Migraine Headaches Support Group
Migraine is a neurological disease, of which the most common symptom is an intense and disabling episodic headache. Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head and are often accompanied by photophobia (hypersensitivity to light), phonophobia (hypersensitivity to sound) and nausea.
I have been suffering migraines since a child and that is 30 long years. This last year has been hell as I had to wait 17 months to see a Neuro. I got migraines almost daily at a level of #7-9 and had to live on T-3's and whatever I could get my hands on and I even wound up in the hospital for a few days. Sumatriptans had stopped working and nothing I did would help.
Agony was my middle name.
Nov 24, I was given my first series of Botox injections and I want to share with you, to date how it has gone. Today is December 16th.
The injections went around my top of my forehead and over my eyebrows, on my temples and along the back of my neck.
The first three days were okay in that my neck was very sore and hard to hold up at the end of the day. I was warned of this. 5 days later I began a 4 day migraine which was hospital worthy. It was the worst!!!!. I read about botox and it said in some cases Botox made it worse, so I hung in there and just suffered and cried and hoped I hadn't made a real big mistake.
After that, my headaches started to immediately settle down. The neck wasn't sore anymore and I didn't need T-3's because Sumatriptans were working (in my case Imitrex). I had to now bite the bullet and stop taking the codeine based medicine so I had 3 days of abstenence so I felt like I had a real bad flu.
Today, when I get a migraine, it is just that. A #3-4 migraine, where a Imitrex will usually get rid of it in 2 hours. Sometimes I will take a T-3, but I am no longer dependant on it like I was. I am back to where I should be.
Instead of migraines every day, I get them once or twice a week and go for as many as 3-4 days without.
I have a life again.
I get another shot scheduled in February.
I needed to share this with you because I thought I was hard core and uncurable. I was wrong.
All the best to you my friends.
Angela
Agony was my middle name.
Nov 24, I was given my first series of Botox injections and I want to share with you, to date how it has gone. Today is December 16th.
The injections went around my top of my forehead and over my eyebrows, on my temples and along the back of my neck.
The first three days were okay in that my neck was very sore and hard to hold up at the end of the day. I was warned of this. 5 days later I began a 4 day migraine which was hospital worthy. It was the worst!!!!. I read about botox and it said in some cases Botox made it worse, so I hung in there and just suffered and cried and hoped I hadn't made a real big mistake.
After that, my headaches started to immediately settle down. The neck wasn't sore anymore and I didn't need T-3's because Sumatriptans were working (in my case Imitrex). I had to now bite the bullet and stop taking the codeine based medicine so I had 3 days of abstenence so I felt like I had a real bad flu.
Today, when I get a migraine, it is just that. A #3-4 migraine, where a Imitrex will usually get rid of it in 2 hours. Sometimes I will take a T-3, but I am no longer dependant on it like I was. I am back to where I should be.
Instead of migraines every day, I get them once or twice a week and go for as many as 3-4 days without.
I have a life again.
I get another shot scheduled in February.
I needed to share this with you because I thought I was hard core and uncurable. I was wrong.
All the best to you my friends.
Angela
I am also a BOTOX success story. I have been getting the injections since March 2008.
I use to be a twenty migraines a month person, and they were 8 to 10 on the pain scale. Now, I get about five a month, and they are pretty mild to moderate.
I still take Topamax and a muscle relaxer, though.
Big difference once you can break that cycle!
I am a 22 year old college student.
I am a semi-success story of Botox.. I started Botox injections almost a year ago and they occasionally help. The first treatment didn't help, but my headache clinic told me that it was normal to not see a difference the first 2 times. After my second treatment, my pain score when down by 50%! It was amazing. Then, the actual injections caused a 4-day migraine the 3rd time. My NP told me that it was what they call a "bad dose" (jst that it was a treatment that didn't help, not that it as an actual bad batch).
However, in September I started going back to school after taking a year off and my headaches increased intensely! It was the stress. The semester has just ended for me, so I'm hopefully they were get better, but the Botox didn't seem to do much good these past 3 months.
They are going to raise my dosage to 200ccs instead of 100ccs. This is one fo the problems with Botox; that it may be an effective treatment for a couple years, but eventually it iwill stop helping (at least this is what I've been told).
Anyway, I am glad that it has helped you so much! :)
All the best!
I was quite similar to you--triptans were not working for me anymore. I was getting nerve blocks for the last two years and the effectiveness was getting less and less. Plus insurance was not paying for all of it, so it was costly. Lucky for me though, Triptans did start working the last few months! Anyway, we decided to try Botox and insurance is paying since it is FDA approved! Yea!
Good luck to you and me and all who are reading! I say Merry Christmas, but Happy Hannukah or whatever you celebrate also!