Posted by August (206.103.56.49) on August 08, 2000 at 02:30:33:
In Reply to: new combo posted by JoJoC.RN on August 07, 2000 at 22:07:04:
I was following along your post nicely. Then I got to the point where you said "Your heart goes out to us all that can't find relief due to your beliefs about pain control." This is the only part that I'm responding to.
From personal EXPERIENCE, not beliefs, I refrain from using narcotics to control my pain. I had morphine for cancer pain. I tried it for clusters. It didn't even touch it. Through my years of being chronic I've tried stadol, demerol, dilaudid, percoset, vicodin, hydrocodone, fioricet. The end result of each of these were no relief and rebound headaches. When I tried morphine to relieve the pain I found that it made the next attack worst. On the low end I get 3 attacks in a 24 hr. period. On the high end it can be up to 7. If I was to take a narcotic to control this pain, i'd be doped up all day and night. Then comes the wonderful task of figuring out if this is rebound, or the signs of a next attack. Out of fear you take another narcotic at the first signs that most likely is rebound. It's a cycle that starts and can go on too long. Ok with that said, (something I've been wanting to say for a while now)there are other things that can work that don't make you go around walking into walls. Maybe narcotics only do that to me. :-)O2, verapamil, topomax, amerge, zomig, maxalt, imitrex. I know there are other things I'm forgetting. Some of these can more effectively abort or prevent the pain. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right combination, but I'd rather have something that takes it out or prevents the pain than merely masking it.
I wish that the medical community would wise up to correctly diagnose people. I wish for a cure. I pray that things get better for you too.