Lissa,

Truthfully? You keep looking for something else that will work, AND you try to prevent as many Migraines as possible. This is a tough situation, and there's just no easy answer.

How frequent are your Migraines? Anyone who has three or more Migraines a month needs to be talking with their doctor about prevention. There's growing evidence that Migraine is a progressive brain disease. A recent study showed that Migraines can cause brain damage, and that people with three or more Migraines a month are more susceptible to this damage. For more information, see Is Migraine a Progressive Brain Disease? and Yes, Migraines Can Cause Brain Damage.

I know how easy it is to feel as if you've tried everything out there, but there are so many medications that can be used for Migraine and headache prevention that it's literally impossible. You can find a list of potential Migraine and headache preventives in Migraine preventive medications - too many options to give up!

Taking Migraine abortive meds such as the triptans or ergotamines or any kind of pain med more than two or three days a week can make matters worse by causing medication overuse headache (MOH), aka rebound. See Medication Overuse Headache - When the Remedy Backfires for more information on this.

Have you tried Migraine abortive medications -- triptans (Imitrex, Maxalt, Zomig, etc.), ergotamines (DHE or Migranol Nasal Spray), or Midrin? You didn't mention Migraine abortives, so I don't know. There are very good reasons why this is a better way to go than pain meds. Please take a look at Transformed Migraine - Risk Increased by Some Medications. Another issue is that pain meds (including the Demerol and Vistaril injections you get) cannot stop the Migrainous process in the brain. They can only mask the pain for a few hours during which you hope that the Migraine ends.

I'm sure this isn't what you hoped to hear, but the best option for you really is a good Migraine specialist. I don't know who you've seen, but many of us have had the experience of going to doctors who said they were specialists, only to find that we knew more about Migraines than they did. 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.

I know you're going through a rough time. If you'd like some additional support, come join our discussion forum. You'll need to register again once there because it's a separate membership database, but you can use the same member name, email address, and password that you used here. You can find our forum at http://forums.healthcentral.com/discussion/migraine/forums.

I hope this helps,

Teri