I've had migraines since I was six - I learned all my triggers and got pretty good at managing them.  I did lose some days when I was lost to world with migraine and wanted to kill myself a few times from the pain but I coped.  When I hit my mid 40's the migraines morphed a bit.  Where they had been hitting above both eyes now they were almost exclusively on my left side.  I got into the "abortives" and for a spell felt like I had them managed extremely well - almost no breakthroughs and I was able to work through most the headaches.  But then they started comeing like big waves after a storm day in and day out.  I was upping my intake of abortives and I think you know where this is going.  So I sought out a migraine specialist (she herself a sufferer) at Scripps Clinis La Jolla.  She listened hard to me - and picked up a few things I hadn't connected: an old neck injury, deviated septum, sleep apnea to name the most significant.  She suggested I had a lot going on and we'd need to chip away at this.  That made a lot of sense.

So to make al ong story shorter, I started getting nerve blocks in my neck.  I got some Botox.  I opted to not get the surgery for the deviated symptom - too many horror stories from others that have.  Most imprtant, I drastically reduced my reliance on the abortives like Amerge and other triptans.  I even stopped taking advil.  I found that if I could take some time and get some sleep I could get out in front of most migraines.  It took about six months but finally I started noticing that the migraines were getting less frequent.  I think the Botox was the turning point for me.  It wasn't an instantaneous fix but a gradual one.  All along the way I reduced my intake of BFIL (Bad Food I Love) - ice cream, donuts, high carbo foods like pasta and worked to make sure I was getting a bit of protein all day.  As a kid I ended up with a migraine every Halloween and most holidays and realized it was the food ... namely sugars and starches that were my primary trigger.  Some storng smell too - so I asked my wife to quit frying onions...forever.  I avoided (and still do) perfume and cologne heads.

The upshot - my migraines are better.  Way better.  I might use a Triptan once or twice a month and then plan on likely having a small rebound the next day by planning ahead and making some time to sleep through it with no drugs.  A folk cure helps me a lot: Hot Cider Vinegar fumes -- look it up if you're interested.

So after having several bad migrane years I have it under control.  At it's worst I felt like I might need to start thinking about drastic measure like disability and I must confess at times, as I mentioned above, I wanted to end it all permanently.  Really what I had to do was to get out of my own way and stop over-medicating and exacerbating the situation and then deal with some old injuries and some blood sugar issues.  I learned my neck was the source of many of my migaines and by buying an expensive "Swedish Foam" pillow with curves that I can wake up without a sore neck most days.  The nerve blocks and botox got it started and I took it from there.  Now I use a plethors of "folksy" aids to help and it's working.  And I don't know what it is about napping but it's the best cure for me overall.