Headache Medecine

[travelingmind]

Hi, I was diagnosed with a chiari malformation about a month ago. I wanted to know what type of medicine people take for their headaches and neck pain. I have an another appointment with my neurologist tomorrow and I want to know the various types of medication before I see her.

[Elisaandbucky]

Currently, my mother-in-law and her husband are at my house taking care of me in my early recovery. I stopped taking the narcotics right before coming home from surgery. We were staying at The Variety house- associated with the hospital for 2 more days after my discharge. I did take the narcotic that first night and slept for 19 hours. Nice that I was able to sleep, but care for my autistic son will not permit me to sleep at that length and depth.

I do not have much faith in Tylenol, but I will stick with the extra strength. I was advised to avoid Advil (which works better). I am looking forward to my postoperative visit to get an approval to maybe take Advil again.

PS-I noticed that you mentioned taking ibuprofen, so maybe I misunderstood discharge instructions. I am going to find out.

[Mel5056]

Hi there,  the only thing i am taking is tylenol or motrin and my ns expects that will taper down too.  If i do too much post op i get headaches that remind me to slow down.

[kwalker0004]

I have self medicated over 10 years to get some type of relief. Especially since I was still in high school and I couldn't seem to concentrated when I had my attacks. I would take Advil, Excedrin, ibuprofen, anything to help with the pain. Eventually I had to keep upping the dose until I was taking 10 to 15 pills a day to even get a slight reaction from the meds. This year I was finally dxed with this condition. I finally got to see a true Chiari spoecialiat yesterday. Though the outcome of our meeting has me scared I'm at least back on some medications to. I'm now taking Topamax 150 mg, Imitrex 100 mg, and Ibuprofen 600 mg. I'm to take the Topamax and ibuprofen everyday and the Imitrex only when I have and episode with headaches. So maybe this will help me out. But as everyone suggested keep a detailed log of all symptoms before and after you start any meds. That way you can show your doctors and they will be able to adjust or take you off it completely if its not benefitting you. Good luck on your journey!

[jmatticks_08]

Just wondering since you had your surgery are you still taking anything?

[bstnana]

Hi,

Basically I have been on all of the medications listed above at one time or another prior or after both of my surgeries.  The reality for me is that they didn't help much and caused more side effects that made me feel worse.

Document all of your symptoms prior to taking anything because as Selma said, the medications can confuse the issue and you won't know what is caused by the Chiari and what is caused by the medication.

Good luck.

[Mel5056]

Hi,  i was like selma...did not take anything prior to surgery.  I wanted to be able to monitor symtotoms as well.  My nl wanted me on topomax but once i saw the side effects i realized taking meds would never be something i wanted to do long term.  Thats when i decided to look at surgery as an option.  But we are all different.  Good luck

[AnnieDear]

I am currently taking Elavil and Zonegran. They did very little on their own, but have helped a good amount when combined. The only other med that helped at all was Soma (muscle relaxer). Everyone responds differently, though, and medications are no different - we all respond to them in different ways (or not at all!).

[selmaS]

  Hi....I did not take much in the way of meds b4 my surgery as nothing really seemed to help and I was concerned I would not be able to tell if I developed new symptoms....

Typical meds are gabapentin (Neurontin) , Topamax, Diamox....the last 2 are helpful for pressure HA's that could be due to ICP as they help reduce fluids.....

It is more important to ask to have more testing to rule out ALL the related conditions like syringomyelia, ICP, POTS, tethered cord, ehlers-danlos, sleep apnea, and if you have a CSF obstruction.

  Good luck.