A few quickly written notes...much the same stuff that I've posted for years. Remember, I'm a retired pilot not a doctor. Though I do try to source my data from serious publications.
Okay, rule out 'menstrual' migraine...some on this forum would not approve of the term anyway. However, make a log of any relationship with times, sex-drive, or anything really. The sex thing shows up all sorts of interconnections...growing a beard more quickly is just one. Hormonal changes happen, so I wouldn't totally rule out such a link.
The fact that you get sick, pretty well rules out a chronic sinus infection. (given that you're okay in between) That can be very hard to distinguish from 'real' headaches sometimes. Oddly, they can come and go at certain times of the day, mostly relating to head position though.
You've gone down the Tryptophan route to some extent,
Tryptophan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Keep researching those links to possible triggers.
Learning all you can about the problem and aiming to stop them happening should be your goal, though ameliorating the symptoms is a first step, and a good one, because you then don't fear the onset of another one so much. Such worry can be self-fueling.
Aim to work on the problem, but remember, it'll probably stop by itself,
Long term, deep seated worry, is I think, one of the prime causes of migraine. Think that one through.
Some of these spasms (muscles in the blood-vessel walls) are caused by what the mind interprets as a perceived threat, be they psychological disruptions, or real. Trying to relax
before the tension is something that can only be done with practice. A quick try, followed by a headache - and then giving up, achieves nothing.
A lot of work has to be put in to stop cyclic stress tension. This is where making a note of the onset timing is important. A link to the same time of day and the same type of mental loads prior to an episode, starts to give some indication of the initial cause.
The following is unqualified stuff, but ideas that I had years ago now seem to be fitting in with modern findings.
My guess is that you are suffering headaches during the restriction phase. A doctor friend and sufferer, is determined that her's are all in this phase.
This is for general interest only, though it occurs to me that your sickness might be a reaction to the 'dilator'. Thankfully, it seems that for one reason or the other you are spared the aura.
A classical migraine sufferer will, I believe, get the aura when a hormone is introduced to dilate 'crisis-clamped' vessels.* It's strong stuff, and 'numbs out' some of the brain's functions, often causing visual disruption, loss of feeling in the fingertips, loss of vocabulary - all the result of an emergency burst of stuff to open up vessels that are now dangerously clamped.
This clamping is designed to save lives - where there is trauma. The problem is that the thinking department just can't tell the difference between head trauma and something that makes an evolved brain unhappy in some way. Perhaps we were not designed to think too much.
So, part of the brain reacts to something it doesn't like, then starts to restrict blood flow because it thinks that is an appropriate reaction to anything nasty. Another department then introduces chemistry to undo the restriction. Both make you feel ill.
Anyway, keep going to the doctor, if it gets tedious, press for an MRI. Try to explain why you don't want the word migraine used, unless it is absolutely certain that you are actually suffering them.
If you really want to annoy your doctor, tell him you've just got a lot of stuff off the internet.
Keep us advised.
*EDIT to say that after even perhaps one episode caused by a real issue, the crisis may be a figment of one's mind. A totally destructive process that keeps reoccurring.