Hey,
So today just hasn’t been good. Well, actually, I take that back. The morning was clear. I woke up and thought, “Hey, maybe I’m headache free!” D’oh! I probably jinxed it. From late morning/early afternoon on, I’ve been plagued by a TERRIBLE headache and I’ve just lived through it. I don’t even have the patience to write this right now.
Adios,
-ETH
Hey,
I missed another day, that was my mistake!
So my headaches have really fallen out of a pattern. Some days, they’re far worse in the mornings and they ease up in the evenings, sometimes they peak in the middle of the day, and sometimes I just have to cut my days short because the evenings are most brutal.
Unlike the first two or three days days of the 200mg/day on Topamax when I had really bad headaches, the intensity has seemed to drop to what I was experiencing before, but still no better.
I’m on 60mg of Cymbalta a day now, and although that’s a low dosage (or so I think), I’m feeling the effects of that on my stomach. Maybe I’m not eating enough in the mornings (I like to think I do?), but my stomach hasn’t been the same the past few days.
Anyways, that’s what my case has been. I have an MRA and an MRV scheduled on Monday. I’m fairly positive that they’ll show up normal, I’m not sure why I’m even getting it done…I guess it’s just to be safe.
Until next time,
-ETH
Hey,
So I’m just finishing up the last post. It’s the end of the day and my headache seemed to peak just before 5pm. I just had to shut out everything and put my head down it was really bad. My headache is pretty bad right now, I don’t even want to write this.
So, I’m out for now. Thanks for reading if anyone is.
-ETH
Hey,
So it looks like I forgot to update yesterday. One of my neurologists (the one who said she believes I have cluster headaches) saw me and prescribed Cymbalta to take along with the Topamax, she wants me to take it, and slowly increase my dosage. I believe I’ll be taking 60mg for a month and then increase my dosage, I’m not sure to what. She seems to have changed her diagnosis to me having transformed migraines. I don’t know, I was out of it when she was speaking.
Anyways, as far as my headaches go yesterday, I felt the bulk of it in the latter half of the day… at night, I was just done for. I actually golfed in the late afternoon and at night my head was POUNDING and I just called it an early night and went to sleep. It wasn’t a fun night. Today, I have a bio-feedback appointment..I’m not sure how effective it is, but I just keep going.
Anyways, I should be updating later today.
-ETH
Hey,
So I woke up this morning trying to think of what day I’m on. I remembered Friday was #84, then I counted: 85, 86, 87, 88. I couldn’t believe I’m almost at 90. 90 days! Prior to this my longest was 63 days. Kinda strange because looking back, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. Everyone else probably would think I see it otherwise. Heh.
Anyways, I saw another terrible headache, but it wasn’t *as bad* as the previous two days, but still pretty bad. It was worse in the morning that in the evening, so the pattern seems to be shifting again. Nothing is really making sense anymore. I’m proud of myself for not relying on my pain killers (oxycodone and meperidine) for the pain anymore.
My family got me some homeopathic medicine to try because they’ve been pestering me about trying hundreds of other things…Well, the homeopathic medicine isn’t supposed to have any side effects, but something I’m taking definitely has a side effect of SEVERE dry mouth. I know of this through first hand experience today, I wish I had something better than water and milk to drink today.
Also, since I tapered up on the Topamax, I’ve noticed that I’ve had a weird taste in my mouth. I wonder if anybody else has any experience with this? It’s odd, it’s kind of fresh, but sometimes i think it’s kind of metallic or something? I’m not sure what it is.
Anyways, until next time…
-ETH
I had written a bunch here about how my headache gave me a terrible day… and something happened with the website.
Well, I had and have a terrible headache.
-ETH
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: appetite, chronic pain, Headaches, room, sleep, topamax, weakness, weight loss
Hey,
So I tapered up on my dosage of Topamax today. I went up to 200mg (100mg twice a day). I don’t know if it’s just coincidence, but I had a terrible headache ALL DAY (and still have it). I was not expecting it. I don’t know if it’s a side effect of tapering up or if it’s just an unusual day or what, but I sucked it up and lived through the day.
We visited family and friends, and after having lost some weight on the first ten days on Topamax, I was greeted with comments such as “you’ve lost weight,” and “you look sick!” It wasn’t the best thing to hear. I can stomach it though, I’m a big boy.
I had a general feeling of weakness through out the day. I still had the energy to carry out my normal functions and all, but I couldn’t go out and, say, play a game of basketball or run a few miles like I usually could, and I think that was because of the higher dosage of the Topamax. Also, I don’t know if it’s psychological, but tonight I was at the drugstore and I bumped into the someone I knew, but I was totally jumbling up my words as I was trying to speak to him. I couldn’t put together a sentence as my tongue kept getting tied and completely lost. I don’t know if that’s the language side effect I so often hear about of Topamax but maybe I’ll experience more of it, maybe not.
I was also told that according ot my culture’s belief, I’m sleeping in the wrong direction on my bed and I should switch rooms and directions I’m sleeping (I should turn around 180 degrees) so within the next week, I need to figure all of that out. So I guess there are some small changes.
Hopefully the weight loss stops, I’ve been trying to eat more but my appetite is dwindling and I know it. I try to eat, but my mind just doesn’t want it. I look at the food and I try to tell myself to eat but it doesn’t happen. *Sigh* Wish me luck!
-ETH
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hey,
So today wasn’t so bad. I had to tend so some things in the morning and early afternoon that kept my mind really busy, they were some pretty troubling things — had to do with other people around me. I’d say it was enough to keep my mind away from any strong headache that could have been bothering me. By around 4-ish, I could definitely feel the pain, however, and it was bothering me. I just wanted to put my head down and sleep. It’s been the same ever since, but I haven’t gone to sleep. I’ve stuck through it.
Tomorrow, I’m tapering up on the Topamax to 100mg twice a day, making that 200mg total per day. I’m guessing that I’ll start to see these nasty side effects I’ve heard so much about. I know that I’ve definitely seen a lack of appetite and weight loss over the past ten days from the 100mg a day I’ve been taken. That’s no fun considering I’m already slender. Anyways, that’s my update for today, I’m about to take my last 50mg dose of Topamax and off to bed I go.
-ETH
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: advice, chronic, doctor, Family, Headaches, Health, Help, Medicine, Migraines, nagging, pain
Hey,
84th day today. I woke up this morning, didn’t feel much pain…I thought hey, maybe I’ll be free today… got some dull aches early on in the morning, but they weren’t persistent. Then at around noonish, I started to feel it come on, I didn’t like it…obviously. It stuck by me since then, and following the pattern got a little worse at night.
By the time my family came back home towards the evening, I heard more of their pestering about my headaches. That’s another topic I need to introduce to this blog. My family has taken this headache and made it their own pain and I can’t explain how much I hate that. As if I don’t have enough to deal with already, the people around me are making it SO much worse. I understand they’re just trying to help and they care for me, and I understand that, but I’ve been through these cycles a few times before, and I see a few doctors for my headaches right now. I want to stick by their treatments FOR NOW and see what can be done. When I’M ready to move on, then I will move on. HOWEVER, every day, I keep hearing about different things in Michigan, in India, in Europe, in Florida, in San Jose, on the Moon, in the Atlantic Ocean (you get the idea), of where I can get these different headache treatments. It’s one thing to care, but it’s another thing to care TOO much. They care WAY more than me, and I think that’s wrong. The best way for me to handle this situation is to be as stress free as possible about it and that’s what I like to do. The people around me aren’t helping. I like my modern, western medicine. Let’s see how the Topomax works out. Today was the 9th day I’ve been on it. In two days, I begin to double my dosage. In about five days time, maybe it’ll take effect. If not, then we’ll see what the doc has in store for me. Can’t we just do it that way?
I’m thinking about just telling them the headaches are done with. The cycle ended and everything’s great, and I’ll do my best job of playing it off that way so then I can just have everyone off my case. That way, the people around me don’t need to stress out so much, they don’t need to unnecessarily go out of their way for me, although it’s nice and much appreciated, and they can stop caring TOO much (ok, I’ll stop with the CAPS). Anyways, hopefully I’ll figure out what to do soon, but today was day #84 and whatever wacko chemistry is going on in my head…it seems to just keep on going on.
-ETH
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hey,
So I’ve got this chronic daily headache problem that can’t really be categorized as any of the types of headaches (cluster, migraine, tension, etc.) but I deal with it. I’ve had two major cycles in the past lasting 55 and 63 days, the current one has lasted 83 days.
I’m currently taking Topomax (50 mg pills) twice a day, everyday, and hopefully after two weeks or so it should finally kick in and break this cycle down and end it. That’s the hope at least, I’ll up the dosage in a few days or so. All the other medications I’ve tried don’t work. There are, however, a few pain medications that work such as percocet and demoral, but I don’t like to take those because they knock me out or make me feel really tired.
Anyways, today I woke up with a slight headache, I went to the gym and hopped on the bike and did some easy biking, it wasn’t so bad. I then started doing some light weight lifting and I think I just started to feel it more and more then. Anyways, I think the headache just started to gain intensity as the day wore on, and that’s been the trend lately. It’s been wacky… a few weeks ago, the headaches were worse in the mornings, but they changed to being worse at nights. We’ll see how things work out.
Until tomorrow…
-ETH
