I went to walk in clinic this am for a migraine that I have had for three days. We have had a unusual amount of rain and humidity here which is not very common this time of year. Whether that caused this headache or just stress.............it was awful. I ask for imitrex injection and with in 30 minutes my headache was gone but so was my nerve pain. I looked imitrex up while I was still at clinic and everywhere in literature it mentioned affecting the TN nerve. Has anyone ever used this on a daily basis or a few times a week? I know it acts on the serotonin and it does have adverse cardiac affects but if it works, Im in.. I have a call to my PM doc. Any feed back???
Hi Dawn. I have left side ATN and also rear, base of skull, right side only migraines. I have been using Imitrex plus an opiate pain med for my left ATN episodes for more than 8 years. For most of these years, just one dose per 24 hrs per episode. Neither med works very well at all by itself but COMBINED they have been very successful for years. It’s funny, the Imtrex, the “migraine” med, was prescribed originally for my migraines (back of head right side) but they did NOTHING at all to help the migraines. But we tried it for the ATN left face pain and no REAL relief until I combined it with the opiate med, which had been working only mildly on that pain. Combined they were almost 100% successful at only one dose a day per episode for about 6 years. Then extreme stress in the past 3 years exacerbated severe worsening of my pain in intensity and frequency - needing more than doses only every 24 hours and even some ER visits. But the Seratonin effect of Imitrex is to be monitored, especially if you take other meds, like many of the antidepressants, that also affect Seratonin. One has to be careful of Seratonin Syndrome. So consult about this with your Dr. I decided to forego any antidepressant because I depend on the Imitrex for the pain relief so often. In a perfect world I’d take an antidepressant as I probably AM DEPRESSED about the chronic pain!! But, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t be facing this pain condition. Good luck.
Dawn, I forgot to mention the prescribing directions for Imitrex say it is not to be used more than 3-4X a week. So daily use likely isn’t going to be ok’d by your Dr. He’ll probably only give you enough for a month’s supply using it no more than 4X a week. Those side effects of Imitrex are the reason.
hey, Ive been using imitrex and it works amazingly. Wish I could take more! Definitely helps my pain. It seems to not be well known for TN, but im trying to raise awareness to this myself as it has gotten me out of my bed ridden state. I was a combination of furious and relieved when I had my first dose because of the doctors not prescribing me this earlier.