I was diagnosed in November. I have been given Fiorcet it worked OK, Fiorcet with codiene works better, Tramadol sometimes gets rid of my headaches, excedrine migraine sometimes gets rid of them. What has worked the best is Novacaine 1/2ml up each nostril up to 3x day prn for headaches it also gets rid of my neck pain. Best of all it's cheap. Hope this helps.
Jessie Moore

Novacine works best if you also have migranes :) I have not tried this but, then again I don't have them. I was told by my doctor that this was good for migraines....she thought I had them, but it turns out I don't.
I took vicodine 5-500 (5 mg of hydrocodine and 500 mg of tylonol), then I took norco (which is vicodine only it has 10 mg of hydrocodine and 325 mg of tylonol, it's stronger and you can take more of it in a day without maxing on the tylonol). I have also taken oxycodone two 5mg and have also tried Percocet and Fioricet. I don't think any pain meds are "off limits", you just don't want to take them too often and because everyone is different it may take some experimentation to find out which work best for you.
When I was in the ER my miracle drug was 4mg of morphine, I had a CSF leak (my shunt was removed and the hole didn't close) and high pressure headaches (I needed a shunt just not the one I had previously). It was awful. Sorry you are in such pain!
Mallory

pain meds are ok. just be aware if you take them a lot you can get medication overuse headaches (rebound headaches). i use percocet for when excedrin doesnt help. if its really bad, go to urgent care and get demerol (with an antinausea med) or go to ER and get morphine (i dont really like morphine so i get dilaudid) also with an antinausea med. just go get some relief! good luck.

Nucynta. Its same strength as dilaudid but you can take it at home. I take the extended release (150 mg x2 a day) and take the 75 mg, which is normally suppose to be taken every 4 hrs as a break thru pain reliever. Only down fall is the price. If you dont have insurance its $300 for 150 pills.

I go to pain management and get oxycodone....it takes my headaches away 95% of the time.

When I was in the hospital, the only thing we found that worked for my 7-10 pain was Dilaudid. So I got a prescript for hydromorphone. Of course, as soon as my pressures started decreasing and the headaches got worse I only took it as needed. So very few and far between but it does work! It's up to 8x stronger than morphine is what I'm told. But causes extreme constipation.

Everyday I have head pain, pressure and severe tailbone pain (7-8 scale), I use percocet 10/325 and it helps take away 80-95% of the pain. When the pain is above that, I've been given dilaudid via IV or shot and zolfran for nausea in the ER and a script of it to take home. I've found the 2mg "pill form" of dilaudid is not much better than percocet. Probably too low of a dose because I've heard something about the way it metabolizes in the liver causes the potency to decrease greatly. IV method bypasses the Liver so the medication works much better that way.

I have headaches and migraines most days of the week. I'm only allowed to take Ibuprofun 2x's a week and Imitrix 2x's a week. My doctor is apprently afraid of rebound headaches so the rest of the time/days I just push through the pain to deal with life. However it really messes up my quality of life being constantly in pain 8-10/10 every day.
Mandy :)

*see my post under discussion "its been a long time"

Whatever you try get Rx for anti-nausea and get that on board before you take the med. Being in pain and tossing cookies is really awful.

Good luck and remember, pain and need for pain control is a legitimate trip to the ER.