Preventative number 2 - Allegron

At last I had got an appointment with a neurologist.  I was expecting the world.  A torrent of probing questions, brain scans, blood tests all resulting in a huge list of possible options.  After 5 minutes brief questioning and testing my reflexes he confirmed that I have migraines (so tell me something that I don't already know) and wrote a note for me to take to my doctors for some tablets.  I had disappointment written all over my face!  Was that it?  Where were the probes?  Where were all of the clever medical gadgets? Where was the excitement?  Where was the machine that goes "bing"?  Grasping at straws I asked what would we do if the tablets didn't work?  He advised my doctors to try two further preventatives which pretty much guarantees that I won't have to see him again for at least 4 1/2 months assuming that none of them work.

But let's not start on a negative note.  Allegron is actually an antidepressant, so if nothing else, I might still get the migraines, but I will be happy with them.  The dose for depression is 25mg three or four times a day.  So that's 75mg to 100mg per day.  I am starting on 10mg to be taken just at night and am increasing by 10mg per week until I get to 50mg so the does is well below the norm.

Let's have a look at how it went...

Week One.  10mg of Allegron
I had a cold which normally means that I don't get migraines anyway (see post migraines-vs-being-ill).  So getting only 1 migraine this week was nice but not a big surprise.  And I didn't feel overly happy so the antidepressant wasn't working at this low does either.

Week Two.  20mg of Allergron
I didn't get off to the best of starts as I forgot to take my first dose.  How do you remember to take tablets every day?  Any ideas are greatly received.  Anyhoo, two and a bit migraines this week.  The 2nd was a big one so no improvement yet.

Week Three.  30mg of Allergron
Sunday nights is a bad night for me as I forgot the first dose of 3 again.  I am still waiting for the migraines to subside and am hoping to be able to stop increasing the dose before I reach the 50mg maximum.  I really don't like taking tablets unless I have to.  As for the frequency of migraines, it was the same as week two.  Two migraines with the second one being a bad one.  I got it on the way to work which is unusual as normally I get them in the afternoon.  Not that I really want a change in that direction.  Interestingly I can feel the effects of the antidepressant kicking in a bit.  My mood is definitely lighter this week.  I can't imagine what I would feel like on the full dose if this small amount effects me in this way.  I would be floating!

Week 4.  40mg of Allegron
Ok, enough is enough.   By the end of the 4th week, the migraines are still there, just as before.  But, the intensity of them is far greater than I normally get.  The pain that I get is sharper than normal and whilst the triptans still get rid of them, until that happens, the pain is far worse.

So I call the doctors and ask them what happens next and they tell me to move onto drug number 3.  But that's a story for another blog...

Oh, and I have no idea what the picture actually depicts, but I thought it was kind of kitsch.

Migraines at a young age

I am pretty sure that I have suffered from migraines since I was a kid.  They were only self-diagnosed as such 5 years ago, but I know that I suffered with them for a long time before that.  The memory does fade slightly as to when they started.  I remember going to the doctor with my mum as a kid as I had jaw ache a lot.  Mum thought that maybe I had too many teeth all vying for space or that there was a problem with the alignment of my jaw.  The doctor we saw was a doctor from the old school.  A very old school.  He was like an old, kind, but misguided wizard.  After sitting behind his large wooded desk and listening to our story, he turned to face a plethora of ancient books, some without names, which covered the entire wall behind him (at least that's how I remember it as a kid).  From one shelf behind him he dragged out a particularly large book, blowing the dust from the top before opening the cover.  He moistened his index finger and thumb by licking them with his parched tongue, which looked as old as the books.  Peering over the top of his glasses he slowly turned the large pages.  By contrast, my current doctor googles for answers, although I am not commenting on which is the better method.

His conclusion was that I grind my jaw at night and would need a mouth guard to stop this from happening.  I knew that I wasn't grinding my jaw but was so in awe of this caricature of himself, that my mouth refused to budge from being tight shut.  Thankfully, whilst driving home, my mother listened and we never did get the mouth guard for me to wear at night to stop this mythical grinding from taking place.

Fast forward a decade or two. I can't remember getting much pain after that until I was in my 20's.  By then I just thought that I was getting headaches.  Must be too much work, or too little sleep.  The childhood jaw ache was long forgotten about.  Over the counter drugs never even dented the pain.  I wasn't the sort to go to the doctors, but in hindsight, that is exactly what I should have done.  It got to the stage where I had more days in pain than not.  I learned to deal with it and get on with my life.  I worked my way though many kooky methods to just to try and get a clear day without the pain.  Run to the top of the stairs and grab hold of the banister. Swing up and down and round and round to stretch my shoulder joints and pull out the pain.  Bang my head against the wall to knock the broken bit back into place.  I used to have an old computer where you had to hit the side of it to make it turn on.  I guess that I was applying that same logic to my head.  Needless to say, these methods never worked.

The worry was that it might be more than a simple headache.  I would analyze myself for other symptoms.  My vision was always clear, although it did hurt to re-focus from near to far.  My hearing was always clear and noise never made the pain worse or better.  No tingling in my fingers or toes.  Heart beat strong and unwavering.  Fitness level as good as it ever had been.  I was stuck in limbo, waiting for the pain to go, or something else to go wrong.  Always scared to visit the doctorsas they might tell me something that I don't want to hear.

Thus began a long and ongoing treck to find the perfect cure.  What I did do was visit alternative health experts.  I use the term expert sparingly and will explain why in my next blog...