My Migraine Battle: On The Forefront

Been Awhile

I realized that it's been quite awhile since the last time I posted, so I'll give kind of a whirlwind update and then I'll start blogging more consistently again.

The main reason that I haven't been blogging is that I've been sleeping. I've felt like Sleeping Beauty or like I've been in a coma for a month. It was so bizarre. It's a side effect of the duragesic. I mean, I was sleeping about 16 hours a day and it was like using superhuman strength to stay awake for longer than an hour or two at a time. I'd wake up to use the restroom or throw-up and then back to sleep I'd go.

So, I had an appointment with my pain management doctor, we'll call him Dr. R from now on, and he gave me another prescription for Provigil. This drug has a very interesting history. It was developed by the military for their special ops guys and the guys who would guard the base at night. It keeps you from sleeping and it works really well most of the time. I have to take it pretty early in the day, so that it doesn't keep me up all night. That's how well it works. It's also going to be used as a medication for ADD pretty soon. I've been given back my ADD diagnosis, since we found out that the bi-polar medication that I was given last year, by a psychiatrist who apparently thinks he can diagnose someone in 10 minutes, was depressing me to no end. I'm soooo much happier now that I'm coming off that med. It's like a big dark cloud is being lifted off me and I feel more normal again. I'm almost done titrating off of it and I'm sure it'll make a difference in my energy level too, I hope.

So, here's my new list of meds: Duragesic for the chronic pain; Dilaudid, Toradol injection, and Imitrex for rescue meds; phenergan and reglan for the nausea and vomiting (phenergan if I don't mind sleeping and reglan if I need to stay awake); zelnorm for the irritable bowel syndrome; aciphex for gastroesophogeal reflux disease; Provigil to stay awake and for ADD. I think that's it. I need a bigger medicine cabinet.

So, thanks for your patience. Hopefully, I didn't lose you, because I really have wanted to write, just couldn't because I've been too tired. I'll write a new one tomorrow. If you ever have questions about my meds, feel free to email me or post them here and I'll get back to you on that.

posted by Jessica @ 12:50 PM