I realized I haven't done an update on the blog, even though I've sent out an email to most who check the blog for updates. The team is pleased with my progress (as am I), and since I'm from so far away, they planned to keep me over the weekend and discharge me Monday so that the weekend doctor (who was my admitting doc at the outpatient clinic) could monitor and play with the preventative drugs). Typically people who are local follow up within a week at the clinic. If I had been doing that, they likely would have discharged me Friday. I do not plan to return here. My treatment plan and recommendations will be forwarded on to my neurologist in Kansas City for him to follow and monitor me.
They tapered me off of the IV drug DHE and switched me to its oral form, methergine yestesrday. It seems as if the DHE is what was helping me improve during my stay here, because unfortunately my headache has escalated with the timing of it being tapered off. Three abortives (thorazine, lyrica, and toradol) have done nothing to knock it down. I'm up at a 4/5 pain level, which I have not been at during my hospital stay here. I do not know what that means for my discharge tomorrow. It's possible that the methergine pills just haven't had a chance to start working. It's also possible that they don't work as well as the DHE, or at all. So please pray for an effective preventative regimen as I leave here.
I have hope that I will get better.
I'm sorry to hear that the methergine is not doing what the DHE did for you. Big hugs to you, Caylyn. I know how disappointing it is to have your pain brought down so low only go have it go back up before discharge. I could not tolerate DHE but could tolerate methergine--though it did not do anything for me either. Do you know that DHE comes in an injectable form? You or your husband would have to give your self an intramuscular injection of it, but perhaps that would be something to ask about if the methergine just isn't cutting it.
ReplyDeleteI am praying for you, my friend! You are one strong woman relying on an incredibly strong God.