An update on my headaches..

I'm so sorry you have daily migraines,but keep up the search to get better i suffer from miraines 20 years,since i had my kid i only get them about 8 times a month so don't give up.

Dear Jamie:

It is sad to here that you are still having daily headaches.  I hope your new headache specialist gets to the root of the problem, and it is reassuring to here that he understands your pain and is treating it. 

He has probably already told you this, but if there is any pattern to your pain (relative to events, time of day, foods, weather, all the stuff this website talks about in keeping a headache calendar) it might help.  What makes the pain worse?  When is it ever less severe (if at all)?  Sometimes the smallest detail can help unravel the triggers or even a root problem.

Also, I don't know if you have been plugged into the research findings this year posted on this website.  It seems like research has escalated, and new data are coming out routinely that are helping to isolate new chemicals in our brains that cause the headaches.  It seems to me that not only is the pathology of headaches better understood each month that goes by, but it allows for better treatments to be tailored.  So please don't lose hope if your MD can't immediately find "the" regimen that works.  Sometimes it takes trying many (as you already know) and other times, it may be new approaches based on research that directs us to new, untried medications or combinations.

If you feel like it, please post again to let us know if "low estrogen" was in fact causal.  It might help many others who are doing through the same horrible ordeal you are doing through.  I hope you have many headache-free days ahead of you in your life.

Clemmie

Hello Jamie,

I read your post with interest because after suffering with migraines most of my life, at the age of 46(!), I finally discovered that low estrogen/hormone imbalance was indeed a huge contributor to my headaches. I just started low dose, individually tailored, hormone supplementation a couple of months ago under the care of my migraine specialist and my gynecologist and I have gone from having 2 to 3 day migraines every week to having had exactly 1 migraine on 1 day in the last 20 days. Plus I just feel a whole lot better overall.

I don't want to get your hopes up too high, but it is definitely an avenue worth exploring. It seems to me too few doctors are knowledgeable about "hormone health" and therefore won't even consider hormone balancing as an option in treating migraine. I sincerely hope you find some improvement under your new doctor's care.

I too kept a migraine journal for awhile that no one would read....talk about frustrating!  More recently, I've started marking on my wall calendar (standard month-to-a-page, large boxes): I put a red slash through the number on migraine days, then I have a code to note possible triggers (w-weather, c-cycle ie period, a-allergies bad, i-contagious illness, etc).  I have found that simplifying it like that make my neuro more willing to read it, then if he sees a certain note more than usual he can ask about it and we then discuss it.

Don't know if that helps, but I hope so!

*Must go now, migraine very bad, painkillers are calling.......

I know exactly how you feel and I am hoping to find a doctor that can help me out since i have tried everything has well the last doctor told me I was misdianosed since no migraine meds have worked for me. I was wondering if there was anyone out there in my shoes . I just made a poat myself cause I am at a lost of where to go.

GOOD LUCK to you