u/SerBawbag

Some history, my dad died relatively young (44) from a large aneurysm. His dad, my grandfather was hospitalised years before that with something brain related. But the details on that are sketchy at best. Sone say small aneurysm whilst other family members say migraine related. Though, I do remember my grandfather wearing what was weird types of glasses (they were yellow and grey lensed) at all times during the 80’s. So that kinda backs up the migraine theory. But the simple truth is, people of my grandfather’s generation hid illnesses and never spoke about them. They were treated as dirty little secrets.

About a month ago i (m 50) was blue lighted to hospital with what was later diagnosed as a thunderclap headache. Horrific experience. After a CT it was deemed benign. I have suffered from migraine with aura since my 20’s and I know this wasn’t a migraine.

At A&E I was given a referral to a neurologist as I was told the cause needed further examination with an MRI etc and because of my family history.

Got in with a neurologist and I have never felt so brushed off in my life. The conversation basically boiled down to “migraine. NEXT!!!” Zero other investigations.

A week later my gp received a letter from the neurologist stating “chronic migraine” and a list of meds were suggested. It touched up the aneurysm likelihood by stating as I had only one confirmed close relative, they weren’t going to look further into it. Which is fair enough as what happened to my granddad is an unknown.

My main concern here, though, even if there was a direct family trend, it was stated they don’t tend go looking for them as many are inoperable or in very dangerous and high risk areas. Has anyone else been refused screening? I do get why it’s better people don’t know they have an inoperable time bomb.

Not the reason why as that’s obvious why people take it, but I was prescribed it the other day and was only given the ‘take it when needed’ instructions. I only need it at night.

I don’t over medicate and maybe this is why my doctor said this rather than give strict instructions. But I dunno. Seems people are usually given instructions on how to taper up and down when on gabapentin.

I’m currently being tapered off codeine after years of use and the break through nerve pain since drastically cutting down on the opioid is why I was given this. I’m not 2 tapers away from being off opioids. But the nerve sensitivity, insomnia and restlessness are brutal at nights now I’m on the home stretch.

I seen a neurologist and he said he would like to trial me on the following drugs in the near future.

I have anxiety when it comes to popping new meds and rather than go down the Google rabbit hole of fear, I’d prefer to hear the experiences of others.

I’m currently on propranolol as a preventative and at the midway point of being tapered off long term codeine (now on 60mg per day).

I’m in the UK, so brand names may differ from region to region.

Kinda interesting. Quick history. Suffered migraines for years (since my 30’s, now 50). About a month ago had new symptoms and more migraines. Barring mornings, I have had bad light sensitivity and sensitivity to sound. Really been bothered with neck pain almost daily, which can hurt behind my left eye. It was as i was teetering on the edge all day getting a proper migraine.

The symptoms died down from a 10 to around a 3 over the last couple of weeks. Still can’t watch screens and the sun hurts my eyes.

So, after examining me and going through my history he proceeded to mess around with my tmj (jaw muscles). He stated the left on is rock solid. I have suffered from bruxism/tmj since I was in my early teens. I was also diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia on my left side about a year ago after years of unnecessary dental work.

He’s pretty confident all my vision issues, neck pain and the majority of migraines are caused by tmjd. I never even thought of that as I’ve had full mobility in my jaw for years opposed to the awful time I had in my teens when I struggled to open my mouth. My jaw has been aching during this but it wasn’t bothering me as much as my neck and eye flashing.

I’ve to get scans just to double check I have a brain, but jeez, if this turns out to be tmjd, I could have saved myself years of grief.

The doctor and I were stumped why a lot of my symptoms died down considerably after being on diazepam for my lower back 2 weeks ago. Obviously took some of the tension out from my jaw muscles

Hi, I’ve been on 120mg of codeine for years (around 10 years at least) due to a lower back injury. I was initially on co-codamol, but changed to codeine only a few months ago as I felt it was no longer helping. So in preparation, I dropped the unnecessary use of paracetamol. The main reason for this is the uptick in my migraines. Codeine is supposedly one of the worst offenders.

My daily intake (I’ll just stick to the codeine) has always been 2x 30mg in the morning and same again at night. I have never taken more nor felt the urge to, so I’ve been lucky in that sense.

For the last week or 9 days, I have downed my morning intake to 45mg, with my nighttime dosage still 60mg. I can safely say zero withdrawals from that decrease.

I’ve discussed this all with my GP and she was surprisingly ‘didn’t give a damn about’ me coming off it. I suppose she could see I never abused it or needed the dosage upped. She just gave me quick instructions to maybe keep taperings to each month.

But because I’m feeling zero withdrawals, is it wise to push forward with the next decrease? I would prefer the next decrease to be 30mg in the morning and to keep my 60mg at night, but is it better to keep things even and just go down to 45mg at night?

I’ve went days without it before when I encountered awful constipation so I’m fully aware how awful the withdrawals are and never want to feel like that again. Hence the slow tapering.

I’m a 51 year old male and reside in the UK. I’ve suffered with migraines for about 20 years. They used to be infrequent and I didn’t actually ever go to the doctor about them as they were so infrequent. But they were migraines as they always started with an aura and were always triggered by some sort of light source. As the years have went on, I’ve slowly gotten more sensitive to light, thus more migraines.

For the last year, I’ve taken to dimming all my screens and wear polarised glasses when using screens. I hadn’t had a migraine for months for the first time In years. However, about 3-4 weeks ago, my neck was giving me a lot of trouble. One muscle in particular began sending pain to my left eye, nowhere else. I then took 2 migraines in as many days. They were sore ones. I then visited the doctor and was given tripans. I took one more migraine and the Tristan killed it. For 2 weeks after my neck was still sore 24/7, and my sensory system began going hypersensitive. So much so, I got an ADHD test. Lots of flickering behind the eyes for hours. Percussion sounds became unbearable and my tinnitus was roaring high pitched at time. Basically one big prodome.

Over the last week the flickering rarely happens at all. My hearing is still sensitive but seems to be improving. My neck isn’t as sore, but still has its major moments. My anxiety is currently crippling me.

Anyway, I asked my gp for a ct scan and she said as things are dying down, I won’t get one. But what happened back then wasn’t normal at all for me. Everything I’ve read, stuff neck and new headaches are a red flag.

If it matters, I was weirdly always fine in the mornings. No headaches, no flickering etc. All this crap would start to kick off around 1pm and not die down again until around 9pm or 10. The physio I see for my back says as I had full movement in my neck it wasn’t mechanical.

Sorry for the wall of text.

Hi, I was given the above medication and I’m getting conflicting information about when this medication is best used.

My GP quite clearly stated “when the auras appear”, and the main guidelines that google throws up are “take once the auras disappear and the pain begins”.

The actual leaflet states “take at the onset of the migraine”. That’s non descriptive as I would class the auras as the onset, but others seem to class the actual headache as the onset.

Thank you in advance.