Can a person have more than one kind of migraine

Teresa,

I am also in the medical field and it isn't much fun being on the "patient" end of the process.  Ha ha.  I am 39.  I've had migraines since age 6.  They were "typical" migraines (unilateral head pain/face pain/nausea/vomiting/light sensitivity...if you have migraines, you know what I mean) up til 5 months ago and then they changed completely.  I started developing unilateral hemiplegia and seizure type "zone-out's" along with them.  Wound up in the hospital twice, first they thought I was having a stroke but a negative MRI/MRA comfirmed it was NOT a stroke.  ER docs told me it was stress.  Umm.  Ok.  Then a month later, back to the hospital again, this time they thought I was post-dictal from a seizure.  One EEG later, I was told it was not a seizure but rather a "complicated migraine".  Ok.  New doctor changed around my meds - took me off my Topamax/Welbrutrin combo that I'd been on for YEARS and they put me on "this and that" and basically screwed me up royally.  The side effects from the new anti-seizure migraine prophalactic were horrible.  I called repeatedly to tell the new neurologist that I could NOT tolerate the meds.  To make a long story short, they told me I needed to see a psychiatrist rather than a neuro doc (how dare I hate their beloved Zonisamide!) to which I finally realized that I was on my own.  A coworker told me that her dr had told her to try Magnesium Citrate and Riboflavin (which is B2) for her Migraines.  I have been on the two and NOTHING ELSE - no prescription meds - for several weeks and am a new person.  I still get occasional "functional" (i can work and live my life, not have to crawl into a dark room )headaches, but they can relieved with 2-3 ibuprofin tablets(which never touched my headaches before).  I am planning on adding the coQ10 or whatever it's called to see if I can get rid of those "functional headaches" too.  My brain is no longer a confused-fog from the Topamax, Zonisamide and other stuff.  It is amazing. 

I so wish I had heard about the Mag/B2 combo YEARS ago.  All those days spent over the years in excrutiating pain, puking in a dark room are lost forever....  

I do believe Migraines can change or you can get different types.  I am confident that I now have classic AND non-familial sporadic hemiplegic.  My 7 year old has already started to get full-fledged classic migraines.  I plan on talking to the pediatrician about starting her on Mag/B2 if possible, so she doesn't suffer like we all have needlessly.

~~To headache-free days...

Angie in PA

Angie is your Mag/B2 combo over the counter supliments or rx? I'm getting to the point with my migraines that I may need to start taking a daily preventative, but would like to exhaust any other options first.

Heather,

I just went to my local Vitamin Shoppe / Vitamin World / GNC type store and got OTC vitamins.   What a difference!  My little girls got the flu and passed it onto me - I was pretty sick and thus did not take any of the vitamins for 3 days and wound up with a WHOPPER migraine, so there has to be some merit to using them... at least for me. 

Here is a link to an article that I had read.  It might be of some help to you.  http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/magnesium-000313.htm

Also if you just google "migraines and magnesium" you can come up with loads of info.

Best of luck!

thank you! Best of luck to you too!

Hey Thank you soo much for sharing.... I have had terrible reactions ( mainly very low blood press, to ticks and feeling poisoned(after being on topomax about 3-4month also though it was a low dose I had what i can only describe as a flatten of my personality no highs or lows...Thankfully God gave me a Neurologist with a sharp PA who recognized it immediatley because she is a migraine sufferer and had had the same reaction).  Im really in pain  so i need to go no w but THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS RESPONDED you are like light it this migraine darkness.