Living with Migraine

I have had migraine headaches since my early 20’s (am now 51), but they never lasted more than a few hours, and rest and a otc medication took care of it, plus, I never got more than 3 or 4 headaches a year. In 2003, I noticed my headaches started to get more severe, lasted much longer, and came more frequently than ever before in my life. I was totally bedridden, nauseated, and suffered visual disturbances which made driving impossible.

I was seeing a local neurologist for Bell’s Palsy attack at this time, so I asked for help with my migraines He gave me triptans, some gave mild relief, some made me sicker, some did nothing at all. I tried six different kinds, no help. He then put me on Neurontin, but I could not tolerate the dizziness long enough to see if it helped. He then put me on Effexor, which did absolutely nothing. He then doubled my dose, which threw me into a life threatening depression with thoughts of suicide. My family doctor recognized the association of the Effexor increase with the timing of the depression and tapered me off. I was so scared by this experience that I will never take SSRI’s again. At this time, my neurologist became distant and I felt condisention in his manner, almost as if he felt I was to blame for my lack of imporvement. This, coupled with numerous mistakes by his office staff, and one visit when a sales rep was allowed to interrupt my session, was the last straw.

My family doctor, Bless him, tried hard to help me find relief. He eventually sent me to the Cleveland Clinic, Headache Clinic, where I found enough relief and also found an important migraine trigger (sleep apnea), due to a cleft palate I had at birth. They have been wonderful to me, as has my Fam. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have had to suffer during a migraine from the nasty behavior from ER doctors, and worse, ER nurses who treat migraine patients like drug-seeking hypochondriacs. ER staff see many migrane crisis patients, and I cannot understand in this day and age why they still hang on to these outdated attitudes. They are in despirate need of education concerning migraine pain, migraine crisis, and how to treat it. Another thing: despite having two documented forms (FMLA) from two different doctors, I lost my job of 28 years as (believe it or not) a Radiologic Technologist, me!! a healthcare professional and a health care worker, fired due to a serious health problem.

Despite all this, I have numerous blessings, which include my husband, who has cared for me all through this trial, two excellent doctors, a supportive family, and three loving, wonderful pet dogs who frequently have given me a reson to get out of bed. I think all migraine sufferers need to become politally active to show our government that chronic, intractable migraine headaches are a true disability, and can have a disaterous effect on a person’s life. Lastly (boy, I really have been going on!) the meds that have helped me have been a combo of beta-blocker, thyroid med, tricyc. antidepressant, nausea med, DHE subq. injections, and occasional Demerol tablets. Hope my story can help others. You must not loose hope, there are those out there who understand.