I do have migraines....however, I refuse to get injections.  Although, I did try imitrex tablets and they made me feel like I was having an out of body experience.  Not pretty.  Now, keep in mind I have been having migraines since I was 7, and at the time, nobody knew why.  It was decided in the 6th grade that my migraines were due to bad eyesight.  Got glasses, the eye's could see, but the migraines continued.  Go figure. 

My memory holds headaches from a very early age.  For decades, I thought that everyone had headaches like I did.  I was diagnosed with migraines in my early twenties.  Now, at nearly sixty-one, it is difficult to remember when I did not experience them.  They were horrible and I would spend days, indoors, in dimly lit rooms, no appetite (which was the positive thing about them), nausea, vomiting, extreme skin sensitivity.  I also experienced the auras and other phenomena.  As time went on, they became more frequent, but never lasted longer than a week or so.  After an episode, I was left feeling shaky and feeling just ill and icky for another week or so.  I was given cafergon and painkillers.  To be honest, neither helped completely, but there wasn't much available to me forty years ago.

 

Some time ago, around ten years or so, I began to notice that the pain was not as strong, becoming less with each episode.  Now I still have them often, the migraines, but rarely with any actual pain.  I still get the auras and olfactory problems, but rarely feel ill after the episode is over.  My doctor tells me that many people have migraines for a while, sometimes years, and that they just seem to go away, and that there is a small group of people like me who continue to have them, but are not so much bothered by the pain aspect.  However, I have been unable to find any documentation of this. 

 

How were the botulinum toxin injections given to you?  With some of the citations regarding botox that I've been finding lately, it wouldn't surprise me much to read that it is being used to treat just about anything. 

I think my experience with migraine parallels Juds' quite closely, except that, fortunately, I was usually spared the nausea and they weren't as drawn-out time-wise.  The first one I remember for sure was when I was nine.  Oddly, (probably with hormal changes) mine also got way less problematic over the past 10-12 years, but I also continue to get the auras and those can last for days.  Mine are feeling of  tremendous light sensitivity, wind blowing into my eyes, irritability and everything sounding too loud and being too bright.  Not much pain anymore, but every now and then, there is an old-timey migraine.  I still won't leave the house without Imitrex (tabs) because if you start to get a migraine--as if I had to tell that to anyone who has them--and you don't have your meds, panic rapidly sets in.

 

My mom pased them on to me and my sister, and I sent the gene on to one son and my daughter.  Middle kid never had one.  I didn't mean to do that--but feel bad about it.

 

I didn't have any treatment till I was about 30.  The first med. was Fiorinal (sp?) which helped some.  Next was Caffergot which was kind of a life-saver.  Problem--it kept you wide awake but that seemed an OK trade-off at the time.  Then the new drugs came in and I started with the inhaled Imitrex which rapidly messed up my nose--so went to the tabs.  They were/are like having a guardian angel stuffed into my purse.  I only have a mild feeling of flippo-ness about 15 minutes after I take the pill, and that goes away quickly.  Maybe a little sleepiness--but nothing to complain about.

 

Twice, post surgically, I've had the worst head pain and uncontrolled vomiting that I have ever experienced with what seemed to be a super-migraine.  Poor nurses! Blechhhh. It's hard even to think about it. Darvocet wouldn't touch it--but for some reason, injected Imitrex did the job.   

 

If anything, the Imitrex tablets calmed the SOM a little--but was that because the headache went away or at least settled, or because the Imitrex had an effect on the SOM?  Nobody seems to know.  For me, no, the Imitrex definitely did not exacerbate the SOM--may have helped-- but the connection between migraine and SOM is poorly understood.

 

I did have a pain management specialist for awhile who was in love with Botox.  Honestly, his eyes lit up when he talked about it. He used it for a lot of things--and I think some of his cocktail injections were eventually more or less banned.  I didn't get them because my condition didn't warrant it.  Didn't want it either. But it is powerful stuff.   Don't you wonder if it's going to be one of those things they find out, in years to come, should have been used with more study and more caution?  Cripes--it's POISON, after all.  

Hi.  The botox was injected in my forehead, around my temples, the back of my neck and in my trapezius.  I really didn't see any change in my headaches.  When the SOM started, I really hoped that the botox had just frozen a nerve or hit a muscle, but ALL the specialists that I have seen have ruled it out b/c it would have lost all potency within 6 months, and even if it hit a nerve, they said it would have recovered by now.  I won't do the Botox again for my headaches.  I just live with them.

 

A neurologist suggested Botox for the SOM, but I didn't want to risk it.  I also saw many chiropractors who suggested that my SOM stemmed from a trapped nerve in my neck, but through my research I seem to have deduced that the Superior Ocular Nerve comes right from the brain.  Who knows???  For now I just live with the SOM.

 

I was just trying to see if migraines might have been something that most SOM sufferers had.  Thanks for your responses.

Unfortunately, there isn't enough known about SOM to understand if there is any kind of connection to migraines or other headaches.  As members begin to share those kinds of details with us (and the process begins here: SOM History/Data) the interrelationship of different body issues might bring us some interesting and helpful surprises.

 

Thank you for the information about the botox treatments that you received.  I always found the botox option for SOM to be very alluring, but was too creeped out by the thought of a needle full of toxin being that intimate with my eye.  At one point I thought that it would be an interesting experience, in an intellectual way, you know, doing it for ability to have information for the group, but in so many ways I am just a big chicken and I could never go through with it.

 

I was hoping that other members who have used sumatriptan succinate/Imitrex would share their experience.  Perhaps they still will pop in.  As far as chiropractic being used to alleviate SOM symptoms, I haven't been able to find a single abstract or citation of its use that would apply to us.  That said, we have several members who believe that they have received relief from their symptoms by treatments from their chiroprators.  Unfortunately, none of those chiropractors have published anything that we could offer as a reference. 

 

From what I have been able to find, tchiropractic is being used for other nerve issues, and three of those abstracts can be found here: 

 

 

Additional abstracts concerning aspects of SOM are here:  •Abstracts

 

Also, since I am a total information junkie, I am intrigued by your use of the term superior ocular nerve.  It is one with which I am unfamiliar, and am wondering if it is something that your doctor has shared with you.  It sent me to my Gray's Anatomy, and I couldn't find it.  Maybe the reference is to the superior division of the oculomotor nerve, an area that I haven't heard used in discussions concerning the possible causations for SOM.  It looks like you are a source of new information for us.

Hi me again.  Sometimes I can be a little "dee-ditty-dee".  I was typing way too quickly for what I was thinking.  I was thinking about the trochlear nerve, and the eye and where it stems from the brain.  I meant superior oblique muscle and it's attachment to the trochlear nerve.

 

IV - the trochlear nerve - "Trochlea" is from the Latin word for pulley. If you remember from gross anatomy, the superior oblique muscle loops through a pulley-like sling on its way to the back of the eye. Hence the IVth nerve innervates the superior oblique. This nucleus is also located near the midline. The fiber bundle is the MLF, which carries eye movement signals between brainstem nuclei.

The trochlear nerve is unique for two reasons: 1) it exits the brainstem dorsally, and 2) it crosses on the way out. The fibers cross over each other just like a half-tied shoelace in the roof of the fourth ventricle." Sorry about that.... Didn't mean to waste your time with anatomy books.  I will complete the SOM history page, and perhaps that will give a better background of my experience.  AND type slower in the future.

Gosh, that's too bad.  I was really hoping that you had some new and groovy information for us.    In fact, I was a little excited there for a few hours.  So sad that it's just the same old trochlear/4th cranial nerve.  And, my time is never wasted perusing my anatomy books.  I just love them and read them for pleasure, although you have to keep in mind that I feel the same way about the encyclopaedia and a couple of books that I have on physics (about which I am totally fascinated, but understand virtually none of it).  Kind of dig biology, too, and the forensic sciences, especially anthropology.  I've always been interested in astronomy, but my SOM prevented me from viewing the night sky.  I guess that is another thing that I can try to do again.  But, not until the temperature rises and stays above fifty degrees.

 

On another track, is there any chance that you might be willing to share your experiences as a stunt actor?  That sounds pretty darn interesting.  So does the accupuncture that you tried.  No pressure, though...