Daily headaches

[IndigoSkye]

I am in a place where im waking up with a headache every day. I am stressed at present which I know doesn't help. I have sumatriptan for migraines and I take paracetamol for the headaches. My GP has limited my sumatriptan meds as he thinks that and the paracetamol are causing the headaches. Thy do help temporarily but the headache is back either later that day or the next day. I'm. Ow afraid to take either as I'm worried about prolonging the situation but I need to be able to function and am driving myself mad. Have been like this on and off all year but this recent set of headaches has been 8 days and I don't know how I'm going to cope with work tomorrow. Any tips or ideas would be greatly received

Have you had a sight test recently?
is your blood pressure okay?
Do you drink enough water?
Have you cut down on caffeine? Caffeine withdrawal headaches are common.
Are you grinding your teeth at night? That can cause headaches but a mouth guard can help.

Medication overuse headaches are a thing so it makes sense to limit meds to see if they resolve, but it’s miserable to have to try to function without pain relief.

This sounds mad but I’ll tell you anyway.

I used to wake up with headaches a lot of the time.

My husbands snores, he finally started sleeping in another room.

I don’t often wake up with a headache now. Unless it’s coincidence, the only thing I can think is the frequent waking (and rage) that his snoring caused me, was the reason for the headaches.

You don’t say if you are married, but do you have anything else causing disrupted sleep?

Ask for something other than paracetamol that you take to prevent migraine. I do. I've gone from taking triptans almost daily to once a month.

Look at your diet. Are you eating and drinking enough?

My adult daughter is exactly the same at the moment. 7 weeks with a daily headache. Had new glasses and made no difference. Doctors not interested. Had three phone apps but hoping to get another on Friday.

You have overuse headache.

The triptans and paracetamol help the headache but if you take too many they promote a new headache - golden rule is no more than 2 a week or 6 a month.

The only way out of overuse headache is cold turkey - no analgesics, no triptans for 2 months.

I did this, it was brutal and by the end I was off sick from work. But it did work. I still get approx a migraine a week but it's manageable. I also paid obsessional attention to my triggers (which were many) and that also reduced them a lot.

migrainetrust.org/understand-migraine/types-of-migraine/medication-overuse-headache/

Google PoTS - sudden drops in blood to heart and brain can trigger sudden increased flow of blood which creates headaches like if you had been standing on your head.
take your heart rate lying down when you wake up in the morning. Stand for three minutes and take again. If your heart rate goes up by 30/40 beats in that time ask your doctor if you can he tested for pots.

Hi OP,

I am similar with daily headaches and use imigran recovery.

I was told to try 1000mg of Asprin instead of imigran and that worked 50 % of the time.

I have now paid for migraine Botox and only had one migraine in 3 weeks.

Botox is a game changer. Some of my migraines I can now treat with just an ice pack and they are gone in 20 min.

There are so many migraine preventers out there, you just have to find the one for you.

Thanks all, sorry for the delayed response, I have spent most of the day in bed or sorting my children out. I really appreciated the replies, it's always good to hear you're not alone.

Vision is ok, I have contact lenses and regular check ups, I have ordered a pair of blue light glasses to try as I spend quite a lot of time on a computer - thought it was worth a try.

Trigger wise my main triggers are alcohol, caffeine and sugar. I'm pretty good with alcohol and caffeine but do know sugars are creeping in as I've been eating more convenience food.

I think the biggest problem for me is stress and I hold my tension in my neck, head and jaw. I have often wondered if Botox would be helpful. I sleep badly and this is also worse when I'm stressed and poor sleep is a definite trigger.

I am really hoping it's not medication overuse as the thought of stopping everything terrifies me. At present I am limiting to 2 paracetamol a day and 1 sumatriptan every other day, although I haven't had anything today as I was starting to wonder if this is the case.

I have tried the aspirin that was suggested about two hours ago and do feel a bit better, I've managed to wash my hair which I hate doing with a headache and think I might make it to my mother in laws later for our weekly roast! I had been planning to stay in bed!!

I've tried a lot of preventative meds pisotifen, amitryptaline, noratryptaline and propanalol, they all seem to work at first but after a year when my meds are reviewed it's always noted that I'm still reporting the same number of headaches and taking the same amount of sumatriptan so it's not worth changing. I will call the GP tomorrow though and see if anything else is available.

Thanks again, I feel my husbands tolerance of this is waning and it's been good to think it all through with others

Really sorry but a sumatriptan every other day is too much. You are accidentally provoking more headaches.

Tension in your muscles is worth looking at - if you work at a desk get a desk assessment, I've found doing some upper body exercise broke up some of the knots and got my shoulders down but initially I was in such a mess I needed physio and neck manipulation.

Do you grind your teeth as well?

I had to stop all painkillers for two months, it’s the only way to get rid of medication overuse headaches. I’m 7 weeks into it now, not taken a single paracetamol? Ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen or sumatriptan in that time. It’s definitely been really tough, and has needed time off work, but the headaches and migraines are way improved now. First month was even worse than it had been but have to just push through it, second month it’s started to improve. Haven’t had a migraine for a week now.

Definitely get your blood pressure checked too if you haven't- high bp can cause headaches.

Agree with PP - my DH had bad daily headaches and it turned out to be high BP

Ok, I will definitely have a look at the meds. I did mean the last 8 days, I don't generally take so many tables a day.

I do grind my teeth in my sleep! Im going away with my mum and sisters next weekend and no one will share a room with me!!

Have no idea what my BP is, I can probably check it at work though, so will look into that. Thanks

I was at A&E this week as I've had intense headaches in back of head for weeks plus a horrible amount of dizziness and done numbness in toes, tingling fingers etc- My BP was actually through the roof- lovely senior registrar told me that blood pressure at that level causes immense headaches and often is the cause of migraines without people realising it too

I'm now on the tablets!

That sounds awful Crikey. I'm glad you've got it under control. Definitely going to get my BP checked tomorrow!

Have you tried a magnesium supplement? My GP recommended this and acupuncture really helped to reduce my migraines down to once a month or less and fewer headaches.
I also find that dispersible aspirin is better for headaches than paracetamol and an ice pack can often help head it off.
All the changes in temp recently are setting mine off too I’ve noticed

If you grind your teeth do you have a mouthguard?

Doesn't stop you grinding but the pain is so much less. And you stop wrecking your teeth.

As I pay for my Botox, I also get it done for my teeth grinding. Still have a grind but with far less force.

This ^^^.
My DB had to do this, he had the daily headaches for 2years.