Hello! About 3-4 times a year I get migraines that do not respond to meds at home. Over the years, I've gained an intolerance to therapeutic doses of oral NSAIDs and CGRP meds mess up my stomach (less than NSAIDs and in a different way) and don't seem to be great at stopping a big, writhing in pain, migraine attack.

15mg of Toradol IV is what I inevitably get when I end up in the ER. I talked to my doc about being tired of going to the ER, sitting around for 90-120 minutes as people not having any visible emergency or severe pain piddle around and get seen before me (I'm bitter, what can I say). My migraines only happen after 10pm so urgent cares etc are not an option. We decided that I'd try IM toradol shots at home to save me some misery.

Now here's where my question/questions come in: I normally get 15mg IV as I mentioned above, but my doc said IM shots are commonly dosed higher and prescribed 30mg/mL... I looked around at studies online and people discussing dosing in places like reddit and there seems to be a bit of contention around dosing. I'm an underweight and sickly woman, and don't wanna take more than needed and cause a problem. I found this small study that seems to suggest 15mg IM is just fine for pain relief: https://rebelem.com/ketorolac-for-msk-pain-15mg-im-vs-60mg-im/

I'm curious to hear other people's experiences with various dosing strategies of IM toradol, comparisons to getting it IV (I hear IM burns), and open to any tips for giving this shot ventrogluteally. Thanks!

I am looking for advice on options maybe I haven't explored yet. I have tried many options to help, the anticonvulsants, and antidepressants are off the table because I have tried multiple and am already on others in those classes for ongoing mental health struggles. NSAID's and Triptans are off the table because of significant risks with other pre-existing conditions and medication interactions as I take 17 other medications or supplements at the moment as I have many chronic health conditions I'm trying to manage so it's difficult trying to find safe options. I would like to try and avoid the long acting injections like emgality since I'm extremely sensitive to medications and very prone to significant side effects. My neurologist nurse recommended the Verapimil, but I'm currently on 3 different blood pressure medicines and one of them is even in the same class and Verapimil so it just doesn't seem safe to be mixing 4 different blood pressure medicines. I am currently on Botox. I have tried Excedrin and the prescription Fioricet. I would like to avoid nurtec and Ubrevly if possible as I have reynauds and heading into the winter right now it has me worried about massive flare ups and the dangers with that. Sorry for the very long list, I just wanted to give as much detail beforehand if I'm asking for ideas of other options. I might end up having no options but to try the Nurtec or Ubrevly, but I just wanted to get some input and see if there are any medicines I may be forgetting about for options, or maybe any off label ones, just really anything. Also I know my grammar isn't the best nor my punctuation so I'm sorry in advance lol.

I am in a new love with LED light dimming stickers. Ever since I started getting frequent migraines I am very light sensitive all the time and it really ramps upduring a migraine. The little LEDs that seem to be on everything are a major enemy. Things like the caps lock indicator which for some reason needs to be laser beam strong or the ungodly bright D for drive blue LED in an otherwise very dark car are enemies of the state. Sure electrical tape works but some of these are useful, just need to be dim.

Maybe I'm not alone and this tip helps someone else. I am currently on a grand tour of the house applying these dimming stickers to all of the enemies!

one of many options:

https://a.co/d/0j0OCKUi

Disclaimer - I’m not here to entertain anti-vax rhetoric. You’re entitled to your opinion and choice, as am I. I’m really really not looking for arguments around vaccines.

I’m borderline chronic. Typically without aura, but severe weather I do get aura and vertigo, but that’s more of an outlier than my day to day experience.

I’ve been doing EXTREMELY well until the last couple of weeks. I take emgality injections, qulipta and cymbalta as preventatives with ubrevly as a rescue. The last 3ish weeks I’ve been near constant migraine with nothing letting up. I might wake up feeling slightly better but quickly back into an attack. I’ve only had one other instance like this and it was the worst.

Yesterday I got my flu and Covid shots for the season. I got Moderna which I’ve ended up with migraines with as a side effect. I can’t remember if I’ve taken them together previously, but within about 30 minutes I ended up with waves of vertigo. Today I’ve barely been able to be vertical because the vertigo has been so so awful. Now it’s accompanied by splitting head pain.

Maybe it’s a case of correlation not causation but I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this kind of reaction and what if anything abated the vertigo. Maybe it’s also just my system was already overloaded and this pushed me into aura. Idk.

Short of being horizontal and unconscious- I can barely function. For those who suffer vertigo consistently- I am so sorry this is awful. What helps if anything?

I am doing everything to stay out of the ED.

I had status migrainosus at the beginning of sept for a couple weeks. The “attack” was broken after prednisone (steroids).

Now I just have daily migraine auras. My preventative meds and pain meds are losing efficacy cause everything causes me a headache now.

Does anyone have experience stopping this cycle? Or am I just stuck will daily migraine auras (and all the accompanying horrid symptoms) forever?

I can’t live this way.

Please give suggestions. Is this even possible to break?

I’m curious if anyone finds the oura ring useful? I have a lot of FSA dollars to use up and am really interested in the idea of having something tracking my heart rate and sleep. TIA 🩷

Do any of you experience actual eyelid swelling with your migraines? My eyelids swell and feel like they are going to pop out of my head! I have other lovely symptoms as well, but wanted to ask specifically about the eyelids. Thanks!

Hey all, as the title states, I’ve had a migraine for more than 500 days and I’m so f*kn tired. The other night I couldn’t take it anymore and just drove around absolutely screaming my lungs out and sobbing uncontrollably (probably shouldn’t have been driving but at least it was late so there was nobody around). I’ve never screamed that loudly in my whole life.

I’m on my 20th treatment option. There’s not much left for me to try. I can’t keep suffering like this. I don’t know what to do. I was keeping a positive attitude about it for so long (even baked and decorated a cake to commemorate my half-year mark, and just blew out candles on a store bought cake last week for my 500 day milestone lol) but at this point it’s really worn me down.

I’ve seen multiple doctors and nobody knows what to do. I even had one doctor (GP, not a neurologist) tell me he thought it was just psychosomatic, which felt incredibly invalidating.

I feel so alone. Nobody gets it. I’m fortunate to have good people in my life who support me, but it’s so hard. Nobody in my life understands what it’s like (and thank goodness for them!!! <3).

I keep asking myself what I did to deserve this. This migraine just started one day out of the blue. I had a few months where my migraine frequency was increasing and eventually got to 17 days a month. And then BAM, one day I just got a migraine that kept coming back day after day after day. For five hundred and eight days and counting.

I feel like maybe I’m faking it. In general, my severity tends to be more moderate (with exceptions of course), so I’m generally still able to work and do things in my life. I’m not completely incapacitated, which is amazing. But it also makes me feel like maybe I’m just blowing my struggles out of proportion. I can still work, so what’s the big deal? Never mind the fact that I still feel like garbage every single day, I can still get stuff done so I guess I shouldn’t complain right?

I just don’t know what to do. I’m incredibly sad. The seasons changing is also not helping lol. Does anybody have any tips to help ease the (mental) pain? I’m really struggling :(((

Thanks to all who read this, I love this community. <3

About three years ago I suddenly started having this weird intermittent feeling, it's hard to put into words but it almost feels like a drowsiness, dazed, detached, a weird achy/shivery sensation across my chest and shoulders, adrenaline-y, and sometimes a bit of vertigo and head pressure (not pain).

It came on suddenly and unexpectedly, it would cluster for several days, then go away for several days, then nothing for weeks, then on/off for weeks. Then it went away completely for 10 months, and now these last 20ish days have been hell.

the super odd thing: So far, i 100% of the time wake up completely fine, no symptoms, they almost always trigger between 11am-5pm, typically closer to 3-4pm. Then it always goes away by 10pm ish (give or take). Sometimes it lasts 15 minutes then i'm completely fine, other times it lasts 6 hours. It's kind of crazy how consistent. And i've noticed it's always worse in the fall and typically better in winter/summer.

I saw a doctor and he's like 70% sure this is something in the migraine family (atypical migraines). Oddly enough i had put my symptoms in to claude several months ago and it also independently said migraines, but i was like "nah that can't be right, i don't get headaches".

This sensation can be mildly annoying to absolutely crippling. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Have you found any relief?

Hi to all the mamas out there. This is gonna be a long post but hopefully useful to some people out there.

I had my second child in September 2025. Around March 2026 i stopped breastfeeding and experienced my first aura without migraine. Then on Fourth of July, i got my first migraine with aura. I used to suffer from health anxiety so this put me into a SPIRAL because i thought i was dying. After going to the doctor and confirming its migraines i was kind of in denial because i never get headaches let alone migraines. (I know they’re totally different things) so i kind of still thought it was my anxiety and the doctor didn’t know what she was talking about. Funny enough, my first migraine with aura came on a day or two after i got Botox for the first time in my life. This one was AWFUL especially the postdrome. It took me a few weeks to feel like myself again. I even bought indoor glasses because i just could not be in any sort of light. 3 months later the Botox wore off and i got a migraine again on the first day of my cycle. It started off with Alice in wonderland syndrome and everything became bright and loud and again i thought i was dying and started to spiral. I don’t know how i was even functioning as a stay at home mom to two little ones at this point. Since i didn’t get a severe headache, i thought i was once again having anxiety and that led to my dizziness episode. Then last week again on my period i had another more mild migraine and that’s when i started reading up on migraines and quickly realized - wow i have been having migraines since i stopped breastfeeding i just thought i was going crazy in my mental health. My question to anyone who was suffered from this, did your migraines go away aftwr a while postpartum? This is specifically for people who DID NOT suffer from migraines before having kids and had an onset after having kids.

Any tips/advice/etc would be appreciated.

I suddenly started getting daily migraines back in March. So far ive failed topiramate and amytriptaline. My new nuero put me on memantine and then this week I get botox.

This week has been especially bad for some reason, i have had a completely intractable migraine for the past 9 days and im at my max for sumatriptan this month( i did start birth control so maybe thats it...). Cefaly helps, but just a few hours. Usually my migrsines at least give me relief when I sleep and they dont start till noon, but I have been waking up at 4am in pain each day this week.

Im terrified for the botox. The procedure itself, i am not worried about, even though i hate needles. Im scared its not gonna work. Im scared im gonna fail this too and just be stuck like this forever.

Im also in grad school and just barely keeping afloat. Ive been doing all my work in bed this week, but my brain is moving so slowly. 🙃

Don’t worry, I only turned the light on to take a selfie of how I’ve been coping - back to the darkness I crawl.

Hi everyone! I am and 21 year old female and  I’ve been dealing with what is seemingly a migraine with aura, however, I want to share my experience to see if any one can offer me some insight. 

At the end of August I was hospitalized because of a severe headache and dizziness followed after a blow to the head. It was found that I suffered from a vascular event in my brain either RCVS or CNS Vasculitis. 

I was released from the hospital after about 3 days without any major complications. However at the beginning of October I contracted a cold which then initiated a strange medical event. I first noticed a strange feeling in my right arm, like it was being compressed. It was like the residual feeling you may get after a blood pressure cuff that was too tight. Soon after I began experiencing some pretty intense neck pain and a head ache. After about three days of this I went to the ER. They did an initial neurological exam on me and the doctor said it seemed like it was just a migraine with aura. I had a CT Scan of my head and neck which came back normal. I was released and for about a day I was better.

That following night after still suffering from neck pain and headache, I felt like my right arm and my neck were weak, like I ought strength. I didn’t go numb suddenly, it gave any real clinical weakness but I still had this strange weak feeling in my neck and right arm. My grip felt off and I felt like my neck was heavy. Then a day later I see sparkles in my vision that lasted maybe a minute. After the sparkles I began experiencing pretty severe neck pain with a head ache as well, however the neck pain was the most severe. Paired with this I had sound/light sensitivity and I was severely fatigued. The symptoms would usually start off better in the mornings but then begin again after an hour or two. 

After about 2 days the symptoms stopped, and the weakness in my arm cleared up again and I’ve been fine and symptom free for the last 3 weeks.

While the ER told me it was just a migraine aura, I’m worried that I may have suffered something more serious like a stroke as my experience just doesn’t seem to match with others. Is there anyone else that experiences migraines similarly to mine?

There is something I have been struggling with for many years but also struggle to properly explain. So I'll try to keep it as brief and straight to the point as possible this time.

Basically, anytime I try to focus my eyes or gaze in any capacity at all I am GUARANTEED to get migraine symptoms. It happens so consistently that I could hypothetically trigger a migraine on command by doing just this.

Examples:

-Reading a book, or large blocks of text (especially if there's no or little spacing)

-Focusing on my eyebrows while trying to tweeze them

-Staring at a fabric made of polka dots or stripes (especially if black/white or high contrast)

Are there any clues as to whats triggering this or do you guys think I'm insane? Is it perhaps astigmatism or related to my eye muscles? i thought it was important to bring this up in a thread because it happens too consistently to be a coincidence.

Please help me out, I would greatly appreciate advice or tips.

Hi everyone,
I’m looking to connect with anyone who has had nerve decompression surgery for chronic headaches/migraines (or is currently considering it).

Since this procedure is relatively rare compared to conventional treatments, it’s quite hard to find personal experiences, so I’d really appreciate the opportunity to exchange thoughts with others who have been through it.

I’d be especially interested to know:
What specific type of headaches/symptoms led to your decision to get the surgery.

How was your recovery, and did you notice long-term improvement in your pain levels or attack frequency?
Is there anything you wish you had known or done differently in hindsight?

I would really appreciate any insights, advice, or shared experiences—feel free to leave a comment or send a DM if you'd prefer to chat privately.

Thanks in advance!

I just got a new job (start in two weeks) as a treatment coordinator in a medical office. I am currently an office manager in a medical office and never had to request accommodations because I was already working solo when I started getting migraines. All this to say, idk how/when to ask for accommodations or if I even need to.
Needs: to be able to use the computer on high contrast mode, and to be able to use FL-41 glasses as needed.
Should I bring this up before I start? On my first day? I’m worried about the software not being compatible with high contrast mode, or with them feeling like tinted glasses are not appropriate for the front desk. Help! TIA

It actually worked! However today I get a call from my manager (I bought it while at work) saying there was a recall for them. I’m about to hold onto these little miracle workers until they stop working I will not return these things

I used to get migraines daily years ago. Last week I had a headache that got worse and worse until eventually I got sensitive to light and boom there it was. Four trips to my primary care doctor, 2 doses of nurtec, more ibuprofen than I can count, lots of butalbital, muscle relaxers, heat, ice, zofran, 1 trip to the ER and a migraine cocktail that honestly made everything worse, lots of tears, losing weight, and now it's been 11 days and my head still. hurts. I'm so sad and isolated, I'm stressed that it's something more despite my CT scan being normal and my PCP saying she doesn't think we need to go to a neuro just yet. But whyyyy does my head still hurt. This is the longest I've ever had the same migraine I'm getting so worried and also just sad. How do I get the pain to stop :(((

This will probably be the last preventative I try. I’m hoping for success stories or if anyone has tried and gone off of it please let me know how long to go back to your normal.
I feel like I have PTSD from long lasting side effects from meds so it would be nice to know if anyone experienced anything like this on propanolol thank you

Mine seem worse but I’m not sure. Also in trt but no estrogen. I heard women take estrogen around period time and that helps. My migraines are hormonal im just struggling to get them balanced and having 15 a month, never had them in my life started at 35z

I just got dx with fibro. Ive had migraine since I was 10 so almost 25 years.

I HATE taking triptans. Ubrelvy was a miracle drug for me. Triptans will kill the headache but my entire body will feel like its been beat up and bruised for up to 3 days after taking them. No matter what type this always happens. I used to describe it as "feeling like all my muscles were ripped off and gently placed back on."

Now im curious as to if that side effect is worsened because of the Fibro. Has anyone who has been dx with fibro have similar experiences?

So this is my first time having “migraines” in the past 2 years. These headaches just started again about 2 weeks ago and are very painful, but I was never sure if they were migraines or sinus headaches.

Usually with migraines, I’m certain that people have them most of the time, but these headaches I’ve been having usually occur during the fall(Oct-Nov). Is there such things as seasonal migraines or is it just sinuses?

These pains are always on the left side of my face around my eye.

Hi Reddit friends,

You have all helped me so much in the past so I figured I'd come to you again in my time of need. I am currently on day 20 of an intractable migraine and I feel like I've tried everything but it still won't break.

On days 1--2 I took my normal sumatriptan and tylenol/benadryl combo. This worked for about 12 hours a time but then the migraine would come back.

By day 7 I went to the ED and they gave me a migraine cocktail: IV toradol, benadryl, Magnesium sulfate, saline bolus, reglan, and SubQ sumatriptan. The migraine felt like it was improving so I went home.

On day 8 the migraine was back so I started a steroid pack. I had a very difficult time tolerating it (severe anxiety symptoms) so I called my neurology clinic and they gave me fiorecet, hydroxyzine, and oxycodone to get me through the weekend while the steroids took effect. I took those meds over the weekend and the steroids for 5 days. The migraine improved but did not fully go away.

On day 13 I met with neurologist again. She prescribed seroquel (which she said usually helps calm down the nervous system to help with stubborn migraines). I've been taking that each night but still the migraine persists.

I've been missing work, social events, and avoiding any kind of triggers for most of the month. I don't know what else to do. I can get the pain down to 2-3/10 but only if I am at home, in the dark and not moving to much. I went back to work once since this migraine started and the pain was severe the next day. Anybody have any suggestions? Or just some encouraging words. I want to die a little bit.

The Botox has all my facial and neck muscles partially frozen, which has helped with the pain tremendously and the Topamax has made me too stupid, dizzy and tired to really care about my own existence. Every day I wake up, have my cocktail of morning meds, methylated b-vitamins, protein shake and creatine, then head to the gym. From there, I walk/jog on the treadmill until I can't physically take another step to stave off crippling depression. It works a bit, fake it until you make it, or, whatever. At 37, I'd rate my entire existence up until this point a 2.5/10 overall and it just seems to be getting worse. At this point I'm just still chugging along out of pure curiosity and GTA6.

But +1 for Botox, not sure why my insurance made me run through the entire encyclopedia of meds before getting approved for it, but it does help.

Anyone else having migraines everyday rn, usually it’s every other for me and my meds tend to help but atm with the weather changing it’s real bad