Posted by jstevan (216.176.7.248) on June 23, 1999 at 11:53:48:
I came home and therer was a message on my phone machine from my GP doctor to call and be squeezed into his schedule. I did, I went and he told me he had gone to a chronic pain and headache 2 day seminar to try to get a handle on this specific problem. Can you imagine that? He was willing to give up all mainsteram thinking and asked if I was willing to try some alternative stuff. I thoght about it for a nano second a agreed. I am not a cycle sufferer, they are just always there. These headaches started only last November and I went through the all too usual pains to be correctly diagnosed. I live in Portland, OR and went to 3 neuros here and wound up heading home in Baltimore to the Hopkins Clinic where finally I was given answers and understanding as to what was happening to me. I have been on Lithium for going on 4 months with episodic medications of Imitrex. Getting my insurance to pay is an ongoing batlle of novel proportions. Now my doc has me on Magnesium Chloride, slow release, and feverfew. Go know! I started a week ago and have weaned off of Lithium. Lithium helped, but the side affects of depression were as debilitating as the headaches. Also, Lithium did not get rid of the constant pressure in my head. These two medications do both. No pain what-so-ever and no vise grip. Also there was a breakthrough article in the Berkley Health Letter that my mother sent to me. It speaks to the atrophy that goes hand and hand with chronic pain and the treatment of choice at the Johns Hopkins Chronic Pain Clinic. If any one wants a copy, email me and I will happily send a copy along. I don't have a scanner, so it will have to be sent snail mail. I don't have the date f the issue, just the article, but I have asked my mom to send that info to me. Good luck to us all, Jamy