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Suggest Treatment For Headache Inspite Of Using Numerous Medications For Osteoarthritis
I take numerous medications for osteoarthritis, fibro, connective tissue disease & have headaches every afternoon that seem to start on my way home from work. I work 8-noon. I m a laryngectomee with gastric pullup. I take Roxicet, Gabapentin, Prednisone, Clexa, Prilosec (bleeding ulcer), Fiorcet, Zofran, Calcitrol, Lodine XL & Plaquenil plus Magox, B-12 & alot of Calcium. I can t seem to get over these headaches. It started in 2005 as once in awhile & now is an everyday thing. I ve just had my eye s tested & they did the Plaquenil test too & I m just fine on that account. I take all those meds daily. I know it s alot. :(
Wed, 19 Jun 2019
Hi,
The fact that you know taking 13 medications is a lot, of which 6 of them are analgesic, 2 of them being narcotic in nature probably also means that you're familiar with at least one of the following terms: POLYPHARMACY, ANALGESIC REBOUND, MEDICATION OVERUSE HEADACHE.
You have pointed to a very important piece of historical information that your headaches only started "once in a while" 14 years ago and they have now escalated to daily, and sound to be very intrusive on your life. This likely coincides with your gradual escalation of these analgesics and your overall number of medications in general and is the basis for the condition we refer to as MEDICATION OVERUSE HEADACHE (MOH) which signifies a type of headache that occurs secondarily to the OVERUSE of pain medications for any other cause, even medications used to treat headaches can cause MORE headaches than they cure. This is a very slippery slope that too many people find themselves on (often times even through the unintentional actions of physicians who in their interest of solving problems potentially get them going down a vicious spiral of neverending pain meds for headaches that are only present BECAUSE of the analgesic overuse.
You must speak with your doctors about reducing your medications to only those that are absolutely necessary for you to function and they must help you find other ways of addressing your somatic pains. In other words, detoxification from your long list of pain meds will very possibly reduce both the frequency, intensity, and quality of your headaches.
A headache specialist would be an excellent choice for doctors to get things turned around for you.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist
The fact that you know taking 13 medications is a lot, of which 6 of them are analgesic, 2 of them being narcotic in nature probably also means that you're familiar with at least one of the following terms: POLYPHARMACY, ANALGESIC REBOUND, MEDICATION OVERUSE HEADACHE.
You have pointed to a very important piece of historical information that your headaches only started "once in a while" 14 years ago and they have now escalated to daily, and sound to be very intrusive on your life. This likely coincides with your gradual escalation of these analgesics and your overall number of medications in general and is the basis for the condition we refer to as MEDICATION OVERUSE HEADACHE (MOH) which signifies a type of headache that occurs secondarily to the OVERUSE of pain medications for any other cause, even medications used to treat headaches can cause MORE headaches than they cure. This is a very slippery slope that too many people find themselves on (often times even through the unintentional actions of physicians who in their interest of solving problems potentially get them going down a vicious spiral of neverending pain meds for headaches that are only present BECAUSE of the analgesic overuse.
You must speak with your doctors about reducing your medications to only those that are absolutely necessary for you to function and they must help you find other ways of addressing your somatic pains. In other words, detoxification from your long list of pain meds will very possibly reduce both the frequency, intensity, and quality of your headaches.
A headache specialist would be an excellent choice for doctors to get things turned around for you.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist
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