New Daily Persistent Headache Support Group

I just saw my doctor at the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago on Friday and he wanted to admit me to the hospital to do "more vigorous iv treatment." I opted to try the botox instead. He said that if the botox doesn't help, then he would like to admit me to the hospital the next time he sees me, which is the end of January.

The past month and a half have been really awful. I've been averaging a 7 on most days, reaching an 8 or 9 in the mornings and evenings. The pain wakes me up at night. The "best" it gets is a 5 or 6.

Have any of you gone to the hospital for iv treatment? Did it help? He said my stay would be 5-10 days. I'm just wondering if it would even be worth it. Any thoughts, opinions, or experiences would be appreciated. Thank you!

Dash,

My husband did 2 hospital stays. One here in Houston in Jan 08 under the "care" of Dr. Mathew. He did get a lower headache level while there, but also kidney stones due to his Topamax being doubled overnight. That doc - FIRED.

Next one, at MHNI/Chelsea under the care of Dr. Rozen in May 08. He stayed for 13 days, had LOTS of IV meds and 3 nerve procedures. The first 2 were facet nerve blocks, the first one was sucessful, second wasn't. Then he had an RFA which was not sucessful. When they became increasingly difficult to work with, as we lived out of state, we dropped them and found an excellent neurologist locally.

Nothing permanent became of Ryan's 2 inpatient treatments, however, he did experience lowering of his pain level and met some great people. Our personal opinion was it was worth trying.

Best wishes to you and let us know what you decide.

Thanks drmeows. I think I will give it a try. I need to do everything I can. I can't give up yet.

I haven't tried it yet myself (I haven't had to so far), but from what I have seen of other people talking it seems to lower most people's pain levels, but rarely gets people to zero pain (though that would be nice). I am not sure the lowered pain levels are permanent in most cases, but they seem to last for a while, and in some people they can last for months or even years.

My daughter has had 3 hosp. stays for IV treatment. Each lasting approx. 1 week. The first time, we had 12hr relief, the second time we had 24hr relief and the third time we had 72hr relief. We will not try DHE again, as it didn't fix anything. It was nice to have a break in the pain. She had ZERO pain and then went back up slowly...but not slowly enough to be worth it! It is almost more discouraging to find relief only to have it taken away. Ya know.

Ya have to do what works for you and remember each person responds differently. My daughter also did Botox with NO RELIEF, Nerve blocks with MINIMAL Short-lived relief.....

I know what you are talking about. My daughter's hospital stays have not really been worth a very short period of no pain. She really thinks the hospital is torture and refuses to go again unless they can promise to fix her. Now who is going to do that?

lovemykids411

I am so sad to say that we had no luck with Dr. Mathew either. I know that everyone is different but I have never felt like someone was NOT listening to us at all. My daughter considered her week in the hospital pure torture and says she will never do it again. Now what?

lovemykids411

Hi Dash,

I did the hospital stay in Diamond back in 2004. At that time, I was seeing a local neuro who had put me on narcotics and I was in major rebound cycle from them. The good thing that happened to me at Diamond is that they broke that cycle. However, I did not notice much difference in pain when I left there after 10 days. It took good 4 weeks for the pain to start coming down after I came home. I started on Vivactil and Depakote but Vivactil was keeping me up all night so I switched to Elavil.

Take care

- Taru

I also have had 2 hospital stays, which unfortunately were under Dr. Mathew. The first one was good because it got me off of certain meds that were causing rebound headaches. Neither time did the DHE or the time spent doing his regime help me or my headaches. I do have to say, as I still keep in touch with my roommate from my first stay which has been 6 yrs, she came out of the 7 day program and the DHE cured....headaches were at an 8 upon admission and she left at a zero and has not had another one since (and she's not on any meds). Now that is testimony that we are all very different and it can work.

Wow, that's awesome. My husband did one with Dr. Mathew. We fired him after that experience.