Athletics and Migraines

I vividly remember my first migraine. It was the 4th of July, and I was 16. I had just finished making out with watching the fireworks with teenage crush when it hit. WHAM. My head started throbbing and the room was spinning. I couldn't sit upright. I'm pretty sure I thought I was going to die.

I went to the doctor and had all kinds of tests and scans. Once they realized I had a normally functioning brain (my brothers may disagree) we discussed a plan for action. Since I kept getting recurring migraines, I went on a preventative pill. The pill lowered my blood pressure and made me pretty dizzy. After a few months I stopped. I tried Imitrex, maxalt, etc but nothing really seemed to work. Frustrated, I decided to self manage. Things were okay. I could deal with the occasional migraine. I'm a tough gal, after all.

This past year, however, things have changed. The frequency of my migraines have been increasing and with each one they become more and more debilitating. The past six months I can almost set my clock by it. Saturday: Hard effort workout. Sunday: Super tired, push through another hard workout. Have severe neck pain with minor headache. Pain lessened with massage. Dull headache with blurry vision before optimistically heading to bed.

2am. WHAM. Wake up to excruciating electrical pain in my left temple that radiates down my neck. Neck so stiff it can't move. Often takes me up to an hour to summon the energy to go to the freezer for an ice pack. Can't see out of left eye. Coat my face with Icy hot, curl up with ice pack on head and heating pad on stomach, pop some over the counter pills and whimper until morning. This past weekend's was the worst. I didn't leave bed till 1:30pm the following day.

I cannot go on with this. I cannot live like this.  I know my training causes my migraines, but I'm not ready to give it up. There is a lot of conflicting information about what specifically from hard workouts causes the migraines, but I think mine is a combination of a lot of factors (exertion, dehydration, neck strain from aero, elevated heart rate, high training temps, caloric deficits). Factors which, unfortunately, I cannot eliminate. Scratch that. Factors which I CHOOSE not eliminate. Do I bring this upon myself? Absolutely. Am I willing to sacrifice my training for it? No way. I'm not proud of it, but I'm heading to the doc to try to get some medicine for these. It's been years since I've been in the loop with migraine medicine. I know many of you out there struggle with these. What do you think causes your migraines? What do you do to manage your migraines? What kind of meds have worked for you?