Migraine headache: What helps you cope?

Merry, my sister in law has had been getting Botox injections in her neck every three months for her migraines. It has worked wonders for her. What medication do you use for your migraines?

You are signed into a Medicare plan that includes your meds. I have never heard of it or who is BC/BS. GoodRX does not couple with any other plan. It is not affiliated with Medicare. My Medicare G is the top part A/B plan Medicare sells. My 20% supp is AARP and my med plan is another totally separate company. Medicare has no say in the Goodrx plan and have no affiliation with Medicare. It is not a government plan.
That probably is the reason, because you are using a bundled plan through Medicare. In the end it is probably not saving any money. In Calif. we do not have to use a bundled plan, like Medicare advantage. That requires co-pays for any medical use. I do not pay one dollar extra for any medical health usage.
You can also contact the meds manufacturer and apply for their free programs.

@mikaylar, @merpreb, @pwgrimes, and other members -

Here is a link from GoodRX explaining - Yes, you can use GoodRX if you have Medicare.
I hope this helps everyone who has inquiries or any confusion.
https://www.goodrx.com/corporate/news/yes-you-can-use-goodrx-if-you-have-medicare

Hello to all who are searching for migraine answers and relief. I feel your struggles and want nothing more than to help in any way I can.

Although, I very much want to provide you the name of a wonder drug, shot or procedure that helped me, I can not. Ultimately, they all failed. I may seem like a broken record by offering self-help tools that worked for me, and yes it was all obtained by going to Mayo's Pain Rehab Center and working very hard for 3 weeks. I realize how fortunate I was to have had the experience, and realize that not everyone is able to have the opportunity of going to a pain rehab center, nor can they handle the rigorous program. This is why I mentor, to be able to offer my experience and tools from the program to those who want options beyond medication, after they experience the merry-go-round of failed attempts of searching for a fix or cure. I certainly had to learn that way too.

For those who have found help with meds, procedures, shots...I am extremely happy for you. For others, I provide you what has worked for my migraines. Since following a disciplined schedule and lifestyle change, I have reduced my migraines to occasion happenings and have the tools to manage them effectively. I am in control of my pain, not the other way around. It's a never ending job, and I never said it was easy, but worth every bit of effort.

Here are a few tips you may find helpful for self-management of migraines.

- Omit pain behaviors which is anything you do, say, or think that reminds you of pain. This accesses your pain pathways and tells your brain you have pain. The goal is to down play your pain and not give it more life.

- Get in the daily habit of practicing diaphragmatic breathing so that it becomes natural and not just used when you need it for symptoms. This way it will be easier when you are in a migraine flare and really need it to calm your sensors, nerves and muscles.

- Understand and apply mindfulness. The brain creates pain therefore it has the ability to quell pain. Be present, be in the moment, focus, concentrate.

- Meditation. Relaxation from head to toe. Learn how to loosen your jaw, drop your shoulders, open your hands. Find your quiet space, but practice so it becomes habit and use it wherever, whenever.

- Omit or reduce stressors by practicing stress management and learning ways to reduce tension, anxiety and distress.

- Proper nutrition (avoiding trigger foods)

- Practicing good sleep hygiene allows the brain and body to regenerate.

- 5 P's – Pause, Process, Perspective, Patience, Plan.

- Positive self-talk, know that you have gotten through hard times and migraines before and you will get through them again.

- Graded exposure to triggers.

- Positive distraction to take your mind away from symptoms

Even if you start by incorporating one tool at a time and slowly adding another, to build your tool box. Lifestyle changes are huge. Once I found my power and knew I could be in control, not the doctors, not the medication, it was a game-changer for me, and my family.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to help.

The concepts taught at the pain program you participated in seem really valuable and can be helpful in dealing with other huge stressors.. When I read the "omit pain behaviors" one, it reminded me of an article by a former science writer for the New York Times on how the brain can get rewired by stress, by bad feedback loop. So trying to eliminate pain thinking (and defuse awareness thereof?) can help prevent that maybe.

Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop

By NATALIE ANGIER

"Reporting earlier this summer in the journal Science, Nuno Sousa of the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute at the University of Minho in Portugal and his colleagues described experiments in which chronically stressed rats lost their elastic rat cunning and instead fell back on familiar routines and rote responses, like compulsively pressing a bar for food pellets they had no intention of eating.

Moreover, the rats’ behavioral perturbations were reflected by a pair of complementary changes in their underlying neural circuitry. On the one hand, regions of the brain associated with executive decision-making and goal-directed behaviors had shriveled, while, conversely, brain sectors linked to habit formation had bloomed.

In other words, the rodents were now cognitively predisposed to keep doing the same things over and over, to run laps in the same dead-ended rat race rather than seek a pipeline to greener sewers. “Behaviors become habitual faster in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can’t shift back to goal-directed behaviors when that would be the better approach,” Dr. Sousa said. 'I call this a vicious circle.'"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lfZuV2qAktbcksdkYbzPRCUUz4n80L8q_R8gj5EVEtA/mobilebasic

I have my first appointment at Mayo on April 26th for migraines and increased tremors. I have been on Depakote for many years and have been told the tremors are a side effect of the medicine. I have several other side effects that I believe are from the medication and would really like to stop taking it. Has anyone taken Depakote and what was your experience with it. Thank you.

@callalloo What a great article! Thanks so much for sharing it, and helping to show how powerful poor habits have the potential to be on our wellness. Breaking the cycle of pain behaviors takes work, but believe me, has many rewards from health to relationships and overall well-being. Stress management also plays a role to aid in discontinuing pain or symptom behaviors. I was truly enlightened by receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and highly recommended it for anyone living with chronic issues.

Thanks again for sharing. How are you doing? Did the article impact you personally? Are you interested in reducing or omitting pain behaviors in order to work towards better pain management?

Thanks, nope I'm not currently dealing with pain. I have a history of migraines that ended as mysteriously as they began. The headache specialist that I saw for the at Mass General in Boston told me that science, at that time, didn't know what started them but that the person then usually had them forever. Glad that he was wrong! Though I occasionally get optic migraines, according to my ophthalmologist, and the are bizarre. But infrequently develop into a full-blown sensory-overliad throbbed.

The article resonated with me from when I had a bad back injury which resulted in four herniated discs. A pri football player told me about not overthinking pain as that could just increase awareness (which is fine) and a kind of hypertense body (which is counter-productive). He also Saud to be careful not to personalize it, to try to say the, instead of my, pain. Those two suggestions helped a lot and reminded me of your first point about pain. Also a TENS unit helped, maybe only as a security blanket though.

Okay, thanks. If I ever get a card offer again, I'll look more into it.

You do not need a card. All you do is put it in your computer and add the zip and med name .it then shows you your choices. It does not even have your name on the coupon.