Living with migraines for 22 years

Wow! Are you really having a tough time! I hate it that you need to be here, but I'm glad you've found our community. Mosey on over to the Forums. A link in the drop-down menu under the button "Connect" at the top of this page. There's more traffic than there is here.

I can understand the "drug seeker" mentality. The DEA has scared all healthcare providers about writing prescriptions for narcotics. My neurologist has prescribed hydrocodone for me, but it doesn't do much.

Are you seeing a true migraine specialist? Topamax and Cymbalta are great drugs, but it sounds like they're not doing much for you. There are more than 100 drugs being used for migraine prevention, plus countless combinations.

I started seeing a specialist in November, Dr. Jan Lewis Brandes in Nashville. I had been taking Lamictal, an anticonvulsant, for several years and had stopped improving. Dr. Brandes left me on the Lamictal, but had me change the Effexor I was taking for Major Depression to Cymbalta. She added Lyrica and MagOxide. This last appointment, she added verapamil. I've gone from 5 and 6 every day to 1 and 2, with pain-free days several times a month. The verapamil has stopped the headache I woke up with every morning.

So there's still hope for you. Topamax can be a great drug. It was a bust for me. I'm not sure what the Cymbalta is doing for my headaches, but it's doing as good a job on my depression as the Effexor was.

Seeing a specialist has been a big step forward for me. I'm a hard 8-hour drive from Nashville on crummy roads, so I fly and spend the night. Several other forum members fly to see their specialists. There's a list of patient-recommended specialists under "Working with Doctors" in the drop-down menu under Manage.

Welcome aboard!

Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!

I'm are happy you found us too. I think you'll find this site very informative and supportive. On our patient recommended Migraine specialist list we do have a doctor in Alabama you may want to look into. You can find that information HERE.

Seeing as you have been suffering so long, it would be a great idea to see a Migraine specialist. This doctor is an expert in treating patients with Migraine disease and headache disorders and can really make a difference. Some people here found that after seeing a Migraine specialist, (not immediatedly, but after they had a prevention plan in place) their quality of life was back on track.

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. We hope to see you there. 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.

Along with your personal "My Home" page and the discussion forum, you'll find links to a great deal of helpful information and a spot to sign up for our free newsletter on the main page of our site, http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the forum or send me a message through my profile.

Welcome again,