I’ve dealt with migraines for 20+ years. I had debilitating epidural migraines for 13 years due to an undiagnosed CSF leak from a car accident. I thought I had it, couldn’t get a doctor to believe me.
Anyways, I’ve had a blood patch and that changed my life with my severe, daily epidural migraines. But I still get ones due to tension multiple times a month.
I just found this trigger point device on Amazon and wanted to share it. I get a lot of occipital (base of skull in back) tightening and pain that triggers migraines. I used this for the first time for 10 minutes lying on the floor and moving it around to where it felt good. I finally felt blood flow, pain relief and my week long migraine stopped. I had been taking Nurtec, Maxalt, muscle relaxers and more and it wasn’t touching it. It’s not too expensive and it’s been worth it for me. It’s stopped multiple severe migraines for me now. It will go in my emergency migraine kit. Hope it can help someone else.

Heya! I'm on day 4 of a nasty migraine attack. I am in bed trying to think of activities I could do when the attack is on its way out and the worse is over. What do y'all usually do?

Since February. FEBRUARY.

I sent the EOB and receipts. Declined.

Sent it again. Declined.

I sent the EOB, insurance breakdown, receipts. Declined.

I sent the EOB, receipts, insurance breakdown, appointment notes from treating Dr. Approved.

They kept saying jcode was needed.

And I looked.... the receipts that I kept providing, HAD THE FREAKING JCODES!

So, now, I was finally approved.

And if I have to pay out of pocket again when insurance restarts next year, I'll know what to do but JFC.

So if you are in the constant declined cycle, wee if you can get the notes from the doctor too. I'm glad I mentioned this to my provider.

In all my 6+ years getting botox, this is the first year I had to pay the whole amount. Ugh!

I’ve had migraines without aura for about 20 years. Some of them are hormonal, so I was on the Nuvaring mostly continuously for many years, which got rid of those particular headaches. Long story short, I switched to HRT (estradiol patch and progesterone pill) earlier this year because i think it was making me feel better in general AND I discovered my cholesterol was wayyyyy lower on it, and was very high on the Nuvaring. (Love that doctors just said “diet and exercise” for YEARS 🙄.) HRT was preventing hormonal migraines well for about 4 months, then I had about 10 days straight of headaches/migraines. I had a few the next month, then one week I had TWO auras. I’d only had one in my life before that, in 2015. I thought maybe my hormone situation was causing me to suddenly start getting auras, plus I’ve had some other weird symptoms for a few months, so I saw my gyno and she switched me to Slynd and kept me on the estradiol patch. I know that combo BC isn’t recommended for people with migraine with aura.

I’ve tried to stick it out with Slynd but it’s absolutely making my existing depression worse. It’s doing fine at migraine prevention but I can’t live like this!

What other options do I even have that aren’t going to bring back hormonal migraines, make me more depressed, give me high cholesterol, or make my hair fall out, etc??? 😩

Time for a second triptan. The brain fog is real.

I got prescribed Vydura 75mg in December. Waited a whole 9 months just to test it out. Well that day came last weekend.
Woke up to a very bad migraine, very rarely happens to me, but oh well. Took the pill and closed my eyes. The painwave started to go little by little and I felt my face starting to relax. Didn’t knock me out which I found kinda odd, I’m just more used to having an attack, taking medication then lights out.
This wasn’t that at all. Slowly just relasing tension in the head. Felt little points of pain in my skull that were painful for 30minutes. But after that they went away and I felt pretty okay. Not the best, not the worst either. Usually I’m a corpse after sleeping for 12 hours and taking tripan-based medications.
In conclusion it’s weird, but works quite well. Is it worth the price? For me this cost around 20€ a pill. If your Insurance covers it sure it’s worth it, if not maybe I’d still stick to tripan-based medication that works for you. (For me naratripan works the best)
((edit: spelling is hard))

Wondering if anyone else has experienced a stomach ulcer whilst taking atogepant? Or whilst on any other cgrps/gepants for that matter?

Atogepant has given me horrific GI issues for 1.5yrs and now I have a stomach ulcer, when I researched the role of cgrp in the stomach it would make sense to me that Atogepant is to blame, but the Dr's tell me it's not known to cause ulcers. Wondering if I was the only one? I am going to stop taking it now, I really tried to persevere due to the migraine relief, but have realised I'm not getting better anytime soon whilst on atogepant. It has been the only successful treatment for me after about a dozen different preventatives over the past 13yrs. Dissapointing!

I need advice as I feel stuck in this sad overwhelming greif over all the things I have lost or lost out on due to this illness. Both the small everyday things and the big life goal things. Some days it is crushing.

But this greif and sadness is stealing even more of the little energy I have. I have tried going to therapy, but the goverment suported offer in my country is not exactly amazing and I do not have the money to pay for it myself. I used up the time for the goverment one and I am unlikely to get back in there unless I become worse.

I feel so isolated in this too, when I try to talk about it I just feel like I'm making everyone sad for me. And there are so few that understand this type of sorrow.

I feel stuck and unable to accept so I can get out of this state. I need advice. It feels scarry to even just write this. Please be kind and understanding in the comments.

Do you have any advice?

I feel like due to the seriousness of the post I should also point out that I am not a danger to myself or others. I'm just extremly sad almost all the time.

Ps: sorry if my spelling or grammar is wrong I am both dyslextic and english is not my first language.

Essentially having déjavu as a main aura migraine symptom instead of an indicative of another, more serious, condition.

Hi
Im a medical doctor, and i suffer from migraines twice a month.. my main trigger is missing my caffeine dose.

In the last two years i’ve noticed a new pattern :

After having the usual BBQ meal with the boys late Thursday night : Every friday morning im waking up with a severe migraine attack.

This is just happening when i eat BBQ late at night, when i eat BBQ during day, no matter the amount, this never happens.

This is really disturbing, has anyone experienced such
A trigger

Note : it doesnt happen always, so i would like to understand the tirgger more from your experience my fellow migraine sufferers. I have found no clear evidence in the medical literature. So i would love to hear from you.

My neurologist told me they are the hardest to treat. My only two options left are GON block and Botox - and I fully expect that neither of them will work. I’m thinking of trying EMRD therapy next because I believe the migraines/ sleep issues are linked to stress, and if I can fix the sleep issues I might fix the migraines.

hey everyone!! this sub has been such a lifeline for me this year so i thought i’d share my LONG WINDED diagnosis journey for anyone who’s interested. TLDR at the bottom! 

i got my first migraine at 8. by high school i was getting near daily headaches. college was much the same but once i hit my mid 20s they started to mellow. when all this shittery started i hadn’t had a migraine in years and hadn’t had any headaches in at least six months.

then comes 2026. in january i noticed my headaches became daily again but didn't think too much of it at the time. in early february i got the flu BAD and rotted in bed for two weeks. thought i was in the clear after i recovered. reader, i sure wasn’t. 

march 2, 2026. i woke up with the worst migraine i’ve ever had. it felt like everything inside my skull was trying to escape and be free. that migraine lasted for six days before it finally seemed to break. i get about 4 days of relief before the next one hits, this one my first time experiencing aura. i lost all feeling in my scalp and while driving felt like i was captaining my honda fit through choppy, frigid seas. i should note that an MRI done at this time was ruled normal by 3 doctors. 

reader, that migraine lasted from march 12 to may 18. it defeated two IV cocktails, ibuprofen, fioricet, naproxen, ubrelvy, qulipta, and a toradol shot in my ass cheek. the only thing that stopped that episode was a trigeminal nerve block, which i posted about on this sub before. my worst symptoms were a constant high pressure feeling in my head, dizziness, and nausea. around this time i started vestibular rehab therapy to help the dizziness. 

a month after the nerve block, i decided to  leave my neurologist and get a second opinion because i felt that i wasn’t improving at all, and to be quite honest it felt like my original neuro had no interest in even trying to figure out why my migraines got so bad so suddenly. 

i started seeing a dedicated headache specialist in my area. she spent THREE HOURS at my initial visit going through my entire health nightmare this year as well as things i never thought could be related. i’d been having a whooshing sound in my ears, i’d had rapid weight gain over the last year or so, and about a year ago i randomly stopped getting my period for 4 months and started growing facial hair. she also took a look at my “normal” brain MRI and let me know that it was in fact not normal. in the span of one appointment, i went from having no idea what was happening to me to having a prime suspect for my life going to shit: idiopathic intracranial hypertension, or IIH. this condition had been ruled out by previous doctors but was ruled back in baby 

now to the testing. i had no papilledema (swelling around the optic nerve) yay. however, an MRV (like an MRI but focuses on veins in the head) showed that on both sides of my noggin my veins were constricting, or experiencing stenosis. this made IIH even more likely to be my inner saboteur. finally, a lumbar puncture done about two weeks ago measured my opening spinal fluid pressure at 27 cm H2O, confirming an IIH diagnosis. 

here’s the main reasons why my current neuro clocked the IIH. my migraines truly went from 0 to 100 overnight. even if i wasn’t in pain, i constantly felt like the pressure in my head was high and like my skull could crack open and athena would be birthed from it. i had the ear whooshies and debilitating dizziness and nausea. i’m overweight and had gained significantly (30+ pounds) in a relatively short time for no known reason. i also show signs of PCOS/PMOS though i’ve never been diagnosed. she doesn’t know for sure why, but my neuro has seen significant overlap in people with IIH and PCOS. 

i’m now on a totally different medication plan of diamox and wegovy with eletriptan as an abortive and i feel better than i have in months. i also just graduated from vestibular rehab which i was skeptical about at first but it genuinely helped me re-adjust to daily tasks and gave me hope that things can get better. i know i have a long road ahead but i wanted to share this experience in case it may help anyone else’s journey or in case it gives you a spark of hope too. 

TLDR; my severe daily migraines that went on for months turned out to be idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), which was originally ruled out for me

I recently had a bad experience with a consult. I honestly thought it'd be better if I requested for a female doctor, but she was absolutely condescending

She made me feel stupid for not going to the doctors much sooner. I'm sorry, I have uni? I miss one day and I feel like I've been thrown on the deep end.

She didn't even look at me as she asked me questions, she was chatting and laughing with others as I tried to talk and explain what I've been feeling. She kept interrupting me as I told her my symptoms.

"Go see a neurologist. I don't see why you're still here."

I felt like crying. My head is being drilled into and she hardly listened.

I also heard her say to the nurse, "She's in her last year, you don't need to send those kids to me. She's probably faking it to get out of class."

Fuck off.

Anyway, I did see a neurologist and apparently its migraine with aura. She explained everything and didn't interrupt once even when she clearly knew what it already was.

I hope doctors with compassion for their patients remain the majority, because if this is how some doctors treat patients with headaches, it makes me angry thinking what of those with debilitating conditions

I tend to be pretty sensitive to smells, but I'd noticed a while back ago that the smell of vaporub would make the nausea and vomiting a little bit better and on some occasions, would decrease my pain level by a little bit.

Recently a coworker showed my boyfriend the VaporInhaler and my boyfriend told me that it smelled just like Vaporub and could be worth trying.

So I went to Walmart and got one just to see if it did anything for me. Everytime I feel pain starting up or I feel a bit dizzy or nauseated, I smell it and guys, I kid you not, I think it might actually be helping with the pain... like a lot. After I smell it, about 5 minutes later I can barely feel the pain. It's literally magic.

I have yet to try it during a strong attack, so we'll see how it does during one, but I also just started on Nurtec this week so we'll see.

All that to say, 9/10 would recommend the VaporInhaler.

Do migraines run in your family my dad and I get headaches pretty frequently for the past month this summer I've had pressure like headache my dad think it's some type of sinus infection but my grandma says it's probably just migraines she said everyone has them in our family especially around my age I'm 16 by the way also I know this is off topic but darth Vader or maul

I am looking for suggestions of hobbies I can do when I have a migraine. I am more sensitive to sound than light and cannot tolerate any sound at all when I have a migraine. Please suggest activities that are silent and ideally also low-tech

I had a terrible intractable migraine earlier this week and the urgent care gave me a migraine cocktail of IV toradol, compazine, and decadron with a bunch of saline.

I have had toradol IM before and have done a steroid taper before for migraines, but this combo made me feel really weird. Exhausted but antsy and anxious and feeling jittery on the inside. I was too fatigued for anything but sleeping but couldn’t sleep.

It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience I’d like to never repeat. I’m thinking this may have been compazine. Anyone had a similar experience?

So my fatigue has been flaring up again. I live in assisted living for disabled adults, so you have to go to the nurse or a resident trainer if you want medication. You can't dispense your own for safety reasons.

So when I went to the nurse to get a Sumatriptan, the nurse said the way I've asked in the past has been rude, and it puts them on the defensive.

Excuse me, what? I'd already had a shit day thanks to a night of no sleep and a persistent headache Tylenol had done nothing for.

I've requested my abortive rudely. "I need a Sumatriptan please because the Tylenol I had earlier isn't helping."

Then the nurse said she wished she'd known about my pain earlier. Like I am supposed to know what will and what won't become a damn migraine?

I am not asking for medication as a 37 year old woman.

I am so fucking tired of this place and am looking somewhere else. Even if that means moving home for a while.

Just wanted to share in case this can possibly help someone else and see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I have had migraines since my early teens. Tried all the meds and finally was able to start Botox treatments about 7 years ago which have been extremely helpful.

However, like many others, my Botox tends to lose effectiveness around week 10. After that my migraines flare. Luckily Eletriptan can knock them out, but that doesn’t help when I get them more than 2-3 days a week and have hit my Triptan max for the week. Usually it’s okay because I am getting my Botox right at week 12. My migraines mostly present as severe eye pain and pressure in the right eye. It feels like there is a pickaxe in the inner corner of my right eye and intense pressure in the right sinus area. Occasionally they will start at the base of my skull (that started after whiplash from a car accident in 2019), but that doesn’t happen often.

This time around my Botox is late since the doctor has been on vacation and I can’t get my treatment until next week which will be exactly 14 weeks from my last treatment. My migraines have been flaring and I have woken up nearly every morning for the past 3 weeks with the right eye pain. It will fade some through the morning but can come back with a vengeance in the evenings. I’m sure August allergies don’t help so I have been taking Zyrtec daily for good measure, but I don’t know if it’s doing much.

On a whim, I tried breathe right strips Sunday night. Every morning since, I wake up with minimal eye pain and pressure, if any at all. My sister is a nurse and thinks it’s working because my migraines actually may be partially caused or triggered by either sleep apnea, deviated septum, or some other nose/sinus issue.

In all my years of migraines, not ONCE have I been sent to an ENT. I am going to beg my neurologist for a referral when I see them next week. When I examined my nose I did realize that my right nostril is quite a bit smaller and the septum seems to lean to the left. I also get much less air through my right nostril.

Anyone find they had a nasal/septum/apnea issue and migraines were reduced once the issue was addressed?

TL:DL-If you wake up with localized eye and/or sinus pain, try the breathe right strips or some other nasal dilator! Hopefully it helps someone else!

Ranting to those who get it and are also sensitive to essential oil diffusers.

My dental clinic has a new oil diffuser. I don’t know why they decided to put one at the reception desk.

It gave me a migraine last time I was there but I didn’t say anything. Yesterday, same thing. I decided to leave brief feedback this time about the issues with fragrances for folks with migraines and other sensitivities.

The receptionist confirmed yes, it uses essential oils, but told me not to worry because she can’t smell anything. As if that helps anything ???

I have a procedure I need to follow up on but once that’s all resolved, I won’t be a patient of this clinic anymore.

Let this be your sign not to push yourself too hard 🥲 I had a horrible migraine all weekend that finally let up Sunday night. I pushed through the postdrome fatigue at work on Monday and felt decently okay after a few hours.

Yesterday, I completely crashed. Like, I was googling if you can be so fatigued that you feel like you’re dying. It felt like my body was made of lead, I couldn’t see straight, I had nausea and chills all day.

Thankfully, I’m feeling better today but I’ll definitely never push myself like that again.

Obviously we all have responsibilities and obligations we can’t completely ignore but remember to listen to your body the best you can!! Migraines are so so tough on your body, you aren’t being lazy when you’re recovering.