Damn.
I’ve been off the Topomax for less than a week and I already have a migraine.
It’s a doozy too, complete with photo-phobia, audio-phobia, and the general sense that my eyeballs are being pushed out of my head by angry little trolls. (Very angry little trolls. Curse you angry trolls!!)
Maybe it’s the weather. Too much pressure building up in the skies resulting in too much pressure inside my head. Maybe it’s the drug, some sort of withdrawal headache.
In the 21 years I have suffered from migraines, Topomax is the only drug that has ever prevented them. It is also the only drug I have ever taken that has stripped my vocabulary right out of my brain, leaving big vacant places where hard earned archaic English language used to be. It offers me a choice between pain or permanent brain damage.
As much as it pains me to say it; I think the migraines are better than the brain damage.
Damn.
Ow. I’m sorry.
Because I average more than two a month, the doctors are always recommending I take the preventative medication rather than the abortive. I looked up every single medication for that purpose and saw the list of side effects and said, “This is worse than the migraines.” They tried to tell me that not everyone has every single side effect crap, but whatever. It’s not like it was, “May gain 5 pounds” or “May get nose bleeds” or “dry mouth” it was “May go into a psychotic rage and commit suicide” “May lose your vocabulary.” “May have sexual dysfunction.” “If you have asthma, it will get much worse and you’ll probably die from respiratory failure.”
No thank you. I’ll stick to the maxalt/abortive meds and the slight tipsy feeling I feel for a few hours afterward. Thankyouverymuch.
If you haven’t looked into the imitrex/maxalt meds, I recommend them. There’s no way I’ll ever go without having access to them- it’s my choice if I want to deal with the migraine or take one of those babies and make it go away.
Mntnlover,
I completely agree with you that the side effects are too much to contend with! Argh!
As for the abortives, I have not found one that works. Typically I can best rid myself of the headaches with a combination of muscle relaxant, yoga, massage, and sleep. That seems to be it.
I haven’t tried Maxalt though, is it markedly different from Imitrex?
That really sucks that they are back. Hopefully some of it is rebound headache & will lessen as you get the rest of the nasty drug out of your body. Milk thistle can help your kidneys process out the excess drugs.
Ben tried Imitrex; it gave him the feeling of a heart attack. Maxalt only dulled the pain for him. But relpax is his savior. I think it is just a matter of finding the abortive that works best with your body chemistry.
I think Maxalt is basically the Advil to Imitrex’s Aleve of the triptans – same family of meds. I found that imitrex works better for the more serious migraine, and maxalt tends to work in 15 minutes.
I’m lucky (well, as lucky as any migraineur can be) because mine are the mild- moderate migraines and I can take the abortives after I’ve had a migraine for several hours and it still works. A lot of people have to take them right away, and then go be in a quiet/dark room for a half hour.
Muscle relaxers work? Interesting. I think a lot of mine are triggered by poor posture and tension in my neck and shoulders. Sometimes I can stop the migraine if I catch it early enough with some Aleve and stretching. It’s annoying because sometimes something as simple as wearing a barrette or a bobby pin will trigger one.