I am 22 years old and I started getting migraines in the third grade when I was 8 years old.

My mother and grandmother both had migraines during their teens, but were lucky to “outgrow” them. My grandmother doesn’t seem to understand why I haven’t gotten over them too, and I find that very frustrating.

I know this is not just a phase.

My migraines have become more severe in the last 3 years. I started waking up with a migraine every morning. The pain was efficiently on the right side of my head with severe pain in my ear and at the back of my eye. Sometimes the migraines were so intense that I lost my vision completely. Nausea usually accompanied my pain, but there was usually no vomiting. I have been to the ER, sleep specialists, a dietitian, internal medicine doctors, and three different neurologists in the last 14 years, but no one could help me. One of the neurologists I saw actually treated me like she was a burden and had no interest in looking for a possible cure.

Over time, my pain got so bad that I was forced to take medical leave during my sophomore year of college.

I called many times to say I was sick and it made me paranoid about the security of my job and stressed about the burden it was on my employer. Fortunately, I was a qualified candidate for FMLA leave and was granted an additional four sick days per month with no negative consequences. This program was a savior!

Finally, last November I saw a new neurologist at a different health center.

On the first visit he took me off the Topamax I had been taking for 3 years which was completely useless and put me on 2 doses of Amitriptyline at night, Maxalt and Naproxen for abortive treatment, and Imitrex injections for severe migraines. With this combination of medications I have done wonderfully.

Instead of having one migraine a day, I usually have about six a month. With Maxalt, naproxen and Imitrex, I can easily get rid of those migraines when they sneak up on me during the day or in the morning. My new neurologist helped more in one hour consultation than all the doctors I’ve seen in the last 14 years combined.

I was able to go back to school this past January and am excited to have nearly finished my Medical Administration degree.

However, about a month later, my body began to catch up on the medication and the migraines returned. They began to be more severe and more frequent than in recent years.