I've had migraines since 1995.....started out as side effects to the AD meds my pdoc kept trying....seemed like every one had the side effect of migraine. I had never even had a headache before in my life....than that. Don't know if my OD's might have messed with the migraine problem either....but it finally got so bad that they just never went away....it was/is 24/7 non-stop. My eyes would hurt so bad if I closed them or if I left them open....any movement was horrible.

My neurologist tried all the migraine meds & nothing...no effect. He even stuck me in the hospital for a week & tried the DHEA (think that was what it was) injections. Gave me morphine while in there & had an allergic reaction to the morphine. The only thing that would touch my migraines was demoral......& a high dose at that...but the migraine would only stay gone as long as the demoral was working.....so at least I would have relief for a day but ended up sleeping through most of that anyway.

Couldn't stand to even brush my hair the pain was so bad. They did an MRI & determined that I needed a neck fusion....thought that was the cause of my migraines. I went through that surgery in 1999 but there was no relief. While in the hospital for that, they brought in a pain specialist who gave me the fentynal duragesic patch. It seemed to help some, but not enough to take away the migraine, so I still ended up back at the ER for the demoral shots to at least have some relief.

The pain specialist I ended up going to prescribed the duragesic patch, but tried to suppliment it with other meds that just didn't work. He also tried nerve block injections instead of just finding the right dose of patch to work. They came up with the Actiq (fentynal in sucker form). That actually was the first constant relief I had between 1995 & 2001.....but just my luck, they changed the formulation on the actiq & it quit working for me...so I asked the Pain specialist why he wouldn't just prescribe the equivalent. I had quite a few patches I had acquired over the time....times when I was in the hospital & they wouldn't let me use my own.........so he told me to go ahead & try doubling up on them to see if it worked (my husband was there to witness this). It was wonderful...like a miracle....I no migraine....went away within the first 4 hours. When my husband & I went back & told him, he denied that he had said that & told me he wouldn't prescribe that, gave me the prescription for the larger amount to cover 2 months & said I had to find another Dr because he wouldn't treat me any longer. what the????

Well, I looked around for another pain specialist...one Dr told me that the meds were causing my migraines & that I needed to come off of them, so she gave me the name of a pain specialist that practiced in the same hospital as my pdoc so they could put me in the hospital & take care of the withdrawal. I made an appointment with that other pain specialist & told him what was going on....he said no, that prescribing me that amount of the duragesic wasn't a problem & he would take me on as his patient. The MRI showed white spots that he said indicated severe migraines. He had his own practice, but was also part of UCLA's medical center & specialized on caring for migraine's.

So, from 2003 until now, I am still on the same dose, I only now & then get twinges of migraine pain....but mostly only the strange symptoms without any pain. I have only felt the pain a couple of times in all this time & that was when the smell of skunk was so bad & just a few weeks ago when I fell off the horse I was riding & hit my head (lucky I was wearing my helmet).

When I moved away from California, I had to get a new pain specialist & finding one who was willing to prescribe this medication wasn't easy. I did find one, but needed to go to a pain psychologist to prove that I wasn't in an addictive situation. This new pain specialist said that it wasn't normal to treat migraines with narcotics, but he has several patients that is the only thing that works successfully (I'm one of them). We did try to lower the dose the first year because I wanted to know if the migraines were gone or just covered up (couldn't really tell at that) but the migraines (or just one huge never ending migraine) were still there.....right there ready to hit.

Just wanted you to know what finally worked for me after so many horrible miserable years. Hope you can find the one thing that works for you....just keep going after the help until you hit on just the right thing.

Now that I have been pain free & able to function again, it's so wonderful. All I could do was lay in bed in a dark, quiet room with no smells. Today, I ride horses, do all my acres of yard work, work on my house (including painting). I finally have my life back & that quality of life is what keeps my pain specialist willing to prescribe this med.

Wishing you the best in finding a solution. There is nothing more debilitating than a migraine that's for sure.