Migraine Sufferers: What are some of the crazy things you have tried to get rid of a migraine?

I'll bet there are some good stories out there.

In general, Imitrex works for me, but when it doesn't I have:

Drank hot sauce (Pico Pica and Tobasco) straight from the bottle.

Eaten hot peppers.

Snorted ground cayenne pepper.

Eat entire red onions like you would eat an apple.

Done yoga--the full inversions--to try to make the blood rush to my head, then reverse the pose to make it drain out.

Lifted weights, which shunts the blood from the head and neck to the arms and legs.

Slept with my head hanging off the bed.

I've certainly banged my head against a wall, literally, but that's not very original, and I know most migraine sufferers do try that at some point.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some doozies. I'll add them if I remember them.

tried work?

In fact, Scotch works pretty well for any ailment I get.
Damned glad I don't need a prescription.

you are supposed to put cold water in it and stand in it up to your ankles.....

not sure if it works.... but I know when you get a migraine you will do anything!!!!!


:hug:

lost

or tried. I'll definitely try that.

Some studies show that orgasms cause migraines, but they have never caused me to have migraines, but nor have they stopped my migraines.

Ruined the whole moment.

Hangnail?
Orgasm.
Ingrown toenail?
Orgasm.
Psoriasis?
Orgasm.

OK, it's good.
But it's NOT a cure all.

and he used to get migraines that not even tryptan's could stop, and he would have complete blackouts where he would pick her up and throw her into a closet or against a wall. They were just incredibly bad migraines. I don't know if he ever found relief.

Is there anyone here who suffers migraines but doesn't respond to the new drugs?

I have Basilar migraines.

Should say HAD basilar migraines.

I haven't had one in AGES. I used to get them
at LEAST once a month.

I have been on Topamax for about 8 months. I have
had maybe 1 or 2 bad headaches in that time, no where
NEAR the intensity of the "bad old days".

There are side effects. I wouldn't recommend it to
everyone, but it WORKS for me.

I have not heard of this drug for this use, but I will look into it, and the entire subject of basilar migraines.

Thanks again.

It's helped me a LOT but it doesn't work for everyone. I'm so grateful for it, though. I had awful migraines before.

The weather makes mine a lot worse, like right before we're going to have a storm.

...When I was a young girl, I got the horrible dizziness and nausea, then a few minutes later would lose consciousness and then come to in a cold sweat. I got my first aura at age 7, but in 1962 it was diagnosed as a mild form of epilepsy and I was given Phenobarbitol to stop it. Since it wasn't epilepsy, the drug never worked, but I was lucky since I had relatively few episodes of passing out. TPuberty put a stop to most of them, but when I was 27 I had a bad one. then I remained free of them till I was 47 and at the onset of perimenopause. Since then, no fainting, but damn! Now I get conventional migraines that leave me flat for almost a day. I begged for Imitrex, but the docs were reluctant due to my prior history. They also won't give me estrogen for the same reason--they figure BAM is linked to hormones. So I take Excedrin Migraine, but it doesn't work all the time.

My friend and I both suffer, so last week we went to the Chinese Herbalist, who gave us seven days worth of cleansing and soothing herbs that we're supposed to make into tea. If that doesn't correct the hormonal imbalance, it's off to the acupuncturist.

It's fascinating to see how many respondants there are to your thread. I'm sorry that you all suffer from migraines, they are the bain of my existence so you have my heartfelt sympathy! I know what causes mine, but many are triggered by stress and food reactions. The food we can control--but who can stop that stress from doing us in???

Caf = Caffeine
Ergot = the fungus that LSD is made from.

So maybe drop some acid and drink coffee?

(and yes I did try the medication once. Didn't do anything. But my mom did see Jesus Christ standing in the driveway in front of the house one day, so it might well have acted as a hallucinogen)

I took a drug once called Migranol... one inhaled it
after BREAKING an ampule, I'm not making this up.

Had me shaking like a leaf for about an hour afterwards,
took my headache away, but never again......

The only thing that's come close since then are the HEAVY painkillers, like vicodin, percodan and their sisters.

Tried MS Contin once; worked great but knocked me out for 4 hours.

I really miss Cafergot. The only thing that WORKED and wasn't "ZOMBIE TIME."

not a great "remedy" when you have one, but learning temperature biofeedback can help prevent migraines in some people.

a hot bath and a cold washcloth

good drugs

dark room

sleep

:hi:

It is wonderful, but it has not helped me with my migraines.

Also tried deep Eastern meditation, which does help a bit.

Actually, biofeedback does help, but it has to be constant. I've found that for me I can get rid of the pain of a migraine from meditation and biofeedback, but if I stop it recurs.

temperature biofeedback in particular, learning to warm extremities has been shown to be helpful with preventing migraines.

In your case, it sounds like it probably isn't enough. There are many different kinds of migraines apparently and some are vascular spasm types that just warming the hands and feet won't do enough to prevent.

Sounds interesting your meditation and biofeedback experiences.

:hi:

I don't know about "prevention"...
:)

beware of side effects however.:puffpiece:

which is mostly what I get...with dull residual pain. I see a neurologist one a year now. Had the MRI which had a MS misdiagnosis initially (the neurologist reassured me a lot on that).

Zomig produces a bad reaction for me...HTN attack on a person who usually has a bp of around 90/66 or so...it shot me up to 150/90 and scared the HELL out of me...the neurologist (her name is Jean) walked me through it, and then told me never to take it again.

MOST of my headaches went away when I stopped drinking diet soda (hell all of them really)

Sleep used to be my solution

That's fascinating about Zomig, which I have not tried. I have low blood pressure, so would probably not be a good candidate for that drug.

Sleep is the best thing for me too, if the Imitrex fails to help.

to crawl to the bathroom being nauseous :-(.

However, I have tried guided meditation and massage (thanks to my husband). But really nothing else crazy.

Glad to know Imitrex works for you. It has been a great help to me too, about eighty percent of the time.

Strangely, yoga helps a lot too, but not always. It's a kind of self massage, I suppose. :-)

I can't tell you how many times I had to go to the ER before Imitrex came on the market. If it ever stops working for me.....and I've had migraines for 41 years now :-(.

Hope you can get relief 100% of the time. :-)

even it it's not 100%.

It's a miracle drug to me. Although the cost of Imitrex is another matter--I'm just fortunate I can afford to get it. It sickens me to think of people who can't get either Imitrex or the other new generation migraine drugs suffering.

Maybe it would be a good idea to start a charity for people who get migraines but can't afford the new tryptans/triptans.

and maybe that would be it. Some way to get these vital drugs to migraine sufferers who cannot afford to pay twenty five dollars for one tablet.

Is that a worthy cause? Or am I just being too reactive and emotional?

I use the injections. They were $80.00/shot the last time I knew about the cost, but I've had prescription coverage, so I only pay the co-pay.

Yeah, it is definitely a good idea :-).

tried them, did anything radical help?

It's the preservatives that tend to cause my migraines. x(

And I never, ever go anywhere without my meds with me.

I try like hell to avoid them. I have an almost hypochondriac diet, mostly raw foods, nuts and vegetables, plus some cooked chicken.

Eh, I'm about to give up, honestly.

I hope you don't give up. My migraines used to hit me up to 4 times per week. I'm now down to one every two or three weeks.

of grape juice. also big barometric changes will trip off a migraine, those are actually the worst ones for me. I go in my bedroom, close the shutters, get a bucket and hope i can fall asleep.

those are the one type of migraine I can't do anything about. :(

Now if it is bad enough Imitrex, otherwise Midrin or just plain ole Excedrin.

made it go away. That was my first experience with a migraine that I can remember. My mom had to come pick me up from school.

migraine was caused by an irritant (in my case MSG can do it) and the vomiting gets rid of enough of it that the body feels better, and 2) that vomiting corrects an imbalance of electrolytes.

Either way, worked for me. Luckily I seemed to have outgrown the migraines, but I worry that my kids might get them since my Mom also went through that as a preteen as well.

Boy, they even have a name for it CRS -- Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.

Cool Ranch worse than Nacho Cheese.

get into bed --

make sure the room is very dark and quiet.

(Also avoid any scent: perfume, etc).

Massage your head and ttry to sleep.

the week before.

I've tried cutting out caffiene, chocolate, and wine but I still get them.

I do take some aspirin the minute I start to see an aura. They seems to help and make it less severe.

Hope you find something that works. :hug:

do get rid of a migraine, if you can share it?

It would really be appreciated.

They are very disturbing and cause odd vision (flashing, geometric patterns -- weird) that can last up to an hour.

I read that a sublingual (under the tongue) nitroglycerin tablet can help (opens up capillaries in the chest and brain) but that might make a person agitated.

Besides, we have less than one of these events a year. If necessary, I lie down and stop any close-up work until it passes.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0689/is_n5_v32/ai_10881173

You might want to try this stuff out. It's had the inadvertent effect of reducing my menstrual migraines by around 2/3 in pain and severity.

It's available OTC at drugstores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HTP

But I had a lot of hope for it.

You could try upping the dose, maybe. I have a few herbs I take that do diddly squat at the dose on the bottle and loads of good at 1.5 or 2 times the dose. Effectiveness also varies by brands. The Wiki page seems to suggest that higher doses won't hurt. I take 100 mg a day and I know the standard OTC dose is at 50.

//YMMV of course, and be careful

There are many good posts here.

I just say, Thank God for Imitrex.

I just read something this week that migraine sufferers have somekind of "differences" (for lack of a better word) in the brain stem.

One thing that does help me is exercise, the kind where you work up a sweat, especially outdoors.

Actually that does help a bit.

For a while I would press as hard as I could stand on the webbing between my thumb and my first finger, usually until I bruised myself. I know it's an acupressure point but now I think I was just distracting myself from the pain.

As I posted upthread, I went on Topamax almost two years ago and am sooo grateful...

and I just can't take it. I react so badly to it that I had to stop it cold turkey, which I know you're not supposed to do.

I'm glad it works for you. I can't imagine how people dealt with migraines before modern meds.

I have another friend who can't take it either; she couldn't form coherent sentences while she was on it. It was really bad.

What's weird is that I wasn't officially diagnosed with mine until just a couple of years ago, after several work-related and car accidents. I just thought I've had "bad headaches" since I was 12 or so. :eyes: And no, I have no idea how people lived with migraines without modern meds. I suspect many of them became opium addicts or something.

My migraines like cold and booze--if I give 'em an ice pack and down a few shots of bourbon, I'm usually back to nearly human. Sure, I still see spots and and try to squeeze my temples in a vise made of my own hands, try cracking my neck as if it were just a tension headache from my cranky arthritic neck, and take a few ibuprofen--but I find cold compress and booze--my last and best resorts when my head actually sinks below my knees (I have, like, neck-to-knees arthritis pain when my pms goes off, making cramps themselves seem just silly--I have no idea how common that is, but I get totally inflamed, my hands swell, I have a minor fever--like a hot flash only durable-- and I walk like freaking John Wayne descending a really tall horse--WTF is that? A splitting, aura-inducing, numb-jawed, ice-pick in the eye headache with nausea and panic is just what I need about then--and I've gotten it betimes)and I get claustrophobic and "spinny" in a wide open space and just want to revert to fetal position--I chill on the couch with a cold alcoholic beverage and a baggie of frozen peas on my head and I get to mellow in an hour or so.

I must admit, a really bad one will make me, not bang my head, but press it against something--a cool wall like the side of my shower, hoping my body will dial back whatever is making the "bad" happen. It's weird that I get this idea that pressure against my skull will keep my head from exploding altogether.

Take Excedrin PM (or Tylenol PM) as soon as the aura hits, and get into bed in a dark quiet room and try to get to sleep before the pain sets in.

If I don't get to sleep, the pain will linger for hours. I've found that sleep is like a switch for me, the only thing that resets my brain to minimize the pain.

And when I awake a few hours after a migraine, I am always ravenously hungry! Anyone else get that?

BTW, I've tried the ergots and tryptans to no avail. I gave up on all that stuff and just go with the tried n true sleep method.

Migraines suck! I got my first one as a teen, and my 13-year old son just got his first one a couple months ago. They run in families.

Unfortunately that doesn't work for me anymore.

I sometimes can't even hold down migraine med though and that's when it really sucks. I've gone to the ER twice for them, when they lasted for more than a day, and received morphine (and had a really cool hallucination). For me the best thing is to puke if I have to, sleep if I can, catch it as early as possible and sometimes a combination of heating pad on my neck and cold pack over my forehead in a quiet dark room for a while will ease it up enough to get past the worst of it.

God they're awful.

but if I take Excedrin Migraine as soon as I feel one starting it ends up being very mild. If I can't get the Excedrin in before it gets bad there is NOTHING that will make it go away, except time.

Oddly, it was the only thing that worked.

But I didn't like the coughing, lung congestion or occasional paranoia.

as it was attached to his head and sending out electrical signals it stopped his migrane. But it was impractical to walk around with such a hand held device pointed at his head.

squeezing gently but forcefully...








Your own pillow...









Over your own face...













What did you think I meant? :shrug:

Sinus Migraine - Lavender Oil rubbed around the bridge of the nose and around the eye sockets. If no lavender oil, menthyl rub (Vicks Vaporub) under the nose and behind the ear. Caffine will also work; especially since I am addicted to Caffine and without a regular dose in the morning, I get can get caffine migraines...

Occular stress (bright lights are baaaaadddd!)Migraines - Cold wet rag and dark. Flat cola or Ginger Ale.

General Stress(nerves) or hot weather related migraines - Ice pack/cold rag, dark, and Excedrine or BC powders.

Of course, I don't get some of the serious migraines that most other people get, so I don't need much. I really feel for you.

Haele

Really short laps, so ya get a little dizzy, but it did seem to help. Theory was: the cold water chilling the feet will force the blood to leave the head (and lessen the squeeze) to go warm up the feet.

Yeah, that desperate.

If you happen to live on the California coast, walking in cold water does not require getting dizzy in the bath tub. ;)

I'm on Nortriptyline: it's one of the old tricyclic antidepressants. It won't do squat when you actually have a migraine, but for me it's a miracle preventative. My migraines have gone from weekly Please-just-shoot-me, to manageable every other month events. They have some nasty side-effects (heat intolerance and weight gain in particular), but when your migraines are as bad as mine, it's worth it. They're also dirt cheap, if that's a concern.

When I actually get them, it's lying on the sofa with a package of frozen peas on my head and practicing deep meditation time. That usually puts me to sleep and cures the migraine. Of course, I also wake up the next morning with my pillow soaked with defrosted pea juice, but I can live with that.