Being sick and having no where to go sucks...

[Cynic]

Following on josephbbt's post, I figured I'd lay down my sickness woes. I don't know why. But i just need to write. You guys seem to be stuck with this. I apologize for that. I'm usually a pretty open person but on this subject, I've been damnably closed. It's a response to everything that's been happening around me and I'm close to, no, scratch that, I've probably given up at some point or another.

It's a gigantic spoiler. probably around a couple of pages. So yeah, if you don't want to read, dont' read.

I have migraines occasionally. nothing too bad. I've had them for a long time, so I've sadly grown used to them and because I dealt with them for the longest period of time without medication and worked through them, I continued to do so.

But then the big one struck in March.

On about March 10, I started having a migraine along the lines that I had never had one before. My current doctor uses a scale of 1-5. But the priors used a scale of 1-10 and it fluctuated between a 8 and a 9. Most of my usuals used to be between 2-4 and these I've managed easily by just gritting my teeth and maybe popping an excedrin or an advil every once a blue moon.

I went to my migraine specialist and he took an MRi & MRA with & w/o contrast and found nothing. My regular doctor before this gave me a steroid shot that brought the pain down for a few hours to a reasonable level and gave me a steroid dose pack of...toradol (don't expect me to name off all the medications I've taken in the last 6 months as I've taken over 30 different medications and I doubt I remember all of them) It didn't work. My migraine specialist, a neurologist, kept telling me there was nothing wrong with me, and he sent me over to a pain management specialist, who told instantly that I had Status Migrainous.

Let me take a small detour now on what Status Migrainous as:

Code: Select all

Migraine has now been shown to be a genetic neurological disease characterized by flare-ups often called "Migraine attacks." A headache can be one symptom of a Migraine attack, but it's just that -- one of the possible symptoms. Some Migraineurs (people with Migraine disease) have Migraine attacks without having a headache.

When a Migrainuer does experience the headache phase of a Migraine attack, it generally lasts from 4 to 72 hours (untreated or unsuccessfully treated). The International Headache Society's International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd Edition, defines status Migrainous as:
 

Description: A debilitating Migraine attack lasting for more than 72 hours.

Diagnostic Criteria:

A. Typical of previous attacks except for duration.

B. Headache has both of the following features:

1. unremitting for more than 72 hours
2. severe intensity

C. Not attributed to another disorder

A general rule of thumb recommended by many Migraine specialists is:

If moderate to severe Migraine pain lasts more than 72 hours, with less than a solid four-hour pain-free period, while awake, it should be considered an emergency requiring an office call or a trip to the emergency room.

Why is it important that status Migrainous be treated?
The pain of a Migraine is from dilated blood vessels in the brain and the inflammation of tissue and nerves around those blood vessels. Extended dilation of the blood vessels puts us at increased risk of stroke. Thus, it's important to stop a Migraine attack, as opposed to simply masking the pain with pain medications, as soon as possible. 

He prescribed me some oxycontin which he gave me a whole lot of samples for, bless that man, he was the only good doctor I had seen until my recent migraine specialist and also a script for it. When I went to the pharmacy for the script, the pharmacist gave me the non-generic brand at generic price by giving me a discount card and said it's usable 5 times a year. I was flabbergasted. I thought all my luck was changing.

SO my instructions from my pain management doctor was clear. I had Status Migrainous and the way to clear that was with two methods. One, botox. He would inject it into my skull and it would keep it clear for a couple of months but this was expensive and not covered by insurance. The other that was covered by insurance would be a live - cranial nerve blockade + chemical injection into my spinal cord (something similar to a epidural) during a live x-ray. BUt he said that he needs a secondary reference. I need to go back to my primary doctor. My migraine specialist. He needs to confirm this as Status Migrainous.

Well, you see where this leads. Do you? Well, no? I'll tell you. My doctor told me that it was not Status Migrainous. Two and half weeks into it, and still no relief.

Oh, about three days into my migraine, I get a letter at home from the company I work at, an NPO, saying that because of bad profits this year, we are cutting off such and such benefits including the one that doesn't send me to pound-me-in-the-ass-prison. No, I kid. That would have been preferable. They actually provide health care there. They cut off my short term disability. See, there's the hitch.

I couldn't go for SSRI or any other federal programs because my doctors were saying this was an unqualified migraine attack. ~_~. It was aggravating.

My migraine specialist, aside from being every saintly thing that i have set him out to be, also had his office about 65 miles away. So it was a pain to drive there and back every single time.

So we decided to try a very popular neurologist who lived about 20 miles away from us who seemed to come highly recommended. We pleaded and pleaded with my primary doctor to make the calls necessary to get me a quick appointment. She did what she could but she got me in with one of the secondary doctors working in his office but not the famous one. Oh, well. It doesn't matter, I suppose.

I got in, and as soon as I told the doctor about my condition and about the probability of Status Migrainous, she said it couldn't be it because the migraine specialist who had an office called the headache institute of Texas was saying it wasn't so.

She tried me on this medicine and that medicine.

Around the same time, I started having what I thought of as seizures. Let me backtrack again.

As a child, I had these fainting spells that were diagnosed as seizures. They had the requisite seizure activity in the brain, and the diagnosis was passed. This was when I was about 9 and something similar happened again at 16 (this time they weren't able to map the seizure activity but the same diagnosis was placed.)

At the ripe old age of 23, now, this started happening again, but with much greater severity. Before, I would slowly flop to the ground. Now, I just lost consciousness and I would fall and hit things, people, objects, walls, whatever, without regard. This was if I was standing, sitting, laying down. I just passed out. The neurologist started treating me for this as well. She tried seizure medication as well migraine medication and I was on an ever-changing dosage of medication. All-the-while the migraine is at a level 8 or 9. I couldn't read a book, I started having night mares and thus couldn't sleep. Falling heavily into walls, doors, and at times into glass objects, damaged me pretty heavily. My back and neck were/are in bad condition.

At one point, I fainted with a glass in my hand and I fell on a glass shard. It had just punctured my cheek to the extend that it had it a blood vein. I didn't notice the pain for some odd reason. A few hours later, my wife came into the house and shrieked as she saw me sitting there staring at the wall with a bloody clotted cheek. It wasn't a bad puncture, it was just a small hole but big enough to make an effect on someone who saw it.

I couldn't even hold my daughter. My wife found an internship for the summer, so we had to send my daughter to daycare because I couldn't watch her anymore because I had fallen on her multiple times now. In fact, this is at a latter point in her life (in the last couple months now) that she asks me questions such as "why I hurt her?"

So we have, march, april, and then may. Mid-may, my doctor kinda looks at me and goes, okay, get this, you have a serious condition, it is life threatening. It's called Status Migrainous. My wife wasn't there at this point. But I restrained myself. I have always told myself that I am never the litigious type, that litigation never solves anything, but I was an inch away from considering hitting her with a suit. I didn't, of course. I learned later that litigation caps for medical lawsuits in texas are capped at $250k and after doctor consults, lawyer payouts, loss of income and everything else, you barely eke out a good 20-25$k.

So I was put in the hospital and she strung me with an I.V. drip of D.H.E. 45 for 3 days straight. And that finally broke the migraine. It did it. It was gone. I still had migraines after that and the level of the migraine was no longer restrained to 3-4 but to 6 and 7s and 8s at times. But that monster Status Migrainous was gone. Hossanah.

My seizures weren't though. She referred me to an epileptologist. The rigmarole started again.

More medications, more testing, more this, more that. I found out I was allergic to Depakote in the middle of all this.

I was having about 7-8 attacks a day at a time.
We tried to find out if it was cardiological in any sense and that was found out to be nugatory.
Maybe there was some muscular problems - nope.
Skeletal problems -- nope
SInusidal problems -- nope
I ran a stress test -- do you realize how aggravating running a stress test is when passing out is? -- nothing was found wrong -- well aside from my general level of slouching, and non-exercising and such.
In the end of June, he couldn't find out the reason so he admitted me to the hospital for a week of video eeg in the epileptic monitoring unit at a premier hospital another 60 miles away from home. Why things every be close to home?

I was taken off all my meds and hooked up to measure my brain waves and put in the ritual religious medical gown and would have someone watching me every second of the day. I also saw some awesome movies and fainted and fainted in the week and a half.
But my brainwaves didn't blip in the wrong wave a bit. What the fvck?

Now isn't that odd?

But, my doctor comes in all happy-like. He says, I've got it. You've got psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES). Basically, they are stress related. So, I took the MMPI (Minnesota mental personality inventory) and I was told to go see a psychiatrist and never ever see my epileptologist. Which apparently is not what a PNES patient is supposed to do. He is supposed to see both a psychiatrist and a neurologist. So there was another doctor that I wanted to kick in the shins.

So from june to august, I went and say a psychiatrist who kept changing my medications over and over again giving me lexapro and then adding remeron and then taking off remeron, and then adding effexor and then adding clonazepam.

At the start of August, I decide to go back to work. Oh, until this time, I've been paying $600 a month for my work's insurance because I work an hourly job.

My migraines have started up again recently. Of course it doesn't help that one of the triggers is that any sort of slight jolt to the head gets them going. So I sit here with a migraine that's been going on for the last 7 days with most migraine medications that don't work for me. Right now I've just popped in a Maxalt MLT and a Chloroplorozine tab into my mouth at the same time and I'm hoping the pain goes down.

---

[Crissa]

I'd suggest a endocrinologist, because in all that, you didn't indicate any blood hormone screening.

-Crissa

[JonSetanta]

It's OK Cynic, sometimes you just need to compare your life with others to see how you measure up, get feedback, and such.
I mean, sure there's douchebags in every population that tell you to STFU, but likewise there are always those that genuinely read and want to help because likewise others have helped in other times.

This might seem crazy, but try some biofeedback techniques; biofeedback involves 'listening' to your body's needs, attempting to take control of those normally automatic processes, and in turn re-influence how you feel.
For instance meditating for a little bit each day during the quiet times, and resting more when stressed out, might help.
I stopped that "chronic leg twitching disorder" in this way... what's it, restless leg? Bad legs... It's in my father's bloodline. His mother has 2 false knees and he's not faring too well with long walks, although much better than she is.
It's pretty funny, essentially I just told my leg(s) to stop twitching and even 'imagined' the feeling gone, and eventually it just... stopped.
I don't even have the problem that often any more, and when it does occur I bring it to a halt quickly.

In other news, my girlfriend is having her gallbladder removed after months of pain and misdiagnosis.
We're partially thankful that it finally was figured out, and partially regretful that it had to come to this.
Rough times ahead.
Yet more morphine withdrawal.

[SphereOfFeetMan]

That sucks hard, Cynic. I can empathize somewhat, my family has had to deal with damaging and fraudulent doctors and insurance providers.

Here is a short interesting article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7180800.stm

Too much "sugar-free" chewing gum can lead to severe weight loss and diarrhoea, doctors warn.
The cause is sorbitol, a widely used sweetener in chewing gum and sweets, which acts as a laxative.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, experts gave the example of two patients who had become ill after chewing around 20 sticks of gum a day.

Industry representatives said sorbitol was a safe product and packs carried warnings about excessive consumption.

Sorbitol is widely used in "sugar-free" foods, including products for people with diabetes.

As possible side effects are usually found only within the small print on foods containing sorbitol, consumers may be unaware of its laxative effects and fail to recognise a link with their gastrointestinal problems

Dr Juergen Bauditz

It is also used as a laxative but despite warnings on packets of chewing-gum and other products containing sorbitol, many people do not realise that large amounts will cause stomach problems, the German researchers said.

One 21-year old woman had suffered with diarrhoea and stomach pain for eight months and had undergone a raft of tests before doctors realised her chewing gum habit was to blame.

She lost more than one and a half stones (11kg) in that time and was underweight.

In a second case a man was admitted to hospital after losing three and a half stones (22kg) over a year and suffering diarrhoea.
Excessive amounts

They were found to consume between 20 and 30g of sorbitol per day.

Each stick of chewing gum has around 1.25g of the sweetener.

Dr Juergen Bauditz, from the Department of Gastroenterology at Charite University Hospital in Berlin, said 5-20g of sorbitol would be enough to cause minor stomach problems such as bloating and cramps but more than 20g could cause diarrhoea and, as these cases showed, severe weight loss.

When he questioned the patients he found they had replaced the gum sticks frequently, accounting for the high doses of sorbitol which were getting into their system.

Fruits

Once the patients cut out sorbitol from their diet, their symptoms disappeared and they put on the weight they had lost.

"As possible side effects are usually found only within the small print on foods containing sorbitol, consumers may be unaware of its laxative effects and fail to recognise a link with their gastrointestinal problems," he said.

"The investigation of unexplained weight loss should include detailed dietary history with regard to foods containing sorbitol."

A spokesperson for the Wrigley Company which manufactures a range of sugar-free chewing gums said all the ingredients they used were safe and packs carried warnings about a laxative effect with excessive consumption.

"Sorbitol occurs naturally in a wide variety of fruits and berries including pears, plums, cherries, dates, apricots, peaches and apples.

"It is well documented in medical literature, with studies going back more than 20 years, that excessive consumption of polyols, such as sorbitol, can have a laxative effect in some individuals."

"The safety of sorbitol has been thoroughly reviewed by health and regulatory bodies, including the WHO/FAO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives."

Jemma Edwards, registered dietitian at Diabetes UK, said some people with diabetes eat large amounts of "diabetic foods" containing sorbitol but they should be avoided as there is no nutritional benefit.

"People with diabetes can eat the same diet as people without diabetes as long as it is a healthy, balanced diet."

I don't know if the moral of this story could be of any use to you. One thing I took from it was that a small, simple, and easily fixable thing can be needlessly overlooked for a long time. I guess my advice is similar to Crissa's, get as many second opinions from different specialists as you are able to.

[PhoneLobster]

Maybe it might help you feel better if I tell you a bit about my health adventures. They aren't as exciting as yours, but hey, maybe it's nice to know other people get to share at least a fraction of the fun.

I also get migrane headaches. And usually when people are telling headache stories mine win because my headaches have really exciting symptoms. Though clearly not as exciting as yours.

I've been getting them since I was maybe 12 or so, for about 3-6 days at a time once or twice a year. They usually trigger as a separate headache each day at around about the same time, but not too reliable like, and last, hell 4 or more hours or something.

The really exciting bit though isn't the skull splitting pain its the hilarious secondary side effects.

Usually the first sign of an oncoming headache is various odd visual symptoms. The primary one being little wavey lines along the edges of stuff kind of like the sharpen filter on photoshop. Though these days I also notice temporary (and fairly large) blind spots, usually in my peripheral vision.

Apparently I hear second hand that the wavy line thing may be related to a possible deformed optic nerve (or something). It's fairly unclear but basically my somewhat inarticulate father has the same symptoms and had that come up as part of a vast battery of tests he went through to try and identify a number of his own health problems including an unrelated inordinate amount of kidney stones.

Anyway as the pain starts to hit I suffer significant tingling and numbness in my fingers, hands, arms, tongue or face but only on one side of the body at a time (or divided by side of my body, like a eft mouth and right arm).

And of course I tend to suffer a certain amount of verbal dyslexia. I once spent about a minute trying to say "paracetamol" as in "paracetamol doesn't seem to do a damn thing for me".

ANYWAY the really fun thing is as far as my medically ignorant ass can tell those are all the fun and exciting symptoms I might expect to experience if I were, oh, I don't know, dying or suffering significant brain damage due to something like a stroke.

But more than one doctor appears unconcerned unless it becomes a more regular event, and fortunately as long as I have the medication handy (something with naughty pseudoephedrine in) if I take it when the very earliest symptoms hit I very significantly impact all the symptoms.

So usually only the first headache out of a batch will hit me hard and once I've got the pills I'm pretty much OK unless I'm dumb enough to ignore early symptoms.

Interestingly though uncertain as to what normally causes these headaches I have discovered there is a certain specific supermarket in the region which I on three separate occasions I have walked into and started suffering symptoms within less than a minute.

Oh, and my father apparently has some sort of mineral sludge in his gall bladder, my sister is being treated for breast cancer at 26, my mother has some kind of stomache hernia, my Grandfather died of bowel cancer which may be heritable, the irish side of the family has an oddly high incidence of children born with cerebral palsy, the maltese side of the family is prone to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart problems, diabetes, and paranoid schizophrenia.

Though frankly I'd blame the paranoid schizophrenia on the generations of peasants, murders and thieves genuinely plotting against each other to this very day... If they didn't so frequently talk to ghosts and fairies all the fucking time.

Oh yeah and phobias seem common on the maltese side, I'm phobic of caterpillars, my cousin of spiders, my aunt of grasshoppers and my uncle of, get this, feet. And those are just the ones who admit their phobias, I'm pretty sure the rest don't because they think we'll use it against them in the plotting. I maybe I'm just thinking that because of the creeping family paranoia!

And I also take a double dose of a prescription ant acid thingie for an not especially well diagnosed condition that "probably" isn't plain old acid reflux and "might" be atypical spasming of the oesophagus.

And with the fucking rush on dermatologists due to the (entirely valid) Australian tanning bed scare I can't even book into to get an appointment to then latter get another appointment to get rid of a fucking persistent wart on the end of my god damn finger without waiting 4 months for the first appointment.

Actually the schizophrenia thing is something that particularly worries me. It's something that can have sudden mid life onset with possible causes as simple as a mild flu. I had an odd voice intruding rather unprecedentedly into my usually silent dreams a while ago reciting names and numbers and droning things like "membership list seventeen names redacted" during a brief bout of flu right at exactly the age that sort of thing is supposed to happen.

I'm so VERY glad that the droning-names-and-numbers-guy didn't stick around. I'm more than happy to talk to fairies or have a fun imaginary friend of my choice, but droning-names-and-numbers-guy freaked me the fuck out.

I mean. Membership list for what?

[Cynic]

I'd suggest a endocrinologist, because in all that, you didn't indicate any blood hormone screening.

-Crissa

done, that was done as a battery of tests at each hospital I've been to. the endocrinologist would come in and run me through the same rigmarole.

[Koumei]

You guys have it pretty rough. Here's my story then, but it's not as bad.

Life/death:

My blood was going to stop bonding to Oxygen, indeed it was already less than perfect and I was having trouble doing the kind of exercise that I previously had no problems with (I like to jog). But medical science fixed that. I take medication every day, but seeing as I did that anyway (antidepressants), that's no big deal.

I had a mental breakdown when my depression, coupled with other factors, became too much, and was excitingly close to saving my body the trouble and just fixing up a carbon monoxide chamber. I'm sure everyone here knows how CO works, that it's just like breathing air except that you die*.

Eye problems:

When I was younger, I had what they were 99% sure was Toxoplasmosis in the eye, except that there was no scarring to be found. I had fuzzy black dots appearing in my vision (in one eye), and it was progressively getting worse.

Several tests were inconclusive, and eventually I had an angiogram: they injected vegetable oil into my bloodstream, making me feel horribly, horribly ill, and then, having put drops in my eyes to widen the pupils, pressed a camera lens up to the eye - I could feel the glass touching it - and took photographs. With a bright flash.

Yeah. 99% sure it was Toxo, but there should have been scarring. The treatment worked, at any rate, although that made me very ill for several months (which in turn compromised my immune system for years to come), but they did say it could return.

Yes, I needed to wear an eyepatch. Yes, this was in high school. Yes, I now hate pirates, and did indeed choke one person out for making one too many "ARR!" calls. It probably helped cultivate my bitterness and hatred of humanity in general.

A few years ago, it seemed to be resurfacing. Eye specialist said "It can't be Toxo, there'd be scarring!" Eventually he said it was probably just blood cells leaking into the eye fluid, and gave me some 'roids to take. They cleared it up, and while necessary I wore a patch and made it clear to my (adult) friends that I would appreciate there being no pirate jokes.

Pain:

We all know I suffer from high levels of pain. Sometimes it's a migraine, I frequently have headaches, and occasionally my back doesn't hurt, but that's rare. Sometimes it's so bad that I can't sleep due to the pain, or that I almost need help getting out of bed.

At one point, I needed a cane just to hobble around. I also need it every time I sprain my ankle, which happens far too often - I'll be just walking, and suddenly my foot just gives out and rolls to the side, and then all of my weight is forced down onto my ankle.

So I'm often in pain. Sometimes it is debilitating. Except there's no obvious cause, and I have trouble actually getting to a place that can perform the CT scan I need. It's possible that a piledriver received in school caused lasting spinal damage, but seeing as massages can temporarily prevent the pain (although certain points are just too tender and need to be avoided in the massage), I think it's just something seriously wrong with the muscles in my back.

But there is no obvious cause that a doctor can look at and identify. Result of this? I don't get the pain medication I need. The consequences of this, of course, are that I'm planting poppies, getting my step-sister to talk to some of her friends who know people who have access to morphine, seeing if my dad still gets scripts for Oxy (he had cancer, Endone was prescribed. He rarely took it, instead giving it to his wife who took it for her period pain) and learning the arts of cold-water extraction.

None of which would be needed if not for prohibition. Seriously, can one of you just go and overthrow your government in a bloody revolution, and then end the war on drugs, changing Oxy to an over-the-counter drug? Much appreciated.

Oh, and one doctor thought I might have had Schitzophrenia, because sometimes, if I'm really tired and either spent the day surrounded by crowds (with my subconscious picking up bits and pieces of conversation) or listening to someone speaking, then when I'm trying to sleep, I'll "hear" bits of what I heard-but-didn't-absorb.

*Some argue that this is actually a rather large difference.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Yes, I needed to wear an eyepatch. Yes, this was in high school. Yes, I now hate pirates, and did indeed choke one person out for making one too many "ARR!" calls. It probably helped cultivate my bitterness and hatred of humanity in general.

I had to wear an eye patch all through elementary school thanks to extreme amblyopia, so I can sympathize. And yeah, I had a fun 8-hour session with an opthamologist. I remember trying to read Deities and Demigods and just seeing a massive blur where the tentacle beast trying to rape the princess should have been. Still wasn't as bad as the time I got metal in my good eye and had it (the metal!) removed via vibrating needle...
Really, though, the patch might have been tolerable had it been cool. Instead it was red, blue, and yellow felt with a little boat.

It's possible that a piledriver received in school caused lasting spinal damage, but seeing as massages can temporarily prevent the pain (although certain points are just too tender and need to be avoided in the massage), I think it's just something seriously wrong with the muscles in my back.

My girlfriend really fucked up her spine diving in high school. Basically she did a bad entry and 'sprained' it. She was poor, however, and couldn't afford to see a doctor. As a result she couldn't get a note excusing her from gym class, and had to continue diving for the next few days until she was physically unable to move. Thankfully, her dad was on methadone and codeine at the time (work related injuries -- he was a roadie and laser engineer), so she managed to keep the pain to a moderate level.

Anyway, she's been doing yoga for about four years and as long as she keeps it up, the pain is kept at bay. So, if you haven't already, you might want to try some sun salutaions.

Oh, and one doctor thought I might have had Schitzophrenia, because sometimes, if I'm really tired and either spent the day surrounded by crowds (with my subconscious picking up bits and pieces of conversation) or listening to someone speaking, then when I'm trying to sleep, I'll "hear" bits of what I heard-but-didn't-absorb.

Heh. My shrink thought I might be borderline psychotic (thank you MMPA!), so he stuck me on risperidone. Result: flat affect for a month. Scared the shit out of my family and friends, until I finally just stopped taking it.


So, is this level of fucked-upness about normal for the world, or does TGD just attract misfits?

[Koumei]

Risperidone is bad shit. I spent a week or two on it much earlier in life while they were trying to find an antidepressant that worked on me, and it turned me into a zombie for the time being.

No really, Cure spells even dealt damage to me.


I haven't tried Yoga, so I'll look into it. I'm willing to try anything a few times if it's possible that it can stop the pain. These days I've considered pain asymbolia (a condition you wouldn't want to be born with: your brain doesn't notice pain signals properly, so you are aware of the pain, but without it actually feeling bad), and just need to find a way to get it.

So far there is:

-Be born with it (a bit too late for that)
-Leprosy (aside from no-one in Australia having that, there are bad effects too)
-A certain type of diabetes (I'm apparently safe despite my high-sugar diet, and I doubt you just get to choose what type you get anyway)
-Spinal damage (clearly this is a bad option)
-brain surgery - it's possible to have the relevant part of the brain damaged or removed, if you trust them not to accidentally damage any other part. So it bears looking into
-Apparently, morphine analgesia can cause it. I assume this means "If you take plenty of morphine plenty of the time, you might eventually just stop pain from happening at all." This also bears looking into.

I welcome any input by Doctor Trollman on this matter. Of course, I would also welcome any packages of Oxy, Vicodin or Morphine in the mail. Hint hint.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

I am blessedly free of major health problems. However, in our house, we don't fuck with migraines. My girl had a bad one once, it lead to a stroke (she's fine with no loss of motor function or memory). She is now on topamax.

Topamax is a bizarre drug that will make it feel like your fingers are going to sleep and make soda taste bad. The good news is that it makes you lose weight, not drink soda, and not have migraines anymore.

[erik]

I am blessedly free of major health problems. However, in our house, we don't fuck with migraines. My girl had a bad one once, it lead to a stroke (she's fine with no loss of motor function or memory). She is now on topamax.

Topamax is a bizarre drug that will make it feel like your fingers are going to sleep and make soda taste bad. The good news is that it makes you lose weight, not drink soda, and not have migraines anymore.

My wife is taking Topamax as well, and now her sister is on it for similar mysterious undiagnosed neurological issues, some of which were classified as migraine-like. Seems like a wonder drug in a lot of ways for my wife, but she was almost wasting away due to the crappy weight loss. It took a fair bit of work to get her to have enough weight to safely carry a baby.

As for myself I'm lucky that I haven't had a migraine in almost 10 years, but they're no joke. I know migraines present themselves in a variety of flavors, but I always get pissed when I hear some of my co-workers call their headaches migraines.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I took Risperidone for a while. It had a similar effect, it killed my emotions and creativity. Although the geodon was worse.

Either way, I don't take anything right now. Too expensive, and it messes me up to bad, the side effects are worse than the problem they're treating.

[Maj]

Either way, I don't take anything right now. Too expensive, and it messes me up to bad, the side effects are worse than the problem they're treating.

Word.

I stopped dying and ditched my health problems a couple of years ago. The meds went shortly thereafter.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I found out that most of my mental issues were stress-related. The major source of stress and pain in my life was kind enough to move halfway across the country, and since then I've been more chill.

[JonSetanta]

I found out that most of my mental issues were stress-related. The major source of stress and pain in my life was kind enough to move halfway across the country, and since then I've been more chill.

Medicine would be revolutionized if our nations had some kind of personality exchange program.
A worldwide compatibility match program; you live with people that cause the least stress to each other.

Money saved on medical bills would be... tremendous.

[ubernoob]

I've been on a steady dose of hydrocodone since my nose surgery on friday. I've been in a very pleasant mood because of it. I know I'll hate running out of this stuff.

[Koumei]

Heh, I bet you will. Try to slowly wean yourself off before you run out - or go from hydro down to codeine, then gradually lower your dose of that.

Assuming the pain stops before you run out of drugs.

It's been a week or two since I've taken useful painkillers (as opposed to consuming ibuprofen rapid-release tabs at a rapid rate - bonus: it gets absorbed very quickly, reducing the chance of stomach ulcer), and I regretted it, but yesterday I finally gave up and took some more codeine for my back. 30mg later, my headache and sore extremities felt fine, my back felt better, and due to not taking codeine in a while, I felt really happy.

[virgil]

Personally, I've always been kinda 'meh' with hydrocodone. The only happiness that I felt was the pain not being there, because I don't actually like the state I'm in when I use it; somewhat lightheaded, tingly numb, etc.

Of course, that's for when I actually have pain that it works on.

[Cynic]

I'm really "meh" with pills in general. I take so many that I don't like them at all.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I know that I went to the emergency room for the worst fucking migraine I've ever had, they gave me a shot of some sort of painkiller, and my god it was awesome.

Better than riding a new roller coaster, better than the love of a beautiful woman, better than experiencing a new culinary delight, better than literally anything I have ever felt in my life ever.

I made it a point to forget what it was called, because I would totally dedicate my life to that. And I don't want to become an addict.

[Cynic]

I know that I went to the emergency room for the worst fucking migraine I've ever had, they gave me a shot of some sort of painkiller, and my god it was awesome.

Better than riding a new roller coaster, better than the love of a beautiful woman, better than experiencing a new culinary delight, better than literally anything I have ever felt in my life ever.

I made it a point to forget what it was called, because I would totally dedicate my life to that. And I don't want to become an addict.

The only thing that's worked with me so far has been either a cranial nerve block which can't be used often or I.M D.H.E 45 injections (hurt like a bitch to get into your leg) which soon lost their potency and now Lidocaine (a local anaesthetic).

Painkillers usually don't work with me. Morphine doesn't work with me. Oxy works but Hydro and codeine and vicodin are all moot most of the time for migraines. Triptans and ergots are usually what are given to me most of the time. I've tried vasoconstrictors (?) beta blockers, and calcium blockers but even they can be hit and misses at times depending on the strength of the migraine.

But Lidocaine 4% nasal drip is the best so far but even with that i can only take it three days in a row. because of my passing out and hitting walls, I get them pretty much every day.So I'm boned after the third day.

[Koumei]

Vicodin is Hydrocodone. Which would explain why you find them to have the same effect. It's just a brand name - the best known brand name thanks to a certain doctor on a certain TV show.

And I'd guess that what Count was given was either Morphine or a low dose of Fentanyl*. Although if in the UK, they might have used Diacetylmorphine.

*On the grounds that it's over nine thousand times as strong as Codeine, and a high dose can be used as an elephant tranquilizer.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Dammit. Fentanyl. Now I gotta try to forget it all over again.

[Koumei]

SCORE! :mrgreen:

Incidentally, you normally get it in slow-release form (patches, like the nicotine ones I guess), or in lollipops (I believe they're called suckers in America? Candy on a stick). That sounds somewhat bizarre, and I can't help but see that making them even more habit-forming.

But maybe that's just me, who is basically sugar-addicted.