Posted by Judi Mosley (207.175.140.222) on September 21, 1999 at 20:29:13:
In Reply to: Will An EKG Show This? posted by A Dame on September 21, 1999 at 18:28:22:
Hi SUsan....Haven't had the pleasure of talking personally with you - here's my take on it all. The problem is that nobody has taken Imitrex for long enough, to really know what it does longterm. It 's sort of like the thalidomide drug in the 60's - doctors were prescribing it to pregnat women for morning sickenss, and it took an awful lot of babies to be born missing limbs, before anyone twigged what the problem was.(even the Drs). Before I found the CH message board, I used to tell the few people who were interested, that I figured someone, in about 20years from now, when my left leg fell off from the hip, would say, "No wonder - thats because you took all that Imitrex!! As for the holter monitor, I had that for 24hrs, and this is where they picked the PVC's up. In fact, I had an EKG first, that showed some abnormalities, then I had the holter monitor, where it was confirmed. They gave me paxil for that. (an anti-depressant!!!) The truth is, before I started taking Imitrex, I couldn't even remember ich side of my body my heart was. Now, I can feel it pumping. Another problem was, that while daring the beast to come out, I drank 4 glasses of red wine, in about 2 hrs. That night, horrible cluster, took an imitrex shot. My heart was beating so fast, I was clammy, and couldn't feel my extremities. It scared the living daylights out of me. Needless to say, I have NEVER drunk and taken Imitrex again. Looking at Lars message, I think that there is a LOT of creedance in what he did. We are all on to many drugs, and I'm sure they, at some stage, must all work against each other. Right now, I have whittled my down to Elavil 100mgs at night, and Imitrex for the breakthroughs. I have Topomax in the wings, as I am sick of sleeping my life away, and being pretty agitated, especially with my kids. Susan, you sound, from some of your previious posts, that you are on a fair bit of medication. Is there any way that you can sift through it all, and cut down on some. No, I'm not a Doctor, but have a wealth of experience, with regard to drugs for CH. I said before, that Lithium didn't work for me, but you know at the time, I had just had a baby, and was on Litium, prednisone, something to make me sleep and oxygen, not to mention OTC meds.Perhaps, it just didn't work all together. Fortunately, other than the one episode I mentioned with Imitrex, it gives me NO problem at all. Looking at Bob P's post, giving Imitrex for anything other than the typical cluster or migraine is a no no, and states it very clearly in their supporting docs. I don't know what the damn answer is, I sware. Let me know if I haven't covered anything.......Judi