Migraines and Bipolar: Twin Beasts!

I get migraines. They are much more than bad headaches. It feels as if someone is squeezing your eye from the inside. Someone else is pressing a metal beam against the base of your skull. You can't stand light at all: you have become a vampire. Your head throbs, over and over again. You seek the dark; the light burns. Your stomach turns over with nausea again, and again. The back of your skull throbs again and again and again. You might throw up, but you don't. What a cruel trick! You lay in the dark and can't sleep. Eventually, you may vomit, which temporarily relieves the pain. Or, maybe not. Will this horrible pain ever end?

There have been some studies that link bipolar with migraines. Now a new study found that a family history of bipolar disorder also increases the risk of having migraines. And other good news, Topomax, which I take for my bipolar, is good at preventing migraines! Since I also take blood thinners for a blood clot in my lungs last fall, probably indefinitely, I need whatever I can get to prevent migraines as there aren't too many pain relievers I can take outside of the hospital that aren't Tylenol. This leaves me suffering at home, or in the hospital on a high dose of Benedryl, which does help but something stronger would be preferable for the amount of pain I'm in.

Are these two beasts linked? It seems they are. My sister gets migraines, too, though she has never been diagnosed bipolar. I hope my children never get either one of these monsters. And that they are: Monsters!