Posted by Glenn Metz on August 25, 1998 at 14:03:17:
I am a 45 year old male, a social drinker, a smoker and lover of good food. Since my headaches were diagnosed about 1 1/2 years ago, I aged about 10 years, quit drinking, cut way back on my smoking, have dropped from 185 lbs. to 135 lbs, lost my job and my wife of 25 years and got to where I hated to wake up in the mornings.
Up until 19 days ago I experianced anywhere from 3 to the grand total of 7 per day for 90 something days. This was my second bout with a 2 month break. The first bout lasted for ONLY 78 days. Before then they seemed to come about once a month for an unrecorded period.
My doctors are pretty open minded and will give many different drugs and combinations a try. During the first bout we tried all sorts of pain relievers with none of them having sucess until Imitrex. The second bout they started trying to prevent them as they could tell I was about to give up the nickel. We tried all the normals that Dr.'s all start with to no avail. Then after a visit to a therapist who said I really needed to be on some sort of anti-depresant due to my defeated attitude. (Wonder what caused that?) Upon returning to my medical doctor and telling the group that nothing todate had worked and what the therapist had said they tried (Serzone - Nefazodone) together with (Adalat CC 30MG - Nifedipine). The Serzone was administered through titration starting with 100 MG's per day and ending with 300 MG's per day. The Adalat CC was started with 30 MG time-released pills and that's where I still am.
The first day I took the medication I still had 2 headaches and generally felt like #%&*. The second day I had no headaches but the #%&**! feeling was still there. It's a feeling of tightness in the neck and forehead and just generally lousy. This feeling continued for about 7-10 days but I continued to take it. After about 10 days I noticed that I was feeling better and could function almost as a normal person.
Since then I started experimenting with my known triggers such as bacon, chocolate, and other foods. Three nights ago I got real brave and tried my worst trigger, alcohol 3 nights in a row now and - NO HEADACHE YET !! I am going to try to see if the medication stopped the demon or I just ended my period. After a follow-up visit to the Dr.s tommorrow I will get a new script for the Adalat CC but will discontinue it's use forever or until I get another headache whichever comes first.
My heart goes out to everyone who suffers from this horrible problem as I sometimes sit and cry while reading your messages here and I do wish the medical community would take a greater intrest in us.
I must end this note for now but will continue to keep you updated on the experiment.
God Bless Everyone and keep your heads up.