Botox injections did not help my migraine

It has been several months now since my Botox injections treatment for my migraine and unfortunately for me it made no significant difference to my headaches, as I still have a headache all day every day.

This was very disappointing as I was very hopeful that such a direct form of treatment would help. I wonder if it might have been more successful if the injections had all been more concentrated in the area of my headache i.e. the forehead. But apparently the approved method of injecting Botox for migraine is not to "chase the pain" i.e. just inject in the area of the headache, but to inject around the head, neck and shoulders.

Just waiting now to find out what my consultant wants to try next.

Botox for Migraine

As I am still having a headache all day, every day, I had yet another type of treatment, that was recently approved as a new treatment for migraine, the new treatment is Botox injections.

The Botox injections for migraine or to be more precise botulinum toxin A injections treatment involved me having 31 Botox injections in specific places around my head, such as my forehead and the sides of my head, the back of my neck and on my shoulders. I was told this was the specified procedure for the Botox headache treatment, as I thought it odd that I didn't just get injections in the area of my headache i.e. my forehead.

They were only small injections and there in no great pain involved and the whole process only took my consultant and another doctor about 30 minutes or less to administer.

I was told it might take up to 4 weeks to know if the Botox injections are helping to reduce my migraine. If I see no benefit during the first 8 weeks then this treatment is not going to help me. However, if it does help I may have to receive more Botox injections a few times every 3 or 4 months.

Spent 5 days in hospital on DHE treatment.

The next treatment I tried was a 5 day course of DHE (intravenous dihydroergotamine) which meant I stayed in hospital for the 5 days and was given the DHE drug 3 times a day with anti-sickness medication given 30 minutes for before the DHE as this drug can make you feel sick. The DHE drug took about 60 minutes to be given intravenously.

Unfortunately this treatment also did not help to reduce my migraine headache, in fact my headaches have been a little worse since the treatment.

Tried Topiramate 25mg for my Chronic Migraine

After Gabapentine I tried Topiramate 25mg to stop my Chronic Migraine, but it did not stop or improve my headaches it just made me feel unwell so I stopped these tablets.

Gabapentin 2400mg – Did not help my Chronic Migraine!

I tried taking 2400mg of Gabapentin a day for my Chronic Migraine but I had to gradually reduce the medication because of side effects such as visual disturbances more frequent and a new side effect of episodes of my tongue starting to tingle and then feeling dizzy, faint and sweating. All this and no improvement in the headaches!

Another Diagnosis - Chronic Migraine!

It has been a very long while since my last post, and until recently nothing much had changed.

I had stopped taking Tramadol (a strong Opioid based painkiller) as I didn't think it was a good idea taking it long term. I then discovered that my symptoms did not worsen when I stopped taking the Tramadol, so perhaps it was not helping much anyway!

I was still finding that Gabapentin appeared to be improving things for me slightly.

As I was not only feeling tired each day, but I also had a headache every day all day, I asked my doctor if I could see a headache specialist.

I have now seen the headache specialist and he diagnosed me with Chronic Migraine! He also did not appear to think that I had Post Herpetic Neuralgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which were diagnoses I had received in the past.

You can imagine my confusion at yet another different diagnosis!

The interesting thing from the headache specialist was that he indicated that Gabapentin was the treatment he wanted me to follow. I apparently was not taking enough to get the full benefit from this drug and even at a higher dosage it would take weeks before hopefully I would see some improvements.

I had been taking 900mg of Gabapentin a day, but I was now to take 1800mg or 2400mg a day and wait for around 8 weeks to see any improvement.

I am currently taking 2400mg of Gabapentin a day, can't see much improvement in my headaches, I am not so tired (get up earlier, don't sleep very often during the day), but my Tinnitus seems worse! So some improvement but not in the expected headache area!

The headache consultant has told me to continue with the Gabapentin and if need be in a few more weeks time I could increase it to 3000mg a day!

It's all very confusing and frustrating; I just keep trying all these different things hoping that eventually I will feel better.

I will try and remember to update this blog in the near future to let you know how things are going with the new diagnosis and treatment.

Dark Chocolate helps CFS!

It has been a while since my last post as I have been spending most of my time working on my website business idea that I briefly mentioned in my “15. Not a cure but things are getting better.” post.

I also had a cold and my sinuses stuffiness problem returned after my cold had gone, so I started taking the very low dose of Nortriptyline again for a while and this appeared to help dry out the sinuses again.

So basically not much has change on my CFS health front.

I have tried to do some more research on CFS and my theory that Shingles is the cause for my CFS, but I still need to do more research on this topic. One thing I came across that I think I will be trying is a report titled “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms Reduced By Dark Chocolate Consumption” ! The report suggest that dark chocolate which means chocolate with a high cocoa content and without any milk in it, may have an impact on levels of serotonin in the brain.

I will let you know how this test goes, but whatever the outcome it sounds like a good excuse to have some chocolate all be it dark chocolate.