My medication holiday...

I decided to try a medication holiday, in an attempt to revert back to episodic migraine. My neuro has no concerns about MOH, but there is a fair amount of literature out there that suggests it might be helpful. Update so far:

Day 1 - vacillated between mild to moderate headache all day
Day 2 - moderate headache, somewhat functional
Day 3 - moderate to severe headache, bedridden and unhappy
Day 4 - mild all day headache
Day 5 - no headache at all, for the entire day
Day 6 - today; woke up with no headache, hopefully the day stays like this

So there you have it. Day 5 was the first time I've had no headache at all for an entire day since July. I am so grateful for it. I spent 5 grueling hours doing (long overdue) yard work, then I painted my living room walls, and then I spent a couple of hours on the arduous process of painting trim. I am amazed that all the activity didn't trigger a headache, and that I woke up today with no headache - though every muscle in my body hurts like hell.

I quit caffeine cold turkey two weeks before I decided to take the medication holiday.

I'll keep you guys updated on the process if you want.

Yay, Jayme

I don't remember what meds you took. Were you on a preventative and have to tritrate down from anything?

Charlotte,

I am on Lamictal as a preventative. I'm not taking a vacation from the preventative, just all the NSAIDs/midrin/etc. Hoping they give the Lamictal a better chance at working.

-J

well done, it does work and well done for being brave enough to face going through it!! its worth it and you never know until you try!

I am so thrilled for you - even one day with no h/ache is to be treasured and your response indicates that you might get many more of those. Brave attempt and well worth trying.
If something does not work it is best to stop it, at least for a while - sounds like and excellent startegy - I am glad it works for you.

But be careful with all that painting - I find that any chemical smells can trigger my head.

That's awsome Jayme!

I don't think I could do it right now... maybe soon though, keep us posted.

Sherri B!

Migraine is a very serious problem and lot of people suffer from it. If you have Sinus, then this can also trigger severe headaches. Instead of popping so many pills, why not try alternative medications for a change ? Painkillers will kill your liver !!

yes very true jerry, my father died because they destroyed his liver! hope youre still doing well jwar,as mini said a day without pain is wonderful!

jerry hill, you are a spammer, and we don't appreciate your posts here.

YES, WE KNOW that migraine is a very serious condition. and we also know that sinus problems exacerbate our head problems. we've been to multitudes of specialists.

most of us here have the life-altering kind of migraine that requires us to quit our jobs and have very little social life.

alternative medicine has helped very little, if at all, for most of us. personally, i have spent truckloads of money on alternatives of every sort, during my 41 years of suffering. most made me much worse, because i seem to be sensitive to all the excipient ingredients in "natural" remedies, as well as in drugs.

there are no simple, one-size answers for migraine. it is a complex disorder and much more research needs to be done. other disorders less prevalent in the population get WAY more attention and research dollars than migraine. unfortunately. dianne

Thanks for your support everyone!

I spent most of day 7 with no headache, but did have a moderate migraine during the evening. This was because I spent a few hours painting the inside of a bay window with my neck cocked backwards, inhaling paint fumes.

I knew it was going to give me a migraine but I chose to do it anyway.

This morning I woke up with no headache again. Hoping the day goes accordingly.

Also, I know there has been a lot of debate on this forum about MOH, but I just wanted to share this article, which I thought was very good:

http://www.ccjm.org/content/77/4/236.full

lol Jayme these spammers seem to be popping in your threads like popcorn, eh?


Seriously, congrats on your home- rehab - I did that twice full term.
But it my case it was different - once I stopped because simply my HAs have stopped.
I had to go thru regular withdrawal, though - two weeks, then it got better and better everyday.
The second time when I reduced the amount, I didn't got any more than usual M, just withdrawal as usual.


Good luck to you.

Risa

Jayme these spammers seem to be popping in your threads like popcorn

Can you clarify, please Risa - who are the spammers in Jayme's threads - I must have read too quickly.
Who are the spammers? How can you recognise these spammers in Jayme's threads? I am puzzled.

me too, I don't understand the spammers, I thought they usually had a web site attached or something. Why would they bother us on here, what advantage would that be?

yes me too clueless, you need to clarify it!

ok, maybe i jumped on him prematurely. but if you re-read his post (his one and only post so far i think) it's #7 in this thread; you will find "alternative therapies" as his concern.

been there/done that. let's see if he comes back with a legitimate post. dianne

It was not so much what you said, Dianne, but I was really curious about Clueless' the comment that spammers (meaning many) are popping like popcorn in Jayme posts?

I suppose mentioning alternative treatment might look suspitious, but some people strongly believe in them (like acupuncture etc) and since there is no website mentioned, I did not think this was the case. Although as you said, we shall see what develops.

Oh, I was just joking because in the past Jayme complained about Facebook spammers,
and what happened like on the clue who if not the biggest spammer appeared in her thread. It was really annoying, and spoiled the thread for everybody

Now this - Jayme writes about her medication holiday but of course who if not an alternative spammer must have dipped his beak here...

And do you know how to spot a spammer who hopes to sell you his snake oil?
when he or she says "pills kills, so instead take an alternative medication".
That is a deadly give away (pun not intended).

And that's exactly what this spammer did here:

. Instead of popping so many pills, why not try alternative medications for a change ? Painkillers will kill your liver !!

That is simply NOT true. They MIGHT, not WILL. And alternative medicine also kills. Try belladonna or digitalis
and you'll see.

Risa

Thanks for the explanation - I did not see the previous Jayme thread, about Facebook.
I was puzzled because I thought your refered to this thread.

You are right that some herbal/natural solutions can ne deadly of course, but it is also true that some painkillers even in small overdose can kill by ruining your liver.

I was told the same by my neurologist some time ago when he made a point of telling me never to take more then the prescribed dose, or not to take them too often, as it is easy to damage your liver accidentally and the damage might be irreversible.

I have no idea what snake oil is, and I do not think I would be interested either. I think people here would also spot this, as something to be suspicious about.

I personally believe in natural therapy but I certainly wouldn't try to push it upon anyone else. I find things like Acupuncture really helps me deal with the pain and stress of migraines. For me it increases my serotonin levels thus helping me cope with the depression but I know it doesn't work for everyone. I still carry my traditional pain killers around with me and although they don't stop the migraines, I do get some relief for a few hours when I'm at work.

I personally would love to go the natural route! But who can afford it?

That is why most people don't even consider it, knowing they have insurance to pay for the meds.

I have used natural stuff when I worked in a vitamin store, it takes more and takes longer for them to work,,,, if they work at all.

yes agreed - its not cheap and will probably send me broke but its important to me to try it. I will keep persisting for a while longer but certainly can't keep it up forever. I have been very fortunate in finding a Naturopath who genuinely wants to help me and has no interest in ripping me off (I know there are some out there like that though). His wife also suffers from terrible migraines which probably helps his understanding of the disease and over the years he has managed to get them under control for her (not eliminated but more controlled). I am also lucky that my health insurance does cover a small percentage of the treatments at the moment........every little bit helps.

Just to keep everyone updated, I am now on day 9 of my medication holiday. I am truly astounded at how much better I feel. After the first few days I haven't had any severe migraines, only a short-lived moderate one. I've also had some short-lived mild headaches here and there, but I don't consider them noteworthy at all.

I never would have believed doing this could help me so much. I had been in so much pain from July-December - things were really getting out of control. Now I feel good again. I have no doubt that severe migraines are still a part of my life, but as long as I get days off in between the attacks I am able to cope and be optimistic with this disease.

I am going to shoot for at least 30 days with no meds to start with, but I am hoping I can do 2-3 months.

Jayme, I am so happy for you. Woo hoo!!!

I thought the article Jamie linked was a good one.
from article:
A possible explanation of why migraine becomes chronic is that a yo-yo effect of repeated migrainous pain processes, followed by repeated medication, results in structural changes. These propagate central sensitization with a lowered threshold for activation of all of the central processing of head pain.

This set of disturbances may occur due to undertreatment of migraine pain. With inadequate pain control, headaches recur, and the process repeats until damage occurs. Evidence for this is seen in up-regulation of excitatory serotonin receptors when analgesics are repetitively given to laboratory animals.23

I realize that this is only a theory-but it is not wonder that we get into trouble- with inadequate pain control headaches recur, but take too much medication and headaches recur. It's almost a no win situation and I walk a fine line between too many migraines and too much medication.

I don't know. Not taking any pain relief did not seem to reduce the frequency of my headaches at all. There seems to be no one causal pattern for migraines. So glad it is working for Jayme however.