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Rescue Medication help? Ideas? Anyone else develop medication tolerances?

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Migraine Headache
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Posted 9/18/2008 9:28 PM (GMT -7)
Hi, I am new here and am hoping for some ideas.

I have had migraines since I was very young (I am 35 now). I have run the gamut of treatment - chiropractors, osteopaths, acupuncture, massage, MRI, CT scans, spinal taps, preventive meds (most families of meds, if not the individuals), abortive meds (again, most families, if not the individuals), and many of the rescue meds. My migraines have increased dramatically in the last 10 years and I now have them anywhere from 15 - 25 days a month and am pretty well unable to function in daily life. Likewise, I now also suffer from depression and anxiety, although doctors never want to agree which causes the other (the migraine specialists blame depression for increasing migraines while the therapists/psychiatrists blame the migraines for creating/worsening the depression).

Medications often work for a few weeks to a couple of months before losing effectiveness. Increasing the dose repeats the effect until the top dosage is reached and then the medication is abandoned and we start over.

Constant use of "rescue" meds (i.e. ibuprofen, tylenol with codeine, vicodin,etc.) causes rebound headaches or loss of effectiveness of the med.

I have only been able to positively identify two triggers - one is a specific taste, oddly enough, and the other is a change in barometric pressure (good luck with controlling that).

So. Anyone else have problems with rebound headaches from rescue meds? Anyone else experience loss of medicine effectiveness? Has anyone ever found effective solutions to these problems?

My doctor claims trying other medicines in the same family of medicines that would essentially work the same way would be a waste of time - is this true in other peoples' experiences? Have very similar medications yielded different results for anyone?

Anything glaring I seem to be missing? I know, armchair doctoring, but I am praying something comes up.

Thank you so much for any input!

Posted 9/19/2008 6:24 AM (GMT -7)
I am not sure if this will help, as you mentioned you have tried most of the meds, but i will offer the advice anyways. I suffer from Chronic Daily Headaches and if i cant control the headache, within 3 days i have a Migraine.  I've tried Inderal, Topamax, Depakote and i am now on Keppra. And i also take 1000mg a day of Calcium/Magnesium and 200mg of Vitamin B2. I am not sure which medicine has been helping...as i started them all around the same time ..2 months ago.(the Keppra and vitamins)..but i am starting to see my headaches getting less frequent. I have also tried most of the Triptan meds...imitrex, relpax, axert, Treximet, and some others i cant even remember.Fiorecet worked for a while but it quit working.  The most recent my doc gave me is Maxalt and so far so good. I try and stay away from Tylenol completely because it does give me the rebound headaches. Since the maxalt and imitrex doesnt last all month, i will take a high dose of Ibprofen and sometimes goody powder works too (rarely, but if i take it at the beginning of a headache it will work) . My major problem is that 90% of the time my headache starts somewhere between 3 and 6am...so unless it wakes me up then, by the time i get up..i've had the headache for a couple hours and most of the meds didnt work very often. As long as a medicine works, i will take it. Once it stops, then we start all over again and look for a different med. Anyways, i would recommend trying the vitamin B2 and the Calcium citrate plus, with magnesium (its one pill) ....anythings worth a try. Hope you find some relief soon! ....oh and some of the triggers for me are, MSG, potato chips, bananas, some cereals, chocolate, too much caffeine, and of course rainy days and such!

Posted 9/19/2008 8:22 AM (GMT -7)
Hello, THis last week I went in for my yearly exam with a new midwife (my other one moved far away) and I told her about my migraines (eventhough I see a neorologist too) And she told me where I live, up in Washington, migraines are very common, and she told me to try just vitamin D 2000mg, or even better would be codliver oil (but I hear that can make you smell kinda fishy and it's disgusting). She said that years ago they thought taking low doses of vitamin D was good but they now discovered that taking a high dose of 2000mg is the most effective. I'm gonna try it, the midwife says that people swear by it, but I have no money right now, but as soon as I do thats the first thing I'm gonna buy. I've also tried everything that a doctor can prescribe for migraines but vitamin D is one I havent tried yet. So thats just a thought in case you havent tried it already. If anyone has I would like to hear what their experience with it was.

-hellokitty
Posted 9/19/2008 3:14 PM (GMT -7)
Hi, I have a terrible problem with rebound headaches, I get them everytime I take a triptan especially zomig.  It ends up being a viscious cycle but usually I will have to go on prednisone for a while and this gets me out of rebound.  I try not to never take any other over the counters except for 2 Aleve w/a triptan (neuro recommended).  I recently went to a NP and he gave me a naturopathic remedy, he said it was a very diluted form of poison (sounds fun) but when your desperate you will try anything, I actually tried it this am as I felt my morning migraine coming on and it worked!!  We'll see it may have just been a coincidence.  Are your migraines hormonal at all?  A friend of mine uses progesterone cream and this works for her.  I have read a zillion migraine books and one that I liked is called Heal your headaches.  Another thing I do every day is a series of yoga postures for your head, and drink a full glass of water as soon as I wake up

I hope something here helps!!  Good luck

Posted 9/20/2008 6:23 PM (GMT -7)
Hey thanks for the info about the calcium/magnesium ...i will also try and do some research on that. i definitly want the benefit from it the best way possible. I'll post something if i find any info .
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