Oh dear friends...the post I've been longing to write for so many months...my head feels GOOD today! I actually can't tell you how anxious I've been to write this post today b/c I promised that the day I didn't have a headache you would hear about it! Now, I'm quite positive that the headache is still there but on a scale of one to ten (with my general levels being 4-6 with bad days being 7-10) - today is much more of .5 or a 1. Here's the story:
On Tuesday I started a new medicine called Zonegran. It's an anti-seizure medicine (the last two preventatives I tried were also in that class of medications but didn't help my head obviously and I couldn't deal with the side effects). I actually only decided to try Zonegran as a last ditch effort before I go back to the neurologist in three weeks. He had written me a prescription for it at my last appointment in July, but since I'd had such bad luck with all the others he said I could wait and fill it only if I wanted to. And since last week I had to use two DHE shots (a very bad week!) I decided I might as well give the preventative a chance to start working. And that way if I ran into any side effects I could let him know at my next appointment.
I've started at a quarter of the dose he is aiming towards. The idea is to titrate up slowly to avoid negative side effects (yes, please!!). If this medicine is the reason I've had such low pain yesterday and today (yep - yesterday was good too, I just felt so much better today I couldn't believe it!), then that bodes very well for me b/c I still have a lot of room to grow with it. In fact if I continue to do well I'm going to call before I increase the dose at all.
I don't know if I can explain to you how I felt this morning when I realized that I'd been awake for a good five minutes before even thinking about my head. And then after I'd been up for awhile and still felt good... I actually cried. A lot. I couldn't stop. I was afraid it would make my head start hurting but I was so very thankful and relieved. I had talked to Julie about wanting to do something - go to Six Flags, the beach, SOMETHING! Something fun and celebratory and exciting... A little while later I texted her back and said, "I can't stop crying. This may be how I spend my good feeling day..washing Jesus' feet with my tears. He deserves it. :)"
It's so true! Even if it doesn't last. Even if today was just a precious gift and tomorrow is awful and the medicine isn't what I hoped, all this time I've had today has been great. And I want you to know! I want EVERYONE to know! That I've had a really great day! At least until 2 PM!
I will sing to the Lord for He has been good to me. Psalm 13:6
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