New Migrain Treatment?

Nurses General Nursing

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A friend of mine has migraines bad enough that she lands in the ER twice a month. She had botox injected into the muscles in her temples by a plastic surgeon to try to stop the pain about six months ago. And it worked!! She had no migraines until the botox wore off. My understanding is that this is not a proven treatment yet and her insurance won't cover the injections. So she is eager to have a permanent solution due to the expense. They want to cauterize the nerves in her temples. She told me it will take an entire month to recover. Have you ever heard of this?

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I have heard of botox injections for treatments of migraines, but not cauderizing nerves in the temple area. I suffer from migraines but they are controlled with cardizem. Just my 2 cents worth.

A friend of mine has migraines bad enough that she lands in the ER twice a month. She had botox injected into the muscles in her temples by a plastic surgeon to try to stop the pain about six months ago. And it worked!! She had no migraines until the botox wore off. My understanding is that this is not a proven treatment yet and her insurance won't cover the injections. So she is eager to have a permanent solution due to the expense. They want to cauterize the nerves in her temples. She told me it will take an entire month to recover. Have you ever heard of this?

I never heard of that. I have a friend that swears by Topamax and Axert.

I heard of that

I heard that a few months ago. Joked to my mom that I could get rid of my migraines and wrinkles in one stop.

I have not responded to any prescription meds and the only thing that helped was phenobarbitol and that left me so groggy that I couldn't work - not to mention a couple of black outs.

To give you a little more background. Insurance will not pay for the surgery or the botox. Dilaudid works for her as does Lortab. They make her, to say it politely, highly unpleasant to be around. She's allergic to the meds so they make her itchy and irritable. She's seen several different neuro docs with no relief. She's had all sorts of testing and they couldn't find anything physically wrong with her. This has gone on for about three years and she's only 21. No going to shows, dances, loud restaurants or bars because they trigger her migraines.

Man, I thought my migraines were bad! I was 21 when I started getting them. I haven't heard about the cauterizing a nerve, but I would def do some research about that first. One of my classmates in nursing school gets botox injections for her migraines. It sucks that insurance doesn't pay for it. Obviously it's medically necessary. :angryfire

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