Posted by Hal on April 15, 1999 at 11:48:16:
In Reply to: The Torture Never Stops!!!!!!!! posted by Carl D on April 15, 1999 at 00:29:54:
Carl,
To be brutally frank, if your doc is giving you
only Fiorinal and doing it when he knows that you
have a stomach problem, he's fucking over you. This
loser really is a quack. At the very least, he could
be giving you Fioricet, which is aspirin-free. Not
that that would matter, because the Fior- family of
drugs has no effect on The Demon whatsoever. If you
can, change doctors immediately! If not, tell him
to give you prednisone and verapamil, just for start-
ers. Unfortunately, with respect to The Demon, it's
definitely different strokes for different folks. These
drugs work for me, but they may not work for you, just
as caffergot, lithium, etc. don't work for me. Also,
you should be getting something like Darvocet or Per-
cocet (definitely NOT Darvon or Percodan, which have
aspirin in them) for the pain. The general thought
is that narcs don't really have any power over The
Demon. That may be true, but I don't care. When I'm
down on my knees, so hoarse from groaning in agony
that I've nearly lost my voice, I'm going to take
SOMETHING! It makes me feel better psychologically
to pretend that I have some control over this monster,
even if it's only in my own head (no pun intended).
If you want my credentials, I had my first cluster
headache shortly after my nineteenth birthday. I'll
be 62 on my next birthday, and I was 49 before I found
a doctor who was able to tell me what this torture
was and not give me some bullshit about allergies
or such. Fortunately, my clusters are only acute/episodic
and not chronic. But, unfortunately, I suffer chronical-
from ordinary headaches. For these headaches - at
their worst, they're like a bad hangover - Fioricet
pretty much works like a charm. This is probably
where your quack's head is. You have to get him to
understand that a cluster headache is not just an or-
dinary headache, except worse than usual. A cluster head-
ache is a whole other kind of pain that's so fucking
horrible that there are no words in English to describe
it. The only way to know what it feels like is to feel
it in your own head or eye or cheek or teeth. The
Demon attacks me in all of those places, one after
the other, over and over again, in the course of a single
episode. On the other hand, I've never lucky enough to
pass out from the pain or unlucky enough to lose control
of bodily functions.
I wish you the best of luck with your old doctor and
in your search for a new doctor.