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Topic: Hello again, my friends (Read 108 times) |
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MaureenG
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Clusterheart since 2000!
 
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Hello again, my friends
« on: Nov 15th, 2002, 12:27am » |
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Just wanted to take a minute to say hello again. I've been away for far too long. There are so many new people since last time I visited, I feel like a "newbie" again.
I want to give a quick update on Steve. Verap and Depakote have still been working pretty well, although he did have a really bad cycle last month. He just got insurance through his new job a couple months ago, and hasn't yet gotten to a neuro, but he just started seeing a new doctor who was very helpful. He gave him a script for Imitrex injections, which he has never been able to get before. He also agreed to prescribe oxygen and should be set up when he goes back in a couple weeks. Hopefully the insurance will cover it, but if not, it will be worth paying cash until he can get into a neuro for a script.
The brightest light at the end of the tunnel came about a week and a half ago. A friend of his family used to get terrible headaches (I don't know if they were clusters or not) that was supposedly attributed to dental work. She went to some kind of pain management clinic in Boston that has a team of doctors - GP, neuro, dentist and her headaches all but disappeared.
Steve swears his headaches started right after he had a root canal, so of course he was hoping for the same results as the woman who referred him. I was extremely skeptical. I know there is no miracle cure for CH.
He went in for an appointment a week and a half ago. I think he met with the dentist. Anyway, the doctor said that even though he had a root canal, there could still be live nerves below the root causing his pain. He suggested trying a series of nerve blockers, and gave him the first shot that day. I'm glad I didn't know about it ahead of time, because I always worry about things like that. There's always a risk of paralysis, and my thought was that going through life with one side of his face sagging wouldn't be a pleasant way to live the rest of his life either, but of course he is willing to try anything.
Well, after a month-long unbearable cycle, he has had almost two weeks nearly pain-free. He has had only one measurable attack which only lasted 15 minutes! I am afraid to get too hopeful, it could be a coincidence that his cycle ended, but the relief started the night he got the injection, and he was having excruciating attacks right up until the night before. Hopefully, once he completes the series, he will feel some lasting results.
I'm still not getting too excited because we went through a false euphoria when he started on the Verap and Depakote, but any period of relief is welcome.
If anyone has managed to make it to the end of another of my long-winded posts, I am wondering if anyone else has ever tried nerve-blocker injections.
PFDAN to all! I won't stay away so long this time, then I won't have to write such long posts! ;D
Maureen
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Jackie
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Re: Hello again, my friends
« Reply #1 on: Nov 15th, 2002, 5:23am » |
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Hi Maureen,
Glad to hear things are better at your house... 
As to the reason for the relief ??? You're probably like a lot of folks and think 'who cares'...as long as it's better we'll take it...  Blake has gone 24 hours without any full blown 10's so things may getting better her too. 
Jacks 
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| « Last Edit: Nov 15th, 2002, 5:24am by Jackie » |
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