I moved and ended up going to a new Neuro Doc today.  She would not prescribe imitrex or Replax as I have had great success with over the past many years during cycles.   She gave me Cambia powder that mixes in water.  It is an NSAID

I had the onset of a headache in the Doc office. While I was still there I was given a sample of Cambia.  The headache came on so fast that I struggled to open the package and mix it.  The Doc and the Nurse walked away.   It was closing time and they made me leave holding my face in my hands.   I went out to my car, covered my face with a jacket and turned up the a/c so it was blasting on me.   Finally I used my stat dose pen and stopped the headache.   

Cambia had the same effect as taking Tylenol, nothing.   

Frankly, I've gotta wonder what these people are thinking sometimes, if they are thinking at all.   ::)

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Note the verbiage that says, "Do not use Cambia to treat a cluster headache".

Best,

George

KipBurbank wrote on Oct 6^th, 2010 at 1:45am:

I moved and ended up going to a new Neuro Doc today.

It's hard to not be bitter.  Doesn't take a neuro or nurse education to practically hand someone an asprin and point out when it's time to exit, take it elsewhere, like a stranger on a bus. 



Quote:

... they made me leave ...

There's your best advice from them, find a another headache neuro.  Sorry for the experience.   

Print out the info George gave you, drop it off with a note suggesting they NOT skip their continuing education requirements...and DEFINITELY  get a new doc. I'm so sorry, those experiences are just too common and they suck.

Joe

Why we keep recommending a HEADACHE specialist!
====

LOCATING HEADACHE SPECIALIST

1. Search the OUCH site (button on left) for a list of recommended M.D.s.

2. Yellow Pages phone book: look for "Headache Clinics" in the M.D. section and look under "neurologist" where some docs will list speciality areas of practice.

3.  Call your hospital/medical center. They often have an office to assist in finding a physician. You may have to ask for the social worker/patient advocate.

4. START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE; On-line screen to find a physician.

5. START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE Look for "Physician Finder" search box. They will send a list of M.D.s for your state.I suggest using this source for several reasons: first, we have read several messages from people who, even seeing neurologists, are unhappy with the quality of care and ATTITUDES they have encountered; second, the clinical director of the Jefferson (Philadelphia) Headache Clinic said, in late 1999, that upwards of 40%+ of U.S. doctors have poor training in treating headache and/or hold attitudes about headache ("hysterical female disorder") which block them from sympathetic and effective work with the patient; third, it's necessary to find a doctor who has experience, skill, and a set of attitudes which give hope of success. This is the best method I know of to find such a physician.

6. START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE NEW certification program for "Headache Medicine" by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties, an independent, non-profit, professional medical organization.
        Since this is a new program, the initial listing is limited and so it should be checked each time you have an interest in locating a headache doctor.

Two more bad ones since my first post. I will heed your advice.  It's getting to be too much.  I may just travel to see my former Doc or keep looking.   

I'm just another who is so sorry for your experience with a doctor who is totally clueless as well as heartless.    Yep....find another doctor, but first read as fast as you can around here.  Start with the links to the left.  You MUST educate yourself because as you have seen first-hand, not many Dr.s are.   They get exactly 5 hours of training in medical school on headaches.  ALL kinds of headaches, so I will say for the most part WE have to know more than them.

Ask for a preventative as well as an abortive.  Imitrex is great when you're out in public or at work and cannot get to oxygen, but 02 is the best abortive we have found so far.   (Link in yellow in the middle of the page)  Print some of it out to take w/ you to the next Doctor.

In the meantime.....get some of those energy drinks w/ caffeine and Taurine in them and chug it at the very 1st. sign of a headache.  The Taurine super-powers the caffeine and it works a LOT of thge time.  Until you get 02...sit in front of an A/C unit at home or in the car and breath deeply.  Hyperventilate if you can.  This works sometimes also.

Hot as you can stand showers and then cold as you can stand it.   Excersize.   running.  Anything that will make ya sweat.  Really strong coffee.   Ice packs on the side of your head or neck.  A lot of us use frozen peas because they conform to the face.  (note:  do not eat the peas afterward.  Wrap them in a soft cloth and re-use.  LOL)

Good luck in finding a new guy who will treat you right.


By the way...is your last name Burbank or did you move from that city?  Just wondering because I was born and raised in Burbank, Ca.   It's not important.  Just wondering.   :)

Those aren't neuros, they are crimminals.  >:(

I'm afraid it's either go to a headache specialist or expect to run into this ignorant negligence from neuros over and over.

Meantime you could always get some welding O2 (if you don't have a prescription), and administer it as outlined in the oxygen info link to the left of this page. Lotsa folks here have had good success aborting attacks this way.

Wouldn't blame ya for visiting your old doc to get your RX for what was working for you before, to get you through this stretch, especially since (sigh) even headache specialists are generally complete a-holes in that they routinely make CH patients actually wait months for an appointment.  >:(

I try to keep up with the literature and, armed with information and specifics about what works for me (mostly learned from this message board!) by doctor eventually turned into an advocate.  It should't be the case, but WE have to be knowledgeable.  My Dr. now says that I probably know more about cluster headaches than any doctor at (a MAJOR medical university in Durham, NC).  He has my express permission to refer any of his new CH patients to me -- I'm not as much of an expert as some of you folks, but it would have been SO helpful to have a fellow sufferer to talk to the day I was diagnosed.  Fortunately, the OUCH conference coincided with my bad episode this summer and just listening to other people's experiences was a life saver for me.

Beware:  "Pain Specialist" does NOT equal a headache specialist.  I went to one of the former this past summer and they tried to pump me full of opiates.  It is "open enrollment" time now for my workplace's health insurance plan choices and I am definitely changing my plan so that get myself in as a "regular" with one of the best headache specialists on the east coast, about 15 minutes away from me in Chapel Hill, NC.

Jim

I recently received a whole bag of Cambia samples.  I laughed when one of the first things noted about the drug is that it's not for the treatment of CH.  Apparently some drug reps. are making the rounds and making the claims. 

Sorry folks most Doctors just don't have time to research all the meds. being shuffled through their offices.  Secondly understanding all the side effects is nearly impossible for most Doctors.  That's were we have to do our homework and take some responsibility for our health/treatments.

burnt-toast
(Tom)

    

Maybe I should go around doctors selling snake oil, which I'm sure will cure everything under the sun.

Think I'll get anywhere?

It's all in how you market it Mike! ;D

Joe

Mike NZ wrote on Oct 14^th, 2010 at 2:39am:

Maybe I should go around doctors selling snake oil, which I'm sure will cure everything under the sun. Think I'll get anywhere?

Push up bra, don a pair of stockings (after shaving those legs!), a pair of high heels and one hell of a sales pitch, you'll be in like flin Mike!   :D

JustNotRight wrote on Oct 17^th, 2010 at 9:02am:

Mike NZ wrote on Oct 14th, 2010 at 2:39am: Maybe I should go around doctors selling snake oil, which I'm sure will cure everything under the sun. Think I'll get anywhere? Push up bra, don a pair of stockings (after shaving those legs!), a pair of high heels and one hell of a sales pitch, you'll be in like flin Mike!   :D

Thanks for giving me a good laugh on a Monday morning (yes, Monday already here in NZ).

Yes, it sure would need one hell of a sales pitch plus a half deaf and blind person to sell to. I think I'll skip this as a career change option.

Mike NZ wrote on Oct 17^th, 2010 at 3:20pm:

JustNotRight wrote on Oct 17th, 2010 at 9:02am: Mike NZ wrote on Oct 14th, 2010 at 2:39am: Maybe I should go around doctors selling snake oil, which I'm sure will cure everything under the sun. Think I'll get anywhere? Push up bra, don a pair of stockings (after shaving those legs!), a pair of high heels and one hell of a sales pitch, you'll be in like flin Mike!   :D Thanks for giving me a good laugh on a Monday morning (yes, Monday already here in NZ). Yes, it sure would need one hell of a sales pitch plus a half deaf and blind person to sell to. I think I'll skip this as a career change option.

Good way to start the work week a good laugh, Glad I could brighten your Monday! 

___________________
Sorry for the topic highjack and now...back to your regularly scheduled Cambia powder topic.