"To whom it may concern,

 

I experience nearly daily pain that ranges from anything as little as a bad headache to excruciating pounding that feels as though my brain is trying to shut down completely. Not only do I have this pain but along with it I get bright flashing lights and other similar visuals. The pain I end up in reduces me to tears, to the point of collapsing, I get so desperate for it to stop I’d take anything that was offered to me with the promise of the pain going away. I am left unable to function properly for the rest of the day and often a day or two afterwards. I have very little to no warning before a migraine starts which gives me little time to get home to a dark room where I can try and sleep through the worst of the pain.

 

All over the counter pain killers do nothing to stop the agony I am in. I was prescribed 80mg of propranolol to prevent migraines, for a short while they helped but after about a year the migraines came back just as frequent and crippling as they had been before the propranolol. I went back to my doctors and their response was to up my dosage to 160mg of propranolol, this did not help at all I still was having migraines at least once a week if not more. I went back to my doctors and was told to ween myself off of the propranolol and to start taking 10mg of amitriptyline daily and was given 50mg of sumatriptan to take at the onset of a migraine. I still have migraines however they are less frequent.

 

The sumatriptan has worked for a couple of migraines but I more recently discovered that if I am unable to take it within about 10-15 minuets of a migraine starting it does nothing for the pain at all. I also experience awful side effects such as an aching jaw, tingling painful head and severe light headedness after taking the sumatriptan. This is however the first time I have ever been offered strong painkillers to help with migraines, in the past I have been told to just lay down and do what I can do be comfortable, this in my opinion is disgraceful that I have never been offered help with the pain and other migraine sufferers have been. I am also considerably concerned that I am offered medications that are primarily used to treat other issues. For example, propranolol is an anti-anxiety medication and amitriptyline is an anti-depressant.

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Personally, I’d really like people to understand just how physically exhausting migraines are. When telling people I have migraines I am often met with ‘I get bad headaches too’ migraines are more than bad headaches, they are debilitating both physically and mentally. I have also recently learned that migraines are the most commonly used lie to get out of going to work, this overuse of a genuine condition that physically stops me from continuing my day is an insult undermines my condition and more often than not people will not believe that I have anything more than a bad headache. I just wish people could have some sympathy towards that pain I experience almost daily and understand that often nothing in particular will trigger one. I often feel like a lab rat that the doctors haven’t figured out yet and just keep trying different drugs on me to see what happens. Often people to not understand the severity of my situation till they learn I am on medication.

 

Georgia"