Migraine

abortives out there that do NOT cause rebound headaches?? Just curious...Thanks

Unfortunately, no.

Medication Overuse Headache

then are some abortives more likely to cause rebound than others??

It's hard to say. Rebound, just like anything else related to medication, is a very individualized thing. Not everyone will rebound the same way from the same meds.

Does this answer your question?

It's hard to say, everone is different.

quote:

Originally posted by litlalex:
then are some abortives more likely to cause rebound than others??

yeah, thanks for all the responses

Hello. I am not only new to this site but have never posted anything online or replied to a message before so go easy on me.

First a little background.... I’ve had headaches my entire life. Migraine headaches are some of my earliest childhood memories. The drs took away my stuffed animals, took me off chocolate, etc. to try and stop the headaches but nothing ever seem to work, at least completely.

Anyway, have had migraine headaches a couple times a month or so since childhood but about 3 years ago they started coming once or twice a week. This is around the time when I found what I thought was miracle drug called Zomig. Zomig was wonderful and took away my headache right away and worked liked nothing I had ever taken. For the past two years I have had daily headaches and the only thing that works is Zomig and then the headache is back again the next day. I am assuming now the daily headaches might be rebound.

Last year I saw a neurologist who ran test and said the headaches are not neurological. I just moved to the area and my new pharmacist told me that they would only give me a 60 day supply of Zomig every 90 days. I did the math and I am in trouble here. Without Zomig I cannot cope with the daily headaches. I know I have been hiding behind the Zomig for a while now. It seems my new pharmacist has pushed the issue to the front and now I must deal with it. Oh yes, and I was told two weeks ago by a physical therapist that I have TMJ. Geez!!

I have an appt with my regular dr on Wed, June 19th. I am sure he is going to tell me to go cold turkey but I have tried this and only get about 2 days in before I cant take it anymore. I am going to suggest if the dr does not that I might need to go into the hospital to help rid myself of the daily Zomig, Aleve, Tylenol, Excedrin combinations.

Who has done the hospital stay to detoxify off headache medicine and what can I expect to happen and how can I expect to feel. Any idea how long the stay will be and how long I will have headaches before the rebound no longer comes in to play?

Thank you in advance for any advise you can offer. Love this site!

First off, hello, and welcome to the forum! I'm glad you like it. We're all pretty attached to it ourselves.

Considering that the Zomig helps, and that Zomig is migraine-specific, that's generally considered a sign that you are indeed having migraines, which are very much neurological. It could be that the neuro meant that the testing didn't show anything irregular neurologically. There isn't any test for diagnosing migraine. Tests are often run to look for any abnormalities that might be contributing to headaches, or to establish that there aren't any other things wrong that might act like migraine.

One thing that strikes me in your post is the mention of rebound, along with the mention of daily headaches and daily meds. You've certainly got the recipe for rebound down cold. I would make sure when you see your doctor on Thursday that you seriously discuss this possibility. If you are in rebound, the only way out is off of the offending meds. It doesn't necessarily have to be "cold turkey", either. Plenty of people have had to taper off meds under their doctor's care. I hope it's not rebound, because rebound isn't any fun at all, but if it is, at least you'll know, and you can take steps to get out of rebound. It's always worth the battle to slay rebound. Honest.

I agree with Dragon regarding tapering off of the offending medication. From my person experience, I was having rebound headache so I tapered off of the offending drug by taking two days off work and resting Thursday-Sunday. My biggest problem was nausea so my doctor prescribed anti-nausea when I told him of my plan and just generally being tired and achy (a mild version of the flu is the best description I have). Of course, unlike you, I was tapering off a narcotic and Relpax (somewhat like Zomig) so your experience could be entirely different. Don't be afraid to talk to your doctor and good luck!

excedrin, zomig, aleve and tylenol Yikes!!
You are in a bad MOH situation.

Just wanted to say hi and soo sorry about your situation.
Have no experience with hospital detoxifying but it definitely sounds like you need to do something major. This place is a great place to learn about the right way to do what you need to get control of the neurological disease you have. I'm sure the moderators will give you some info. to help you with things.

Mary in NM

Hi, SearsSteph, welcome to the forum. You've chosen an excellent place for your first online postings; the people here are well-behaved, and the information is accurate. And we will be here to support you as you work with your doctor to get out of rebound.

It sounds as though you are very aware of rebound/Medication Overuse Headaches, but here is an article on it anyway:

Medication Overuse Headache - When the Remedy Backfires

Good luck with this. I know that the forum members who have taken the necessary steps to get out of MOH have no regrets.

Hi Steph--

I guess most of us have had the GREAT good fortune to have dealt with rebound at one time or another. Sometimes it's not really so bad, but I have had a lot of nausea. The last time the neurologist I fired talked me into dropping all my preventive meds we did it in the hospital with IV sedation and antinausea meds for 3 days. That worked well.

I've also been thrown into 10 days of status migrainous before being hospitalized for "rebound" headaches that weren't rebounds at all. You do want to be aware that you can get into status and recognize the symptoms. (You need emergency treatment if you don't have a break in pain for more than 4 hours while awake for 72 hours. It increases your risk of stroke).

You can use the forum to help you distract yourself. We'll all come to your "pity party"! After all--we'll know how you feel.

Tracie

Oh--I forgot. Hospital detoxifying with DHE or with Depakote isn't bad at all as long as you have good veins. When my super headache specialist in Georgia did it, it took about 3 days and wasn't bad at all except that I have terrible veins and got stuck about twice a day. I went to Dr. Krusz in Dallas last week, and he kinda did it in his office with a couple of IVs of MagSulfate, but he's really on the cutting edge. I'm back to having some trouble, which I'll discuss with him when he calls tomorrow. I got back into MOH due to pain meds after major shoulder surgery. It's a lot better, but I want to be sure I'm still on the right path.

Good luck.

Tracie