Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Lyrica

Went back to my neurologist again.  Had to schedule the appointment to get the Gabapentin refill, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen her and I’m 5 month post-op so it seems 15-20 headache days a month is going to be the standard. 
For someone who used to 30-31 headache days a month 20 feels like an improvement. 18 feels great and 15 feels like a new life! But it’s still too many. It’s still not normal. It’s still not ideal. 
I met with Dr Williams and she still has lots of ideas. How refreshing to be seeing a doctor for over 3 years and she’s still got plenty in her arsenal.
We were discussing what I have and haven’t tried and she asked, almost rhetorically, “And you’ve tried Lyrica?”  I said, “I haven’t.” She seemed a bit surprised. So I’m swapping out Gabapentin to try Lyrica. 

The effects? My sleep is better.  It's not nearly as difficult to come out of sleep on Lyrica then it was on Gabapentin.  But the headache frequency is the same.
We've known for a little while now that some of the headaches, or at least their severity, are effected by my menstrual cycle. Now that I'm closer to a 15 or so day headache month it's even more obvious that they are effected by my menstrual cycle so there has been some talk of stopping that.  Maybe that will be next on the list. 

Thursday, February 9, 2017

4 Month Post Surgery

Month 4 had fewer debilitating migraines, but not fewer overall headaches.  One issue though was that I ran out of Gabapentin in the third week of January and so my quality and quantity of sleep really began to suffer.  And when I don’t get enough sleep or quality sleep, that’s a trigger.  Last weekend of the month I got back on it and started sleeping better immediately.  In a few days the headaches had calmed again. 

3 Month Post Surgery Update

Dr. Rose said that it would take between 1 and 3 months for me to notice a difference in the number of headaches.  Month 1 was bad, but I was trying to stay positive.  Month 2 I went from my usual 22+ days a month of headaches to only 15 days! But month 3 was back to 23 days with a headache.  Determined to still remain hopeful I decided to look at not just the frequency of headaches, but also the intensity.  While month 2 was again like most months pre-surgery, month 2 was an excellent month again and so was month 4.  I guess ultimately, the jury is still out.