Less Is More

A year ago I was downing over 30 pills a day. I said ENOUGH! And my doctors agreed. I am down to 4 needed a day - MUCH better and I feel much better.

This last visit with my neurologist we quit the pain management medication of Kadian (slow release morphine sulphate). It just was not helping any longer. I changed the strength of my as needed pain medication and am using it to tritate off the effects of the Kadian - dont want the "flu" of sudden cessation.

Lyrica was pumped up from 300 to 450 mg a day to see if I can have more good days.

Yesterday I drove to Sacramento and shopped with my daughter, drove home, walked the dogs, and went to dinner with friends before I started feeling badly. Amazing! I did not think I had it in me!

Just wanted to share my experience with yall ... may give someone ideas. Remember though - less is more.

I do agree. No point just throwing more meds into the mix if nothing is working or using a whole host of drugs to treat side effects. What matters is being on the right drugs in the right doses. Which doesn't happen all that often. To get to the point of being on the right drugs requires a lot of time and effort to trial and monitor a variety of things. Especially in migraine, where a good response is hard to find and individual variation is huge.

Amy

Richard,
I am glad for you.
I've always sustained that too many drugs only worsen things. My position has often been misunderstood but I can understand that continous and bad pain can lead to abuse.

Don't give up and enjoy you new healthier life!

Take care

Wow Richard!

I have been wondering that too. How much of the stuff is really necessary? I know I'm still in trials but it does get old - especially when I took a holiday from it and felt better. Have decided one thing at a time please... I've also decided to clear out any possible physical issues - it makes zero sense in my head that there wasn't something physical that changed to cause all of this. Starting with my sinuses - I know somethings there (saw it myself) and want to rule it out as a cause.

So glad that upping a med has given you the ability to do more. Hopefully this is a trend for you and not a one day occurrence.

Becky

I have also found that one thing at a time is the best approach for me. My neuro will sometimes try to write me two meds at a time. I always tell her I'm going to start one first -see if it help- then the other. I have found if I do both or more, I don't know what exactly is helping one or both or the combination????? It gets too muddled and I can't see the forest through the trees.


Richard it sounds like you have someone great working WITH you. Hopefully this focused help will give you some more relief.

Jo

Yay! I am so glad to hear that you are feeling better. I had a similar experience. I was hospitalized for migraine at an inpatient facility five or six years ago. They just pumped my poor body full of drugs sometimes several at a time. I got so sick at the end of the visit that I couldn't take any medication for several weeks. I just couldn't physically keep anything in. It was the best thing that could have happened to me at that point. I felt so much better without the 30 pills a day. It was incredible. I spent several years without any medication. The pain was AWFUL. But the rest of me was so much better. Now, with pain management I am happier.

I am so glad that you are having some good days, especially since your daughter is there!

M

I had a talk with my neurologist and pain manager this past Monday. I think he is right in his thinking ... what is comman is for a doctor to see a symptom, usually a side effect of current medication, and prescribe a new medication to deal with that symptom. that new medicine may cause other side effects so you get more medications. It is a layering process that simply does not work. Glad my doctors do work with me.

Hubby has said he wishes he could afford to send me to CA to see your Dr's.

But, I'm seeing a new neuro Monday and hopefully am on the right track. I took your advice and with Anna's Moms help found a neuro who is also pain management certified.

At one point I was taking so many daily me'ds I had a callous on my palm from opening pill bottles. And yes, much of it was layering to take care of side effects from the drugs.

Regardless of the back and M pain I've been having, I'm a million times better than off than when I was taking all the med's.

And you are a glowing picture proof of that !

Risa

I am so glad you had such a good day! I love hearing about people who were well enough to enjoy something! I wish you many more.

I'm glad you had a good day also (still picture you as being Steve). That is going to take awhile.

I quit all preventatives since my abortives work. I would rather prevent them but nothing I took worked, only added more crap. I figured I am taking a lot less medication using the abortives when needed (2-3 times a week), vs. taking several things every day and end up getting migraines anyway.

I do hope the Lyrica works for you. Let us know. I haven't given up hoping something will work as a preventative.

I have changed my definition of what "works" for me. I am living proof that NO preventative medication actually PREVENTS migraine episodes. We really ought to call them "Reduction" medications instead of "preventative" medications.

All preventatives do IF they are successful at all is REDUCE the frequency and/or intensity and/or duration of migraien episodes.

So a preventative is a success if before taking it, you have intense migraine episodes four times aweek that last 4 hours each (for example) and after taking it, you have intense migraine episodes four times a week that last TWO hours each. THAT is a successful preventative by today's definition.

I ALWAYS have a headache. Every minute of every day - unless I use medical marijuana - hours only of rrelief. I have learned to function with a 2 to 4 on a 10 scale pain - I live with it. What I look for in a preventative is more good days a week - days when I don't go bonkers until after dinner. That is the BEST I have expereinced ... fewer bad days.

Lyrica and Topomax can take me from 5-7 bad days a week to 2+ bad days a week ... and that is a HUGE benefit for me. On a bad day, I can't go out, watch TV, cook ... anything! On a good day, I can often watch a DVD or drive or go out ... as long as I make no more than three stops (errands etc.)

If I make more than three stops while out, I episode. Don't know why, but that is the reality. Even on good day. My daughter and Otis have begun counting stops religiously. So if I am out and stop for gas (one), run in a 7-11 for a Coke (two) and swing by to pick up a few groceries (three) I have to go home - or I will have a migraine episode. Extending myself and enriched environments trigger episodes ... everytime.

I just think it is wise and healthy to accurately define what "works" means with our medications.

Richard wrote:I have changed my definition of what "works" for me. I am living proof that NO preventative medication actually PREVENTS migraine episodes. We really ought to call them "Reduction" medications instead of "preventative" medications.

All preventatives do IF they are successful at all is REDUCE the frequency and/or intensity and/or duration of migraien episodes.

So a preventative is a success if before taking it, you have intense migraine episodes four times aweek that last 4 hours each (for example) and after taking it, you have intense migraine episodes four times a week that last TWO hours each. THAT is a successful preventative by today's definition.

Ohh...Richard. Thanks for posting this and making me laugh and also confirming what I had already thought was true. My headache specialist is trying to put me on MORE drugs (Inderal) on top of Topamax when the topamax has brought me down in frequency and severity just as you described. Thank you for proving I am not a nutsy nutso.

Richard, you are right. I guess I still haven't gotten ANY results from a preventative yet--only an empty pocketbook and side effects. I will still try though, just not too enthused at this time. I'm glad they work for a lot of you.

Richard, I have a similar response to your 3 stops and you get a migraine episode. I can only do so much during the weekends. (Weekdays when I work I really have to go straight home) But on the weekends I can only do a limited amount. Otherwise I am in for a zinger migraine. I agree, it's stimulus overload. I have been trying "preventatives" for 20+ years and while topomax did work, it no longer does, so I am still in search mode. I currently have CDH/migraine. I am desperately seeking relief b/c taking abortives everyday is just too much for me.