My DD has chronic daily headache (CDH) with chronic migraine. This means she has had a headache 24/7 for 10 years. Prior to that one for 9 months. (They started age 10) Highly misunderstood by people and some medical professionals and probably myself until we went through this health journey.
She has suffered her fair share of comments like those on here “ just need more water” and “ just get a bit of fresh air” alongside all the things that people say work for them. It’s like asking some one with depression to just cheer up. Or a broken leg just do some stretches. All these things combined may help but you often need medical intervention to help make life manageable and on their own will not touch this form of headache. You may find the length of headache getting longer each time.
Some recommendations from me for you (and hope you don’t mind for children if any parents are reading this) and for anyone seriously suffering is:
Migraine presents in many forms and CDH is one way. 2% of headache sufferers get this. The pain receptors do not switch off. It is hereditary, so if someone in your family history has migraine it is likely your headaches are linked. It took us nearly 5 years to get a migraine diagnosis. If you had migraine when younger it may re occur later in life.
Most GP’s are not geared to dealing with this. For children get referred to Great Ormond Street who have an excellent neurology department. As an adult the top London hospitals have excellent neurology departments. Look up the work of Professor Goadsby. You normally have to follow a 6 month medication programme before being referred and/or go through a local hospital consultant to get on a waiting list so may have to push for this.
Medical overuse is a big issue that can cause rebound headaches. Codeine is normally never used for this type. Quite often standard paracetamol/ibuprofen doesn’t touch the pain.
There are lots of types of medication including low level preventative you take all the time, alongside chronic pain for the migraine attacks. Usually needs a long term planned approach to find the best for you.
Pacing - this is a massive way of making life/education/work manageable and it means you keep going but balance work/life/rest/exercise. Consider part time work/school/college.
Triggers are not always obvious so keep a headache diary. Include when you take medication. Use a number 1-10 for level pain. Add in am/pm to show pain level fluctuations for daily pain. They will normally help professionals. - stress, cinema, too much sleep, too little sleep, hormones for woman etc
Yes keeping exercise going - low impact can be good like walking, eating well, hydration, managing stress are all part of helping the condition but unlikely to help in their own so if you are still struggling don’t just assume you can fix it yourself.
Daily pain is chronically debilitating. I have seen children falling away from education and life. Adults giving up work. My DD is one of the ‘lucky’ ones to have been able to continue education and is currently studying at university. Pacing for her is massive and knowing when to stop so she will be ok the next day. Her chosen career if she gets there will suit part time working. Consider online school, less A level choices and foundation courses at university)
She continues to amaze me with her strength but it’s been a long hard journey for her. I wish I had read or had contact with others who understood the journey to help.
Some medical professionals will not believe you and for us the delayed diagnosis was very hard.
Finally there is a charity called the migraine trust. My only issue is that they don’t really cover CDH that is linked so even reading this we didn’t make the connection. However they have lots of good advice.
Sorry for the essay. Very close to my heart. Good luck, just remember there is help, daily pain is not normal and you may have to push to get help,