Doctors, Meds & Supplements, Mental Health, Treatment

A Visit to My Headache Specialist: Migranal, Seroquel, Biofeedback & Headache Management

Another visit to my headache specialist, another round of medications and therapies. This is the first time I don’t have any anticipatory excitement that one (or some) will help. It’s not that I don’t think there’s a chance, I’m just too tired to get caught up in what ifs.

The prescriptions I left with are for Migranal, an abortive, and Seroquel, a preventive. I’ve never tried Migranal as on-the-spot abortive. I did use it when a three-week intensive treatment of injectable DHE caused muscle pain. (DHE and Migranal are essentially the same drug, just in different delivery forms.) That three-week treatment was cut short after I failed to respond even the tiniest bit.

Seroquel has been on my mind since reading this success story. I know what works for one person doesn’t always work for another, but I needed to ask. Since I’ve tried multiple meds in all the classes of drugs used for headache with no success, my doctor and I decided it was worth a shot. It can be sedating, but I have to wonder if being sedated with less headache would be better than the exhaustion that accompanies a migraine. (I need to read the full side effect profile before I fill the prescription.)

Biofeedback and headache management therapy are the other two treatments I’m going to try. That’s right, I have never tried biofeedback. I feel like an impostor writing a headache blog without trying it. I’ll be able to shed my shame soon.

Even though I don’t really know what it is, headache management is what I’m most excited about. Apparently I will learn tricks to help when I have a bad headache, like massage and neck exercises.

As I write this, my head is bad so my outlook is bleak. Whenever I have a low migraine, low pain, high energy stretch, like I did last week, I return to “normal” with a thud. Having had a total of three good weeks in the last two months, I now believe I’ll have more migraine-light days in the future. But I quickly grow impatient for the next time to arrive.