Posted by ZIP (64.12.105.24) on January 27, 2002 at 12:40:07:
In Reply to: ATYPICAL HEADACHES posted by DAVE ZIPKIN on January 26, 2002 at 11:58:51:
Thanks for your replies - in a sad, sick way, I'm glad I'm not alone - altho I don't wish CH's on anyone - my GP looks at me askance when I try to describe these 'mini' attacks, but my new neurologist seems to take them in stride - she perscribed periactin, an antihistimine, and we're trying that now. The trouble I've found with trying all the new meds over the years (9 years now of CHs) is that I still get the attacks while taking them and my docs & I have no way to assess if they are reducing the number of attacks or are useless. Some seem to act for awhile, then BOOM, back come the attacks. I took lithium for years for another ailment and that did nothing for the CHs, and I've tried topomax, lamictal, neurontin, depakote, calcium channel blocker, beta blocker and a variety of pain meds, although most docs have treated me like a junkie whenever I ask for pain meds. This is the hardest part of suffering CHs for me - the tryptans work better than anything else I've tried, but don't fully get rid of the headache - in fact, I often get wicked rebound headaches from the imitrex in particular, and have found I still need the pain meds even more. I can handle rebounds from the pain meds with excedrin easily, but the docs mostly argue that pain meds are 'inappropriate' for this disorder because they cause rebound headaches. Round and round I go. Zip