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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2002 >> need help badly
        
(Message started by: cen21 on Sep 14^th, 2002, 5:00am)

Title: need help badly
Post by cen21 on Sep 14^th, 2002, 5:00am

hope you guys can help me, My husband was diagnosed with cluster migraines about 4 years ago.
and has had them on and off since then. about 1 week ago they have returned, He usually takes whatever pain killers we have in the house. He went to the doctor on thursday, and doc gave him mersyndol forte, which is doing nothing. He has just come out of a really bad one, and is laying down, This one was the worst one he has ever had, I had to get a bucket as he thought he would be sick, and he was perspiring dreadfully,
I wanted to take him to outpatients (hospital) but he said he would not be able to sit and wait.
I don't know what else to do, this is about the 4th or 5th one in 24 hours. would love some advise on what to do, He can't keep going like this.

Title: Re: need help badly
Post by ChristineL on Sep 14^th, 2002, 7:37am

Hmmmmmm - does he have Migraines or Cluster headaches??? Two very different monsters. Check out the buttons on the left and take the Cluster quiz to make sure he has Clusters. Pain killers aren't usually the drugs of choice for CH's. If he does have CH's then find a good Dr. that knows something about them and print out all the info here and take it with you. I am using Verapamil, O2 and Imitrex as an abortive. Seems to be working for me for now.

Good luck and welcome

Chris L

Title: Re: need help badly
Post by domm on Sep 14^th, 2002, 11:55am

cen - I'm the same as Christine - Verapamil for prevention, Oxygen and Imitrex for abortives. and her advise is very good - make sure your hubby gets diagnosed properly before starting a course of treatment. This site, along with the OUCH site, has more information than the vast majority of docs that I have met. Print this stuff out and take it to the doc. Good ones are always willing to learn, especially if they realize they don't know everything.
good luck and welcome to the board.
domm

Title: Re: need help badly
Post by Drk^Angel on Sep 14^th, 2002, 1:37pm

Do you mean your husband was diagnosed with cluster migraine syndrome? The following may give you some information then:

(http://www.clusterheadaches.org/library/general/ch_general.htm)

The cluster-migraine syndrome is diagnosed when elements of migraine headache occur simultaneously in patients suffering with cluster headache. Solomon and Kappa[111] instituted arbitrary diagnostic criteria to establish the diagnosis of this uncommon syndrome. According to their criteria, the diagnosis of cluster-migraine syndrome was given to patients who had symptoms of one headache predominantly (either migraine or cluster), but in whom four or five features of the other headache also were present. Patients who experienced cluster headache with nausea, vomiting, photophobia, or phonophobia would receive this diagnosis, as would patients with migraine who experienced ipsilateral autonomic features. The criteria employed by Solomon and Kappa[111] were not precise; the required number of associated symptoms was picked arbitrarily. Other clinicians have reported patients with two distinct headache disorders. Graham[34] described patients who suffered from recurrent bouts of migraine headaches that recurred daily for days or weeks at a time, then entered a period of pain-free remissions. It is important to recognize the cluster-migraine syndrome because of the unique treatment strategies that need to be implemented. Patients suffering from this syndrome have been reported to respond to inhalation of 100% oxygen as an abortive strategy for acute attacks and lithium carbonate as prevention. This combination would not be expected to be helpful in patients suffering from typical migraine. Alternatively, beta-blockers occasionally may help in this syndrome, whereas these agents would not be useful in the treatment of cluster headaches.

PFDAN.............................. Drk^Angel

Title: Re: need help badly
Post by johninaz on Sep 15^th, 2002, 11:16pm

Jumping up and down or any aerobic exercise can abort the headache. And with jumping up & down, if I'm in good enough shape to keep it up--like jumping rope but without the rope, even if I can't abort the headache, it keeps the pain level way down. It works best in the coldest air you can find, and under a cieling fan is better than in still air.

Breathing cold air right out of the air conditioning duct in either my house or my vehicles works almost as well as oxygen to abort the headaches. (I used to freeze my family by turing on the a/c in the middle of the night and climbing a step ladder to breathe it directly fromt the duct vent, but now, if I don't have oxygen or want to use it, I run out to the car in the driveway and crank up the a/c and stick my face up to the vent.)

I just got the non-rebreather oxygen mask and if I catch the headache at the beginning (meaning I'm not so tired I sleep too long into it), then it works a lot better than my old mask. Thanks to whoever showed that photo of the non-rebreather mask and the info about it that my wife saw.

My wife also showed me the posts about using the potato chip clip to pinch the skin near the eye & temple. That idea really helped last night when I woke up too late for the nonrebreather mask to help (or maybe i was jsut too impatient to wait cuz the pain was too intense to sit there & breath slowly).

Anyway, I jumped up & down under the ceiling fan & that helped a lot, but i'm so out of shape i had to stop jumping a lot more often than the old days. at some point i remembered the chip clip idea & started pinching my face in different spots very hard to try to relieve the pain. I finally found a spot on my forehead right above my right (cluster side) eye and squeezed it hard for a long time.

It may have been a coincidence, but it seemed to bring on the end of the headache & definitely helped distract from the pain until it did go away. I had been pinching so long that there was a vertical crease in the skin of my forehead going up from my eyebrow almost to my hair. It definitely worked better that knocking on my temple hard with my knuckles--I used to do that when I had no other help.

Hope this helps.
John in Arizona
(I just posted these same ideas a response to the topic, "relations," but they seem applicable here, too.)

Definitely look around here a lot & see that your husband is prescribed an oxygen tank with a regulator that goes up to 25 liters/minute ( I have one being shipped to me--the one I have now the gauge shows that it goes up to 15, but when it's all the way opened, the needle shows it's only putting out 12 liters a minute).

I have 4 "E" tanks that i take back & trade for full ones whenever they are empty, but others have one bigger tank that is delivered to their home.

Check out the way to use Imitrix also. I can't be on any medicines for the time being until the doctors say my liver is ok.

Title: Re: need help badly
Post by xavier on Sep 16^th, 2002, 7:33pm

Assure you Man that all Emergency rooms deal with us all the time. They will take him right away, if you let them know he needs a dark place room the Dr. can see him. Most places will do this for ya'.

They have the best meds. too. ie: Demerol

Your Man needs to go see a nuerologist

Title: Re: need help badly
Post by dasey007 on Sep 20^th, 2002, 9:49pm

[i][/i] ::) hey i was scared the first time i got them too.all you can do is wait it out.unkless you want to go to the hospital all the time.hope you feel better.