Monday, September 24, 2007
the first snow of the season fell on our mountains last night. it is beautiful.today was also another doctor's appointment -- it was at the House of Pain. so we talked over how the pain med was going -- it hasn't been having too impressive a showing. so we're upping the dosage once more, to see if it'll help more. if not, we're going to scrap it and try something else. i'm pleased to be working with doctors i feel good about.
a pretty uneventful trip today. but a good day. i'm hopeful. even if this med doesn't work out, there are 5 other (similar) formulations of the same drug. and i'm pleased to feel like we're working actively on the preventative angle with my neurologist as well.
Labels: etc., headaches pain clinic, meds
link | posted by Emily at 5:10 PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
i've been neglecting my dear blog lately.i'm about 3 doctor's appointments behind. without further ado....
1 - GP who's been helping me w/my acne. she gave me another combination of things to try, as well as a referral to a dermatologist. you can only IMAGINE how much i want another specialist to see. :) yeah, not much. but this latest face concoction seems promising. we'll see.
2 - neurologist. this appointment was the impetus of my deciding to switch neurologists. as usual, it didn't go well. as usual, he seemed out of ideas and went on to explain that he saw many headache patients, etc., etc., and that when the medications don't work, it becomes clear that they aren't normal headaches or migraines. instead, something emotional is causing them. we've been over this several times before. i even went to see the pain psychologist -- for several months. i told him that, and that she (the pain psychologist) didn't feel like there were any emotional/psychologist issues that were causing or contributing to my migraines. his response? well, sometimes the issue can be so deep down, you don't even know what it is.
sigh.
i did get two useful things out of the appointment -- first was a prescription for another preventative drug - lamictal. even though he feels it's useless to try, i have continued to push him, and he humors me. also a referral to the sleep clinic. i don't know that it'll help, but it can't hurt. even if sleep isn't a contributing factor to my migraines, it would be great to get some suggestions and ideas for better sleep. but who knows, maybe sleep problems *are* contributing to or causing these migraines.
3 - the pain clinic. this went well. sadly, one of the fellows who's been seeing me had his last week and will be going out on his own (private practice). but this appointment went well, we're trying a new long-acting painkiller. so far it's going well -- the only side effect i've noticed has been some drowsiness between doses. it works pretty well, but could be better. there is still some time in between doses where the pain returns fully. but there's more time that's nearly pain free, so that is fabulous. :)
if you've made it to the end of this loooong post, you deserve a star on your forehead, really.
thanks for reading. :)
Labels: doctors, headaches pain clinic, neurologists, nonsense
link | posted by Emily at 11:04 PM
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
report from the doctor yesterday
well hello party people!i thought i'd share an update on my pain clinic appointment yesterday. things went pretty well at the House of Pain, they saw me quickly -- i think b/c i had the first appointment of the day. the schedulers messed everything all up, so i ended up with a 7:50 A!M! appointment yesterday morning. whew. it's honestly been a while since i woke up so early. i'm just keepin' it real here.
so i went in feeling pretty craptastic, and as the day continued only felt more craptacular, b/c i got up so much earlier than my body's used to.
pain doc decided to move me to a longer-acting painkiller. that will be great if it works - b/c the painkiller was working, but only for 2 hours. and i only could take them every 4 hours. you see the problem. that's pretty much the only thing we decided - we talked more about the seriousness of using these meds, side effects, etc.
so last night i slept pretty well (once i got to sleep, that's another story). and this is my first full day of the new! longer-acting! painkiller!
unfortunately, it doesn't work that well. we started off at the lowest dose, so it may just be that it's not enough. what it DOES do pretty well is help me to have nausea and dizziness. my eyes feel tired, like i can barely keep them open. so that makes reading a little tricky. hopefully these will improve. i'll stick with it for a week, and then give my doc a call. see if we need to adjust the med or the dosage.
th-th-that's all, folks!
Labels: headaches pain clinic, meds
link | posted by Emily at 8:14 PM
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
this is a long one....
friends, it's the day i've been waiting for.at last i have some GOOD NEWS on the headache front.
i had some pain relief (on and off) today!!! that's right! there were times today when my headache was so small, i could IGNORE IT. seriously.
let me start from the beginning.
i went to the pain clinic (House of Pain) yesterday. my pain doc decided that i wasn't taking enough of my painkiller -- that i needed to try it out when the pain WASN'T at its worse. to me, that's kind of counter-intuitive. mostly b/c i try to only take something when i need it; and these past years, that means when the pain is at its very worst, and i can't take it anymore. he wants me to get on a schedule of taking painkillers every 4-6 hours, and hopes that this will help me to get ahead of the pain, instead of chasing it.
(just a quick interjection here: i understand the risks associated with opiate meds, and am by no means taking this lightly; i've looked into this for a while, and have decided that it's best for me. that's not to say it's the best decision for everyone. i just don't want my faithful readers to think i'm jumping into something without understanding the problems that come with it)
onward and upward; so i took one of my painkillers (lortab) yesterday after leaving the doctor's office. my head hurt (of course), but not nearly enough to have normally taken a pill. but i took one. and the next 2 1/2 hours were blissful! i had dinner w/my hubby and we shopped, and i was able to enjoy everything so much more. of course, the pain relief only lasts 2 1/2 hours, but seriously, i'll take it for now. the plan is to see how i do with this schedule, and then i go back to the House of Pain in early June; we'll talk and decide if i should go onto a long-acting opiate.
TODAY i woke up w/the usual headachey nonsense going on. i took a painkiller w/my breakfast, and the next few hours were the most productive i've had in YEARS (seriously, years). i did the dishes, 2 loads of wash, went shopping, had lunch. wow. that's like 5x as much as i could normally do. the pain levels are up and down, but knowing i've got 2/3 good hours after i take a painkiller is SO BEAUTIFUL. i could hardly stop smiling all day.
then my dinnertime pill didn't really work -- turns out a major storm is coming in tomorrow night. so i may not be that productive tomorrow, but at least i won't be suffering as badly as normal (fingers crossed). thanks to all who have prayed for me and worked to help me through these difficult times. i'm hoping this is the beginning of a new era for me. :-)
Labels: happiness, headaches pain clinic, pain relief
link | posted by Emily at 8:24 PM
Sunday, March 11, 2007
your words of encouragement are exactly what i needed. i think i'll print them out for another rainy day. thank you.in other news, life rambles on slowly but surely. the new pain med helps more than the last. still not (in my estimation) taking most of the pain away, but at least it's more than before. i'll see the pain doc in another few weeks, and we'll see if he wants to adjust it.
i'm getting the last class arranged for an august graduation. :) i'm very excited, and don't feel the sadness over what could have been (college degree-wise) that i thought i might. as my sister said, a lot of times it's heart-breaking to make a difficult decision, but once you've made it, it's easier to move forward. that is how this has been.
Labels: graduation, headaches pain clinic, meds, pain
link | posted by Emily at 8:51 PM
Monday, November 20, 2006
the pain clinic appt. today
i met with my doc this morning - the end result of the appointment is that i'm switching back to prozac (from cymbalta). i've been on the cymbalta for 2 or 3 months now, and any benefits i've found (slightly more energy) are overruled by the baffling cost. soooo back to prozac i go.additionally, i'm starting physical therapy TOMORROW. this doc seems convinced that there is a significant muscular component to my headaches, and so - physical therapy it is.
he also said that he doesn't believe there is going to be a magic pill or treatment that just fixes this. he thinks we're going to have to whittle away at it. which doesn't sound too bad, except for the fact that in the past 2 years of a headache every day, we've only found one thing i can take everyday that helps at all. and so -- we keep looking and working, but it is depressing to hear him say that. i am always hoping for the end of this, of course, and sometimes get discouraged.
Labels: headaches pain clinic, physical therapy
link | posted by Emily at 5:48 PM
