Shannon's Migraine Story

My name is Shannon. I am 23 years old and I have been suffering from migraines since I was 17.

I remember my first migraine. I was sitting on my bed doing homework and I noticed that my vision was starting to blur a bit. Soon afterwards, a pain started behind my left eye and I was throwing up. Next thing I knew, I was passed out on the floor. My mom found me and we went to the hospital.

After a couple more attacks, I went to see a neurologist. He told me that I probably have migraine headaches caused by depression so he prescribed Prozac. I wasn't depressed so the Prozac caused me to be tired and actually have more headaches. He wasn't a very nice doctor to begin with and it angered me that he wasn't taking my pain seriously. We started trying every medicine in the book. I remember taking Elavil, Imitrex, Midrin, and Zomig. Nothing worked though. My migraines went away for about a year and then they started up again. Every time I got a migraine, I was passing out and having something like seizures, although they weren't called seizures. I was just shaking a lot.

My new neurologist started me on Pamelor and Maxalt. This made the frequency better, but when I got them, they were still very intense. I was still going to the hospital a couple pf times a month. Every time they ended up giving me some kind of narcotic just to get the pain to go away, which I appreciated of course, but I was still looking for the non-narcotic cure.

I called my neurologist to ask him what to do because I was still getting the headaches and he would just up my medication every time. I never went in to see him, he just made me take more meds. I was admitted into the hospital for DhE treatments (after being poked 17 times to get a vein). This didn't work either. I layed in the bed for 4 days crying my eyes out and not sleeping because my doctor wouldn't authorize any kind of pain killer. I finally pretended that I was ok just so I could go home.

I am a military dependant and we just moved. I went 3 months without a migraine until this past month. I have had 4 in the past month and because of insurance issues, I can't even get in to see a doctor until May. And that's just a general doctor so I can get a referral to see a neurologist. For now, all I can do is go the ER and get meds that way. It's not healthy, but neither are my migraines. I've heard of migraine surgeries so hopefully I will be able to talk to my new doctor about that. I've tried all the home remedies I know and all the OTC medicines. It's starting to drive me nuts. I just pray that my new doctor will be a little more friendly and actually care about my head.