Posted by jeff glickman on March 22, 1999 at 17:16:11:
Hi fellow sufferers. I don't know how I'm still
functioning. I was 51 on the first day of spring, and
'celebrated' with 5 CHs during that 24 hours. These
were screamer/pounder/cursing types with lots of
heavy crying spurts interleaved with inhuman sounding
moaning binges. O2 was not helpful.
In general, I have to take Imitrex - either spray or
injection - to ends those nasties. The problem is, I
*know* I'm taking too much of the stuff. Yet, I can
not help it. I've suffered for an hour at a time or
longer; the pain simply does not cease on many
occassions, so I take a spray and feel certain that
within twenty minutes (3-5 for the injection), it will
finally end.
I began lithium recently. On the fourth day, I went
from 600mg to 900mg. I then had five days and nights
in a row with *no* CHs. Like, wow, ya know? I actually
slept! But it wasn't to last. They began to penetrate
whatever kind of 'shield' the lithium puts up. I
went up to 1200mg a week ago, but no help.
I began Verapamil (180mg) today, in conjunction with
the lithium. I'm coming down from a long stint on
prednisone (now down to 20mg/day from 80mg/day a
month ago.)
Sorry for the long length of this, my first message
posted to this bbs. Anyone have any experience or
insight with regard to the imitrex use, the
verapamil, and the lithium?