Posted by MIKE L (63.228.199.10) on August 29, 2000 at 00:38:44:
In Reply to: CLUSTER AND MIGRAINES posted by GARY SKOR on August 28, 2000 at 22:53:55:
Gary I have suffered migraines for abou 30 years I have only suffered clusters for about 9 years. I have had such little success that I had to quit going to work for 5 years plus. I finally was reffered to a Pain management specialists (An Anethesiologist) who used long term opiate therapy. I started on low doses of methadone and gradually increased them to about 50mg 4 times a day. I had never had so much relief. This is a fairly high amount of methadone even for a cancer patient but my Dr. thaought is was warranted due to the extreme cluster attacks and the long drawn out migraine bouts. I know this is not for every one but it worked great for me slowed my cluster attacks 3-5 a day each lasting 3 hours to less then 10 a week. as a bonus my Dr. tried A sucker called Actiq ( a strong quick acting narcotic absorbed through the mouth in about 15-20 inutes). Actiq is used for cancer pain breakthrough. It was a godsend. My migraines are still somewhat herder to control because narcotics don't work as well for them. Sometimes I use prednisone to break a lomg mograine cycle. This worked well for me. Maybe for you also.