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Title: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by HypnoticFreddy on Aug 21st, 2002, 12:10am I am in a rough cycle. I was in remission for 3 yrs. I saw a new Neurologist last week who up'ed my Verapamil does (360 mg/day) and also gave me O2. The O2 helps a little but I am only at 7L/min and I have this funky device that goes in the nose. I am getting a face mask soon. I am finding that at the onset if I take a few Percocets I feel so much better. The headaches at worst last an hour! I have trouble convincing a doctor to give me codeine-type pain killers. But it truly helps. I am not a junkie, but that is what a lot of these doctors think. I just want the pain to go away and I think the pills help. How do I convince my doctor to prescribe the stuff. I know of its addictive properties, but so what. As CH sufferres know, it is so dang painful. If something works, then use it! I just want relief. Does anyone have suggestions of how to talk my reluctant doctor to prescibe Percocet. What can I do????? I am also exploring other preventive meds, which will be discussed next week when I see the doctor. I am now keeping a headache journal to chronicle the headaches. I am entering info about the weather, activities done that day, food I ate, etc. I think this is a good idea and may provide clues about what triggers these demons. Any thoughts???? |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by Giggs on Aug 21st, 2002, 12:51am >:( I have no answer for you but I can honestly say I know where you're coming from. My GA Initially sent my to my optomitrist to diagnose why I was getting this Icepick getting rammed into my right eye aprox 1 hour after bedtime every night. Several docs later, 10 yrs later and several cat scans later, among other tests I read an article in a local newspaper on all the different types of headache. One caught my attention. The syptoms described everything I had been going through for all those years. I clipped it out brought it home to my wife who agreed "Oh My God! Thats YOU!!!" So, article In hand I marched down to my new GA who agreed this was probably my diagnosis. The point is that doctors arent gods and you really have to STRONGLY speak up to get your point/opinion across sometimes Best of luck :) |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by ChristineL on Aug 21st, 2002, 6:28am First of all I would get your O2 bumped up. 7 is not enough........I think you will see a difference if you get it up to 10-12. I can't take any codeine type pain killers as I am allergic to codeine but I think they can also cause rebound headaches. Maybe that is your Dr's thought process. Just an idea. Chris L |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by Bob_Johnson on Aug 21st, 2002, 6:40am Suggest you go to the archives for 11/01/2001 and print out the message, "Cluster Resources--#16". Then go to Amazon.com and get one of Robbins' books to educate yourself and your doc on your medication options. Most general practice docs can't know everything and it's our job to gently educate them! |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by PhilipSuarez on Aug 21st, 2002, 8:37am Most regular primary care physicians are not familiar with cluster headaches. I long ago stopped seeing regular MD's, chances were I knew more than they did about CH. Your best chance is to find a 'headache clinic/ center' and get seen by an MD that deals with all types of headaches. They usually know the best way to approach and treat all headaches, plus they are usually up to date on the latest treatments. My personal insight about taking narcotics for CH is you should not. 9 out of 10 it does not work, you can get a rebound headache thats much worse plus the debilitating and addictive properties are not worth the risk. Most codeine's and narcotics are vasodilators and cause headaches as far as I know, and for CH we look to achieve vasoconstriction. Anyway good luck, read through this website well, its very informative......... |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by Bob P on Aug 21st, 2002, 8:51am Switch from the pain killers to a real CH abortive and you'll get that 1 hour headache down to 5 or 10 minutes. The CH experts agree that pain killers are not the treatement of choice for CH. Go to the OUCH Research Library, in the General section. Goadsby's article near the top of the page is the best, simply explination of CH and it's treatment. Better than finding a doctor familiar with CH is to educate the doctor you have. Print CH info and share it with him/her. I found it easier last cluster to go to my GP, who knew nothing about CH, and tell him what treatment I wanted and why. I got everything I needed. |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by Sarge on Aug 21st, 2002, 10:59am I agree with Bob. You would spend the rest of your life trying to find the right doc, instead stay with one doc and educate him or her. AND STAY AWAY FROM THE NARCOTICS :P, it's too easy to get hooked for one and for another they will only end up causing you to have rebound headaches. There are a lot of options to utilize for treating and even controling this beast. Stay positive and educate yourself so that you can educate those doctors! Good luck brother. :) |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by Svenn on Aug 21st, 2002, 12:22pm Just lissen to Bob here.He said it all!!!!!! I just wont to add my medications for breaking out of cycle.But remember that i`m not a doc,just another clusterhead from Norway Verapamil Retard 120mgX5-7/daily during cycle Oxygene alone at 10ltm for 15 minutes or combined with imitrex-shots does miracles.The shots should start working in 6-9minutes.a few seconds after that you are almost painfree Prednisolone in high doze for 10 days 80mg then over a 3 weeks periode step down like 60-40-30-20-10-5mg /daily This is the miraclecure for me,but i`m not a doc.just another clusterhead from Norway Svenn |
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Title: Re: Doctors and their lack of knowledge Post by Karla on Aug 22nd, 2002, 8:47am I hear what you are saying. Percacet and vicodin help me some. For some people they do not help, others they do. For me they reduce the pain level and make it tollerable. I simply stated this is the number of hours I am in pain each day. This is the amout of hours I can take imitrix or whatever abortive you take besides percacet. That leaves me in pain X number of hours each day. I desearve to be painfree and I am going crazy living with this pain. He perscribed me what I needed. Sometimes you need to be very specific and spell out just how much pain you are in and its severity level etc. I would however, recomend highly that you try other abortives such as imitrix, amerge, axert, maxalt, migranol ns, oxygen, etc. and find one that works. It is not good to take percecet all the time and rely just on that. You do risk rebound ha when you take narcotics. Good luck to you I will be praying things work out for you and you find relief soon. Karla |
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