My Ignorance
If someone's already given this info, please forgive me...but what is Stadol? I've been home from work with a migraine for two days. Day one the doctor's office gave us the runaround and I've got an appointment with a new doctor on Tuesday. My doctor did finally call in some pain killers (vicadan <sp the edge off anyway. Today I'm back to work with the blinds closed and hoping against hope no one comes in wearing perfume. Anyway...the Imitrex didn't do a thing and I'm so blessed that I have an understanding boss. He told me, "If I was going through what you're going through there is no way I'd be coming to work!" Still I don't like taking the time off. Fortunately I'm a salaried employee so I don't have to worry about losing two days pay just weeks after buying a new house. :/ My question...in addition to what's Stadol...is whether you might give me some pointers on what to ask / tell this new doctor on Tuesday. Thanks! Melody
Stadol is a narcotic pain killer administered by injection or nasal spray. About the new doc...besides telling them about your symptoms, let them know how your life is affected by the headaches. Tell them what they need to know but not much more. The first visit both of you are going to feeling eachother out. Let them know what has and hasn't worked but try to steer clear of pushing for a particular treatment. Ask them how they usually go about treating headache. All the docs i've been to have medication prescribing querks. Better to get a feel for the situation earlier on rather than end up in a rough spot only to find out that they won't give you what you need to get through it. Been there done that. ~~~The conventional wisdom and accepted facts are dead wrong! ~~~Don't go for second best, it's never good enough!
Hi melody: Stadol NS is a painkiller. It's a form of narcotic, but excessive doses do not cause respiratory failure. It's administered by spraying it up your nose (NS = nasal spray). An earlier version had to be injected. Migraineurs are spilt into pro- and anti-Stadol camps. The anti's get quite hysterical and are on a self-appointed mission to save the world from Stadol. They can be very safely ignored. The pro-Stadol folks usually have first-hand experience and a realistic viewpoint. If it weren't for Stadol, I likely wouldn't still be here. I have "severe atypical migraines" and was getting 5 or 6 a week. Now, I get "epics". The current one is three weeks old. Before that, I had a day and a half off after a 17-week migraine. I have a high pain threshhold, but I do not see how I could continue to cope without being able to use Stadol. It's common to develop a tolerance with the result being that it takes more doses to get the same effect. I began with a bottle every three weeks, but eventually was using a bottle every three days. Due to financial reasons, I'm down to a bottle every ten days. The days when I don't use Stadol remind me vividly how much it helps me when I do use it. The anti's usually recite a case where the son of a neuro who was being treated by a colleague of his father's for migraines. That doc took him off Stadol. There was no tapering off. He went from being able to use it when needed to not having any at all. He killed himself and the anti's say that's proof of his addiction. I think it's proof of how bad his migraines were and the prospect of never being able to treat them was the cause of his suicide. My worst-ever migraine took eight doses over a 4-hour period. (A bottle typically has about 16 doses.) I simply would not have survived that night without Stadol. Even with it, I threw up for five hours because of the pain and you probably know that throwing up is not fun when you have a migraine. In the US, most doctors are extremely reluctant to prescribe Stadol at all, let alone in the quantity required. The anti-Stadol group has brought pressure to bear on the FDA and doctors are being investigated for "misuse" of their ability to prescribe. Fortunately for me, Canadian doctors are not in the same boat. Yes, some people have become addicted, but we all know coffee and/or cola addicts. Some people are much more readily addictive to things, whether it be Stadol, gambling, or illicit drugs. Stadol is not crack or heroin. When used to treat pain, no matter how much is needed, that is NOT addiction. Other than the cost, if I had to choose between Stadol addiction and my migraines, it's a no-brainer: I'd prefer addiction. However, because I was able to cut down from 1/3 of a bottle per day to a bottle every ten days without suffering any side-effects of withdrawal, I'm confident that the only way to be addicted to Stadol is to use much more than 1/3 bottle per day and to use it when it's not needed for pain relief. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about Stadol and I'll do my best to answer them. I have a copy of some quite technical information about Stadol taken from the maker's website. It's not exactly light reading, but it does cover side-effects and negative reactions as well as describing what it is and how it works. If you like, I can send a copy to you as an e-mail attachment. It's a WordPerfect document, but any word processor should be able to open it. Best wishes, Jeff Rankin-Lowe
Karen Kane Rudd wrote: <snip My bottles always hold approx 16 doses. I don't start a new bottle until I need to and then I prime the pump up my nose rather than into the air. Here in Canada, Stadol sells for $80 per bottle. The Canadian dollar is worth 65 cents US, so that's about $52 US per bottle. Back when I first started using Stadol, if I hadn't gone to lie down within 10 minutes, I'd fall down. Although Stadol does not affect the respiratory sustem, it made me accutely aware of my breathing. Sometimes, I felt like I needed to concentrate solely on breathing so I wouldn't stop. That side-effect didn't last more than a couple of months. I no longer get such a feeling. (Melody, I would have mentioned this in the e-mail I sent you, but I'd forgotten all about it. It may feel weird at the time, but there's no need to have it scare you. Your breathing won't be affected.) The only side-effect it gives me now is that it's hard to concentrate on things. If I try to do simple multiplication in my head, I get nowehere with it, but I was never a math wizard anyway. Jeff