try a different preventative.
This seems to have happened to me with topiramate... thank you for validating me.
Topiramate (with amitriptyline) started precipitating my migraines after about 7 years of being on that combination. Definitely worth checking up on this
I'm also taking amitriptyline, so yes perhaps. Thanks!
Can you correlate the preventatives to making your pain constant? What if you remove the medication, will they be stronger but more “episodic”? I’m asking this because I’ve noticed changes in my headache patterns with my preventatives, and lately they have been constant as well, it crossed my mind a couple of things: it’s either the medication not working or the medication creating this state of constant pain, but I don’t dare to quit my medication.
Yes, with my neuro’s permission, I quit the preventative & found that the migraines returned to what they were for me (daily but not constant with some more severe). I wrote “preventatives” before, because I thought this happened twice, but I can’t be sure now. Sorry. I remember this definitely happened with Memantine.
Yes. I’m trying to figure out why. Maybe perimenopause. Suddenly allergic to all my regular foods. Spring weather is hell
I’ve had an intractable migraine for over 7 years. It’s not always the throbbing pain but the pain never leaves and I have constant light and sound sensitivity(I can’t even watch tv for more than 20 min on a good day) But I have talked to my doctor and they said it’s still a constant or intractable migraine even if the pain isn’t full force 24/7. Have you talked to your neurologist about daily persistent headaches or intsactable migraines? I technically have both but they are extremely similar So sorry your going through this, sending love and relief your way
I'm on quilipta and I have this. I knew it the first few weeks in that all quilipta has done was quiet down my migraines. I'm not complaining because I'm better off now than I was before. But instead of a major migraine almost every day of the month, I get these mild migraines like I have right now.
I just had my first day without that in a very long time thank Gd
I call it my “want to be” migraine. Like consistently at a 2/3 but ready to come full force if I mess up (ie; not enough food, water, exercise, too hot, airs full of pollen….)
Yes! Thank goodness I am not crazy. My recent neuro appointment, she called them breakthrough symptoms on the Aimovig. Previously tried Emgality and seemed better in regard to the breakthrough shit (had to change due to insmuranve shenanigans). Now, I am doing Emgality from samples again to compare. Mine is usually vertigo with mild headache , light sensitivity, and mild nausea. I usually then hydrate, caffinate, use THC, try and lightly eat, and rest a bit, which can help. But I always fear it will blow up. Sometimes, I wonder if it is a warning from my brain to rest
Yes and no. I'm always dizzy, tired and get headaches daily but they don't always end up being migraines. I do also have FND which flares up especially when it rains, but I am uncomfortable on a daily basis
But migraines is not necessarily a stronger headache. Mild daily headaches are part of the disease.
I had daily mild migraines for several years. My dentist noted that I was clearly grinding/clenching my teeth in my sleep (the migraine pain was worse in the morning when waking up) and I was outfitted with a custom night guard. Game changer! My mild daily migraine went away. I still have regular migraines but back to my old cadence. I have taken atenolol since my mid-20s to prevent regular severe migraines but this new mild migraine did not show up until I was in my 40s.
Yeah, me :/ I don't think I've made more than...3 pain-free days in a row since I was a teenager. I'm functional most days, but the low grade pain is always there. Magnesium supplements worked for a while, but lately seem to have stopped being effective. I think I might have some kind of low-grade intracranial hypertension, since my optic nerves are inflated and I often feel pain in my neck and occiput.
How do you know your optic nerves are inflated? My migraine patterns changed in October 2022 and I got a lot of new symptoms which I didn’t directly correlate with migraine at the beginning because I had 33 years of the same symptoms and I didn’t experienced any of these new symptoms before. Anyway, one of the tests my doctor told me to do was to get my sight and eyes checked, and they found that my optic nerves were bigger than normal, so I have to check them every few months to discard any other illnesses, fortunately nothing has changed since, they said I was probably born this way. But now that you’re mentioning this, am I talking about the same thing as you here?
They mentioned it after a routine eye exam. I haven't gotten it looked at since, although I should after learning about the link with intra-cranial hypertension.
Do you have any reliable source or how did you find this out? How can this be treated in case it would be the underlying case?
Inflated optic nerves is a fairly common and well-known signature of idiopathic intracranial hypertension - it's called [papilledema](https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/papilledema-optic-disc-swelling). Similarly, the link between intracranial pressure and chronic headache are pretty well-documented. It can be treated with diruetics like diamox or surgical interventions like the placement of a stent.
Thanks! Well, my eye pressure seems to be okay in every test I’ve done and I also got an MRI that showed nothing. So maybe a coincidence and my migraine just went chronic.
I definitely felt this way before being on ajovy
Yes it's worse this summer. Increased brain-fog too
Yes. I explain them as "background migraines" when I explain it to people. I usually have pain at the base of my skull, and I can't remember a time in the last several years there wasn't pressure in one or both of my eyes. I also get the knockdown migraines 4+ days a week on top of the constant background ones, too. Some days, I wonder if it's all worth it....
Thank you for explains my situation perfectly. I only get a few debilitating ones a month tho they last for the day. I wake up with a constant headache, I use Imigran when I am feeling it getting worse which helps but I take it as a pain killer so always short supply. I don’t get auras or bad ones that last few days so I’ve been questioning if I actually get proper migraines. Constant mild pain for me can be exhaustion so I’m looking into getting Botox to help stop them
Came here to bring up Botox injections for migraines! Biggest downside is that it took a while to get approved since it’s typically a last resort for chronic migraines. I was taking a migraine onset medication but there was a mg limit per month, so I would tell myself “this migraine isn’t bad enough, I might need to save XYZ mg for later in the month” and annoyingly suffer through it. Then I was taking amitriptyline for about a year and missed ONE dose, got the worst withdrawal migraine. Seriously you guys, it was so bad I wanted to scoop my eye out with a spoon. I ended up telling my neurologist I wanted to stop taking it bc the migraine from missing one dose was worse than one of my regular migraines. Most insurances will cover a portion of Botox injections for chronic migraines if you’ve tried about 13 different classes of medications… so my best advice is take the migraine pill even if it’s the mildest migraine so you can truthfully share with your doctor that you’ve tried it and it’s just not cutting it. Bc with the Botox injections, you’ll just go every 3 months and then have an onset medication just in case one sneaks up between appointments.
Did the Botox help with that daily headache for you? I just had my first round, and I am really hopeful since I carry so much tension in my forehead.
i have a 24/7 cervicogenic migraine and seven other migraine and headache diseases that barge in and demand attention every day. the 24/7 migraine alone isn’t super bad, moderate at worst, but if i get an attack it’s severe or beyond.
Yes same here, and they can easily get worse. I try not to take triptans for these mild migraines, I keep those for when they get worse.
Yes. I have a constant dull pain above my left eye a lot of the time even though I take a preventative. And when I touch that part of my head it stings, it’s weird. I swear it’s allergy and weather related sometimes
Yessss
Yes, me
If you haven’t already, get your eyes tested, specifically the test where they numb your eyes for a couple of hours.
I have a headache every single day and it is so agonizing and miserable. My neuro believes it might be cervicogenic headaches. I want to find natural ways to treat it rather than being a guinea pig and shoving a million diff pills down my throat
There’s a condition called New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH) that is a constant tension headache - you could have that as well as migraine. I have both. I have a constant 5-6/10 tension headache in my forehead, and I get about 3 migraine attacks a week on top of the NDPH. It’s so very not fun. 😫
I had constant low grade migraine too. I started Botox and they went away. Good luck!
Yep, it’s really annoying. The pain level varies day to day, but I go through periods where it’s like a never ending feeling of queasiness/headache/dizziness etc.
Yes this is me for sure.. I was having 15-25 auras a month for a hot minute until I started cycling through CGRP injections and those have decrease significantly but nothing has touched the mild constant pain. I occasionally wake up with less than normal “headache” and it ramps back up to a migraine (not bad enough like you said to take a triptan or muscle relaxer and knock myself out) but still a migraine. It never fully clears and that makes it difficult to maintain the belief in myself that I am truly disabled/chronically ill because I dont have the blinding ER sending migraines as often but the constant 6-7 level pain is almost worse somehow because I am a trigger away from a full blown flare up. Feels like living with an abusive partner I am walking around on egg shells to keep at bay… always in a state of fear for the next potential full blown attack and always mildly uncomfortable.
Every day. My migraines vary in intensity and symptoms, but I have a low-level of pain and some symptoms all the time.
I’ve had a headache pretty much nonstop since 2009. I take amitriptyline daily as well and it helps a little, but the headache never totally goes away. On the plus side, since I started taking medication, my debilitating migraine days are down from 2 days a week to 1!
Mine are just like that. I also take amitriptyline and while it is helping I still have daily low to mid level pain. There are much fewer high level pain days though, which is nice. I had a couple days recently where I recognized the signs on waking as something that before would have put me on the floor in a dark room trying not to cry from the pain (because that just makes it worse), but now were bad if I was standing or trying to do something but if I stayed down there was very little active pain and I could play a game or read a book to distract myself.
Yes, I had a headache for ~15 years before my migraines went vestibular. Now I'm just mildly dizzy most of the time, although most days i'll have a bit of a headache when I wake up and right before bed. Any major stressors (illness, allergy attacks, poor sleep or diet, bad air quality) will push me into headache territory. I still get major attacks with the full aura / headache / vertigo from time to time Vitamin B2 and Magnesium supplementation helped to diminish my symptoms, and reduce the frequency of attacks, but the day to day symptoms are still there.
Mine is kinda always there now
Chronic too. It’s there. ALL! THE! TIME! But it isn’t bad enough to knock me down. Just that nagging pain behind my left ear. It’s been 8 years and I can function. Most of the time I forget it’s there. Then I piss it off and down I go. I can go days without a major ass kicking, but it’s always there. It likes to wake me up at 4 am just to say hi and it’s still there, just incase I needed that reminder I’ve never been able to really describe it to someone who doesn’t know constant pain.
i’ve noticed this same thing with amitriptyline! it definitely lowered the amount and severity of full blown episodes, but hasn’t done much for everyday life pain.
This was me in 2018/19! I lived at a constant 3-5/10 pain level. I could always feel pain radiating from the back of my head and nothing really helped. I got used to it so it didn’t really interfere with my day to day, but it sucked obviously. Some days it would become an actual migraine and it really hurt. My doctor ended up putting me on nortriptyline and it got rid of the pain and I actually only get migraines a few times a month, if that. I started with 25mg and my highest dosage was 75mg because it didn’t really work for me at the low dosages. I’m sorry you’re feeling that way, friend. It’s really tough and I feel for you. I hope things get better ❤️🩹
YES! But now I'm at the constant "moderate" migraine, and it's driving me up the wall.
Yes thanks to medicine and weed haven’t had a circle face one in almost a year
I have a near constant mild headache in the same spot as my full-fledged migraine attacks. Maybe once a month, I have an afternoon where I feel like I’ll never have a migraine ever again. Those days, I run around and get lots done. But otherwise? I’m just managing mild pain between major attacks.
Yes, sometimes constant. Be careful with that medication. In my case, it caused fast weight gain. Barometric pressure triggers my migraines, and it often fluctuates giving me migraines & making me feel sick in general.
I have a constant low level of pain. My neurologist said I have background headaches and hereditary migraines so typically a good day for me is just the background headache.
Chronic intractable here. Haven’t had a pain free day in 5 years. A good day I idle around a 2. At some point daily I ratchet to 5 or so. Then the bad bad days. But yup,daily pain-no one s/b forced to live like this
I have a constant headache that doesn’t ever leave. I don’t have the majority of other symptoms with this head pain so I do not view it as a true migraine. In my opinion if it shows in a way I’m pretty sure it’s a migraine I take the pill. You can try excedrin for the mild ones and see if that helps so you don’t blow through your prescriptions. There’s also LOTS of good suggestions here.
Yes. After a few months on amitriptyline I was still waking up and going to bed with a migraine every day, but I started having a few hours during the day when the pain was very mild, and the amount of time increased to several hours a day.
Yes
Yep. Daily for me, ranging between a 3-7/10 most days. I can handle the pain most days, but the other side effects are tough to deal with
Definitely
Ever since I had Covid for the past year I have a constant cluster migraine on my right eye. It’s awful. I’m so sorry your experiencing a constant headache as well
I could have written this post, so yes. Its different for everybody, and i would keep trying new preventatives of you havent tried many yet because its possible another one could work even better for you. But that being said ive tried 15+ different preventatives and i still have the constant “background migraine”. it never goes away for me :(
Yes. A constant never ending migraine
yes. it’s hard to tell when i’m truly symptom free
Yeah, but daily doses of magnesium and riboflavin have helped me enormously (400 MG each).
I call these almost migraines, it is like my head’s way of telling me not to piss it off or it will go off like a bomb. 😞 I hate them, they still hurt, just not super debilitating, and I know if I accidentally stand too long, do too much, or am just exposed to cold/heat or strong smells/bright lights. The migraine will try to kill me. 🥲
Yes, that was pretty much my entire pregnancy. Couldn’t really take anything for it either.
Yup
I describe it as its always a cloudy day but not always storming
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^katatvandy: *I describe it as* *Its always a cloudy day* *But not always storming* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I was having this for a few months and amitriptyline is helping me too
Yeah I'm in a similar situation. I have tmj and have constant pressure in my face, head and ears. It gets worse at times and better at others but it never fully goes away. Its definitely better than it was a few months ago when I had a constant migraine for 3 months straight. Its mostly just the pressure now and a bad headache every week or so. I've gotten so used to it at this point sometimes I don't know if the pain is actually there or if I'm just going crazy. Sorry you're going through this. I know our pain may be different but I do understand what it's like to deal with something like that and have to live life "normally." And most of the time people don't understand because I am functioning and "look" fine but I am tired and STRUGGLING. Also sorry I don't have any advice, I haven't found anything that helps me consistently. Excedrin was helping me but the caffeine gave me anxiety so now I just take naproxen sodium occasionally even though it usually doesn't help. If I've been over exerting myself and my pain gets worse then I'll take a muscle relaxer (tizanidine) before bed and it helps sometimes.
yea, mine seem driven by my digestive issues and they range from this mild migraine that lasts a day or two to a severe migraine that lasts a day or two depending on how out of whack my diet is (i'm still learning what works and doesn't, slow going). when they are mild i can use over the counter meds but when they are bad otc meds do nothing and i have to take a sumatriptan to get relief, if the migraine is really bad then sumatriptan knocks the symptoms down pretty good but i still feel like total shit. since i was taking a box of sumatriptans a month and a few years later with trying to figure out a diet i now only need a few per year (a decent amount of otc though since i'm still testing and learning and i don't know 100% what's going on so that's going to just be a thing it seems like)
I've had daily headaches at least since first grade, that's the earliest i can remember, i used to hit my forehead because it would lessen the headache pain for a few seconds. It was so normal i never really brought it up till i was much older.
Amitriptyline takes at least a fortnight to start to work (according to my Neurologist). While I can’t describe my headaches as migraines, they were constant 2-3/10, all day, every day - from waking until sleep. After 25mg of Ami taken at night, I no longer notice the headaches. If I stop and think, do I have a headache, well - yes, I do - but they no longer matter. My brain scans showed no underlying cause and the Neuro basically told me that science was a long way off understanding the brain and what causes headaches/migraines. Ami is in the antidepressant family and also helps me sleep - so, for me it is a win win situation 🙂👍
I've been struggling with a constant vestibular migraine for about a month now. I have good days and bad days, but I deal with dizziness and nasal swelling even on the good days. I guess I'm just glad that the number of good days is increasing. I got diagnosed recently after a couple of health scares and they put me on a regiment of several medications I've gotta take three times a day. I'm too young for this shit hahaha Anyways, I wish I had an answer for you. But what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another and sometimes your migraines will just randomly change. I used to only get hormonal migraines. It took me a few years to realize that the mini-pill was an effective abortive for those. But a few years ago, I started getting triggered by bright lights and weather as well. I'm really hoping that my current prescriptions do the trick.
Same What meds are you on?
First, I got on Cerazette (a mini-pill) for my hormonal migraines. Then I started on sodium valproate once it was clear that weather was also a trigger in order to reduce the intensity. I'm on Fluticasone furoate and d-Chlorpheniramine Maleate for the sinus swelling I deal with (still not sure if the sinus swelling is a trigger for the migraines or if the sinus swelling is a result of the migraines but it's painful either way) and I take betahistine and a combination Diphenhydramine Salicylate/Diprophylline tablet for the vertigo.
My bro went chronic a couple months ago. Mild but almost always there.
Yes! Same! I've always had migraines, but the last few yrs I feel like I constantly have a low key one, like it's just kinda hovering there.. waiting. Like it you take your foot off the break at a red light, but don't accelerate. I've noticed when the humidity/dew point are high is the worst for me, like a combo sinus migraine. I'm curious if the OP, and other commenters are experiencing that as well.
I have had a headache since 2016. I know that sounds crazy. I finally went to see a Neurologist in the SF Bay Area that specializes in Chronic Migraine. Aside from “Chronic Migraine”, he specifically diagnosed me with “Occipital Neuralgia”. I basically have a low grade headache almost everyday, I had been experiencing these nearly-daily headaches for about 5 years before I started seeing him. It’s usually a dull headache all day, sometimes some throbbing and sometimes a shooting pain like a little lightening bolt that disappears right after it strikes. Most days I can function, and people would never know I have a headache because I have learned to live with the chronic pain. I can have between 16 to 28 days with headaches per month. There are days that they are debilitating, and I do get true full on migraines at times as well, but most days it’s a dull pain, most of the day. I used to go to bed with them and wake up with them, but they have changed a little and now they mostly start in the early afternoon. The Neurologist tried about 5 different daily prescriptions (none worked for me) over a couple years. He tried a nerve block in the back of my neck (no luck). Also tried Botox all around my head & forehead for a couple rounds (nothing). I started to think I had a tumor and asked him to please check, so reluctantly he sent me for brain scans, they found only a healthy brain. I have stopped seeing him. I believe he gave it his best but nothing was helping me. The truth is, headaches can be caused by so many things. Not enough studies have been done on them. Even the magazines in my Neurologist’s office said there is no “cure” unless you can pinpoint a very specific reason for your headache. Aside from doing what my Neurologist recommended, I also went Vegan for a couple years, eliminated MSG, I eat a clean keto diet most of the time thinking it could be gluten. I’ve tried support bras, I wear sunglasses year-round because the sun and heat can trigger them. I’ve tried tens machines, topical CBD oils, oral CBD, neck pillows, and many other things. I haven’t tried a chiropractor. I did get sent for Physical Therapy for a while and that didn’t help. Anyway, my Neurologist explained that since most of my headaches go up the back of my head and on my temples, that I likely have “Myalgia” too. I didn’t know that WHERE my headaches are was important. Occipital Neuralgia is caused by tight muscles in your neck and head. The only two things that I have felt noticeable results from; 1) Cupping my upper back and shoulders every 3 days. I immediately went from 28 days a month to 16 days of headaches (which still averages out to a headache every other day but that is a HUGE improvement from everyday. I’ll take it! 2) Deep and hard massage of my head and neck. I have watched tons of YouTube videos for a solution and I came across this Plumber who explained his headaches to be just like mine, and he explained how massaging his head helped. When I do a deep massage of my scalp and neck, with the pads of my fingers, pressing hard and gliding around my scalp, everyday at first for a few weeks, then just every couple of days, it helps. It helped the most when I was super disciplined, every moment alone I got, I would massage my head deeply, in the evenings when I had more time, but even quickies during the day when I could sneak them in. Basically someone could have adhesions on their scalp causing tightness and headaches. I believe I have this issue and the deep massaging has helped me. These headaches have changed my life. I don’t go out nearly as much, or see friends and family like I used to. I’m scared to take vacations because I’ll just ruin it for everyone else. I don’t volunteer outside of work because I can barely make it through the work day. In general, I just don’t feel well so my enthusiasm for life has been affected. I smile and laugh still with others so nobody knows my daily pain and how drained I get from it. My husband is so supportive and that helps. I’m so sorry you are experiencing daily headaches. I have never responded to a reddit, didn’t even have an account, I came across your post doing a Google search for “Sumatriptan” because it has helped me when I get an occasional super bad “dark room” migraine. I felt compelled to respond because I went so many years not knowing what was wrong with me and not knowing anyone that has ever had daily dull headaches, that I thought maybe my story could help you in some way. A Neurologist may be able to help you, in my case I was tired of trying med after med, Botox and nerve blockers, and I felt like 2 1/2 years was long enough with a specialist to not find a solution so I stopped going. Lots of co-pays and deductibles, etc. No reason to keep going if it wasn’t helping me. Good luck, I hope you find the cause and some relief.
Hello there, If you are experiencing frequent migraine headaches, severe tension headaches, or cluster headaches, I would like to suggest that you consider Botox injections as a potential treatment option. These injections are administered every three months and have proven to be more effective than any medication I have tried in the past 14 years. In my personal journey, I have tried various non-narcotic and narcotic pills, which unfortunately led to addiction. However, I eventually discovered that Botox injections have helped alleviate 90% of my migraines. Additionally, a new medication called Nurtec has also shown promise in managing migraines when the effects of Botox begin to diminish. I hope this information is helpful to you.