Odd that I found this page just TODAY, for the first time EVER with this post here. I don't even really always post alot to online journals etc but I had to reply to THIS one about imitrex. Migraines ARE my fate it seems.
YES, I know what you talk about. These ARE a side effect of Imitrex. Some may have them to varying degrees or not at all. I am 31 and have been getting migraines since I was about 11 or 12, so long I can't quite remember exactly when. My mom has as well. My mom and a friend back in college when Imitrex came out on the market were trying it and thought it worked. My doc told me based on family history it would be I should be observed by a doctor when I had it for the first time. Away at college, having a bad migraine I got a ride to the hospital and told them the deal. Unfortunately, they put me in a faraway, dark and quiet room and shut the door after giving me the shot. I had shortly had similar reactions. My face and jaw clenched of real bad, muscles clenched and got sore and I became disoriented. I was scared, thank god I rolled over and pulled off the patch for the monitor they put on me. A nurse finally came in to see what was going on and I couldn't open my mouth.
Needless to say, no Imitrex for me.
I have been taking Topamax daily with only a few real bad ones a year.

Thom <gatozlocoz@aol.com>
Monday, January 22, 2007 at 16:23:02

I been getting migraines since I was 12 yrs old. I am now 38 yrs old and within the last month, I have had 6 migraines. They usually go away for a year or so after having 2 or 3 in a row. So I decided to give medication a try. I went to my dr's the other day and they gave me some samples of Imitrex 100mgs. I had a migraine yesterday and I took a pill. 1/2 hr later on my way home from work, my jaw, neck and arms tighten up. I also felt as though I was going to pass out. After stopping briefing on the side of the road, I continue home. I power lift every other day, so I am used to sore muscles; however, every muscle that was already sore from lifting felt 5 times sorer. My arms and chest muscles hurt so bad all I could do is lay in bed. I never did get a headach. So the meds worked. What I didn't know and the practical nurse didn't tell me is that it could have serious side effects on someone with heart problems. I had a heart attack around 3 years years ago. I called the dr's office and they recommend I stop taking the medicine. I want to continue because I finally found something that worked, other then sleep. has anyone else ever experince sides like this. All of the sides have now gone away and I even got back in the gym this morning without any problems. Thanks

Tom <tom_s70@yahoo.com>
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 10:43:42

I went through 3 days of IV treatment of Depacon, Steriods,Reglean Bendrly and FLuids. I was severly dry and needed the the fluids to keep me out of the hospital.

The Iv treat,ment was to break the cycle and it has helped. Now we re trying wo rebuild me system and my energy level. I have missed soo much work my poor high school sudents have started wondering who their "Real" teacher is this year.

I am just going with the flow and thanakfull that I have such an outstanding support network. My teachers pulled together and gave me some of their days to keep it rom costing me so much. My husband, daughter and mother have been wonderful even my in-laws have pulled together as a team. I just could not ask more as understanding people in my life.

If any of you need someone to speak to email me. I may not know all the answers, but know I what it is like to be in pain and I truly believe evevryone needs someone they can talk to, so they KNOW they are not loosing their minds.

naenae <rrdulworth@yahoo.com>
Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 09:46:52

my doctor thinks i'm having vestibular migraines..............about 20 days a month. anyone have any info about vestibular migraines? and how to prevent them?

Lorraine <lrathcke@hotmail.com>
Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 10:34:57

Does anyone have any experience with migraines and SSRI's? I wonder if taking them is making my migraines worse.

grace <gratioli@hotmail.com>
Thursday, January 4, 2007 at 15:13:20

I have been having migraines, off and on for about the past two years. The last few months, my headaches have been mostly constant. I got an MRI and catscan and nothing. I have been on SSRI's for about the past twelve years, since age 29. I am wondering if my recent migraines have something to do with the SSRI's. Does anyone have any information?

gracee <gratioli@hotmail.com>
Thursday, January 4, 2007 at 00:57:20

This is my first time to post. I do not know where to to begin... I was once a fun loving person who loved going places, meeting new people, loved going to my high school sporting events (where Ii teach high school), loved going out to eat and hanging out with my family and friends. Since the "DEMON" or what the doctor call migraine/daily chronic headaches, I am now something totally different. My coginitive skills are deminishing ( they say that is due to the Topomax) my energy level is low, my mood is no longer hppy go lucky. I am HATE who I have become!!!!! I feel I am driving my family away from me. I do not blame them, I would not want to be around me if I had a choice. I used to love to cook and eat and I haven't cooked a meal in a week. I have lost 24lbs in 2 1/2 mths.
They have put me on Topomax, Imatrex, Frova, Vicodin, Tylenol w/ codine, Phenegren, Regelen, Morphine etc....... I have been so despertate I have smoked pot to see if that worked. Believe it or not but that worked better than all the medication than what the doctors gave me. However; being a parent and a teacher the guilt got to me and I could not do it more then the one time. I go back to the doctor Wednesday for what they call a rescue injection. I am going to come clean with my doctor about my herbal experiment. I was so desperate and could not face 6 hours in the emergency room for another shot of morphine.

I truly feel as if I am loosing my mind. Somone please tell me there is help out there and there is light at the end of this tunnel.

naenae <rrdulworth@yahoo.com>
Sunday, December 31, 2006 at 22:39:27

My Migraine Story

Very few people can understand the pain involved in an intense migraine, usually only other migraine survivors. How many can relate to countless hours spent in bed with your head wrapped with rags or cold presses or twisted into a pillow in some contorted position in a vain attempt to short-circuit the nerve impulses that feel like a motorized drill blasting through your eyeballs and temples. Sweating moaning, intermittingly vomiting. But not just ordinary vomiting, rather exorcist like spewing so complete that it is difficult to catch your breath as you retch bitter demonic liquid from deep inside your gut. Are you still with my? If so you are probably a fellow migraine sufferer and understand that pain is our eternal companion.

But my purpose is not to whine or complain or seek commiseration from my headachy brothers and sisters. I am hear to share how I have learned to control my migraines.

Medicine History

First let me provide some background. I am in my mid forties and have suffered with migraines since a child. I have intermittently been subscribed 1. Cafergot (caused wicked rebounds and as a result increased migraine frequency) 2. Inderal (Felt drained and only partially conscious throughout the day. I felt like I was wading through neck high water.) Midrin (similar to cafergot, caused rebounds and dependency) 3. Tylenol with codeine (similar to midrin and cafergot but with a smile on my face.) 4. Imigran (AKA as Imitrix or sumitriptan). Imigran worked well initially, but eventually resulted in rebounds and sometime the drug felt way too strong, knocking out the headache but leaving me drained and dehydrated. 5. Ponstan (Meflanamic acid) this was gentler than some of the other drugs but caused heartburn and wouldn't beat a major migraine episode.

MSG and Other Food Triggers

The way I have controlled my migraines is mainly through diet and magnesium supplementation. My major trigger is MSG. I also avoid chocolate, nitrate treated food, alcoholic beverages, and fast digesting carbohydrates such as bread and cake. I have been asking for foods with no MSG restaurants for over 20 years, but it only recently that I have realized that it is futile. Cooks and waiters cannot understand what is at risk and MSG is so deviously hidden in sauces and foods that even a well intentioned chef cannot exclude it. MSG is ubiquitous. What does this mean and what is the lesson that I have so slowly learned? ^The only things I can eat at a restaurant are salads with no dressing, fruit and fresh meats that I can be certain haven't been marinated or flavored in any way. Other than that I cook for myself and use no sauces and processed foods, at all.

Migraine Diet

As you can see, this is a severe diet. But you can look at the negative or look at the positive. For my, I think the restrictions have had a very positive effect, not just on my migraines, but on my life as a whole. For some background, I have always been an avid and hard-core exerciser. In fact, historically, I have used exercise and the endorphin effect that accompanies it as one way to stave off migraines. But a few years ago I started bodybuilding and reading various weightlifting magazines. It soon became apparent to me that bodybuilding dieting shares a lot in common with migraine diets. Avoiding sauces and sweets. Being conscious of the insulin response. The idea in bodybuilding is to avoid sweets and fast digesting cards so as not to trigger an insulin response that could lead to fat storage. Migraine, in my case at least, is also ties to low blood sugar. Sweets and fast digesting carbs to quick spike in blood sugar and energy and then a drastic drop, with accompanying, fatigue, depression and sometime a migraine. By keeping my metabolism on a constant low burn with slow digesting complex carbs (such as veggies, low sugar fruit) and unflavored meat or fish protein, I am eating a bodybuilding diet and also an anti-migraine diet. I also eat nuts and seeds and beans and grains.

Sometimes I miss going out to eat at all the delicious restaurants, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, and Japanese. I mourn the loss of all of these delicious foods I cannot eat, but this is my small sacrifice. In return for eating under such stringent rules, I have much fewer migraines and of a lower intensity, and I also have reduce my body fat drastically, have more stable moods and have numerous other health benefits. Sometimes I falter and cannot control myself, and usually I will get a migraine for deviating from the plan.

Magnesium:

I got turned on the magnesium by a friend who was high strung and used it to control some type of rapid heartbeat problem. I began reading about it an experimenting. After a few days, I noticed that my body felt much looser and relaxed and I even experienced a feeling of almost euphoria. Eventually it became clear that the overall muscle and nervous relaxation as protecting against migraine. Even with an existing migraine I have used oral magnesium to beat the migraines..

For protection I take about 1,000 to 2,000 mg per day for an existing migraine, I take more.

Exercise and meditation

I have exercised and meditated for years. Although not having as a direct and immediate effect on migraine prevention and treatment as diet and magnesium, these are also helpful.. I think as a migraine person, our nervous system is someho0w more sensitive than other people and of course we have been described as the canaries in the coalmine, being overly sensitive to toxins in our environment., I have also toyed with the connection between being a migraine person psychic ability. After all, if our nervous system is super-sensitive, perhaps it is sensitive not only to toxins, but to various other stimuli, including stimuli beyond normal sensory limits. Nevertheless, what is quote clear to me at least us that migraine sufferers do have an overly sensitive insulin response that needs to be controlled. This means that if we let our metabolism get too slow or too fast we can be at risk for a variety of negative emotional states and a migraine.,. Meditation and exercise provide us with an even keel to our metabolism.

Want to read more of my stream of consciousness musings? Please see my blog: http://www.thailandroad.com

Bangkok Joe <bangkokjoe2000@yahoo.com>
Friday, December 29, 2006 at 00:15:01

Has anyone heard about or tried melatonin for migraine prevention? I read that in a study of melatonin use for sleep problems, people with migraine history had reduction in incidents by 70%.

Karyn <boxerpaws8@hotmail.com>
Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 20:01:33

My headache saga started at age 51. At first they were mostly tension headaches but soon I had them chronically. I had daily 24/7 severe headaches for 16 years. They weren't the typical classic migraines, just severe headaches. I found out I reacted to certain foods but eventually I reacted to almost every food, dust, pollen, mold, fumes, supplements and meds. I tried every alternative therapy I could find, dozens of them, to no avail. I consulted neurologists, but their meds made me worse or doped me so much I could hardly function. They diagnosed the headaches as being of a migraine nature. The anti-depressant amytriptolene was helpful but caused tachycardia. I also began to suffer from anxiety spells and depression, I believe as a result of the incessant headaches. Finally, my doctor daugher, insisted I see a psychiatrist. I went very reluctantly because I felt my headaches were not of a psychiatric nature. This doctor prescribed Celexa (an anti-depressant) and Zyprexa (used for bi-polar disorders but augments the anti-depressant and it's off-label use is relief of migraines). I got relief from my headaches within a few weeks. After two wonderful years of being almost headache free and being able to eat anything and be anywhere, they were coming back again. My doc upped my meds. I found some relief but I still got headaches frequently. Then I start taking lemon flavored Cod liver oil. It has an anti-inflammatory effect and now I am headache free again. Except I have found that I react to MSG, Ginko Biloba and caffeine (rebound). I have tried several times to cut back on the meds but the headaches always return.
I hope this info might help some of you migraine sufferers.
Elly

Elly Ullom <eullom1@cox.net>
Saturday, December 2, 2006 at 11:26:15

Hello Everyone

I'm so glad that I found this website!!!At last somebody will undeerstand how this horrible headaches feel. I started having migraine headaches with my first son. That was seven years ago.. and it just seems like they have gotten worse..I am working on geting my degree on Childhood Education, and it seems that the stress of getting homework, tests, done just addted to my disgrace.. I was seen my regular doctor who prescribed Inderal. that medicine would make me feel like I was walking in the air all day.. like a zombie.. lightheaded.. she switched it to Topamax and that just made it worse!!! I had mental confussion, I would feel that all my thoughts were come at once.. and I would also start getting very anxious and I would start crying for no reason (maybe because I would get anxious) my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest.. well anyway, When my migraine(which is almost 4 out of five days) get out of control Midrin works for me.. it makes me feel kind of groggy but it helps..

Ruth Godinho <sgmerary@yahoo.com>
Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 18:55:28

I have posted here before but it has been a long time. I am going through hell right now. My Doc is great but medical is really messing up my life. He wants me to stay on butorphanol nasal spray but medical would not approve it. Today he wrote for the fentanyl patch but medical would not approve it either.I have had this migraine for three weeks now have not had any at home meds for it. I can go to my doc and get a shot of butorphanol and phenergan, but I don't drive and he is 30 miles away. I am so frustated at all of it. My hubby tries to be understanding and my grown kids just roll their eyes when when I get one of the migraines even though they get them too they aren't as bad as mine as usually they can get rid of theirs easily with vicodin or tylenol 3. I wish I could Just get done with all of it. I used to be happy and loved to see my grandkids but now they irritate me as I always seem to have this migraine. I know this has led to clinical depression and I had to take meds for that, I was told they might help the headache but no help there. Well this was a great way to vent my frustration. I hope all out there have what ever pain free time they can. Tay Hodges

Tay Hodges <tayhodges59@hotmail.com>
Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 01:50:35

Rhonda - after 20 years of a life like those listed here, I finally found a "cluster" solution that works from MEDLINE.....spray 5 squirts of 4% lidocaine, 1 minute apart, in one or both nostrils at the FIRST tickle of h/a....repeat in 10 minutes and so on 'till pain is reduced....lidocaine washes out of your system a couple of hours, so don't worry about repeating thru the day to keep the pain down....my doc and druggist and I put this together from WEB info.....too simple?....maybe, but I've had clusters since '77, been there, taken ALL that and this is the first "treatment" that has given me my life back....pass it on, please?

.....just returned from my ENT....he finally realized that my using lidocaine, Anbesol, benzocaine etc. intranasally indicated a trigger point in the nose possibly responsible for "clusters".... he "probed" it and got an "explosive" response from me....yeowww....he send me for head CT scan and in an hour dicscovered I've had a "deviated thick nasal septum" since birth.....(??why didn't the other ENTs, docs, etc spot this 20 years ago?)....the deviation bent the septum to the right, contacting the outer nasal wall....that contact spot is my "trigger point", which responds to irritation, inflammation, pressure, congestion, etc and also responds to topical mucuous anesthetics (4% lidocaine, benzocaine, etc - Anbesol works great in aborting the "flash pain" of a cluster) when carefully sprayed or daubbed at the VERY FIRST sensation of pain in that area, signalling the onset of a cluster...in a few minutes the trigger spot is dead and I'm no longer thrashing around in agony....great relief!!!!.....my ENT has me scheduled for outpatient surgery (nasal septal reconstruction) Monday morning...at the least it will help clear my congestion, breathing and snoring...at the best it will "break" the contact point of it's pressure and stop my clusters...give a week or so to recover and I'll let you folks know how it all comes out...keep your fingers crossed!....if it works some of us may have another choice!!!!..later,

.....update!!!nasal surgery worked....clusters are not migraines....check out "Sluder's syndrome", "rhino-genic/facial pain", "intranasal lidocaine", "septoplasty for correction of nasal septum", and the like by searching Medscape, Medline, PubMed, etc!!!...my Aug 18 surgery stopped my pain dead....email me valde@icehouse.net for more....JBD in Boise....

John DeMotte <valde@icehouse.net>
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 07:38:55

Hi Everyone -

I found this page because my head is all I can think about when I have a migraine at work. I started getting migraines at age 5 and they have gotten worse as I have aged.

All my "PTO" or vacation days have been spent on migraines. I don't have any vacation left, so I'm forced to stay at work these days, vomiting in the bathroom and crying. I think that's the part that depresses me the most... and the missed social occasions.

The chronic tension headaches started when work got stressful a few months ago. I changed neurologists because my old one didn't care that I had migraine for 3 weeks (not normal - usually they last about 8 hours.)

So I went to a headache specialist, they got me into a Botox study for the tension headaches and migraines... and then examined my heart to find that I have a PFO. I'll be going to cardiologist in a few weeks to determine if this is adding to my headaches. If you read up on the subject, they are doing tests in Europe and the US to see if closing this PFO (hole in the heart) is effective - nearly 50% of migraine sufferers have one. It's worked for a lot of people, including a friend of mine. But I'm still sketched out by it.

After taking every med, going to every alt. health doc out there, I'm ready to get some relief! It's great to know there are others out there who know how this feels...

Meghan <meghanblake@alumni.unc.edu>
Monday, November 13, 2006 at 14:28:35

I have to play saxophone with a migraine on many occasions. Talk about no fun. As a musician I can't just call in sick and as many of you know, most people think you "just have a headache." But on a lighter note, dropping to me knees or falling in to the drums just looks like the sax player thinks he's a rock star or drunk on Tequila. Esp. when I get sick to my stomach. I wish. Many times I just can't stand up from the pain and dizziness. And as with the strangeness of migraines I've actually had them go away during the course of a 3 or 4 hour gig.

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents on this great page of support.

joe <ichthyopirate@yahoo.com>
Sunday, November 5, 2006 at 10:11:08