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Topic: Competarts Had A Miracle!!! (Read 320 times) |
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competarts
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Competarts Had A Miracle!!!
« on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 12:18am » |
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This is my first post, so please bare with my background...I'm a 25 year, classic cluster sufferer... every diagnostic test...every treatment regimen...typical cycle...1 headache a day..then two..then three..then four at the peak of my cycle...then they'd decrease until just as they'd escalated until my cluster would just end...no rhyme...no reason....!!
With my most recent cycle, I was under the care of a new physician who had read a new study from (????) some medical society that suggested a new prophylacsis approach that has been nothing short of a miracle to me!!!!...LIBERATING!!!!....I said: "Doc...You've got to feedback to the medical community these marvelous results....to help other cluster sufferers..." and he kind of and hemmed and hawwed....
So...I figured I had to share my "miracle" with the community directly....
Remember...this is only my success...but if it offers some hope or relief for just one other soul..it will be one other soul saved from the "demon"...
The Doc did two things...he prescibed a mega dose of a calcium channel blocker..in my case 240 milligrams of verapamil (tm?)...he coupled that with an anti-seizure medication (which i had always resisted from other doctors because i was told they messed with the liver -- this one doesn't) -- topamax...had to start slow...25 mg and built up to 100 mg a day....it made me a little wierd...a little disconnected from time to time...BUT...and here's the news....in almost seven weeks...i've had 5... yes...ONLY FIVE headaches!!!!!....(normally in a cluster cycle i'd have 100 or more) and there's more....take a nasal shot of Zomig (tm) and it's gone in 15 minutes or less...not an hour!!!...less headaches... less severe!!!...less money...no gun too my head for weeks on end!!!!!!I'D CALL THAT A MIRACLE!!!!!!
and if my doctor won't brag about it, i'll brag about it for him...and for all the other doctors that have discovered this treatment regimen!!!
i mean it when i say it -- I feel liberated!!! It is a miracle!!! And faithfully I thank God for it! I know how much we cluster sufferers have to bare -- so i hope this posting helps one...or all....
if anyone needs or wants more info...feel free to email me....i get lots of spam at this email addy and tend to delete junk mail...so make it clear that your mail is regards to this headache posting...
i hope you find relief soon as i have....
competarts
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floridian
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Re: Competarts Had A Miracle!!!
« Reply #1 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 10:19am » |
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Glad to hear you found something that works. I know that both meds have been talked about here, although I'm not sure if that combo at that dosage is so common. Did you step up the dosage gradually, or just jump into it??
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Ueli
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Re: Competarts Had A Miracle!!!
« Reply #2 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 10:31am » |
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competarts, welcome to the board and thank you for your input.
All I can say, you were lucky finding finally a physician who knows how to treat clusters (or should I say unlucky that it took 25 years).
Verapamil is the preventative of first choice, and 240 mg isn't exactly a mega dose, many here take twice or thrice of that amount.
Topamax is well know too, but it's track record is a bit mixed, some can't take it because of unbearable side effects.
Congrats for your liberation, and I hope it goes on forever.
Ueli 
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Dave_W
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Pain Free Days!!!
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Re: Competarts Had A Miracle!!!
« Reply #3 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 1:12pm » |
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U Go, Competarts!
I have wound up on basically the same regimen, same results. I take more of each (verap and topa), and use the imitrex nasal spray instead of zomig but we've found the same relief this year with the same combo.
Glad you did too--
Pain Free Days!!!!
Old Dave
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mynm156
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Re: Competarts Had A Miracle!!!
« Reply #4 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 2:34pm » |
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 Good for U man!! I do have to say that I am not one who could take that treatment. Several people have big time side effects to Topamax.
Stay PF!!
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Giovanni
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Re: Competarts Had A Miracle!!!
« Reply #5 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 7:28pm » |
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First, I'm really happy that you found relief. When I was taking topomax some years ago I had to write down my name because I couldn't remember it. Forget driving--I would get lost. My friends/family thought I was drunk. I do not believe that it helped me although the verapamil did.
Again, thanks for your post--we all like to hear success again this battle.
John
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