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        New Message Board Archives >> 2006-2007 Getting to Know Ya Posts >> Need a little help
        
(Message started by: Elliottsgirl on Apr 5^th, 2006, 12:47pm)

Title: Need a little help
Post by Elliottsgirl on Apr 5^th, 2006, 12:47pm

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Hi everyone! I have visited this site before but it's been awhile! Everyone was so nice and helpful. Thank God for you guys! I just have a question and hope I can get some suggestions to take to my new doctor tomorrow. I wasn't expecting my headaches until June but it seems as if they are comming early! I have yet to find anything to help with the pain. This will be my 4th time going through it and I have to admit I am very afraid! I don't know how I manage to pull through these un harmed and I want a full aresonal of medications or perventitves to try to help with the pain. I don't care if it's oral, injected, anything that has helped for anyone please let me know! Thank you so much for your help

Shannon

Title: Re: Need a little helo
Post by Gator on Apr 5^th, 2006, 12:57pm

Hi Shannon,

Sorry the beast is back. Here is a link to read and print and take to your doctor. It describes preventative, transitional, abortive and surgical treatments for CH.

http://www.brightok.net/~mnjday/chtherapy.pdf

Here is a link to some non-prescription alternatives different people have used to help with the pain:

http://www.ouch-us.org/chgeneral/nonmed.htm

If you are currently taking medications, I would suggest you talk with your doctor before taking any of the nutritional supplements. At the very least check for interactions at a website such as:

http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/Home/AllAboutDrugs

Nutritional supplements can interact with prescription meds just the same as some prescription meds interact with each other. Better safe than sorry where your health is concerned.

Oxygen is an excellent abortive. Works for most people when used properly. Defintely try this. As well as it works, I have a hard time understanding why more doctors do not prescribe it. It must be used correctly to work, though. Get it prescribed for up to 15 lpm through a non-rebreathing mask for no more than 20 minutes. If your doc won't prescribe it for you, you might try welder's O2. It's the same pure oxygen used by medical suppliers. Many people here use it and would be more than happy to help you set it up. Here are some links that tell about using O2:

http://www.maplefallswebdesign.com/misc/oxygen/oxygen.htm

http://www.headaches.org/consumer/topicsheets/oxygen.html

http://www.chhelp.org/mhni.html

If you need assistance is getting your meds, the Partnership for Prescription Assistance website has links to hundreds of programs to help people get the meds they need. Check them out here:

https://www.pparx.org/Intro.php

Good luck with the doc. I hope s/he is well versed in CH and willing to listen to your needs.

Mike

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by Elliottsgirl on Apr 5^th, 2006, 1:02pm

wow, thank you so much! You definatly gave me a lot to look into! I can use all the help I can get! I've had a hard time finding a doctor that actually understands and is willing to try new things. That's the hard part I wish there was something that would take the pain away ASAP! It's tuff exspecially being here in the office!

Again, thank you so so much! It is greatly appreciated!
Shannon

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by prettyeyes931 on Apr 11^th, 2006, 6:39pm

Hello new to this site I have been having cluster headaches for 11 yrs now I just went to the doctor this morning for this nasty thing I usually take Imitrex the capsule but my doctor gave me a injection of imitrex today my head feels pretty good right now my doctor wanted me to let him no how the injection worked for me so he can call me in a prescription the only thing about this is you have to give yourself the injection I will do anything to take away the pain so let your doctor no about Imitrex

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by alchemy on Apr 11^th, 2006, 6:45pm

Imetrex injections use an autoinjector. just press it up to yourself and press the button. very little pain. jim

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by Elliottsgirl on Apr 12^th, 2006, 8:06am

Thanks so much for the suggestion. That's funny you said it's a shot because I told my doctor that as afraid of needles as I am I would be willing to give my self a shot if it would take away the pain. Right now I'm using Maxalt, it disolves on your tounge, it's OK. and I was put on 10 mg of inderal to help as a preventitive. I've only had one really bad this week and that one sent me to the hospital. Normal IV and Cat Scans, they always want to check your brain when we can tell them ourselves that nothing is wrong but these damn attacks. I have found a new doctor who is great even called my house 10:00 last night to check on me, I have been refered to a migraine clinic that supposedly specializes in these terrible attacks we have! Wish me luck, and good luck to you all! Thanks so much for the support!

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by Garys_Girl on Apr 12^th, 2006, 9:32am

What a relief it must be to have found such a great Doc!

There's lots more great information available here, so keep reading.

Wishing you lots of good luck and pain free days!

Laurie

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by Elliottsgirl on Apr 14^th, 2006, 3:18pm

Thank you so much! I thank God for the person who thought to make this site for us! It's so sad to think that people have to suffer like this but I am so greatful to have a bunch of people that understand! You can explain to people how you feel and they can even see how you feel but no one that hasn't experienced that kind of pain will ever get just how you feel! Thanks so much to everyone! I'm still getting familiar with the site but I hope that I can help someone the way that I have been helped! I wish pain free days to everyone!

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by Mattrf on Apr 27^th, 2006, 4:46pm

If your doctor puts you on Imitrex you may want to look at the information on this site about making it last longer. It seems that most people can abort with about a third the injection and there are directions on how to take the injectors apart so you can do that. They say it is very helpful since you can only take so much of the stuff and it never is enough on full injections to get you through the cycle so may be worth looking into. I think the info is under the Imitrex tip link on the left. Unfortunately for me the stuff never worked even on a full injection but the o2 is great and helps a bunch, I don’t think anything can get rid of the pain completely but there are things that can make it tolerable or maybe manageable is a better word.
Good luck.

Title: Re: Need a little help
Post by Elliottsgirl on Apr 27^th, 2006, 6:11pm

Again thank you to everyone for the info! I just did a 4 day stay in the hospital because of these! I kept telling the doctors that this is normal to have this much pain but they wanted to do test after test! They did a spinal tap and that gave made my head worse! They had to do a procedure to fix where they took out the fluid..It was horrible I couldn't sit up straig without my head wanting to pop! Then they bumped my preventive medicine up so high that my blood pressure went down to 80/43 and then the neuroligist told me that the imitrex shots could cause a mild stroke because I am past smoker! I'm telling you you feel like you can't win sometimes with these! So far I've gone down to about 1-2 really bad ones a day so I'm praying that my cycle is almost over!