I found your site through a link in one of my mails and decided to go out and see what was out there. I read your story about your surgeries, and while I do not have any serious injurious my chronic pain is from migraines and daily headaches. I have the 2 top disc in my neck that are bulging against my spinal cord as well as the two lower. I know how I received the lower ones but the upper ones are a complete mystery to me. Anyway, the migraines are a strong factor in my family as they can be, and I have them frequently. I am currently taking Depokate for them and for the first time in years I am getting some relief. Last year I came close to being on disability because of them but fortunately found the Depokate.

I have been to several neurologists over the last 15 to 20 years and have found little or no relief. I have tried numerous meds for both the migraines and the daily headaches but never found anything to help much. I was put on Soma and Codeine for a very long time and then they decided that I should go off them. I have been on antidepressants for it which does help for a while but the side effect of weight gain was a problem. I tried Prozac for it once and that only made the headaches worse. The current doctor that I go to thinks I should handle the pain without using much of anything. He even frowns on aspirin. I cannot tell you how many doctors I have gone to over the years trying to get relief. While I hate the idea of taking drugs for the rest of my life, I have to accept that my father and grandmother both had them up to the day they died.

The daily headaches are caused by the disc's in my neck, the fact that I suffer from depression, and very tense shoulder muscles. So between the daily headaches and the migraines there is daily pain to some degree.

I hope this will answer some of your questions. Basically, I want to find a doctor that is a little more compassionate about the headaches and how having a migraine for 5 days is the worst pain imaginable. Staying in bed, in the dark, sick as a dog, with pain that will not go away is not a world of fun.

Imitrex helps but only for a short time then it comes back.

Hope to talk to you soon. Thanks for the info that I did find out there about local doctors. I do appreciate that.

Mary Stephens

FEB 08,2000