Posted by Todd Owen (64.12.104.47) on October 03, 2000 at 08:18:30:
I know my wife posted that the neuro at Stanford was going to put me in for a couple of days to try and crack this cluster cycle for me. Wellll....
I got news for ya, folks. Just because they got a fancy hospital stuck with their name don't always mean much. Most of you probably knew that, I'm just getting sarcastic. But here's the story:
Sep 21: On the phone with Stanford neuro. Going to continue with DHE-45 injections, but she is still concerned that I may have some element of rebound in there from the painkillers. Before DHE-45 inj, I was 2-3 HA's a day which usually required me to try and take something to help control it. In prior week, with DHE-45, I had only taken 3 painkillers. Big step down, but not completely off. OK, doc. No problem, I'll stick with DHE-45, it helps keep me human.
Sep 25: HA's are getting bad today. REALLY BAD. Hit 'em with injection, half hour later they're back with a vengeance. Finally get a message through to neuro at Stanford--they're bad, I'm trying to stay away from painkillers, but it's pretty hardcore, what do i do? She calls, asks me to come over and admit for a couple days to try and crack these. Fine, I don't care, just stop this f&@*ing thing!
Sep 25-27: They bounced me through so many meds over 42 hours that I lost track. Average length of medication regimen? 12 hours. Talk about making you crazy.
Sep 27: Forget all this, I tell the neuro she can let me out. The regimen they now have me on is Topamax and DHE-45, which I already had at home. Forget it guys, I can do this one myself. Neuro agrees to let me go, but not before telling me how she "does like having (you) in the hospital, so we can monitor (you) to make sure (you're) not running to that magic bag for a painkiller every time a headache hits". Glad to know you trust me so much there doc.
Needless to say, after fixing all the problems that cropped up around the house and at work, I am off to see another neuro today. If this apointment goes well, the one at Stanford is fired. I talked with the family doc a little yesterday when I had my son in (9yo kid with bronchitis) and he laughed at this neuro. Family doc has prescribed me the triplicate prescriptions before, and told me that if I were a druggie he would have weeded me out of his patient pool years ago. In his words: "My god, it's not like you're in here every week begging for Demorol! And at least you've got a reason to need it! You have cluster headaches!" I haven't received a triplicate prescription (and he's the only one I ever got them from) in three months. Don't need one right now, don't want one.
Anyhow, sorry for the long rant. Been a long, sleepless, painful night. Hopefully today will go better. Take care all.
PFNAD,
Todd Owen