That sums it up. I’ve been exhausted since Thursday, was exhausted and had terrible migraines on Saturday, Sunday and today, and had a moderately painful headache lingering yesterday. No treatment seems to be working. Not that I’m surprised.
D, my acupuncturist and herbalist, and I agree that the headache-specific acupuncture points weren’t working for me. We’ve switched to a stress-reducing/anxiety-relieving/calming treatment. I had needlings Thursday, Friday and yesterday. I was exhausted before I went to every appointment — and still am — but my headaches haven’t escalated any of the evenings after a treatment.
I’m no longer simply grateful for the few hours of energy and clarity I got with one of my earlier treatments. Now my thoughts are about the mind that I’ve lost, the severity of which I only truly grasped after I had it back for a while. It’s been a month and I don’t see the mental fog lifting again.
It’s hard to not be discouraged.
I’d like to share my partial success/progress with my chronic daily headache which I have had for about 12 years.
L-tryptophan (from a compounding pharmacist or online) helps by reducing the sensitivity of my veins. This is one supplement I cannnot do without. It also is relaxing and helps me sleep. I take 1000 mg at bedtime and 1000 when I get up in the night. My suggestion is to start with 500 mg and gradually increase the dosage.
I follow the migraine diet and have a lot of the usual headache triggers, but the most intractable is bruxism or jaw clenching when I sleep. These are the severe headaches that wake me up in the night or early in the morning, but the residual neck tension creates other headaches even when I have not been clenching.
Jaw clenching has its own set of triggers….stress, neck pain, low blood sugar and hot flashes, to name a few. It can set off a vicious cycle of neck pain and muscle tension that in turn cause more clenching. I use cafergot and ice packs for pain, especially effective if I manage to catch it when the clenching begins.
For low blood sugar I eat a protein snack before bed. I use a natural progesterone cream for menopausal hot flashes. This is also helpful for those in perimenopause. Relaxation before bed and sometimes a hot shower or bath is helpful. Awareness of jaw clenching during the day is important.
The neck muscle tension and spasm is still a slow work in progress because I constantly sabotage it with a night of good clenching. However, with the aid and encouragement of a stubborn and patient physical therapist I am improving with a stretching and strengthening program correcting a lifetime of postural and neck issues. I also make regular and helpful visists to my chiropracter and massage therapist.
At an earlier stage in this program I had botox injections in the shoulder and neck muscles which were incredibly helpful in breaking the worst of the pain-spasm cycle.
I also had excellent advice from a facial pain specialist who advised me to throw out my night guard, which did a great job of protecting my teeth, but made the clenching worse.
A healthy diet and excercise are necessities and I take numerous vitamin supplements including 400 mg of B2.
I am about to embark on an adrenal support program with a naturopath which I am hoping will be another piece of the recovery puzzle.
Recovery is slow, but this program is working for me with improvements measured over years and months, not weeks or days.
I hope some of these tips are helpful to others. I believe that bruxism is a much underestimated chronic daily headache trigger since it is not always obvious that jaw clenching is the cause, especially when the pain is not always felt in the jaw.
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Thanks for sharing your experience. You’ve provided a lot of great information that will be helpful for lots of readers.
I’m glad you’ve had some success with you treatment. I hope you continue to improve.
Take care,
K
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I have had a migraine for 2 weeks now that became moderate just in time to ruin my Thanksgiving and is still here. I have had to cancel my dentist appointment twice. I hear ya. My Neurologist just upped my dose of topamax to 200 mg saying, “You don’t need to think for anything, do you?” Serenity now…?!&*$#%@?!
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Ugg. I’m sorry hear that. I hope it lets up soon.
Take care,
K