Migraine

I just talked with my dr's office about the methergine not doing anything. It's supposed to work within a few days, I'm already two weeks out. I know 3 months is the trial period, but I'm getting worse rather than better. I keep having 2 migraines per day rather than just 1. It's horrible.

So, anyway, he's increase my methergine to .4mg 2xdaily for 1 week to see if that works. If it doesn't, he wants me to get inpatient IV therapy.

I had my blood pressure checked yesterday and it's 100/78, so the methergine isn't causing high blood pressure. I was happy to hear that. My pulse rate was 80 though when it's usually in the 60's.

The nurse said the doctor thinks I've run out of preventatives that he thinks will work. Is my doctor giving up on me already??? Yikes.

I do have the names of two other specialists in the area that are covered by my insurance. I'm going to give them a call and set up some appointments. I can't live like this.

I have a question though. Can someone tell me about inpatient IV therapy. What's it like? How long is it typically? What are they hoping to accomplish? (ie: are they just treating a single migraine or are they hoping they can stop the whole cycle?) If the methergine isn't working, then he's going to talk to me about the details personally, but I'd like to know ahead of time.

I just got a call back from my doctor's office. I told them I need some sort of pain management. I've run out of Imitrex because I only have enough for 3 migraines per month, and I don't feel very comfortable taking triptans with this new increase in methergine. I asked if Midrin would be okay instead. They said no. So I asked for a small supply of Vicodin. They said no too. They said it doesn't really fix the problem, and it only covers up the pain. DUH! But if you can't prescribe me anything else, what am I supposed to do? I have NOTHING to control the pain. I just want to cry right now. They said that if it gets that bad to come in for IV treatment there or to go to the ER. That really wasn't very helpful.

I'm supposed to call back in a week, and if I've made no progress, then it's inpatient IV therapy for me.

Oh, Dear Migraineur!
Yes! It's that bad. If you feel bad enough to cry, you deserve pain relief. Even covering up the pain is good enough right now.

Inpatient IV therapy is very interesting, & it worked well for me. I'll tell you more later, but right now, you need pain relief. Either go see that web-footed, feather-faced doctor or go to the ER, but get yourself some pain relief. PLEASE!
Rebecca

Hi Migraneur,

Sounds like you're having a really tough time And you really need to break the cycle you're in, especially if you're having 2 migraines a day. I've only done outpatient IV, but a number of other people here have done inpatient. Either way, the purpose is to break the cycle, or to break status migrainous. It sounds like you're kinda scared - understandable. But it also sounds like you *really* need relief. There are many different IV drugs they can try, in a variety of combinations. Other folks here are more knowledgeable, but based on what I know, you might want to give it a try.

Robin

quote:

Originally posted by Migraneur:
I just talked with my dr's office about the methergine not doing anything. It's supposed to work within a few days, I'm already two weeks out. I know 3 months is the trial period, but I'm getting worse rather than better. I keep having 2 migraines per day rather than just 1. It's horrible.

So, anyway, he's increase my methergine to .4mg 2xdaily for 1 week to see if that works. If it doesn't, he wants me to get inpatient IV therapy.

I had my blood pressure checked yesterday and it's 100/78, so the methergine isn't causing high blood pressure. I was happy to hear that. My pulse rate was 80 though when it's usually in the 60's.

The nurse said the doctor thinks I've run out of preventatives that he thinks will work. Is my doctor giving up on me already??? Yikes.

I do have the names of two other specialists in the area that are covered by my insurance. I'm going to give them a call and set up some appointments. I can't live like this.

I have a question though. Can someone tell me about inpatient IV therapy. What's it like? How long is it typically? What are they hoping to accomplish? (ie: are they just treating a single migraine or are they hoping they can stop the whole cycle?) If the methergine isn't working, then he's going to talk to me about the details personally, but I'd like to know ahead of time.

hi migraineur --

i'm in the same place you are - i have daily migraines. about 6 months in to the daily migraine thing, they sent me inpatient for a couple of days. they did an IV of DHE and phenergan (this is where i learned i was allergic to phenergan!). it cleared the migrianes up for a few days, but then they came back and continued as usual. i'm told that many people get relief and that the IV therapy breaks the cycle. obviously that didn't work for me, but so far a lot of things haven't. just have to keep plugging away and trying.

after 2 years of no pain relief and the preventatives not working, my neuro sent me to a pain clinic. they've been working w/me to try and get me some daily pain relief. i've also seen a migraine specialist, and am trying out her suggestions (unfortunately without any success so far).

because this is a difficult thing to treat, i've had more than one neuro just throw up their hands and tell me they're baffled. all the things they think would work didn't work for me. so i've just continued on till i could find someone who was willing to keep trying to help me. let me know if there are any other questions i can answer.
emily

quote:

have a question though. Can someone tell me about inpatient IV therapy. What's it like? How long is it typically? What are they hoping to accomplish? (ie: are they just treating a single migraine or are they hoping they can stop the whole cycle?) If the methergine isn't working, then he's going to talk to me about the details personally, but I'd like to know ahead of time

Migraneur,

I have done inpatient IV treatments several times. I always got DHE and reglan. They would come in and give me an injection of reglan through my IV line. Then 30 minutes later they would come back in to start the DHE. It usually took about 45 minutes to empty the bag depending on how quickly they set it to drip. I got a treatment every 8 hours for a total of 9 doses. It took 3 days. It would help me for a bit, sometimes longer than other times. I think one thing that actually helped me more than anything was that when I was hospitalized for the treatments I could stop worrying about work and how I was going to make it there each day. I could stop putting on my "happy face" for everyone else. It was a time that I could just take time to concentrate on myself and regain some energy to keep fighting.

Did they give you a reason why they won't give you another triptan or the midrin?

Good luck,
Shortone

Thank you everyone! I am a little scared about this but not about the actual treatment itself so much. I know it's going to suck. The one time I had DHE and Reglan, I was so sick to my stomach and tired that I slept 4 hours straight and would have slept more if my cat hadn't broken a glass. My worry comes from having to take off of work. My boss is gruff to say the least. I don't know how she'll take me asking off on such short notice.

I can't have triptans or Midrin because they're vasoconstictors and my preventative is a vasoconstrictor too. Too much of a good thing = a bad thing I guess. I forgot that Midrin had a vasoconstrictor when I asked about it. I was more concerned about the mild sedative because at least I would be more comfortable and relaxed. That was the one thing that really worked well for managing my migs.

Question: Is the inpatient IV therapy going to be a long-term pain relief or just short-term?

Q: long term of just short term pain relief?

i think the answer varies (as it always seems to). i think that doctors do it b/c they're hoping your body will react in a positive way and it'll mean long term pain relief. i don't know how often that happens. in my own experience, i got 7 pain free days (i have daily migraines, so this was pretty amazing). but then we tried the same IV therapy outpatient the second time, and i only had 2 days pain-free. so it wasn't good enough results for my neuro to want to pursue IV therapy anymore. my fingers are crossed that it'll break the cycle for you, and your brain will snap out of it! that you'll return to normal.

emily