Chronic Migraine, Coping, Diet, Triggers

The Constant Questioning of a Chronic Migraineur

These migraine attacks are kicking my ass. One after the other and, while not terribly painful, they are persistent and exhausting. Two weeks ago I was sure my new diet was helping; now I think I was unreasonably optimistic.

So I’m in the constant questioning of a chronic migraineur: Can I identify a trigger of my current migraine spell? The stormy weather? Food chemical “withdrawal”? This mild cold that’s dogging me? All of the above? None of the above?

Then come the questions of a woman who has been obsessed with food triggers for the last year. If the current attacks are food chemical withdrawal, will I feel better soon? Is the diet doing anything? Am I on a path toward any relief?

As so often happens, I make a change to diet, sleep, exercise, where I live, etc. and notice an improvement at first. Then the gap closes and I’m back to debilitating migraines. Magnesium and cyproheptadine are the only variables that have brought sustained relief.

I operate as if chronic migraine is a puzzle I can figure out if I just get the right pieces in place. No matter how hard I work, the solution continues to evade me. I refuse to give up, but I have to wondering if I’m wearing myself out on an unsolvable riddle. Beating one’s head against a brick wall can’t be good for a migraineur.

4 thoughts on “The Constant Questioning of a Chronic Migraineur”

  1. Kerri:

    Am a fellow migraneur have posted a couple of times in the past. Have had migraines for 17 years and was forced to retire from a library job over 5 years ago. Can I ask a question-which of course may be to personal to answer in a public forum. Do you track each day and have statistics on how often and severity of each headache/migraine attack? If so-and this may not be proper to ask. Can you post these stats. The reason why ask-is I keep pretty detailed stats on my condition. As this gives me a good idea of whether any treatment is effective or not.

    I want to thankyou for what are trying to do with this website.
    And pardon me again if the question above is inappropriate.

    Timothy Bauer
    Reno, Nevada

  2. I once believed that avoiding migraine triggers was worth the fight. I’ve even had a lot of success in identifying them. But the thing is that I just don’t find it to be worth fighting. In my case, I have a headache all the time everyday, and it is easier for me to adapt to that rather than following a long list of avoidance rules. I found the restrictions to not be worth the psychological burden of being restricted.

    But it all depends because if you have headaches that aren’t every day, it might be worth holding fast to your trigger avoidance. That way you could get some more pain free days. In the case of all-the-time daily headaches, I actually think (and have been told by neurologists) that external factors (food, weather, stress triggers etc) contribute to the pain but are not the main cause (the main cause = chemical and brain-related…now that I think about it this advice is coming from neurologists…). Anyway, in that case, avoiding triggers will not get rid of the headache and may not even effect the pain at all.

  3. Kerrie
    Thanks for info on cyproheptadene. Called jama cyprohepdadine in Canada by the way.
    Have you considered things other than diet? Maybe you live near cell phone towers or antennas? That can give you migraines for sure.
    See:
    http://www.c4st.org
    The best site about the above.
    Take care

  4. Your last paragraph resonates with me so much. I have fibromyalgia and so often feel stuck with the unpredictability of my condition. I try so hard and give up so much to “manage” my symptoms, but so often feel like I have know I idea if what I’m doing is helping or if it’s all completely arbitrary.

    Thanks for keeping your blog. It really does help to feel like I’m not alone.

    Best of luck to you!

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