Prophylaxis

So here we are in January and my migraine "cluster" is now lurching into month three which is a new record, even for me. Older readers will know that for me since my stroke migraines are like buses: they tend to come in a group with several over a couple of weeks and then a gap. But some Autumns I get a big cluster of them. Last year I was lucky but I had one in the two years before that. 2007's, the previous record holder, started on 27th October and ended on 24th December. 2008's went from 17th October to mid-November.

I've already whined on at some length about this year's cluster over on my stroke blog so I won't go over it again here other than to note that this year's cluster started in the first week in November and really hasn't stopped since.

It's not as bad as it was mind you, at its peak I had twelve bad days in fourteen, which really was getting a bit out of hand but most of the time it's been around two days in three, with odd periods of respite where I've had three or four clear days.

But today has been another crap day which ended in me going back to bed with a bear for a couple of hours to sleep it off.

So I've been reading about prophylaxis. Again. I've got a couple of friends who've had some success with prophylaxis recently using drugs which are primarily anti-depressants (although they take lower doses for migraine prophylaxis). But both the drugs are contraindicated with epilepsy, so they're out. Of the other known prophylactics I get to choose between drugs I already take for my epilepsy (but clearly don't work for me for prophylaxis), drugs like NSAIDs which I can't take because they reduce clotting (which I have to avoid because it could make my cavernoma beed again), and drugs whose common side effects include weight gain and other delightful things.

And in any case they all take 2-4 weeks to start working. So as I'm now past the point where in previous years the cluster should be coming to an end how will I know if the drug worked!?

So I guess I just carry on. My apologies if I've failed to come out for drinks, meals, swimming, etc lately but I'm sure most of you already know why. And it'll be Spring soon which hopefully will bring some relief.