Posted by glenn (63.73.125.25) on September 06, 2000 at 21:11:43:
Just so no one else goes through the crap, I want to post some things my wife and I have learned the hard way over the last year and a half.
My wife CAN'T take Imitrex. She has spider veins, and even had to have a VitaPort installed for IV access. She had tried almost everything under the sun for the pain, and some worked for a while, then stopped, you know the routine. 1 1/2 years ago, when they started again, the only thing that worked was Demerol. They started giving it to her through her port, so she was getting it IV. After about 3 weeks of the Demerol, the headaches took a turn for the worse, and started hitting to a 10, and hitting about every 4 hours. When Topamax first made it's appearance, we started her on it, and she was able to go about 12 hours between her demerol shots, until some smoke inhalation from a fire brought the demons back in full strength, regardless of the Topamax. We thought the Topamax didn't work, so we got off of it and stayed on the Demerol. Same results, major pain, take it every 4 hours. After about 8 months, she was up to 150mg of Demerol every 4 hours, and walked in a fog. Her senses were dull from the narcotics in her system. She got to the point where the pain was almost constant, and so bad that she lost conciousness, so back to the hospital. Our Dr., who we respect tremendously, did some blind studies, and proved that she was chemically dependent on the Demerol. Not addicted, but dependent. (Big difference between those 2) We started back on the Topamax, and started tapering off the Demerol, and within about 2 weeks, the headaches were gone! She was completely free. Well, that lasted about 3 weeks, when she had to have surgery. The trauma from the surgery brought the CH's back in with a vengence, and so it was back to the demerol. We have been back on it for about 3 or 4 months now, and am only still on it because she has 2 more surgeries to go in the next 2 weeks. Once the trauma is done, it will be back on the Topamax, and off the Demerol.
All of that to say; If you are going to use Narcotic analgesics, they probably are going to worm their way into your system and make you think you have gone chronic, with no relief. I challenge you to find something else and taper yourself off the narcs, and see that you still do have a life and freedom from this hell.
Our hope is that we can get off the Demerol and get our lives back, and that this may help someone.