Johnny has been in the longest bout ever, and every time the beast shows up he rears his ugly head differently.  The last couple of nights Johnny has been experiencing weakness down the right side of his body, loss of balance, and more pain in his neck.  We go to the neurologist tomorrow, we have yet to see him in his office, I have a diary to share and a whole list of questions.  With the help of these pages I have researched everything that helps others, and am now prepared to seek out the support of the Dr.  We live in the San Francisco area and will be asking for a referral to the UCSF headache clinic.  Does anyone know how to get financial support for the lost days of work? We are struggling financially due to the beast coming every night, Johnny is exhausted and continues to go to work.  I know this is taking its toll on his body and mind. 

Get an imetrix injection 'script - they are magic.  Insurance will only pay for a paltry amount, but get your doc to prescribe as many as he will.  You can buy them from canadian pharma's - and if you buy in quantity they are way less (but still expensive).  Luckily for me I can afford them.  You do need a valid prescription - I found out the hard way that insurance only pays for so many a month because of the cost.

Also - get your doc to go with the Prednizone/Verapamil treatment (do some research and you can find the dosages).  I was able to get that perscribed by my NP - much cheaper than a visit to a Neurologist (and faster). So far the Pred taper has been working for me, and starting the verampamil (sp?) has had no side effects. Like I said so far so good, but I am glad I have the imetrix injections as back up.  Also - these meds are not extremely spendy.

Also - got a tip off this board that taking a imetrix (or the generic sumapratan (sp?) at night can abort early night time attacks, which I only started to get frequently with this cycle.  Seemed to help me - and they are fairly inexpensive.

Good luck

Once you've had it with the vicious downward spiral that imitrex sends you on, and once you've had it with shelling out hundreds, even thousands of dollars for meds that just keep you on that roller coaster, go here and start reading:

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Oh - and get on the vitamin D3 regimen. Like yesterday.