I am now onto my third medication trial in this search for relief from migraines. I’m also in my ninth month of daily migraines with inadequate pain relief.
The first medication to be trialed was an anti-depressant called Effexor. It had no effect at all.
Many of the migraine preventative medications are actually medications for other conditions which have a well documented side effect or reducing migraines. So far I’ve tried an anti-depressant, an anticonvulsant, and now a beta blocker. I was able to try the anti-depressant whilst pregnant, but then I had to wait until I was no longer pregnant or breastfeeding in order to try other medications. This meant there was a 6 month break between medication trials where it was purely about pain management with medications safe to use in pregnancy.
I weaned SnuggleBub to formula at 4 weeks, 2 days and started Topamax the same day (anticonvulsant). Topamax didn’t help the migraines, but it did give me dizzy spells. Bonus! Now I am trialing Propranolol (beta blocker). It’s been nearly three weeks and there has been no effect on the migraines. I have been extremely tired (because that’s what you need when you’ve got a new baby: medication-induced fatigue to go with the sleep deprivation!), and experiencing moments of I-can’t-stand-right-now light-headedness, and dizzyness. While all this fun is going on, one of my pain relief medications has decreased in effectiveness leaving me with just 2-3 days a week where I can take effective pain relief medication.
The next review is in July. If things don’t improve with the beta blocker, then I believe the next step is botox treatment. When it was first mentioned as a possibility, all I could think is that I don’t want my children growing up with an expressionless mummy. Over the past few months I’ve decided that they will be far better off with an mummy who can’t show expressions rather than a mummy who just can’t feel at times. Because that’s what it is like on a bad day for me; I can’t feel, empathise, sympathise or care much at all about anything. My whole self is occupied with getting through the pain and trying not to snap and bite at everyone when really it’s the migraine that I want to snap and bite and tear into 1000 smithereens. Did I mention that I get really cranky with the migraines too?!
