Migraine, day 5

[unixronin]

Very short update because I can't stand to be in front of a CRT for more than a few minutes.  Five days in now, and I still can't tolerate bright light.  I'm OK as long as I stay in a dark or dimly lit room.  As soon as I come back into normal illumination, the clock starts ticking, and I have at most about a half hour before I have to retreat to the dark again.  My doctor has me on Demerol and Vistaril; I'm not convinced it's noticeably helping.  It certainly doesn't stop the skullsplitting headaches.  The good news is at least I'm no longer nauseous, but that's small consolation when I basically can't DO anything.

Comments

[jmkelly.livejournal.com]

The only thing I could suggest is caffeine. I speak only from experience as an occasional (thank God!) migraine sufferer, but at least once I've fended off a migraine with a cup of coffee. That was in the prodromal stage, though; after five days, I don't know. Couldn't do any harm, anyway. I've had cranio-sacral therapy help, too, though again only in the early stage. The guy just grabbed my head and kind of mashed it; surprisingly, I felt better. Again, it couldn't hurt, other than having to walk through daylight to get to it. I've known sex to help, too, though one has to be up to it.

I'm not really qualified to give an opinion, but the Demerol/Vistaril combination made me wonder. Demerol of course is a painkiller, great for broken bones and whatnot, but Vistaril is primarily an anti-allergy drug, though it seems to be an adjuvant for painkillers. Still, as I said, migraine's a different animal, and after five days of little or no relief, even if God had written the prescription, I'd have some questions and comments.

Good luck to both of you. Five days is a long time to feel crappy.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

In this case, the Vistaril is being prescribed as an anti-nausea drug to counter any nausea induced by the Demerol. The Demerol, however, is having little if any noticeable effect.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

The Vistaril was supposed to quell the nasua... Morphine tends to make him quite violently ill.

Now I'm getting a headache trying to decipher the differences between Vicodin, Demerol, and Imitrex.

I still want to know why they didn't write him a script for Imitrex. EVERY migraine sufferer that I know has a script for it. They each have a different time when to take it to get max effect though.