Posted by John L on December 02, 1998 at 13:51:19:
In Reply to: Re: Rebound Headaches posted by DocGreg on December 01, 1998 at 18:56:25:
These are definitely rebound headaches. The first time I got a prescription it was for 60 mg, then 50, then 40, &tc. The prescription started the day after I got the first headache in the cluster. To make a long story short, I got a headache every third day for nine days. They were always at about 5:00 AM. After getting the third one it dawned on me that it was always the day after I dropped my dosage. I've since repeated the experiment and I either get a headache (the bigger the drop in dosage the more severe and long the headache is) or I feel crappy (shadow headache and nausea) all day. The problem is that only the first two weeks of my clusters are bad. After that the headaches are easy to suppress and easy to kill if they sneak by. So I get 14 days every six months or so to play with my meds to see what works and what doesn't.
I'm gathering that it's OK to stay at 60 mg for 10 days or so and THEN start tapering. After the second week I can taper pretty rapidly with no ill effects. It's only the beginning period. I agree about the Fioricet. The regular kind actually works pretty good late in the cluster, but it's useless at the beginning. And I suspect the codeine kind does more harm than good. It's almost like it prolongs it. For my next cluster, I'm going to try the Imitrex inhaler and see if I can get an O2 bottle for my bedside. Let's hope I won't need it for another two years :) .
jpl