Hi i'm teresa. I m a healthcare professional but really struggling as a patient with chronic migraines. Can you have more than 1 kind of migraine ? I am having a tough time with nailing down what type of migraine I have because of pain and fatigue. Is there a "short questionarre or something" to help you determine type of migraine. Please excuse my spelling etc... I fatigue easy these days.
Thank you,
teresa
Teresa, Dear Heart,
You sure can. To make matters worse they are 'Stackable', or accumulative, one on top of the other. Furthermore different types can manifest themselves at different times, often up to 24 hours later! The nightmare is trying to figure out the different elements that have triggered each one.
My checklist is so long I've given up trying to decipher what the heck is going on. After decades of this foolishness I've given up, ending up living a very, very low-key lifestyle constantly tuned to the triggers. It WILL effect your relationships.
Just a mere few of the triggers I've discovered (in my case only) are treachorous:
weather changes, sex, humidity + heat, constipation, dirty eyeglasses, pears, corn, noise, tv commercials, sunlight (sunsets especially), children, red wine, etc., etc. The darn things come from all over the place. I get one every day, I can count on it.
Is this helpful? Sorry, I know it's not. And I definitely feel for you,
Steve.
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
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!
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.
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Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!
Yes! It is possible to have more than one type of Migraine and/or headache disorder. For purposes of treatment, learning about your Migraines, being able to get care if you're away from home, etc., you need a full diagnosis of what type of Migraine you have. You can read more about this in The Type of Migraine Does Matter.
If your doctor isn't able to help you, it may well be time to consult a Migraine and headache specialist. It's important to note that neurologists aren't necessarily Migraine and headache specialists. Take a look at the article Migraine and Headache Specialists - What's So Special? If you need help finding a Migraine specialist, check our listing of Patient Recommended Migraine and Headache Specialists. What's really important here is not to 'self diagnose' (which we all love to do!!) and see that specialist.
Thank you for creating a SharePost. SharePosts are a form of blogging, and there are many things you can do with them. You can share an experience, suggest something that's helped you, use SharePosts as a Migraine and headache journal, and many other things.
We also have a discussion forum that you may want to check out. Especially if you have questions or are looking for information, you may find the interaction on the forum to be quite helpful. To get to the forum, just look for the orange box marked "Manage" and click on the Migraine Forums link. Because our forums are maintained by a third party, you'll need to register for the forum. You can use the same information you used to create your community log-in if you like. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can click HERE.
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Welcome again,
Nancy BonkMyMigraineConnection.com Expert