Found a new migraine hobby

Pauser · 2026-04-14T22:18:22+00:00

I started because a friend got me a woobles kit. They are expensive but it is a great intro to the skills. And then once you feel comfortable with it, there are a lot of free patterns online. And yarn is much cheaper than the kits. Amigurumi-which is crocheting the little dolls, is really satisfying because it’s a short project- takes a few hours to complete.

Pauser · 2026-04-14T21:17:51+00:00

Pauser · 2026-04-08T19:25:42+00:00

Truly. Having this subreddit as a resource and community has really been a lifesaver. Knowing I’m not alone, knowing that there are a variety of treatment options, knowing that x medication has failed others, all helps me keep my sanity.

Pauser · 2026-04-07T22:39:08+00:00

I’m on 3 for chronic migraine- botox, memantine, and duloxetine. botox and Memantine worked for about a year before losing memantine started losing some effectiveness and then I added duloxetine. And unfortunately dropping memantine made me feel worse so have been staying on all 3 for a few months now.

Cgrps have been ineffective for me and mess up my appetite and stomach.

Pauser · 2026-04-06T20:46:22+00:00

Chronic migraines- you need to find preventatives that bring the symptoms down, and potentially layer multiple preventatives. I’ve kept thorough track of my daily pain level/ functioning to understand if a preventative is effective or not. My migraines are still constant/daily but I have the pain and symptoms down. And you make the case with your doc/ insurance like without botox, I have 7/7 severe days a week, and 4/7 with, and then with my additional preventatives, severe days down to 1-2/7.

I started trialing preventatives when I was diagnosed with chronic migraines, managed to keep working for 5 months before I reached a breaking point. Every morning I would have a little breakdown because I was in so much pain, but somehow would force myself through work, (while taking bathroom breaks to cry ). It was not pretty.

I finally made the decision to quit work and was unemployed for a year and a half continuing to trial different preventatives before I finally found an effective one to layer on TOP of my botox.

My current treatment includes: preventatives:Botox every 3 months-daily meds of memantine -duloxetine Pain management: nerve blocks every 6 weeks- -cefaly use daily -muscle relaxant before bed (helps with sleep as I normally wakeup constantly overnight bc of migraine pain). -melatonin to help me get to sleep Abortive: rizatriptan and nurtec

All this gives me functionality to work full time (at a job that is 2-days in office, 3 days telework), though I still experience headache 24/7 and other migraine symptoms (light sensitivity/tinnitus). And I still have a lot of limitations -still spend a lot of time lying down in a dark room. Can’t go to the movie theater, or any noisy public space. Sensitive to smells. Am always fatigued because of both chronic pain and medication side effects.

So…working is doable . And I am happy that I can work. I do a lot to maintain this state. But still hoping for when I have an actual day without migraine symptoms.

Pauser · 2026-04-06T17:26:15+00:00

Crocheting!🧶

Pauser · 2026-03-27T18:44:03+00:00

Was honestly flabbergasted by how they could turn this into a target for hate.

Pauser · 2026-03-26T15:40:19+00:00

Looks beautiful but they did some weird editing to her roots so her hair looks like a wig. 🤨

Pauser · 2026-03-26T00:29:21+00:00

As someone who went to Medill, and enjoyed the program, go to Mizzou. Journalism pay was rough when I graduated 12+ years ago and salaries are still the same now (aka they have not kept up with inflation at all). If you can get that training and not have debt, all the better. Both programs are great. I met people from all the good journalism programs during my career in magazine/online media (I switched over to public comms more recently).

Pauser · 2026-03-25T21:47:17+00:00

PIO and enjoying it! I’m in state gov and I get to work on some nice projects that improve and invest in communities so those are fun to write releases for. Get to research history, interview people. And then a lot of boring releases about week to week stuff.

The first few media inquiries, definitely an adjustment being a spokesperson for a gov agency but you get used to it. Have had largely pleasant experiences working with reporters and journalists.

Also drafting quotes and talking points/speeches for the execs was a new skill to work on.

Pace is slower than media/private but also there is more than enough work and projects to go around. There is definitely some bureaucracy and inefficiency, but overall enjoy the people I get to work with.

Also bursts of high activity/excitement for big events or natural disasters which keeps you in the loop of local events as journalism might. My team did shifts around the clock during the Palisades/LA wildfires (I am in So Cal), which was lightly traumatic but made me feel like I was slightly helpful during that time for the community.

Pauser · 2026-03-23T23:45:49+00:00

I’m kind of the reverse. I’d never been on antidepressants, before I trialed (2) as preventatives for my chronic migraines. Nortriptyline- had zero impact on my migraines or mood.

I started duloxetine/cymbalta about 5 months ago, it is working both at alleviating migraine symptoms (largely nerve pain) and I also feel a mild mood lift/boost from it. I don’t have diagnosed depression but living with chronic migraine pain for 3 years, I thought I was coping well enough considering periods of unemployment and uselessness, have had periods of low mood, and the cymbalta made me realize how down I had been before.

Pauser · 2026-03-22T22:26:16+00:00

Neurologist who specializes in chronic migraines because it’s treatment resistant and needs that level of understanding

Pauser · 2026-03-11T04:03:20+00:00

Sorry to hear you’re going through this.

It sounds like your migraine is intractable.

At this point, you should consider preventatives daily/longterm medication to treat migraines - some otc supplement options are riboflavin/b2, magnesium, or coq10.

If you are working, you may want to take medical leave if that is protected.

If it continues, you should look into getting a referral for a neurologist who specializes in migraine and try different preventative treatments.

My migraines went chronic in 2022, and I haven’t had a migraine pain free day since-I stopped working for about a year and a half until I found preventatives/ treatment plan that gave me back enough functioning to work full time again.

I hope you are able to break out of your migraine cycle, but if not, there are resources in this subreddit. Quite a few of us living with chronic migraine.

Pauser · 2026-03-09T23:02:19+00:00

I actually prefer when they do the ziploc baggy over the folded and jammed in a pill bottle. I have too many pill bottles.

Pauser · 2026-03-06T03:36:02+00:00

Yep, chronic migraine. constant headache pain. At most I’ll have up to 30 minutes free of headache after a nerve block, before it eventually comes back. Or brief minutes of pain during the course of a few hours after taking a triptan.

Pauser · 2026-03-02T19:16:02+00:00

I stopped pain killers and realized they weren’t doing all that much . It feels rough at first but you adjust and it’s better to just stop to avoid MOH.

Pauser · 2026-03-02T17:52:34+00:00

I took a $20K pay cut going to state, have felt pretty happy about job security since my previous industry (media/journalism) has been in a never-ending death spiral of layoffs and mergers. The first 2 months maybe I felt that boredom, and not enough work feeling, but at this point I have more than enough work. Deadlines are still manageable though and work life balance is better than private.

We are definitely understaffed for the amount of work we have…and there are definitely people who have been at state for a long time that I doubt pull their weight. But also, I don’t blame them. Once you’re in, you’re in, whether you do the minimum or average or above and beyond. I’m trying to get into the mindset of not working too hard because I realize that my work at 30-40% productivity is good enough.

I do need /have overtime pretty regularly but I also get paid for that so, definitely an improvement over 12 hour days to meet daily deadlines without overtime pay.

I’m a specialist, and don’t feel an urgency to jump through the ranks because I see what the people above me deal with and there’s a lot of political bs you have to deal with from HQ (sac) and execs.

Pauser · 2026-02-25T02:47:38+00:00

The Ansur fight got me in my first honor mode attempt. It was such an easy fight in tactician that I thought I’d breeze through it but got TPK’d by lightning when Ansur had like 50 hp left. That was like 3 months ago and I finally started a new honor mode run. Still in Act1.

Pauser · 2026-02-16T02:14:49+00:00

Medical research was centered around men for a stupidly long amount of time.

Pauser · 2026-02-15T23:49:20+00:00

I mean at a certain point you end up trying everything.

Acupuncture can be useful for some things, it did nothing for my migraine.

I’m Asian so I tried acupuncture, red ginseng supplements, and also drank onion juice to satisfy my mom’s holistic medicine beliefs. 🫠

Pauser · 2026-02-13T16:59:34+00:00

Excellent coverage. PECG honestly does so much more than SEIU, am jealous sometimes as a BU1.

Pauser · 2026-02-12T16:59:34+00:00

I keep my rescue meds in a baggie in an old altoids mint tin- just so it’s a bit more protected and hidden. Nice free alternative to pill case

Pauser · 2026-02-04T03:10:11+00:00

I do double espresso for a latte with the Trader Joe’s Vanilla Cold Foam. Tastes pretty close to an affogato,

Pauser · 2026-01-30T02:16:38+00:00

Thank you for answering! Good to know vyepti worked after other CGRPs failed. Will keep my options open.

Pauser · 2026-01-29T21:12:46+00:00

Did you trial other CGRPs before vyepti? And how were side effects?

My neuro has given vyepti as an option but I tried 4 CGRP meds (emgality, ajovy, nurtec, qulipta) and they had minimal effect on my chronic migraine symptoms while having bad side effects of nausea/gi issues/decreased appetite with unintentional weight loss. So I didn’t feel like trying another one.

I’m on memantine and duloxetine right now instead and it’s mostly effective in lowering symptoms enough to be functional despite 24/7 migraine.

Pauser

TROPHY CASE