UnHeadache'd
Well, I'll be. I've had these headaches ever since I was seven. Always on the right side of the head, and often accompanied by nausea. Aspirin and the like don't cut the pain in the least, the headache just has to run its course, which for me usually takes the greater part of the day. The greater part of the day with a sensation like a railroad spike driven into the right side of my head. After the headache breaks, I feel woozy, spacy, lassid for the rest of the day, like I'm floating and drifting.
But just lately I've discovered something that knocks out the pain altogether: Alleve. I just took some, lay down a while, and here I am, pain-free. Much as I hate taking pills, after more than 40 years of these headaches I'll take a pill if it means getting rid of the damn headache.
posted by paul @ 8:55 AM
3 Comments:
Oh, yeah, Alleve is amazing. By the way, if you ever need to know, you can "up" to the prescription strength by doubling the over-the-counter dose. For me, Aleve works almost like Percoset. Which kinda makes sense. If I remember right, Aleve is the brandname for naproxin or naproxyl-sodium which used to be in the same class as percoset.
You can double-dose for the initial time. For example, if the bottle says take one every four hours, start off by taking two and then take one every four hours after that.
Also, if you're REALLY in pain, you can stagger some painkiller combinations. Like Motrin and Tylonal. For example, if both bottles said take one every four hours: You'd take tylonol, then two hours later take motrin, then two hours later take more tylonol, etc. To keep it straight, use a dry-erase board to keep a chart of what was taken when.
Nurses hate me :)
Yeah, what I've been taking is actually some generic equivalent to Alleve, naproxyl-sodium-whatever. My mom was the one who suggested this when I was over in Wisconsin on vacation lately, which is weird because unlike me she doesn't suffer from headaches. At any rate, after decades of suffering from these killer headaches (I suspect they're migraines, though they've never been formally diagnosed as such) it really is a miracle to find something that works.
Over the years I've tried aspirin and other obvious painkillers— they work for me on "ordinary" aches and pains, but on my headaches, no effect at all. I guess I'd long since concluded that my headaches were beyond help; unless by prescription, and you know me, I simply will not go to a doctor unless I'm quite literally on death's door. So I just resigned myself to my headaches being beyond help. Until I ran across this Alleve/naproxyl/whatsis.
I can't take Aleve, myself, as it makes my tum upset. It was the first med I tried for my RA.
What works for MY migraines, better than ANYTHING is Tylenol Flu, probably because mine are allergy/sinus related.
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