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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2003 >> lithium
        
(Message started by: clustey on Sep 16^th, 2003, 1:09am)

Title: lithium
Post by clustey on Sep 16^th, 2003, 1:09am

I have been a clusterhead for 8 years now. imitrex is a definate abortive, but only so much before rebounds. I have been on Veraomil, cafergot. o2. now my doc wants to put me on lithium. Can someone tell me about the side effects? will i be a zombie, or able to work. Does it work? Just the name gives me the kreeps but if it works I'll try anything. And any info on shrooms you can offer. Also if anyone lives in the Los Angeles area I am very lucky to have good insurance. I more imitrx injections that I need. If you want any please email me at jngs1111@aol.com. Free of course. They expire in Feb 04 and I know i won't use them all. I would rather help someone else than throw them away.
tanks, clustey

Title: Re: lithium
Post by Karla on Sep 16^th, 2003, 7:46am

I was on lithium for a couple of years and loved the stuff. It cut the number of headaches I was having in half. Was having 8 ha a day. lithium gave me 4 a day. It allowed those 4 to be treated with imitirix. I had no side effects from the lithium at all. I was scared to go on it as well but soon found there to be no worries on it. There are a few people on lithium here on the board. I haven't heard any horror storries yet about someone who tried it. So it must be ok to take.

Title: Re: lithium
Post by jonny on Sep 16^th, 2003, 5:10pm

600 mgs of Lithium everyday for 13 years and no zombie crap going on here, Verapamil along with Lithium changed my life 13 years ago.

E-mail me if you have more questions Clustey

..................................jonny

Title: Re: lithium
Post by Prense on Sep 16^th, 2003, 6:31pm

I am hoping to get lith prescribed in conjunction with verapamil soon (cause the verap just aint doin it!) I have yet to hear anyone say anything negative about lith here yet.

As far as the trex expiring...there have been a few here that have used "expired" (WAY expired ;D ) trex and claim that it works as well as the day they got it. Either way, someone will take you up on the trex offer...no doubt! Let us know how the lith works for you.

Chris

Title: Re: lithium
Post by ckelly181 on Sep 16^th, 2003, 9:10pm

Probably no big deal, but lithium didn't work for me...the ha's got right through as easy as ever. I had a tight pressure in my chest, but nothing else.

There's always gotta be one, huh?

Chris

But that O2 - Hello mama!! If you could get addicted to that, I'd be in rehab by now...

Title: Re: lithium
Post by chris on Sep 17^th, 2003, 5:23pm

Tried all meds as you without much luck!! Like Johnny,have been on verap and lithium for a few years and its the only combo that keeps on kickin ass!!Altering dosage occas. Is very hard on stomach for me though. Don't need my fiber anymore!!Take lomitrol 1 hour before helps stomach probs. But knocked out ch from 5 a day to 1 or 2 a quarter. Don't throw out that imitrex, you never know with these things and might all of a sudden go into a heavy cycle! Old imitrex is better than NO Imitrex :'( It won't get bad, just less potent. Chris

Title: Re: lithium
Post by UnsolvedEquation on Sep 18^th, 2003, 12:50am

Lithium for me did not work. And I did experience 1 side effect. Judgement of Distance was way off. Sounds weird I know but it's true. I could walk okay but I did take extra precaution while near stairs ! (Also I couldn't hit a dartboard with a dart for a million bucks) :o

Title: Re: lithium
Post by Eb on Sep 18^th, 2003, 5:09am

Clustey,

Well I'll be trying lithium here as well here in the near future...I've tried both verapamil and depakote so far w/ absolutely NO results!

Hoping that lithium alone or lithium with either verapamil/depakote help tame the beast for awhile. Going on my 8th month here of HA with the only relief coming from the prednisone tapers...

Eb

Title: Re: lithium
Post by Smurf on Sep 18^th, 2003, 12:41pm

Hi Clustey,
Check with a doctor. On a similar thread

Quote:

P.S.S. If your doc. does prescribe the Lithium, watch out about taking hot showers. Let him/her know that you have to take a sauna to get relief. Lithium instructions say to not sweat or get hot!

If you're a "hotie", then you need to be aware of this:

From Rxlist.com :
Quote:

Decreased tolerance to lithium has been reported to ensue from protracted sweating or diarrhea and, if such occur, supplemental fluid and salt should be administered under careful medical supervision and lithium intake reduced or suspended until the condition is resolved.

In addition to sweating and diarrhea, concomitant infection with elevated temperatures may also necessitate a temporary reduction or cessation of medication.

I only take Lithium (with Verpamil) at the first sign of the demon all the way until it ends. After 12-14 PF days, I start to taper back on both until I'm down to zero. When I'm not in CH, I don't take anything. Between the Verpamil, Lithium, Imetrex and CH, I don't know who is giving me what symptoms.

However, I did increase my Verapamil a few weeks back, and now my bad foot has been VERY swollen. I have a call in the doc because that's another symptom you need to look out for.
-Smurf

Title: Re: lithium
Post by rbmb on Sep 19^th, 2003, 11:13am

I used lithium for about 2 years....it seemed to help at first, then didn't seem to be effective in preventing CHs. My neurologist would increase doseage (was up to 1200 mg at one point) and then require a blood test to check serum level.....apparently I peed it out pretty fast as level was always pretty low even at 1200 mg. He said that the theraputic level and the toxic level are pretty close to each other. The only side effect I noticed was diarreaha, which got worse with increasing doseage. I quit taking it as it didn't seem to help any more. Dr. is suggesting Topomax as next preventative to try(have tried O2, imitrex pills, zomig pills, prednoise,
others) DHE self-injections are the only thing that have been effective in stopping CHs for me and even those seem to be less effective if done too many days in a row. Also, it seems important to use a fairly long needle (1" to make sure to get into the muscle, not just under the skin).....makes me cringe to think about it but it's better than the headaches.
rbmb