Eets not a toomah.

So saith the doctor, at any rate.  He found the burnt toast smell interesting and asked if I'd ever had an MRI.  I confessed my deep clausterphobia and my inability to even get near so much as an open MRI, even with medication, and he didn't push it.  I might have fallen a little in love with him just for that.  He said we could do a C/T if it came down to it but he'd like to hold off.  Yay for that!  There was discussion of how burnt toast could be indicative of siezures (ack!) but since I am cogent (just miserable) during my headaches and Topamax is an anti-convulsant, he feels that is extremely unlikey.  WHEW!

What he did suggest was this: upping my dosage of Topamax and adding a few other meds.  I'm on kind of a low dose of the T. at only 50 mg. a day.  Turns out the max is significantly more (500 mg./day) and he feels there is plenty of room to work with.  Of course, the more I take, the spacier I will become so we are trying to keep it within reason.  I'll try taking 75 mg. at bedtime and if that really leaves me in orbit, I'll climb back down and we'll see what else we can do.  The good news is I should lose a few more pounds with the increased dosage.  I can't be unhappy about that!

He gave me four or five samples of as-needed medication to try when the headaches come. Whichever works best will be what we go with.  Lucky Penny did warn that there may be some unpleasant side effects to some of the meds he gave me.  He told me that if the side effects lasted only ten minutes or so then I would need to make a decision about what was worse, the headaches or the side effects.  What happened with the Immitrex lasted a full 12 hours; if these side effects will last only ten minutes but work to clear my migraines, I'll take it.  I'd rather be down for ten minutes or an hour than a whole day.

He also gave me an anti-nausea medication to help manage the symptoms of the migraine.  I tend to become freezing cold when I have a headache, no matter what the temperature outside, and the doctor told me today that this is because my blood pressure becomes very low.  He suggested I drink lots of fluids.  The anti-nausea meds should help make that possible. 

I'm to try all this for six weeks and then come back for a re-evaluation.  I'm really hopeful that I'll find the answer in one or more of these drugs.  I've taken the anti-nausea med before and I know it works really well so that alone makes me feel like I've finally got a safetly net.  The others, well, I'll wait and see. But I really think it's going to be okay.

(And the nurse I saw told me they would only take Sarge's lisence for three months, not six.  So WAHOO! for that!)