No headache.
Small headache.
1 Zomig.
Got worse.
Went to bed at 3:30 AM, sleeping on side of headache, reading Charles Dickens. Usually that works.
Got worse.
4:30 turn off light.
Owwwwwwweeeeeee.
2nd Zomig.
Head huuuuurtiiiiiiiing.
5:30 AM
Can't wear eyemask cause too painful, but ok because not light out yet.
Ow. Ow. Ow.
Trying to not take Tylenol-Codeine cause Doctor doesn't like that.
6:30 AM
Pain pain pain pain.
Can't roll over because pain worse if I lay on non-headache side.
Why why is someone beating up a quadrant of my skull?
#*#&$ my doctor.
7:30 AM
Take Tylenol-Codeine.
Now I can't sleep because it's light out.
Put pillow over head.
Boiling hot.
Drift off into weird dream about kids drawing in chalk on busy street.
8:30 AM
Pain gone. Put on eyemask and go to sleeps.
Ahhhh.
If the Topamax doesn't get rid of the need to take so much meds, I'll need to address this Tylenol thing with my doctor. Because it gets rid of certain types of headaches that Zomig doesn't. I don't know how to describe it to her, but I can tell the difference.
I was also BOILING HOT. I put on my usual space heater and blankies, but ten minutes later I felt like I was in the seventh circle of hell. I remembered that one possible side effect of my new drug is decreased sweating. It's only dangerous with children--they can overheat while playing--but what about adults overheating while sleeping? I never noticed just how much sweating brings down temperature.
6 comments:
glad you were eventually able to sleep.
Poor poor Terris! Sounds like absolute hell. Not being able to sleep because of pain is the worst...
:(
Why does your doctor have a problem with Tylenol/codeine? It's extremely safe.
The main reason I know of is that you can just end up with rebound headaches if you take it too much (for headaches.) Then you don't know how much of your headaches are real, and which are caused by the medication. Maybe the other reason is that you have to take more of it to be effective, vs the odder drugs. I plan on discussing it with her next time, now that the distinction between these headache types is clearer in my own head.
Plus codeine can be addictive, though possibly less at the level I take ("Tylenol #1" or whatever it would be called. I take the generic brand.)
Just read this book about pain... Turns out that taking more to control the pain is not a problem--there's no ceiling on narcotics, as long as you work your way up slowly. You can take as much as you need. Also, I learned that your chance of becoming addicted to painkillers when you have no previous history of addiction is something like .0015%. Almost impossible. I hate that doctors are so conditioned to resist the painkillers that work... And that we all get treated like potential addicts when we go to the doctor.
My doc didn't say any of those things, I was just speculating. I read of headache sufferers addicted to codeine on a forum once.
Taking more is a problem if you risk getting rebound headaches. 1 Zomig, if it works, will last 12 hours. Whereas Tyl-Cod I will need to take two pills, every 4-6 hours. So if Zomig works, then in theory I should be taking less pain killers less days of the month, and therefore have less risk of rebound headaches.
If I take too many pain killers of any kind, I could be fooling myself into thinking they're helping the problem, when I've really just got myself into the *downward spiral* where they're causing the problem, helping it, causing it, etc. When I first went to see her it was because I was at the point of taking Ty-Codeine almost every day, round the clock.
Anyway. We spent most of the last visit talking about what I can do to prevent the stress that I can now see (cause I'm not stressed) clearly is a big causal factor. So we didn't talk about the drug stuff much. I'll see her again in April.
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