Reply #20: The beta blockers were a daily treatment

[dropkickpa]

as a preventative rather than treatment for a migraine in progress. My issues with imitrex is that I would get the *severe* jaw clenching side effect, which had the effect of worsening the migraine, and my jaw would hurt for days afterwards, and I began to grind my teeth. My stomach issues were that it would worsen nausea (to the point that I was guaranteed to toss my cookies when on imitrex, when otherwise it was only about 20% of the time) and afterwards I'd have stomach cramps and moderate diarrhea for 2 days. Maxalt didn't even do anything to lessen the intensity of or to shorten the migraine, it made me really loopy and dizzy, and it would give me the stomach effects I got from imitrex x20. Not fun. Migraine hangovers aren't as bad as the after-effects I got from the triptans. I really wish they worked for me, I know so many people who they do wonders for, I was really disappointed when they didn't do the trick.

I take fioricet right now for pain relief, and it does lessen the pain a little bit without making me loopy. I probably should use more of it, but I really don't want to deal with rebound headaches, I've done it in the past so I'm very careful to do what I can to avoid them. The only surefire thing that "works" is laying in a cool, very dark room with no noise or smells, ice packs beside my head, and not moving a muscle for as long as possible. But I rarely have the opportunity to indulge in this manner.