on the 5th of this May I experienced the worst headache i've ever experienced in my life (like a knife in my eye). it started @ 9am & ended @ 5 pm. the next day was worse.... and worse the next, and worse the next -each day they aways start @ 9am & end @ 5 pm (none of the 5 doc's who've seen me can explain why they start & stop so consistantly to the hour). from 9 to 10 is the ramp up time, from 10 to 4 was complete agony, from 4 to 5 ramp down. then the dull, normal, constant pain would just be there (it's always there).
this episode has completely reset my pain scale, so the dull "normal" pain is a welcomed friend. i know pain scales are relative to each person, but the severe acute time period of this it is between an eight & ten for me. i've broken at least 10 bones, ripped my achilles tendon in half, gone through surguries, etc. -but nothing even comes close to the pain this is causing me.
I made an appointment with my doctor after the 3rd day. when i made it to my doctor, my right eye was weeping uncontrollably and was extremely sensitive to light. i have no history of anything even remotely like this, so my doc sent me to emergency room. @ the er i underwent a ct scan & a spinal tap -all came back ok -no blood in the sinuses, no abnormalities in my head, no meningitis. they put in my iv & gave me 2 doses (4 mg's total) of morphine & it didn't touch the pain. a little bit later, they added another 2mg dose and it still was doing nothing. i asked if they could give me more & they couldn't -but my nurse said he had another idea and shortly came back & put something else in my iv... & the pain was drastically decreased. i can't remember the particular name b/c @ that point i couldn't even tell u what my name was -all i know is it was a barbiturate. since that worked, they sent me home with a prescription for fioricet.
i followed up with my doc who refered me to a neurologist. my neurologist did an mri & it showed i had a little bit of a sinus infection and a some distress on my right optic nerve but they still have no idea what the root cause is.
they put me on 50 mg's of lyrica to start for the 1st week & fioricet 3. both lyrica & the barbiturate in the fioricet relax my central nervous system so the the nerve can heal itself.
for the a few days this combination made the pain somewhat manageable & I only had a acute pain until i took the 2nd fioricet 3 of the day (ie: after taking the 1st fioricet 3 of the day, i still experienced a great deal of pain, but when i took the 2nd dose of the day, it kicked the pain down considerabley.) after a few days, the drug (or something else?), shrunk the severe pain window to 10 am to 3pm. the ramp up time was still the same and the ramp down of the pain was just the "normal" pain.
the 2nd week the lyrica dosage went up to 75 mg's (while continuing the fioricet 3) & this mostly extinguished the severe pain.
i've tried not taking the fioricet for a day, but the terrible pain quickly changed my mind. i've got it down so i only take 2 of them a day (1 early, 1 @ lunch) & this makes the pain "manageable" (I still have acute pain until i take the 2nd fioricet 3 of the day). but i don't want to live the rest of my freaking life like this! i pray this is not the reality i've found myself in..........
any insight, guidance, suggestions, or encouragement will be greatly appreciated.
kindest regards,
torturedOne