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Q: Is there a doctor out there that even cares, much less believes in migraines that will actually help with the pain when you've tried EVERYTHING?
Hey there,
I can "hear" the frustration in your voice. There are many of us who are in a similar situations. It just plain stinks.
I do have to say that there are caring doctors, true Migraine specialists, who really want to see their patients get better. I met many of them in early June at the 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting. And it is good to hear you say better, not cured! But the thing is there are only 290 US doctors UCNS board certified in headache medicine! Neurologists are fine doctor, but as you can see most are not "true" Migraine/headache specialists. They may say they are, but that just isn't the case. Migraine specialists treat one condition - ours - Migraine and headache disorders. Neurologists treat so many different conditions like MS, epilpesy and stroke it is hard for them to be experts in one area. Keep reading for information on: Migraine and Headache Specialists - What's So Special? Then you can take a look for a Migraine specialist on our patient recommended list.Most Migraineurs do have normal CT's, X-Rays, MRI's and the like - which is a good thing. There is no diagnositc tool available for Migraine now. So getting an accurate diagnosis from a Migraine specialist when a case is complicated is crucial.
You mentioned trying all the various medications. But here's the thing - it can take up to three months before we see a reduction in our Migraine frequency and severity. I know that is a long time, but we'll never know if the medication works if we don't give it a fair trial. Do you by chance take anything every day to relieve pain? We can unwittingly cause another problem called medicaton overuse headache. Taking Migraine abortive meds such as the triptans or ergotamines or any kind of pain medication -- prescription or over-the-counter -- 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.
For more support why not join us over in the 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.
Good luck
Nancy
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