So I have a lot to add (and in a sense you're lucky cause im procrastinating and never go on NS anymore).
I've had migraines since middle school (Im between undergrad and grad school now). While in high school, they increased in severity and frequency. For a while, I essentially had a migraine that lasted 4 months. The pain fluctuated, so sometimes it was barely there, but still there (typical, one sided throbbing migraine symptoms) and other times the pain was super bad, along with nauseau and everything else.
They continued where there were more days that I had migraines in a week than when I didnt. It really sucked. I see zig zagging flashing lights toward the left side of my vision that slowly moves toward the center. Its is def. neurological as it doesn't change if I close either eye. Eventually it goes to the center, where I can read or see well enough to drive. I also see a somewhat translucent tv static, commonly referred to snowy vision, so when I look at a blank wall, a sort of tv static appears.
My actual diagnosis was chronic migraine with persistent aura. I saw 3 different neurologists. I tried every preventative medication and acute treatment out there.
(sorry for the long back story, but towards my advice)...
Find a good neurologist.
After many years of having short appointments with neurologists that would just listen to what nurses told them and would just prescribe a different drug every time, I finally found a good doctor. She sat down with me to explore every trigger for my migraines and any possibilities to cure them.
(this one is not usual)
BOTOX
I've taken botox for migraines and it reduced my migraines from almost everyday to once a week or every 2 weeks. At the time I started taking it, it was approved by the FDA for treating seizures, but not migraines. I had heard that 70% of people that took it had a 50% decrease in migraines. I enrolled in a drug study and once I had the injections, they started subsiding. You recieve almost 30 injections on your forehead, above your ears, behind your ears down to your neck, and along your shoulders. They are like pin pricks, and are def not painless, but not too horrible. Youre face also does not raise or freeze up like people think it does(either due to the location and amount injected or the fact that Im younger).
The FDA has now approved botox for migraines, and its not the typical drug, but has been the only one to actually help.
Other things:
Now, my acute treatment is either aleve or excedrin migraine, but I take either no more than 2-3 times a month. If you use medications like these too oftern, youll get rebound migraines. I had a tough time and almost became dependent on them as I kept getting migraines everyday. I quit and didnt take any medication for an entire summer. Since then, its been fairly manageable.
Drugs with codiene or pain killers will dull the pain, but they dont stop migraines. They dont really help solve the problem, they just make it more easy to deal with.
Get this book. Its super helpful. $2.77 on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Heal-Your-Headache-Program-Taking/dp/0761125663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307503851&sr=8-1
Thats all I can think of. Migraines suck. I get them every time I have a beer or two.
Oh, you can also make mad cash on those drug studies. Typically its nothing harmful, just a different method to take the drug (like a nasal inhaler), or like when I was in high school, they were adult medication being tested on adolescents.