Question:
Kim, Get a good pain DR~ I have found that with some Wellbutrin, daily Fiorinol and a couple other meds I am OK!! For once in my life I do not wake up daily with a migraine! Just find a good pain DR or Neuro who can treat this, it takes WAT to much away from life. This I know. I have three little ones, and no time for laying around in depression/chronic pain. Go figure today was the first day I have woken up with a darned MIGRAINE! IN MONTHS! Kim (never rule out allergies either)
Response:
I really don’t understand the legalities involved…..if you have a legit script from a legit physician, why is it wrong to fill it and receive pain relief?– WHile I can’t be sure (not a lawyer, y’understand), I’d say that you are, simply, getting the prescription by lying about your needs, and getting your prescription under false pretenses.
Naomi is 100% right on this one. I did the same "Doctor Shuffle" and i was wrong when i did it. If i’m not with a doctor who can give me pain relief, i need to be with a different doctor. Doctors feel scammed when they find out you are going to different ones (yes, the insurances call your primary dude or dudette to make sure they know.) And when they find out, they will never trust you again. I know…. Now i am absolutely anal about staying under the narc contract i have with Paul, my physician. I follow it to the letter. My meds are also locked in a safe to which i don’t have the combonation. Why? Because it is my only protection. Only by following these restrictions am i allowed the freedom of pain medications. I am extreme about following the contract because i know one single Vicodin or T3 from a compassionate neighbor can snatch the relief i do have. I know you are in pain. I know it feels like the only safety you feel is in having the med bottle full. But there are better, safer ways than to doctor dance. Sweetheart, there is relief available. Get it. Don’t accept anything less. But stay with a doctor to whom you can stay accountable. Deep peace to you, Lavon
Response:
PS. I do not believe in rebound, and I do believe in WHAT EVER works for you USE IT. You just need the right DR! If you are in pa, i can help, let me know. Please nobody slam me, this is just my opinion. I respect others opinions. I have been dealing with the migraine/daily headache thing for SOOOO long. Have the TOP of the LINE Neuro at Jefferson who treats headaches, and another neuro who does all my back stuff… Kim
Response:
Dear Kim: I lurk here often but rarely post, but your story really touched me. I hope that your stay at Diamond is better than mine were. I dealt with Diamond for about 4 years with 7-8 inpatient stays lasting anywhere from 10 to 28 days. It’s a great place to learn about headaches and some people felt they can do miricles, but I never found any type of relief there from refractory hemiplegic migraines. Dr. Larry Robbins who is north of Chicago is the one who really helped me. While I still have daily migraines I deal with them in many ways, but you have to add in the fact that I also have several autoimmune diseases, FMS, DDD and 3 rupturd discs, so my way may not serve you well at all. I take a huge amount of medication with long acting opioids and short acting opioiods for breakthrough pain being only two of the bunch but they did give me a quality of life back that is wonderful. Not exactly the life I had before but with so much to deal with that won’t happen. Anyway I hope you do take advantage of all the classes Diamond offers as you will learn alot. I also hope you get one of the physician’s who are a bit more empathic than some of the others. Dr. F. was and is not a doctor I would ever seen again no matter what….but again that is me others think him a God, but I bet I can name more who think he’s an a**. Sorry I hope I didn’t scare you off and that they can help you. It was a wonderful place to met people who are in the same situation or worse and be able to talk with them. You really realize you are not alone in this at all. And if that is the only thing I took from Diamond then it was well worth going! I wish you the very best of luck. Sincerely, Deanie – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is what is happening next week……IP hospitalization at Diamond. Hope it works….i’ve been told it tends to be temporary, only 3-4 months at most and then you are back to square one. — Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_ And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage. I hope she is also prescribing a new preventative for you to try to lassen the amount and severity of you CDH. Besides that. it’s obvious that she wasn’t prescribing an adequate amount of pain control or preventative medication to help in the first place. Maybe you need to find someone more suitable to treating CDH. But, don’t expect anyone to prescribe the quantity of pills you were taking before. Maybe though, there are some long acting medications more suited for your condition. Good luck Bob Dear Kim, Since you have tried everything, and your pain still is not adequately addressed, have you considered impatient treatment? If your doctor won’t work with you on this, you can go such places as the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. That institution, and others like it, can really help. Remember, you are not alone out there.Headache pain management can be a lot more effective than the way you and your doctor are doing it. Good Luck Sue
Response:
Dear Sue: It’s Dr, Lawrence Robbins not Robb who is in Chicago, actually Northbrook, IL about 20 minutes from O’Hare. I will be grateful to him always. Just thought you would like the info. You see Seymore’s little girl huh? Is she running the place now? Just curious. Glad you found relief there. I came away with a better understanding of migraine but in the end no real relief or treatment they offered helped like Dr. Robbins treatment. Take Care, Deanie – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is what is happening next week……IP hospitalization at Diamond. Hope it works….i’ve been told it tends to be temporary, only 3-4 months at most and then you are back to square one. — Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_ And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage. I hope she is also prescribing a new preventative for you to try to lassen the amount and severity of you CDH. Besides that. it’s obvious that she wasn’t prescribing an adequate amount of pain control or preventative medication to help in the first place. Maybe you need to find someone more suitable to treating CDH. But, don’t expect anyone to prescribe the quantity of pills you were taking before. Maybe though, there are some long acting medications more suited for your condition. Good luck Bob Dear Kim, Since you have tried everything, and your pain still is not adequately addressed, have you considered impatient treatment? If your doctor won’t work with you on this, you can go such places as the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. That institution, and others like it, can really help. Remember, you are not alone out there.Headache pain management can be a lot more effective than the way you and your doctor are doing it. Good Luck Sue Dear Kim, I will be thinking of you this weekend, trying to hold on till your appointment. As for3-4 months for treatment, it took us 13 months to get me to 80% of my capacity that I had before my allergic reaction to a doctor approved drug, which among other things sent my headaches rocketing sky high and out of control. Dr. Merle adequately managed my pain through this whole period, and still does so today. The clinic uses anything that works to manage your pain. They have drugs that are so obscure that no company manufactures them, and they have to contract them out to a( specific factory?) for hire. My pharmacist finds it all pretty interesting, and I know that that is not your favorite word right now, but just by going to Diamond, you will be getting some credibility back from your pharmacist. If Diamond doesn’t work for you,there are other very good places. Dr. Silverstein and Dr. L. Robb are mentioned frequently in this newsgroup. I understand that Dr. Robb is also in Chicago. Best of Luck to you, Sue
Response:
Unfortunately I cannot help because I am in similar situation….doc thought Fiorinal was causing rebound so we styed off that for two months or so and then when she decided to presicbe it again it was one every 12 hours! hahahaha! next time it was one every 8 hours…I take two at a time to get any minimal relief and with ibuprofen. Neuro gives me 30 percocets to last two months and in between have to beg for something including ER visits. Then they ask me, "what’s going on?" I’m afraid I went to a consult for an accupuncturist and the attitude seemed to be the same plus I cannot afford it! $75 twice a week to start …for who knows how long. I hopw you find some relief…I do know that oxycodone helps me to at leat do dishes and vaccuum….my DH with two back surgeries and disabled does the rest…except for an occasional load of laundry. I know how it feels …I wish I could take all of our pain and suffering away…my doc actually said that to me once…but now she is "mad" at me…sent me to an addiction counselor even! That is enough from me…You have your own trials to deal with….wishing and praying for the relief you need. Fran
Response:
Dr. Larry Robbins who is north of Chicago is the one who really helped me.
If I had Migraines…..I’d be seeing Dr. Robbins and may soon see him for my clusters if I can get into his schedule. Only for a specific reason regarding something not allowed under Diamond Clinic policy. Dr. F. was and is not a doctor I would ever seen
again no matter what….but again that is me others think him a God, but I bet I can name more who think he’s an a**. LOL…That would only be a god with a little "g" ,thank you Deanie 
When you have clusters you need to see the guy that knows the most about them. I suppose I could fly to see Jack Sandweiss once a month in California but the treatment wouldn’t change. I’m sure that Fred doesn’t come off as a very sympathetic guy when you’re lying there in migraine hell. He is also the first to admit that. Anyone going to Diamond should ask for Merle…no, PLEAD for Merle. You are correct though about the in-patient program. Everyone with migraines should go through it if they had the time and money/insurance. There is also a "very good" pain specialist in the Chicago area named Dr. Skaredoff (yes it is) if anyone needs info, let me know. BobW
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Dr. Larry Robbins who is north of Chicago is the one who really helped me. If I had Migraines…..I’d be seeing Dr. Robbins and may soon see him for my clusters if I can get into his schedule. Only for a specific reason regarding something not allowed under Diamond Clinic policy. Dr. F. was and is not a doctor I would ever seen again no matter what….but again that is me others think him a God, but I bet I can name more who think he’s an a**. LOL…That would only be a god with a little "g" ,thank you Deanie When you have clusters you need to see the guy that knows the most about them. I suppose I could fly to see Jack Sandweiss once a month in California but the treatment wouldn’t change. I’m sure that Fred doesn’t come off as a very sympathetic guy when you’re lying there in migraine hell. He is also the first to admit that. Anyone going to Diamond should ask for Merle…no, PLEAD for Merle. You are correct though about the in-patient program. Everyone with migraines should go through it if they had the time and money/insurance. There is also a "very good" pain specialist in the Chicago area named Dr. Skaredoff (yes it is) if anyone needs info, let me know. BobW
Thanks Bob. I am glad that Dr. Merle was able to help you. It seemed to me that they were better able to assist those with clusters than with migraines. Do you use the histamine IV therapy? I didn’t really like Merle either. Urban was my doc while I was there. They try hard but in my opinion not hard enough. When it came down to the point where nothing they did helped me I was sent home and told to live with it. Don’t y’all hate that phrase? Also I was instructed to go to the ER and have him, Urban, paged each time to tell them what to give me, well that went over light a lead ballon after the third visit. Slapped with a drug seeker label and sent home. Even after I told him that was happening he just shrugged and offered to put me inpatient again. Told him thanks but no. Picked up my bags and flew home. Just by luck read an article written by Robbins and the rest is history….and for me it’s been lucky history. I don’t know how many of you use Skp Bakers site but Diamond is on his worst pain clinic list. I guess it just depends on who you talk to and when doesn’t it? Take care Bob. Oh yes Bob? Don’t tell Fred I said Hi….Thanks!! Deanie
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is what is happening next week……IP hospitalization at Diamond. Hope it works….i’ve been told it tends to be temporary, only 3-4 months at most and then you are back to square one. — Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_ And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage. I hope she is also prescribing a new preventative for you to try to lassen the amount and severity of you CDH. Besides that. it’s obvious that she wasn’t prescribing an adequate amount of pain control or preventative medication to help in the first place. Maybe you need to find someone more suitable to treating CDH. But, don’t expect anyone to prescribe the quantity of pills you were taking before. Maybe though, there are some long acting medications more suited for your condition. Good luck Bob Dear Kim, Since you have tried everything, and your pain still is not adequately addressed, have you considered impatient treatment? If your doctor won’t work with you on this, you can go such places as the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. That institution, and others like it, can really help. Remember, you are not alone out there.Headache pain management can be a lot more effective than the way you and your doctor are doing it. Good Luck Sue
Dear Kim, I will be thinking of you this weekend, trying to hold on till your appointment. As for3-4 months for treatment, it took us 13 months to get me to 80% of my capacity that I had before my allergic reaction to a doctor approved drug, which among other things sent my headaches rocketing sky high and out of control. Dr. Merle adequately managed my pain through this whole period, and still does so today. The clinic uses anything that works to manage your pain. They have drugs that are so obscure that no company manufactures them, and they have to contract them out to a( specific factory?) for hire. My pharmacist finds it all pretty interesting, and I know that that is not your favorite word right now, but just by going to Diamond, you will be getting some credibility back from your pharmacist. If Diamond doesn’t work for you,there are other very good places. Dr. Silverstein and Dr. L. Robb are mentioned frequently in this newsgroup. I understand that Dr. Robb is also in Chicago. Best of Luck to you, Sue
Response:
I really don’t understand the legalities involved…..if you have a legit script from a legit physician, why is it wrong to fill it and receive pain relief?–
WHile I can’t be sure (not a lawyer, y’understand), I’d say that you are, simply, getting the prescription by lying about your needs, and getting your prescription under false pretenses. I know that I have NEVER been to a new doctor and NOT been asked about what medications I am taking. So, if your second doctor prescribed you more Fiorinol, I have to assume that you didn’t tell him you were already taking it, and already had a prescription. Ditto for doctors 3 and 4. Naomi
Response:
This is what is happening next week……IP hospitalization at Diamond. Hope it works….i’ve been told it tends to be temporary, only 3-4 months at most and then you are back to square one.
I’m so glad you’ve gotten some help. Naomi – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – — Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_ And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage. I hope she is also prescribing a new preventative for you to try to lassen the amount and severity of you CDH. Besides that. it’s obvious that she wasn’t prescribing an adequate amount of pain control or preventative medication to help in the first place. Maybe you need to find someone more suitable to treating CDH. But, don’t expect anyone to prescribe the quantity of pills you were taking before. Maybe though, there are some long acting medications more suited for your condition. Good luck Bob Dear Kim, Since you have tried everything, and your pain still is not adequately addressed, have you considered impatient treatment? If your doctor won’t work with you on this, you can go such places as the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. That institution, and others like it, can really help. Remember, you are not alone out there.Headache pain management can be a lot more effective than the way you and your doctor are doing it. Good Luck Sue
Response:
Dearest Kim, Sometimes there are breadcrumbs of relief just in knowing there is a game plan…just knowing that there is forward motion. Joyous thoughts travelling your way… Lavon
Response:
I really don’t understand the legalities involved…..if you have a legit script from a legit physician, why is it wrong to fill it and receive pain relief?– Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have migraines and CDH overlapping and have not had a pain free day in years……much more severe the last two months. <snipped the rest Kim you are playing a dangerous game when you get prescriptions from more than one doctor and fill them at different pharmacies. I don’t know the laws where you live but, where I live that is good for jail time (or so I’ve been told, I’m not a lawyer). I know you think you have to have more medication but, this is not the way to do it and remain free. You will simply have to find a doctor who understands your problem and can prescribe a medication to help you. You may need a long acting medication or some other solution. I can’t offer medical advice but, you need to find a doctor who can help. I have used Fiorinol in the past for migraines and it was pretty effective but, for only a short time. The result was that I had to keep popping the pills and after a while they just wouldn’t do the job. I spent years tryiung to find a good solution. Many of us have to go through that. I know it isn’t encouraging to hear that you may have to do that but, don’t play around with the prescription thing. They probably won’t give you anything for pain in prison so don’t go there.
Response:
I was crying, not because of panic, but because of the hurt, humiliation, shame, hopelessness, lack of pain control after I had been begging for better pain control…….it’s like none of my docs really cared how I felt in my head. — Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – <horror story about migraines & CDH, with dr finding out about 4 different other sources for fiorinal and cancelling all of them Kim, I hope that you are not as upset right now as you were when you wrote this post. Crying and panicking won’t help your head any, although I certainly understand the feeling. I had confessed to my dr once that I had been getting additional Fiorinal from a Mexican pharmacy. His reaction was actually pretty caring — that it was a stupid thing for me to do legally (quite true), and that we must not have found a way to manage my headaches very well & we needed to work harder on that, and that I could be addicted. He said that it’s not unusual for people to be addicted, and that in & of itself may not actually be such a big problem except that it may affect you legally as you try to obtain it and it may affect you medically as you try to cope with your headaches. He is a rebound believer, but also does not want his patients to be in pain. Appropriate medical treatment for addiction may not mean cutting you off cold turkey. It may mean monitoring your usage, charting your headaches, continuing to write you Rx’s for Fiorinal and letting you use it (hopefully while tapering down), and watching what happens to you (overall as a person) and to your headaches. You may need to take some big deep breaths and calm down and make another appointment with your doctor to discuss this. If your doctor is not willing to oversee your withdrawal from Fiorinal and work with you on it, maybe you should change doctors. You need to be totally honest with whoever your doctor is, though, and really get their help. I know it’s scary to be found out. I know it’s scary to think you may have to face all this pain without adequate pain relief. But the first step in turning all this around is already behind you, and you don’t have to be scared of being found out anymore. There are so many new drugs that keep coming on the market that help a lot of people. I know you say you’ve tried everything, but you may not be able to tell what really might be able to help you in the absence of rebounding going on. Another person responded to you that you might want to consider inpatient treatment. You really might. I know you said you have to care for your baby and your husband works fulltime. I know that seems like an impossible situation, to be able to go into the hospital for help while you get off the Fiorinal and get help for your headaches. But in the long run it might be the best thing you ever did. I know there have been times in the past when I felt so hopeless about ever having any relief from pain that I thought I just would not want to live this way if this is the way it’s going to be. I don’t want to put words in your mouth or exaggerate what you said in your post, but I know I was scared to face all that pain without my drugs. It’s definitely more practical and more workable to ask for help and be hospitalized if necessary in that situation than to commit suicide. Like I said, I know you didn’t say anything like that, but I just know how I felt at the time, myself, and I just wanted you to know that there is help available. Best wishes to you. I can’t imagine trying to take care of a baby while having migraines and chronic daily headaches. Bless your heart. Rosemary
Response:
This is what is happening next week……IP hospitalization at Diamond. Hope it works….i’ve been told it tends to be temporary, only 3-4 months at most and then you are back to square one. — Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage. I hope she is also prescribing a new preventative for you to try to lassen the amount and severity of you CDH. Besides that. it’s obvious that she wasn’t prescribing an adequate amount of pain control or preventative medication to help in the first place. Maybe you need to find someone more suitable to treating CDH. But, don’t expect anyone to prescribe the quantity of pills you were taking before. Maybe though, there are some long acting medications more suited for your condition. Good luck Bob Dear Kim, Since you have tried everything, and your pain still is not adequately addressed, have you considered impatient treatment? If your doctor won’t work with you on this, you can go such places as the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. That institution, and others like it, can really help. Remember, you are not alone out there.Headache pain management can be a lot more effective than the way you and your doctor are doing it. Good Luck Sue
Response:
If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Bob Naw… keep it. You can give me a new head; preferably one that doesn’t hurt…. Naomi
If the Lemon Law applied to God, i’d be recalled by now. -L-
Response:
I have migraines and CDH overlapping and have not had a pain free day in years……much more severe the last two months. <snipped the rest
Kim you are playing a dangerous game when you get prescriptions from more than one doctor and fill them at different pharmacies. I don’t know the laws where you live but, where I live that is good for jail time (or so I’ve been told, I’m not a lawyer). I know you think you have to have more medication but, this is not the way to do it and remain free. You will simply have to find a doctor who understands your problem and can prescribe a medication to help you. You may need a long acting medication or some other solution. I can’t offer medical advice but, you need to find a doctor who can help. I have used Fiorinol in the past for migraines and it was pretty effective but, for only a short time. The result was that I had to keep popping the pills and after a while they just wouldn’t do the job. I spent years tryiung to find a good solution. Many of us have to go through that. I know it isn’t encouraging to hear that you may have to do that but, don’t play around with the prescription thing. They probably won’t give you anything for pain in prison so don’t go there.
Response:
And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you.
Naw… keep it. You can give me a new head; preferably one that doesn’t hurt…. Naomi – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Bob
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage.
Kim, I lost your message off my list (I hate reading news the way I am now!). I agree with what others are saying. Here are a few other suggestions: 1. Take this as a wake up call. We all get them for various reasons. Find a doctor who will work with you to find a preventative that works for you or prescribe daily meds that you need. 2. Get a good book on headaches. I like Dr. Robbins book. Find out your choices. 3. Remember fiornol is, exsentially, excedrin with a mild barbituate so all those meds are the same. If you are truly dealing with rebound, then there are 2 schools of thought on it. One is go off slowly and the other is go cold turkey. BUT DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO OFF CAFFIENE COLD TURKEY! (did I say that loud enough?) So, figure out how much caffiene you are taking and when you are taking it and replace it with generic vivarin and slowly taper off that. If you try to go off slowly but are afraid to ask for more fiornol, remember that the only thing you are missing is the barbituate. I have a friend who used benedryl with excedrin. She found that it helped her deal with the anxiety issues of having pain. In her case, she had no more insurance. I don’t think they recommend taking benedryl for more than a week (she had a plan and had some fiornol left). You have my sympathies. I had a 4 month time period with what I refer to as totally uncontrolled migraines. Little was helping them–taking imitrex or fiornol or midrin was like eating pez. I went off all meds for a 4 week time span to eliminate rebound (and had 13 migraines with 17 days of total pain). Georgia
Response:
<horror story about migraines & CDH, with dr finding out about 4 different other sources for fiorinal and cancelling all of them Kim, I hope that you are not as upset right now as you were when you wrote this post. Crying and panicking won’t help your head any, although I certainly understand the feeling. I had confessed to my dr once that I had been getting additional Fiorinal from a Mexican pharmacy. His reaction was actually pretty caring — that it was a stupid thing for me to do legally (quite true), and that we must not have found a way to manage my headaches very well & we needed to work harder on that, and that I could be addicted. He said that it’s not unusual for people to be addicted, and that in & of itself may not actually be such a big problem except that it may affect you legally as you try to obtain it and it may affect you medically as you try to cope with your headaches. He is a rebound believer, but also does not want his patients to be in pain. Appropriate medical treatment for addiction may not mean cutting you off cold turkey. It may mean monitoring your usage, charting your headaches, continuing to write you Rx’s for Fiorinal and letting you use it (hopefully while tapering down), and watching what happens to you (overall as a person) and to your headaches. You may need to take some big deep breaths and calm down and make another appointment with your doctor to discuss this. If your doctor is not willing to oversee your withdrawal from Fiorinal and work with you on it, maybe you should change doctors. You need to be totally honest with whoever your doctor is, though, and really get their help. I know it’s scary to be found out. I know it’s scary to think you may have to face all this pain without adequate pain relief. But the first step in turning all this around is already behind you, and you don’t have to be scared of being found out anymore. There are so many new drugs that keep coming on the market that help a lot of people. I know you say you’ve tried everything, but you may not be able to tell what really might be able to help you in the absence of rebounding going on. Another person responded to you that you might want to consider inpatient treatment. You really might. I know you said you have to care for your baby and your husband works fulltime. I know that seems like an impossible situation, to be able to go into the hospital for help while you get off the Fiorinal and get help for your headaches. But in the long run it might be the best thing you ever did. I know there have been times in the past when I felt so hopeless about ever having any relief from pain that I thought I just would not want to live this way if this is the way it’s going to be. I don’t want to put words in your mouth or exaggerate what you said in your post, but I know I was scared to face all that pain without my drugs. It’s definitely more practical and more workable to ask for help and be hospitalized if necessary in that situation than to commit suicide. Like I said, I know you didn’t say anything like that, but I just know how I felt at the time, myself, and I just wanted you to know that there is help available. Best wishes to you. I can’t imagine trying to take care of a baby while having migraines and chronic daily headaches. Bless your heart. Rosemary
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage. I hope she is also prescribing a new preventative for you to try to lassen the amount and severity of you CDH. Besides that. it’s obvious that she wasn’t prescribing an adequate amount of pain control or preventative medication to help in the first place. Maybe you need to find someone more suitable to treating CDH. But, don’t expect anyone to prescribe the quantity of pills you were taking before. Maybe though, there are some long acting medications more suited for your condition. Good luck Bob
Dear Kim, Since you have tried everything, and your pain still is not adequately addressed, have you considered impatient treatment? If your doctor won’t work with you on this, you can go such places as the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. That institution, and others like it, can really help. Remember, you are not alone out there.Headache pain management can be a lot more effective than the way you and your doctor are doing it. Good Luck Sue
Response:
And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.)
If anyone bites off your head Naomi, I’ll help sew it back on for you. Kim, I know you are very distressed over this and I would be also, but in the long term, this may help. You very well could be rebounding a great deal. If this is the case though, your doctor should have helped you deal with the situation. She was undoubtably mad at you and wasn’t considering the pain that could be caused by sending you home in a rebounding state without adequate pain control or in a pain control setting (hospital). You should have been tapered off the large amount of medication you were taking until you were at what she considered an "acceptable" dosage. I hope she is also prescribing a new preventative for you to try to lassen the amount and severity of you CDH. Besides that. it’s obvious that she wasn’t prescribing an adequate amount of pain control or preventative medication to help in the first place. Maybe you need to find someone more suitable to treating CDH. But, don’t expect anyone to prescribe the quantity of pills you were taking before. Maybe though, there are some long acting medications more suited for your condition. Good luck Bob
Response:
I’m not sure how much help this is, but it sounds like you need to have a long talk with your doctor. 10-15 Exedrin per day is NOT good for you. Nor is taking Fiorinol every day. And neither, for that matter, is lying to doctors and pharmacists about how much medication you are using. You need to work with your doc to find something that is effective for you, at doses that are not going to do you more harm than good. (You don’t say what treatments and therapies you’ve tried, but there must be something you HAVEN"T tried. And, while some here may bite my head off for suggesting it, if you’ve been taking high daily doses of meds for a long time, rebound COULD be a factor.) I’m sorry you’re having such a bad time. I too get CDH, but fortunately my daily pain is more annoying than disabling, so I can manage without treating it, saving my meds for the migraines. Naomi – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have migraines and CDH overlapping and have not had a pain free day in years……much more severe the last two months. My only short term relief is plain old Fiorinal. I have tried many narcotics in the past to no avail. I have been using Fiorinal daily when I do have it and then take time off but during that time I generally take about 10-15 Excedrin to get me thru the day, as I live on the couch from chronic pain as it is. I am a stay at home mom and my dh works FT…he comes home and then does the housework I cannot do. I can’t even work anymore it is so debilitating. I have tried so many therapies, preventives, the whole gamut, to no avail and am so desperate for relief. Today, my neuro found out I was getting Fiorinal from four different docs from four different pharmacies (because I couldn’t get enuf from her to keep me pain free), she she took it upon herself to call all my pharmacies and forbid them to give me any scripts from any doctor except her. Isn’t that nice? I have 22 Fiorinal right now and have been crying for 3-1/2 hours now because I was found out and because when my supply runs out, it runs out. What do I do? I already spend too much time on the couch and I must care for my baby. Guess it is bed for me for the rest of my life, or what? I would appreciate any help or advice or anything. Kim
Response:
I have migraines and CDH overlapping and have not had a pain free day in years……much more severe the last two months. My only short term relief is plain old Fiorinal. I have tried many narcotics in the past to no avail. I have been using Fiorinal daily when I do have it and then take time off but during that time I generally take about 10-15 Excedrin to get me thru the day, as I live on the couch from chronic pain as it is. I am a stay at home mom and my dh works FT…he comes home and then does the housework I cannot do. I can’t even work anymore it is so debilitating. I have tried so many therapies, preventives, the whole gamut, to no avail and am so desperate for relief. Today, my neuro found out I was getting Fiorinal from four different docs from four different pharmacies (because I couldn’t get enuf from her to keep me pain free), she she took it upon herself to call all my pharmacies and forbid them to give me any scripts from any doctor except her. Isn’t that nice? I have 22 Fiorinal right now and have been crying for 3-1/2 hours now because I was found out and because when my supply runs out, it runs out. What do I do? I already spend too much time on the couch and I must care for my baby. Guess it is bed for me for the rest of my life, or what? I would appreciate any help or advice or anything. Kim
Response:
I would never ever lie to my doctors about my pain. THey all know how badly I hurt. I just kept refilling Rx’s from the other docs because I needed more, that’s all. Gosh, this pain thing is so awful….I don’t want to be on any medications whatsoever. I would rather live life and just brag about having to swallow a vitamin. You know? I don’t like the way these pain meds make me feel, but the Fiorinal does help temporarily which is what I was using…temporary relief, as the preventives I had been on didn’t work (MScontin, amtrip, protrip, depakote, antidepressants, and so many others). Kim, SAH/WAH mommy to Dakota, 7 Jeb, 16 months wife to Wade, 9 years in June (o/) /_ "Naomi Lynne Pardue – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – WHile I can’t be sure (not a lawyer, y’understand), I’d say that you are, simply, getting the prescription by lying about your needs, and getting your prescription under false pretenses. I know that I have NEVER been to a new doctor and NOT been asked about what medications I am taking. So, if your second doctor prescribed you more Fiorinol, I have to assume that you didn’t tell him you were already taking it, and already had a prescription. Ditto for doctors 3 and 4. Naomi
Response:
. If I really need to relax, I take a shower 
Categories: Addiction Counselor | 
No Comments »