Hi Bob,

I'm glad to see you found something to take the edge off things.  However I'd be wary of blazing trails with preventative use of an abortive medication.  

When I did research for an OUCH newsletter article I found this: Quote:
Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

If you're getting a 100% reduction then you're doing better than the study participants.  But please don't do this without the knowledge and cooperation of your Dr.  Tripans are are powerful Vasoconstrictors that abuse your circulatory system over time.

Clusters don't kill but heart attacks do.  Be safe brother...

-Dennis-

When Frova and Relpax first came out, my Neuro decided to let me try them as a preventative – taken two to three times daily. For ME, the strength was too low to stop the hits from happening.

About the only thing that worked in that way was Amerge at bed time – it stopped my usual CH from coming 45-55 minutes after falling asleep. I could also take one before a big business presentation and know that I would be good for 3-6 hours.

Hope it’s a wonder drug for you!

Jimi wrote on Nov 24^th, 2008 at 9:42pm:


Yup, that's where I got the idea too. I was also there when when he first posted it.

Interesting, but Relpax seems to work also.
I had been having chusters well over thirty years, absolutely resistant to all drugs.
Two years ago, my doc suggested Relpax.
My thought was more damn drugs, my ass.
My mistake.
AMAZING!
Stopped the headache dead in its tracks, first thing ever.
Sounds like your insurance company is the same as mine, I'd get 6 tabs a month, $25.00 for each one thereafter, and VA wouldn't touch it, too expensive.
Two things of note, I shopped around, and found a real drop in price at a grocery market pharmacy, so now I get 8X a month, also, 20 and 40 mg tabs are the same cost, suggest people stick with 40's, for obvious reasons.
I also have been experimenting, not for length of relief, just for relief. 1/4 tab, 10mg worth, so far has given me the same relief as 40. these drugs have some negative effects, I imagine 10 mg hits are better for one than 40mg, as long as they work.
I also got a prescription for Zomig, 5 mg. Had a real negative effect 2 years ago, but I have tried again, VERY low dose, and this episode, it seems to work, 100% relief of headaches.
I'm trying it before bedtime, 2,  1/4 tab doses 3 and 1 hour before bed, and for 5 nights I've slept through, was averaging 3 headaches a night, not real bad ones, but just waker-uppers.
Perhaps the big experiment, is if people are taking them, see if lesser doses are as effective. Less collateral damage, and sure more affordable than 25 bucks a pop.
Hope these guys keep working for you,
best of luck with your experiments.
Boy, life is better when you have some small degree of control over these buggers.

When Relpax came out I too saw it as my personal panacea.  I always felt doomed since imitrex never worked for me (as it did thankfully for so many others).  Maxalt came out and gave me a bit of hope as it provided relief about half the time.  But when Relpax came out I was blown away, not only by its effectiveness, but by the speed with which it worked as well.  Now, first let me state that I am episodic, and that my cycles don't restrain themselves to any particular time of year, and typically last about 3 months.  Here's the problem: efficacy.  After discovering how price prohibitive Relpax was (at the time I also had the 9 pill/month rule) I too decided to experiment with halving the pills.  Worked great, no decrease in the efficacy... for the first month.  Then around the start of month two I noticed that later in the day (my HA's usually come on right when I wake up) I would start to get shadows.  Then during the middle of the second month the HA's were back completely after about 6 hours of relief.  So, now I was taking the first half in the morning, and the second half at night with success.  Minus the added financial strain, doing great.  Month three: morning HA no longer satisfied with a half tab.  So, for everyone doing the math along with me, with the whole tab in the morning and a half at night I'm now precariously close to the "80mg/24hr" rule.  Not to mention, at $30 a pill  after my alloted nine, that's $60 a day out of pocket.  Oh, and the shadows are in and out by the end of the month... no totally PFDAN's.

And then when you consider the above-mentioned circulatory effects of prolonged triptan usage, combined with some of us who mix with preventatives such as Verap... well, something to think about.  I just want new users to be aware of what might lie ahead.  I'm not knocking Relpax, it's still hands down my abortive of choice, but now I see it more like a part of my "arsenal."  With the discovery of high flow O2 (thanks in large part to members of this site like chuck) I have alternatives to use in tandem w/my preventatives.  I'll usually try and use O2 for the times I know I won't have to be anywhere (I'm a screenwriter so I work from home), and Relpax for days when I absolutely need to be assured of relief.  And some days I use both... the point is that I try to break up my Relpax usage so as to maintain its efficacy, while also reducing potential side effects.

As an aside, I find it funny how one word can completely alter peoples' perceptions.  Like most here I assume, I took to calling them migraines for the longest time because I knew when people heard me say "I have a headache" they were thinking 'big deal, get over it... what, do you have, like, zero pain threshold?'   There was still a bit of skepticism after telling them I had a migraine, but there was at least a better level of understanding as it pertained to the level of pain.  When I finally realized I could care less what anyone thought (it was my pain not theirs) I reverted back to just saying I had a headache.  A friend of mine asked me to go out one day and I told him "Sorry, got a headache."  He, of course, thought this was a ridiculous statement and came over to pick me up anyway.  What he found was me in the middle of a rare K10, bawling, pounding my head against the wall and squeezing it like a vise grip.  He stayed with me until it subsided, sitting there completely stunned when it was over.  "Wow, I thought you were gonna make orange juice out of your head," followed by the obligatory "that wasn't a headache man... are you sure you don't have migraines?"  HAHAAA.

Hope all your trigeminal nerves release their hostages,
Mason

Hey, glad you like the split trick, do 1/4 pills, see if they work, and make sure you get the 40 mg's, they are same cost as 20's.
If you can, hoard the pills, see if your doc will prescribe out of episode, shelve a few extras. Finding a compassionate doctor for this stuff is all the difference in the world. Last, if you have to buy them, shop around, cash prices can vary WIDELY from insurance prices.

I'm still waiting for the Relpax to loose efficacy, or start causing shadows or rebounds, which might be happening now, two months into it. I remember one course of drugs years ago, they didn't help, but when I gave them all up together, the episode vanished. I've already tried that with the Relpax, BIG mistake.

Which brings me to the TRAP......

I've seen person after person, who, when they get something that kills the headache, just says yippee, and stays with it. Killing headaches and aborting cycles are two wildly different things. Long term, Relpax might be a real nasty drug, a lot of side effects, probably a bunch we don't know about.

Once the damned ha's are handled, time to attack the episodes. Bunch of other threads out there thus, standard a/o alternative medicine, I'm about to try the testosterone treatments, but I'm also using dietary things, exercise, supplements, tried the herbal bomb, no effects, heavily into sleep patterns, (regret it when the patterns change), I still use hot showers with remarkable, like 80%
+ results, others use cold showers, but there is a lot more reading to be done on this site. I'll be curious if any of us Relpax types find something that works on our episodes, if, in fact, Relpax relieved CH's are any different than the rest.

BTW, Potlimit, welcome to the site. Won't ask about the choice in name, but sounds like you will fit in well here.

Cheers,

Chris

Chris,

Thank you for the welcome... funny, I've been around this site probably since right around its inception, so when I noticed that was my first post it was semi-shocking.  Guess I'm just more of an observer in life (that's the writer in me I guess).  Sort of bittersweet my discovery of this site btw, the relief of knowing there were others like me, and the sadness, of knowing there were others like me.

I've been equally amazed and inspired over the years by the generosity and all-around "welcoming" culture of the people on these boards... you are all tops in my book.

Mason
PS. Potlimit is actually the type of poker I played to get myself through college