Kind of a survey/get to know everyone/similarities

Hello everyone! My name is Mandy and I am 20 years old. I've been suffering from chronic migraines for a little over 10 years now. I've come to the reality that I need to get on some kind of preventative as I have headaches almost daily and have a migraine at least 2 days out of the week. I was just wanting to hear some of the things going on with everyone and all their "wonderful" experiences with migraines. I'm making up this little "survey" but if I leave anything out and you guys want to add anything, go right ahead!

Name: Mandy

Age: 20

State: KS

Status: In a relationship for 2 1/2 years (unmarried)

Children?: No

How Many?:

Names/Ages?:

Pets?: Yes

How Many?: One Cat and two Dogs

Names/Ages: Lexie (Black and White cat) 3 years, Oakley (3/4 Boxer 1/4 Lab) 6 months, and Lady (Full blood Boxer) 11 months

Occupation: Receptionist in Aircraft Business

School: Junior in College

Major: Graphic Design

Hobbies: Drawing, sculpting, cooking, photography, writing, dancing, HUGE animal lover, fishing, movies

Now the good stuff...

Diagnosis: Chronic Migraines

Age migraines started: 10

How often?: 2-4 times a week

One sided pain?: Yes

Which side?: Mainly Left

Affect any other part of body?: Neck, Behind eyes, jaw

Nausea?: Most of the time

Aura?: Maybe 2 out of 10 have them

Family history?: Yes

Who?: Grandma, Aunt (same side of family)

Known triggers?: Lack of sleep, Cigarette smoke, Too much alcohol, (maybe just a hangover) Weather changes, Cold/Sinus, skipping meals, some hormonal, too much caffeine

What makes them worse?: Light, sound, excercise, thinking too hard :)

How many days a month miss work/school?: 5 on average

Medications tried (Rx): Imitrex, Torradol injections, Depacon (sp?) Intraveinously

What medication(s) have worked for you?: Imitrex and Torradol

What other pain relief methods have you tried? (besides meds): Physical therapy, (neck excersises) Had wisdom teeth pulled, change birth control methods, change in diet, No alcohol, More sleep (not always a good thing for me!)

Have you had an MRI?: No

Do you have a brain tumor?: Not to my knowledge

What doctors have you seen?: Neurologist, several physicians, migraine specialists, physical therapists

Wanting to try: Botox, Topamax, Acupunture

Hi,

1. Age: 29
2. Country: US
3. Status: Married
4. Children: 3
5. Pets: 3 cats
6. Career: Mommy
7. Hobbies: whatever my kids need at this point, reading, and unfortunately my medical takes up alot of my time--not much left for other hobbies

Now the good stuff...

1. complicated migraines, and cluster headaches
2. Age Migraines Started: about 10 years ago; clusters 5 years ago
3. How often: tough question for me, like Nicky I go in episodes. When it's bad, it is bad--I'm down.
4. One sided pain: yes
5. Which side: Majority on right, sometimes left. If left, it is going to be bad!!
6. Nausea: No
7. Aura: Yes (mine include muscle weakness, speech issues, stroke like symptoms); not all of them have this aura--have to be rehab'd for this when happens
8. Family history: mom

Known Triggers: at this point I have no known triggers that I can figure out through headache journaling, hospitalization for migraines/clusters, psychological study during this hospital stay, etc.

What makes them worse: Migraines--light, motion, noise. Clusters are somewhat opposite-- I want to move, bang my head on the nearest thing, sitting still/laying down/closing eyes all that makes them alot worse.

How many days missed: don't work/no school, but have missed plenty of time with my little ones!!

Medications tried (RX): Vivactil, Topomax, Verapamil, Indocin, Imitrex injections, Midrin, Toradol, DHE intravenously, steriod bursts, Phenergan, Periactin (sp?), Methadone--very short term in hospital, Oxygen, Pamelor--I'm sure there is more, but forgot (this is more recent)

What medications work: Hmm, not sure yet. Still trying to figure it out! DHE breaks cycle. Methadone knocks it out, and me!! Currently on four as preventatives, we shall see. No longer using triptans.. Oxygen great abortive for clusters!!

Other Pain Relief: Physical Therapy for rehab and hopefully some pain relief

MRI scan awhile back, having MRI/MRA done again--we will see.

What doctors have you seen: neurologist; headache specialist; physical therapist

Wanting to try: ???

Hi Nicky,

Thank you for such a sweet and thoughtful comment! I think it says alot that you took the time to think about the future and your medical issues before having a family...My situation changed drastically after having my last child...

I've had migraines for a long time, but only maybe one a month. I would just take meds, crawl into bed, sleep it off and be done with it...During my last 2 pregnancies I had high blood pressure and lots of headaches during them, but they were chalked up to that!! Over the years, I had really bad headaches that always came in bizarre cycles that were horrible but, never lasted more than 5 or so weeks at a time (now know they are cluster headaches)...But, once I got past it, I just blocked it out until they returned, and now that I'm on meds and have oxygen--so far so good!!!

After my last baby, my body just kinda fell apart. The migraines hit with a vengeance about 7 months ago. Sometimes, I just wish I could find the trigger so I could avoid it...

It breaks my heart that my kids have to see me like this. I have learned when I am doing well to make the best of my day with my family, and hope that all the preventatives will finally be enough!

Kids are a tough decision when you have this condition...I'm glad I have my kids now I think they are what has kept me going on the days when I want to give up, but I do feel guilty that they are not getting everything they need...Anyways, thank you I really needed that today!!

Thank you KYMark for the encouragement and the input, it is much appreciated. You are right my family really is beginning to learn to adapt and I am very careful to make sure I never ever take my fustration out on them by raising my voice or ignoring their needs which could be easy to do...

I'm glad that you have such a great support system from your family, I'm sure that makes such a big difference when it comes to dealing with all of this...It's just a shame that so many of your family members have had to have this disease!

I agree with you on the treatment part, I am really hoping that rapid strides cont'inue to be made over the years and more and more continues to become available to our children and hopefully us to treat these darn things!

Take Care!