xtcian

I think it's your basketball team. Duke fans have like less than a tenth the incidence of migraines, I read somewhere. Have you considered switching?

Hmmmmmmmm. I've never had a migraine and I've always been a Duke fan. I think Oliver may be on to something.

Optical prescription out?

how about seeing a chiropractor (one that's been heartily-recommended-by-a-friend)?

last week while doing rolls in tae kwon do i twisted the hell out of my neck (i know, taking up martial arts on the cusp of age 36 may not be the wisest thing). a second-red-belt classmate (i.e. one step away from black belt, hence a veteran of many tkd injuries) referred me to her chiropractor. he worked miracles on my neck. after i told him that i frequently get headaches, he explained how often our habitual postures in sitting and standing can trigger or exacerbate headaches. i'll go back to him next time my head's making me miserable.

for frequent headache sufferers, i recommend reading joan didion's essay "in bed" (i think from her "white album" book or "slouching towards bethlehem"). i love her description of migraine hell and the grateful relief one feels after the migraine passes.

oops -- and sorry to hear you're in that hell right now, ian. good luck beating it.

I have suffered from migraines for 10 years or so now. They have become increasingly frequent and painful. I finally broke down and went to see a specialist.
There are many things that can trigger headaches, so you'll have to sort of test by process of elimination. Food triggers are a big thing. Caffeine, as you mentioned, should be avoided as much as possible as it will lead to rebound headaches. Foods with preservatives, processed meats, hard cheeses, nuts, smoked fish,
vinegar,fermented food (cream, yogurt),freshly baked yeast products,peanuts (and peanut butter),
monosodium glutamate (commonly found in Chinese food), soybeans, onions, and citric foods are all possible culprits. Eliminate all of these from your diet for a month and add them back one at a time.
Other triggers include light, sound, odors, stress, and lack of or too much sleep. Personally I think mine are from a combination of food, sleep, and stress. Light and sound tend to increase the intensity of my headaches once one starts. (It probably doesn't help if you spend a lot of time staring at a computer monitor as I do.)
I was prescribed Impipramine and Imitrex. You may want to ask your doctor about those. As is usual with medicines such as these results will vary from person to person. I have been using them for 2 months and have experienced less headaches in that time. However, I have also cut out many possible trigger foods in that time, so I can't say for sure which is helping more.
Good luck with your headaches. If you need any more information I would be glad to help if I can.

Ian, milk and coke. Try it, really. I've had ocular migraines since I was a kid and way back someone turned me onto this (maybe it was Lee). 1/2 milk and 1/2 coke and some ice. Drink two glasses if you like it. Then lie down and close your eyes for a while. I find too that it tastes really good, the worse I feel. What's up with that?
I hope you feel better.

I can tell you what Steve A. told me. You need to poop more. Nice long fluffy stools. Crank out a coupla logs of crap and you'll be smiling from cheek to rosy cheek. First thing in the morning-half a head of cabbage and two giant cups of black coffee, then wait for the magic.

Acupuncture. One of my many odd jobs was working as a receptionist for Dr. Chen of Carolina Acupuncture. I got so many calls from patients desperate to see him because it was the only thing that worked for them. The needles are as fine as hairs and half the time you can't even feel that they've been inserted (I've done it). Give it a try. I'm sure NYC is crawling with experts.

Another Duke fan here rarely suffering from any kind of illnes, injury, ache, or pain. Have you thought about weight-training/working out (if you don't already)? It is a serious stress releiver, and what with a baby on the way and just a modicum of news intake everyday, your stress levels are probably off the charts. Accupressure works too. Good Luck

Sorry about your pain. That sucks.

I second the chiropractor suggestion. Worked wonders for me when I was suffering blinding afternoon headaches almost daily in the second grade. My lower back, upper back, and neck were all out of whack, and once they were back "in whack," all was well. Mostly well anyway--second grade still sucked!

Chiros don't charge too much, so it's a good thing to try first.

Hope you feel better soon, my friend.

Are you grinding your teeth unconsciously?

Headache cure = hearty Laughter and endorphins, not always necessarily "indoor"phins, but available in fine weather outdoors or at the indoor solid-good run if you make some break time, although you're looking all too soon at booking hours with the newest little hand and the maternal big hand (look out for the dangerous and stinging split-second back-hand on many protective new mother clockers.)

Try scaling down the caffeine; especially since you're getting a new poopspresso machine. Want to talk about foamy lattes? Yuck.

See, the laughter and endorphins of parenthood.

Remember Cowboy Gill? Like that shit.

pot.

Pot it is!

You should try going off excedrin for a prolonged period of time. If you take that stuff religiously, you can get headaches just from not taking it. If that fails, without going into a big list of questions and answers that has no place in a comments section, you should make sure it's not your nose/sinuses (since you have that history) and then see a neurologist.

And poop more.

take an allergy test. I've had migranes for 8 years, and the only thing that has helped has been to avoid the foods (and mostly the chemicals they put in foods). The elimination diet as suggested up above can really help. But let's be honest, who wants to do that? That's a lot of work and guessing. Take the blood test-- the ELIZA or ALCAT. If I cheat and eat something I'm not supposed to, my body knows and I can tell right away.... but the good news is after 6 months, you can recover from the allergy and go back to eating everything-- and living without migranes.

The elimination diet folks didn't mention chocolate, and I guess it is supposed to be a fairly common headache trigger. Unfortunately I have now been allergic to it for about 10 years, suffering blinding spot filled headaches if I eat it. (No six month cure for me!) The good news is that there are tons of white chocolate things available nowadays (which DON'T cause headaches) like white chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups, and in New Zealand I even found white chocolate M&M's. Careful though, the white chocolate Kit Kat's still have a layer of brown chocolate inside them... Sneaky!

I can't resist it. I make a posting for the first time, despite the immense horror of all the other people maybe reading it and me maybe saying something that sounded not quite exactly the way I wished I'd said it and that might change the direction of my life, which really merits no smidgeon of preservation. But my ears prick up and my fingers poise for typing whenever anyone mentions some health thing. Maybe the direction I should be heading is south toward Manning Drive and the med school, cause art history clearly has little to offer.
Anyway, though the fluffy poop image really makes me pause, Dr Finkel at the headache clinic on manning drive tortured Mark by taking him off all otc and prescrip pain pills: excedrin included, as, as one previous writer wrote, these can trigger headaches, and daily pain meds cause your neurons to cause your suffering. Dr Finkel, who has won my admiration by being both smart and a doctor, also says he doesn't think chocolate and cheese trigger migraine, but that you might crave energy rich foods when you head toward head agony. Plus, chocolate has won my further admiration by that swedish happy baby study you pointed out.

It took almost three years of blogging, but I finally got Betsy T. to post! Did Roman get his ball?

I am off virtually all those OTC meds, and I'm pleased to report that the Butterbur extract mentioned above SEEMS - anecdotally - to be working. I will report back, however, when I've been on it a month.