PCP Believes Migraines are 100% Chemical
I think it might be time for a new PCP, which is unfortunate, because I really like my PCP. He works hard, he runs blood tests in house so I don't need to go to a separate lab and he is good at explaining how to read the tests, he has an excellent manner, and he doesn't blow things out of proportion but is perhaps sometimes too old school.
I believe that I've had migraines since I was a child but I didn't recognize them as migraines until I started experiencing visual and olfactory aura in my early 20s, in part because my mother didn't believe I was having a headache at all and thought I was just trying to get out of class or doing some activity (she is problematic). It has taken me decades but I now recognize that bouts of depression, exhaustion, olfactory sensitivity, and finally the blinding zigzag visual aura (the most obvious) are all lead-ups to the headache, which sometimes comes with nausea and sometimes not depending on the severity.
While I've gotten better at knowing an attack is about to come (the only thing that does anything for me so far has been OTC painkillers - imitrex does little to nothing and when it does I still wind up feeling sick / tired and can't push through) I still am trying to figure out triggers. High tyramine foods seem to be a trigger and my PCP would agree with this, but severe weather shifts which happen pretty regularly where I live in spring and fall seem to correlate and lights - camera flashes, strobes, screens, even just watching a movie seem to be even more on point - here is were PCP doesn't agree. He seems to think that migraines are "chemical" meaning they are the result of ingesting triggering compounds be they amines or carbohydrates (I also have allergies, yay.). He is wrong, right? Doctors frequently test for photosensitive epilepsy during EEG tests by flashing a strobe in their patients eyes and watching the brain activity, is that in and of itself not proof that lights can trigger an event and presumably also a migraine? After he said this I feel like he doesn't take me seriously or even if he takes me seriously - he prescribed Imitrex for example, he doesn't seem to understand migraines very well. I otherwise like my PCP and his staff, and finding a PCP is difficult these days. Maybe I'll just try to find a good neurologist to shore up that area.