so i’ve been dealing with these for a while now. what i’ve found is that triptans can sometimes help, but not always. and honestly, the ER is a last resort for me. i’ve tried nurtec, and it’s been ok, but not a miracle cure or anything.
what really seems to help is figuring out my own patterns and triggers. i log everything - sleep, food, caffeine, hydration, weather, stress. and yeah, it’s a lot of work, but it’s helped me identify some things that actually make a difference. fwiw, i’m on topiramate 50mg and it’s dropped my migraine days from 15-18 to 8-10.
but the cognitive side effects are no joke. anyone else have any experience with intractable migraines? what’s worked for you?
Migraine patterns can be really specific to each person, and it sounds like you’ve found that tracking your own triggers has made a big difference. When you say “what really seems to help is figuring out my own patterns and triggers” it makes me think about how much of a role stress plays in my own migraines, and I’ve been trying to log that more accurately to see if there’s a correlation.
my neuro keeps telling me to track patterns but it’s hard when the fatigue is unpredictable. you said “what really seems to help is figuring out my own patterns and triggers” and that’s what i’m trying to do. ngl i’ve been looking into how heat intolerance affects my ms symptoms and i think it might be relevant for migraines too, since some people mention weather as a trigger. i mentioned this before when talking about summer and ms, but i’m curious if anyone else has noticed a connection between heat and migraine frequency.
1 Like
Fatigue sleep patterns are weird for me too, “cognitive side effects are no joke” is what stuck with me from your post, anyone track how migraines intersect with heat intolerance
imo.
Certain patterns seem to emerge when tracking migraines, “figuring out my own patterns and triggers” which is crucial, and i’ve found that extreme temps can be a common thread for some people, but what about humidity, does that play a role for you.
Freshly diagnosed with mast cell issues myself, i see the importance of tracking patterns and triggers, “figuring out my own patterns and triggers” which has been crucial for me in managing histamine levels. Topiramate seems to have worked for you in reducing migraine days from 15-18 to 8-10, but the cognitive side effects are a concern, and i’ve heard similar stories from others who’ve tried it. What i’m curious about is how you balance the benefits of topiramate with the drawbacks, and if you’ve found any ways to mitigate the cognitive side effects, like adjusting the dose or adding other supplements to your regimen, because that’s something i’m struggling with in my own treatment plan.
i get what you mean about the cognitive side effects, the brain fog from pregabalin eats my mornings now. on your logging, are you seeing any lag in those patterns and triggers?
for me, the connection isn’t always 24 hours, and often the thing that crashed me came two days ago, not yesterday. that reframed a lot of my ‘no reason’ flares.
cutting your migraine days from 15-18 to 8-10 with topiramate is a real shift, that’s a lot of life back. but when you say “the cognitive side effects are no joke,” it makes me wonder if that trade-off is really sustainable long term, especially if those effects make it harder to even