Posted by shaggrat (165.236.189.200) on February 22, 2000 at 22:58:28:
Hello everyone,
I really wish you were all feeling well. I currently in my seventh week of this
bout. I first started having these headaches when I was thirteen. I attributed it
to tension, and stole one of my step mother's Emprine/Codiene for it. Up until
three years ago, I had always assumed that the doctors knew what they were doing. I
lucked out one time when I was 20, and the doc gave me these things called ABC with Bute.
They seemed to work better than anything else. For the next fifteen years, I made due with
asprine/Tylonol...and then of course motrine and all of the other over the counter
Nsaids. Once in a while I would get an injury or something that would require
codiene and I would horde the stuff. Then my father had some open heart surgery
about ten years ago now, and he had Vicodin given to him by the pound and I would take as much of
it as he would give me. Then three years ago I went into a cluster that went on for months and just would not
stop. It got to the point I was too exhausted to go to work, and when I did half of the time
I was laying down on my desk with tears pouring out of my right eye. I thought it might be sinus problems,
which lead me to my first CAT scan. That doc sent me to a Neurologist. I hit pay dirt.
This guy was on a international headache counsil. Straight off he said I was having clusters, but sent me
for an MRI. He put me on Pernesalon, or something like that, it was a seven day steroid treatment, and began ramping
me up on Lithium. That seemed to due the trick. The headaches left and they had not returned.
I had forgotten about them. Them Blam, right after X-mas, it was on again.
Well....that neurologist had since retired, and my GP had picked up the lithium script. So I go
back to GP. Tell him what is up, and he says he can fix me right up, and gives me a handful of
Imitrex samplers, 30 tabs I think. Well they are working but only for a couple of hours at a time.
This does not a good nights sleep make. So back to the office I go. He says he has something better...
Maxalt. Don't waste your time with it, and it is $16.50 a tab. My insurance will only cover 24 tabs
a month. That is about enough for six days..maybe. So he gives me the name of another neurologist
and a script for 50 Norco. 10 mg of acetaminophen/325 mg of hydrocordone. It works, but you either have to
wait for a shadow to show up and hope you can get it in fast enough ( I have found that if you eat something light
like a couple of pieces of bread or some crackers with the medication it gets digested faster and into the blood faster)
or you take them constantly and walk around in a semi stupor. That is where I live now. I talked to my psy-ki-a-rtist
about using depakote, and he though it might be a good idea. Yep, I'm also one of those truly blessed by being
"depressed." But with headaches like this who could blame me? So HI everyone!!!!