Posted by Mike R (172.140.39.85) on June 30, 2001 at 02:50:23:
The score so far is headaches- 5,imitrex- 0.
I got myself a new doctor who seems to know about CH. He said all my symptoms really sound like CH,but he still wants more tests to be positive. In the mean time I was given a prescription for 50mg imitrex tablets. I was told to take one of these when I feel an attack coming on and then take a second pill in two hours if the first pill had no effect.
I was also told that the dosage could be adjusted if these didnt work.
Well they DONT work and I get more relief (if only for about an hour) from Tylenol,but lets for a moment assume the imitrex did work for me. Heres what confuses me:
The instructions I got said I cant take anymore than 100mg (2 pills) per 24 hours,but the box says I can actually take 200mg (4 pills). The confusing part that makes no sense at all is that the box also says that I cant take more than 18 pills each month. But there are on average of 30 days each month and I have headaches on all 30 of them. How do you stretch 18 pills for 30 days? And what about those days when you need to take 2 pills? Thats one more day at the end of each month when your fucked with no pills.
I dont care for it`s effects on the heart so it`s just as well they dont seem to work for me.
I`d like to take a moment to talk about how fucking pissed I am about my new medical problem. Let me start at the begining of this nightmare....
I had NO headaches at all up until 2 months ago.
3 months ago I went on Nicoderm CQ patches to end a 14 year smoking habit.
I got what felt like a cold on the second week of the patches and by week four I had a sinus infection.
I`ve NEVER had a bloody nose of any kind,but by week 5 I saw traces of blood coming out of my right nostril with the sinus infection.
I also developed the worst sinus headache I had ever felt on week 5 and thought my eye was going to explode.
I suffer for three more weeks and develope "sensitivities" (NOT allergies) to just about EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY. I get a CT scan done and suffer for another week.
I see a sinus specialist on week 9 and I`m told my sinuses are fine even though I feel my eye throbbing and nasal passage blocked while I`m there in his office. I`m next sent to an allergist and find I`m not allergic to any of the common organic things. (dust,cats,dogs etc)
So now I have a new doctor and imitrex. The imitrex seems to have no effect and I`ll soon be seeing a nuerologist.
It seems to me that I should never have quit smoking and nobody is going to convince me that the timing of these headaches and quitting smoking is pure coincidence. No fucking way. My speculation is that it either came from the nicotine patches or it`s something I was prone to getting all along,but my triggers (perfume,soaps,gasoline etc) couldnt trigger it due to how messed up and dulled my sinuses were from all the cigarettes.....(No cigarettes = healing sinuses and a playground for other offending smells that I was previosly oblivious to).
Part of me wants to go back to cigarettes in hopes to fuck my sinuses up again and block out the other smells,but a bigger part of me is telling me i`m fucked now and theres no reversing this. The fact that second hand smoke has become one of my headache triggers seems like a hint that I cant reverse this with cigarettes.
Well it appears that my quality of life has taken yet another nose dive. I`m only 30 and have been on dissability for the last ten years due to depression,anxiety and a few other things of the same nature. This had basically ruined my life and I live like a hermit,hardly ever leaving the house and being pretty much miserable and alone. As if that wasnt bad enough I`m now getting these headaches at all times of day and night???!!! What the fuck!
The real bitch of it is that I was starting to feel better mentally about myself and decided I would quit smoking as a first step to trying to get my life back. This is my fucking reward for quitting smoking? I`m supposed to be feeling (physically) better than I`ve felt in years,but instead I feel WORSE than ever!!!!
The only thing I`ve got for me is that I`m already adjusted to living like a freak. I wont be losing my job or life because of these headaches since I`ve already lost both of those things years ago. And I`m already on dissabilty with medicare so I can obtain "most" of the prescriptions doctors will be tossing at me. I just cant help but wonder how many more diseases I can have before they decide to "put me down" like a sick dog.