u/hannahashtho

i’ve had constant headaches and sometimes migraines since the beginning of april. PCP prescribed me topamax (took for 3 days and i was about ready to go to urgent care) and rizatriptan.

there’s been absolutely no relief from the pain and pressure except whenever i was eating or doing my makeup. once i noticed this, i realized both activities involved moving my jaw. i have a severe overbite (top teeth completely cover my bottom teeth, i can feel bottom teeth touch the roof of my mouth, never had braces). i decided to relax my jaw and push it forward slightly and the pressure/pain relief was almost instant.

since i discovered this, i’ve been trying to stick my jaw forward more (or chew gum), which helps significantly. instead of constant pain, i get anywhere from an hour to a few hours of relief at a time.

while it helps, sometimes my jaw gets sore from moving it from it’s natural position, and i do still get headaches sometimes (at least 2 a day), and sometimes they can be unbearable, but ONLY pushing my jaw forward helps

has anyone else experienced something similar? looking through this subreddit, it looks like a lot of people actually have pain chewing or moving their jaw with this condition

hi 22f, recently diagnosed w chronic migraines and new daily persistent headaches. i was put on 10mg of rizatriptan (only taken 1 time so far and didnt help) 25mg of topamax (1st week, increase to 50 2nd week, 75 3rd week, 100 4th week), and i’ve only taken 3 doses of it so far. prior to starting it i’ve had pretty constant headaches and occasional migraines, but no nausea or visual disturbances to accompany it - basically i could still function and go throughout my day (albeit in pain).

since starting topamax, the good thing is that i do notice total relief from pain and pressure at some points, but it’s only lasted about an hour max. now whenever i do have a headache/migraine (most, if not all of the day), the pain is worse and fluctuates more on the pain scale and in location quicker than usual (like going from 2 to 6 back down to 2 to 4 within like 30 minutes). i also have nausea now and very slight visual disturbances such as color changes and just shaky(?) or blurry(?) vision. also increased neck and back pain.

i have an mri schedules for june 1st but i’m just reading so many different opinions and results of people on topamax and have a lot of health anxiety so i’m just wondering if this is common/if i should be concerned/someone else has experienced something similar. thank you!!