Chronic pain/med question

[shannonb73]

Hello, I am new to forums  so please excuse me if I get anything wrong! But I suffer from chronic pain due to migraines and trigeminal neuralgia and so far none of the preventative medication that I have tried has really worked.  The Topamax for my migraines do help minimally and my new medication for the TN, Tegretol, well I'm trying to let that work, but it just isn't.  I have been going to the Headache Clinic at Georgetown University Hospital for the past year for treatments and did an inpatient stay once.  I have had many ER visits over the years with my migraines, last one was last Friday night. There I was given 3 rounds of Dialulid that finally brought the pain under control.  I was so excited, see for the rest of the weekend I would say I was at a 5 or 6 pain level which I can live with, I normally am at 8 and on bad days 9 pushing that 10.  So when I was that level, I was so happy, but it was short lived and Monday night I had a complete breakdown because it hit me of how much pain I actually am in 95% of the time, I felt this just isn't fair.  That I jlust cant go one feeling like this, not after knowing what I COULD feel like. I felt so defeated.  Because I have tried everything else, Botox,every medicine on the market.  I have lost jobs, and friends.  I just stay in bed curled up wishing I could do all the things Im doing in my head. Which in turn, just makes me depressed.  So, what I am getting at here, is that when I take pain medication like Percocet or the dialudid, I can still function and it does help with the pain, doesn't make it go away completely, but manageable.  the doctors I see will not prescribe this type of medications to me on a regular basis due to they state it will cause rebound headaches....hello how can they when I already have a migraine every single day. or that  you become addicted, and I know some people can become addicted to pain meds, but what about the people who actually need them on a basically daily basis just to have some sort of life?  so they can work, or have just a or normal life.  I really feel that I would benefit from being put on and yes being monitored on stronger pain medication.  Does anyone know of a clinic or doctor in the northern va or dc area that may offer some sort of relief? again I suffer from chronic migraines,TN and neck pain.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.
shannonb73

[Mollyrae]

Sorry to hear this. The Doctors are actually right. rebound headaches resemble migraines and are non-stop. I also suffer from migraines and take a combo of Topamax and Rizatriptan. These meds do not take away the entire migraine but make it manageable for me. I think the extra strong coffee helps too.

Good luck and again sorry to hear this,
Mollyrae

[shannonb73]

Thank you, I will definitely check her blog out.

[philnoir]

Please visit Carol Levy's blog, apainedlife.blogspot.com.

Carol is a woman who's lived with TGN for 30 years and you will appreciate her perspective