It’s been forever since I’ve written. Mostly because … I don’t know. Partly depression, and another part because I just don’t have much to add. I’ve gone off all of my crohn’s disease medications. I haven’t seen my GI doctor for close to a year and a half. I do still take pain medications, but that is prescribed by my family doctor, who continues to reassure me that I am not addicted, and he doesn’t believe I’m even “dependent” on it.. though, I suppose I will always worry about that.
More than anything, my biggest health issue, aside from depression, and I should note, that I’ve not been taking the medication for that either, is the migraines I deal with. Like Crohn’s Disease, when in a flare (and even when not), my migraines are debilitating. As many are…
I am taking Sumatriptan for migraines, 100mg tabs. I was on 50mg tabs for it, but found that for almost each migraine, I was needing to take an extra tablet an hour or two after the first, before it would work. My family doctor suggested we try the 100mg tabs, and then, if needed, we had the option of switching to an injection that should work faster.
The 100mg tabs of Imitrex are working with the exception that I only get 9 per month, and I seem to have a few more than that in a typical month. Yay me. I wish I was better at keeping track of things – it’s such a good idea to keep a journal or calendar of these things. It shows a better picture for your doctor.
I’m currently on the mend from a doosie of a migraine. I hesitate to say it was the worst I’ve had, because each one, when without medication, feels horrendous. This one, however, was definitely different that others I’ve had in the past. I’ve had aura’s and vomiting before, but this one… wow.. it kicked my butt.
It had a been a busy day, running around with the kids getting some clothes and shoe shopping done, then to our grandparents to have lunch. As always after having Grandma’s heavy home cooking, I was ready for a nap. But I woke up knowing I had a migraine coming on.. it was Sunday, and I was out of medication. Shoot me now.
I took pain medicine, drank some caffeine, had some ibuprofen and grabbed an ice pack. I kept feeling woosie.. like I was going to throw up, but not quite. Our bathtub nozzle is broke, so I sat on the tub floor under a warm spray of shower.. crawled back to bed – I was hurting so bad at this point I couldn’t even get dressed. I wrapped in a sheet and just lay on the unmade bed for an hour or more until I had no choice but to move.
It only got worse from there. For the rest of the night, I was up and down every hour or hour and a half throwing up, with chills. By early morning light, I was definitely feverish… but thankfully, the puking had stopped. Through most of this, I thought it was something I’d eaten, but hubby had eaten everything I had with no ill-effects; next logical thought seemed maybe to be flu-ish… but it sprang up out of no where and while it left me weak and whimpering, it wasn’t a flu like day.
Once I was able to view the computer screen without hurting, I searched migraine symptoms. Lo and behold, fever and chills were both symptoms, as is vomiting (which I knew, just not to that degree). Needless to say, this migraine wiped me out. Another day later, and I’m still feeling weak in the head from it.
Note to self, never be without migraine medicine again.
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You describe your life as if you are describing mine. I also have debilitating migraines and I get anywhere from 3-8 a month, each lasting 3 or more days. I use the generic form of imitrex but I get the shots and like you, sometimes that isn’t enough, but insurance won’t allow more in a 25 day period, so I must also hit the pain meds. I use them also on bad Crohn’s days and they help.
I had been of Humira for almost ayear ad it completely eliminated my Crohn’s symptoms, but I was getting sick a lot, my headaches increased in severity and got more of them.
I stopped taking Humira about 6 weeks ago and it’s scary because stomach pain has creeped into my life again – started about 2 weeks ago.
There is no easy answer. I’ve been sleeping so much. My body is just exhausted and exhaustion will just slam me and I’ll sleep for four hours and other days, I’m fine.
I’m 41 and I feel 65 sometimes.
Email me if you want to share: jo(at)productbody(dot)com
I’m here. xo