HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

migraines ~ NOT a

Support Forums
>
Migraine Headache
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 1/13/2011 6:35 PM (GMT 0)

I was just reading someone else's post on this subject, but it was from sometime in 2006, so I apoligize if this is repeat questioning.

I have a family history of migraines...maternal g'ma, mom, sister, me, and now my 11 yo son.  My g'ma is in her 90's and doesn't deal with headaches now (do I have to wait that long??); mom uses a chiropractor to little avail; sister on Imitrex which I cannot take.  Son...throws up.

Now me....I am on other meds that don't allow me to take Imitrex or other triptans (Topomax, Gabapentin to name a few) that my neuro gave me anyway....  I had really crazy thoughts and memory loss on those mad

CAT scans/MRIs/thyroid testing...all come back normal.

I get hormonal headaches (BC didn't help/they took me off of them, still no relief), and I get weather-related migraines.  I'm a walking barometer (and more accurate than the meteorologists!)

So....My regular doctor knows ALL this, has prescribed narcotics which, at this point, are the only thing that works, but has my chart labeled "seeker" and tests me without telling me all that she is looking for in the bloodwork.  Duh, wonder what??  Now she is limiting what I can get/when I can get it -- if at all.  And that's IF she or her office decides to call me back at all!  I have gone many times a week or more without a return phone call!  So when I call back again and again, that makes me look even worse in their eyes.

So now the question....my doctor is retiring tongue and I'm going to a new doctor.  How do I explain to her that the narcotics are the ONLY thing that kick the migraine to the curb once and for all (or until the next weather front moves in)??  It feels like everytime I talk about pain meds, all they hear is "seeker".

I need the narcotics to work because nothing else touches my headaches, so WHY IN THE WORLD would I abuse them so they don't work at all???!  I have explained this to my old doc over and over; all to no avail.

Please---any advice to let me know I'm not alone in this!  How have others handled similiar situations??

Thanks for letting me talk and actually BE HEARD for once!

Posted 1/14/2011 1:34 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Gabby,

Welcome to Healing well. I am so sorry to hear that you are suffering and are having to deal with difficult Docs.

I live in the UK, but it seems to me that in the USA especially that initially the Docs will only prescribe the Narcotics, then when you can't do without them they try to stop you and you get labelled a drug seeker - makes me angry!!!!!

Narcotics are addictive there is no two ways about that but the other thing is, and I think this is worse in many ways, is that they cause rebound headaches and eventually make you condition worse!!!

The best advice I can give you is to find a Neurologist who is a Heacache Specialist as they are best qualified to treat headache and would be able to find a better way forward for you! Sadly they are often far away but it is well worth the effort of traveling some distance in some cases, rather than going around in circles with some Docs with the narcotics!!!!

Wishing you all the best, let me know how you get on?

take care

Ann
Posted 1/14/2011 6:37 PM (GMT 0)
I know exactly how you feel, I can go months without an episode but when it hits I go to the hospital and they think I'm drug seeking. I've resorted to having them test my blood to prove that I'm no addict. Once it's cleared then I get treated like a human.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply