I'm prescribed Fioricet, Topamax and Robaxin for my headaches. Sometimes my medications. Some times they work and some times they don't, unfortunately and I'm not too sure why. I get tension in my neck muscles really bad and a lot (and I mean a lot) of pressure at the base of skull. My neurologists keep insisting botox. I'm highly against this. Only because I've researched it and I don't like what I've seen. I have asthma, I was born 3 1/2 months early as well as cancer is very ramped in family. My mother has the same type of headaches and she sees a pain specialist. She gets shots at the base every 3 months, if I remember correctly, along with taking a bunch of medication. I do know that I am allergic to neurotins and for me this is quite unfortunate. I say this because they were helping my headaches but I was getting the severe mental and mood side affects. I'm 21 years old. I've been on 16 different medications. I do not want Botox to be part of this whatsoever. I would just like this solved and for a doctor of experience to help and to listen to me. Can you?? Can you answer the question above as well as help with what I've just said. I can explain more if you'd like. I can give you my email, my phone number. Please be in Tempe, AZ. It would make this simpler, but answers in general would be worth my while right now.
Fioricet not working for headache, are you able to take 2 Excedrin (500 aspirin/500acetaminaphin)??
Question posted by sam_09 on 25 Oct 2012
Last updated on 30 September 2016 by Willhyde91
These medications that I have been on have been over a 2 period. the topamax and fioricet have been constant for these 2 years. i've seen a chiropractor as well as a physical therapist and a mental therapist. The only therapist i have not seen is a massage therapist.
Added 25 Oct 2012:Heat gives me headaches. like taking hot showers does or the hot in icy/hot does as well
Added 25 Oct 2012:I use bengay cold therapy and ice (separately) but even there are times, and being completely numb, my head and the pressure are still greatly there.
6 Answers
I have the same thing. No doctors have provided and real help. Botox did nothing. Through my own research i have determined i have Occipital Neuralgia from smacking my head really hard when i was in middle school. Ask your doctor about it and try and see a spine clinic.
Hi Sam. I also suffer from chronic migraines & found that especially with fioricet & fiorinal after the 1st couple of uses they actually started to make the migraine worse. Nothing worked well for mw either until my Dr prescribed Relpax. Relpax is by far the best med ive used for migraine. For exceptionally bad ones tho I sometimes have to also use Flexeril (generic name cyclobenzaprine) which is a mild muscle relaxer. Talk to your Dr maybe 1 of these could b helpful for you if you havent already tried them. Good luck
Have you tried topical Voltaren gel Rx yet? It is off-label for migraines and has helped mine a lot. I still take my mainstay abortive med (Relpax), but was prescribed the Voltaren gel again today & my insurance covered it. You may want to inquire with your Dr. ?
KM is right, you dont want to take Fioricet and Excedrin because it would be too much acetaminophen at once. The key to these headaches (and I, like KM (Kaismama) have had these most of my life too) is to take your meds as soon as you know the symptoms are starting. If you wait until you are in full blown headache even morphine wont help!!! As soon as you feel the beginnings of the tightening, try some of the exercises KM mentioned. Stretch out your neck, apply either heat or ice. I'm totally the opposite of KM, for me heat works best-ice makes me hurt worse so expirament as too what works best for you. I apply heat with a microwavable moist heat pack, take my pain meds and a muscle relaxant and lay quietly with your eyes closed for a bit. This usually helps. Sometimes it doesnt. I had one just yesterday that I awoke with that no matter what I did, it wouldnt budge.
I ended up sleeping most of the day and all night before it finally went away. Today I just have that "run over by a MAC truck feeling" I have found it helpful during my life to go to a chiropractor on a regular basis to keep my neck loosened and aligned. I dont blame you about the botox, I'm not sure I would want that either. I do get migraines too but my headaches can be tension, or a mix of tension/migraine. If it throbs and I throw up, it is migraine. If I take migraine meds it will relieve the throbbing but not the tension. Sometimes it is just pure tension. Either way, it is no fun. Usually if I can get my meds in me early and apply the heat and lay quietly the h/a will be gone in a hour or so. Unfortunately some days nothing helps, and I mean nothing! I have had demerol shots, I have had morphine shots and none of it helped, you just have to ride it out. The best thing is to try to prevent them in the first place. Find yourself a good chiropractor and see them regularly-at least a couple times a month or more if you need it. Learn how to stretch the tension out and take your medications as soon as you know that the h/a is coming on.
I found one of those microwave moist heat things that is long and thin, perfect to wrap over your neck and the muscles that go into your shoulders. I do that if its just getting bad. Ice massage works best for me, like you said, it is individual what works.
Yes, you are right that the early timing is critical. When my migraine is severe, even a visit to the ER with 3 meds injected including Morphine barely touches it.
I personally am not favorable with all the chiropractic treatments which can cause the kind of carotid artery dissection stroke that I had which caused my severe 24/7 migraines. Instead the nerve block and trigger point injections calm down the very tense neck and shoulder muscles that are at the cause of my migraines. My migraines are especially hard to treat due to its cause by my stroke. So I also need the Botox which further calm down the muscles.
I'm with you on no chiropracter.
Everyone is so different. For me, if I dont go get my neck and back adjusted every so often the headaches really increase but my spine is so screwed up from gymnastics when I was young, it is just jacked all over the place. And the differences in ice and heat. Some people swear by ice and others heat is better. Ice, to me, is like putting a knife in my skull. You just really have to find what works for you. I forgot to mention, it does help to keep a food diary and see if anything corelates to your headaches. I found out that red wine and fresh tomatoes are huge triggers for me. I had a friend who found out that gluten was her trigger. Your mom probably gets injections of either a numbing agent (lidocaine or something similar) and steroid or just the numbing agent. Some places call them nerve blocks, some call them trigger point injections depending on where they do the injections.
Sometimes they inject around the nerve and sometimes they inject the "trigger points" or little knots of muscle. Massage therapy would probably be worth looking into especially if you are turned off by chiropractic or chiropractic doesnt help. It isnt unusual for it to take years to find out what works for your particular headaches, unfortunately. I know it sucks that there is no cure or quick fix that works for anyone. Headaches are very complex symptoms because so many different things can cause them. that is why everyones headaches respond to different things.
Ohhhhh, red wine really makes my head feel like its going to explode.
I'm wondering why you don't get physical therapy which can be done very aggressively by yourself with the black wedge device and the white roll tube as well as doing the neck pressure points just right. I do it to myself just about every day. And yes you are right that the nerve block and trigger point injections also relax the muscles a lot. They can be done with or without steroids. I choose no steroids with mine.
I have had physical therapy. I've stretched my neck muscles and had massages, but I've never been to an actual masseuse. I use ice a lot because it's one of the main things that does help. I don't drink often, if at all, but when I do it's white wine mainly. Rarely red. My fiancee' rubs the base of my skull where the muscle and bone meet and that does help the pain but when she stop the pressure is there again, along with the pain. The only thing I haven't tried is herbal forms, botox,,, massages and meditation and relaxation.
I cannot do certain things i.e.: cleaning too much, taking too hot of a shower, sex will some times give me a headache, being in the heat too long (I think that's everyone though), staring at a computer screen (I'm nearsighted), strangely not having a job my headaches get worse (I've noticed this and I find it weird; when I have one my head doesn't hurt nearly as much/often but I when don't they are more severe/frequent) There seem to be a lot of strange and unusual triggers for my headaches and I don't quite understand them nor like them much... I haven't quite figured out the food part of it all yet, only because I just kinda eat whatever I want considering I'm am underweight and I need to eat. And yes, I have taken this factor into consideration that my being underweight could be a trigger or very well may be the cause of my headaches in the first place.
If you take any pain relief med (even OTC ones), you risk getting rebound migraines, ESPECIALLY with Fioircet. So that may be why it isn't working sometimes. The tension in your neck exacerbates headaches. Try physical therapy which helps some, but nerve block and trigger point injections have helped me more than the PT. They have nothing to do with Neurontin which I am also allergic to. You should not be getting any mood effects with these kinds of injections. I wonder what you have read about Botox that you are so against. Botox injections have been the greatest help for me over the past 2 and a half years. It's up to you whether you can stand the headaches or willing to get injections. The 2 Excedrins sound like a problem to me, but I'll let someone else respond.
Taking 16 different meds sound more likely to be a problem with mood or whatever else. I have had absolutely no side effects from any of my injections except for some tenderness afterwards for a few hours.
Sara has a point there. Fioricet is notorius for rebound headaches so try not to take it every day. She is correct that most pain relievers OTC and prescription can cause rebound headaches.
please read the additional details i've posted. also my mother gets neuro blocker shots ?? in the base of her skull. it's not botox, i know that much, i would have to ask her exactly what it is. she sees a pain specialist for it.
Sam, I don't see your additional details.
Oh, I see your additional details. Sorry.
Hi I'm yadria and ive been having migraines since 2001 I've tried imitrex pills imitrex shots I tried meds to prevent headaches they all use to work for a month then all of a sudden they stopped now I'm currently taking. Fiorcet it worked for months now it's not helping they say take one. Every four hrs tried it and one didn't work so I've been taking two every four hrs now it's not helping at all seems like I'm taking them for nothing I've had a migraine for 3 days. Now don't wanna keep taking them What should I do please help me this is very uncomfortable and I have to work every day with them.
So sorry for your headache history. You must have missed my answer above which said that taking Fioricet more than 2 days a week, you risk severe rebound migraines. And taking 2 every 4 hours is overdosing big time. Four pills a day is the absolute maximum and that's a lot. Also taking any other migraine pain medication more than 3 days a week can also cause rebound migraines. My internal medicine doctor never told me and I got into big trouble. There are other possible solutions. Have you seen a neurologist? Have you tried Botox, nerve block and trigger point injections, or daily Petadolex (sold on line). The herbal Petadolex was the only daily medication that helped me. There's also now a sinus lidocaine insertion that can be administered in the doctor's office. Good luck to you.
Be careful with excedrin and fioricet, both have tylenol in them. Too much tylenol can harm your liver. Have you tried muscle relaxants for these headaches? I used to get horrible tension headaches every day. A physical therapist showed me exercises that help, to loosen up my neck. Basically just looking down, then tilting your head to one side then the other. Stretching the muscles. I bet when you bend your head forward it feels like a painful band pulling on your spine. Ice and heat help alot. I still get headaches, but not near as often. I can usually stop them with ice to my neck. I had these headaches starting when I was 13 or 14. It took me a long time for someone to show me how to deal with them. Oh, the neck exercises should be done while you're sitting at the pc too, because you'll tighten up if you're there all night. Sometimes you'll hear cracking. Its just the tendons that are like tight rubber bands snapping over your bones.
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excedrin, fioricet, robaxin, topamax, migraine, headache, aspirin, medication
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