Coping with Medication Side Effects
Do you take pain meds on a regular basis? Do they cause side effects that make you uncomfortable? Do you get discouraged when it seems you have to take more meds because of the meds you have to take? Now if you read the last question really fast you are probably saying "Hey, wait a minute...what does this mean?"
I get cluster headaches. In fact this spring has been a bad one for me. I have suffered cluster headaches since April 3rd. And I am tired of the pain attacks and the meds I need to take to be comfortable and continue to function. Sometimes I ask myself if the meds I need to take really make me feel better or if they just create a distraction from the pain by producing dizziness, nausea, visual disturbances or dry mouth and sedation? Because of these side effects, I end up taking other meds to calm the side effects down.
The medication I have to take causes me to feel dizzy at times if I stand quickly. My mouth is often dry to the point that carrying on a conversation can be uncomfortable if there isn't a beverage or hard candy close by. But I think the worst feeling is the GE reflux that comes with taking these meds. I often get extreme cases of regurgitation and heartburn that often hurts significantly after the headache pain is gone...The only way to resolve the symptoms is to take an acid reducer or antacids on top of the other meds.
I keep telling myself I won't have to be on these meds for long. The last cluster I had started the last week in September and ended the first week of November, meaning I was able to wean down and off the meds by that time. I figure I will stick it out and maintain these meds as long as they stop the piercing, throbbing and agonizing pain of the clusters. I will trade the need to stand a little slower for the extreme nasal pain and sinus-like pain any day. I will gladly take the antacids if it means the pain will resolve quickly and I can go on with life in spite of these horrible attacks. Hopefully this cluster will resolve soon and I can stop taking these meds.
Related Topics: Acupuncture, Drugs Both Help Migraine, Kids' Headaches: Link to Bad Behavior?
Technorati Tags: cluster headaches, pain medications, sinusitis
I get cluster headaches. In fact this spring has been a bad one for me. I have suffered cluster headaches since April 3rd. And I am tired of the pain attacks and the meds I need to take to be comfortable and continue to function. Sometimes I ask myself if the meds I need to take really make me feel better or if they just create a distraction from the pain by producing dizziness, nausea, visual disturbances or dry mouth and sedation? Because of these side effects, I end up taking other meds to calm the side effects down.
The medication I have to take causes me to feel dizzy at times if I stand quickly. My mouth is often dry to the point that carrying on a conversation can be uncomfortable if there isn't a beverage or hard candy close by. But I think the worst feeling is the GE reflux that comes with taking these meds. I often get extreme cases of regurgitation and heartburn that often hurts significantly after the headache pain is gone...The only way to resolve the symptoms is to take an acid reducer or antacids on top of the other meds.
I keep telling myself I won't have to be on these meds for long. The last cluster I had started the last week in September and ended the first week of November, meaning I was able to wean down and off the meds by that time. I figure I will stick it out and maintain these meds as long as they stop the piercing, throbbing and agonizing pain of the clusters. I will trade the need to stand a little slower for the extreme nasal pain and sinus-like pain any day. I will gladly take the antacids if it means the pain will resolve quickly and I can go on with life in spite of these horrible attacks. Hopefully this cluster will resolve soon and I can stop taking these meds.
Related Topics: Acupuncture, Drugs Both Help Migraine, Kids' Headaches: Link to Bad Behavior?
Technorati Tags: cluster headaches, pain medications, sinusitis
5 Comments:
Hi Indie, sure hope you feel better real soon! I am sorry you have been hit so hard with cluster. Thank you for being so faithful with the blogs. They are just WONDERFUL and add up to a wonderful handbook or toolbox if people want to read and heed.
I am not as able to cope with unpleasant side effects...well, it depends on what they are I know... Some made me physically very ill and that was the end of that. Most of the ones I am currently taking could make me a little sleepy.
Last night was strange though: I was trying to rmember where I had been when I had seen a nice display of Crabtree and Evelyn products, lolol. I knew it was a store but couldn't place it. That was funny and a little scary at the same time! It worked out when I retraced my steps and the week...I found myself, thank goodness. Not sure if that was medication or old age. I had a terrible headache last weekend so maybe the meds I took back then made things not register well. My husband was driving thank goodness.
Hope you feel better very soon, thinking of you, and thank you. From your friend, Sue *:-)
hi can you tell me how long percocet remains in the blood stream?
Is it possible that other meds can cause reflux? Because I take a whole lot of them - some of them hurt my liver, like Tricor, but things would be a lot worse if I didn't take them. Recently I've gotten bad acid reflux and attacks of stomach inflammation. So far, no doctor will admit this is due to my medications, but I really have to wonder....:-) Thanks.
Hi Indie:
You need to read all you can about Cluster headaches. My first cluster, I thought was a stroke, and was 3 1/2 months long. The second was 2 months long. The third one was 1 1/2 months long. Clusters belong to the migrane family. However, you need to know that most clusters are also caused by a "VIRUS", and we all know that viruses take their sweet time in dying. If you can take a sinus medication with your pain medication that may help. They tend to get fewer and farther between for females. It is another story for males.
I have GERD and I take Prevacid which I taken for about a month or so. Last year I was on omeperazol(sp). In the middle of the night I wake up coughing on my own refulx it even comes out my nose - awful then in the morning I wake up with a fever. When I take zantac in the morning and night I do not have this problem. My doctor cannot figure it out and neither can I. I do believe that this is a side affect and a weird one at that. So I guess you never know what side affects you could have.
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