Candice... I heard that if you are taking OTC pain relievers for aches and pain it shouldn't cause a headache too, but I don't understand why it wouldn't. They showed a picture of the brain and said that taking a pill causes you to shut down pain receptors in your brain. Why wouldn't that happen everytime you take a pain pill whether the pain is a headache or body ache?
Meme...... When I take three or four days worth of Motrin which is my favorite, I have terrible heartburn and know it is hurting my stomach. But even my migraine med has tylenol in it.

Mine, too...I have to take too much of all that stuff...another migraine today!

Candice...who's Amy? You look pregnant when you're not but you didn't when you were...you're not...but you do...so if you were...you wouldn't...so get pregnant and you won't!

You're just plain weird, Charlie Brown!

Sounds like you girls are haveing a slow weekend. So am I.
I have read that a lot of the otc medications have the rebound effect. A lot of the prescribed meds have the same effect. I think the best way is not to take them if we don't have to. My Dr. is always fighting with me because I don't want to take some of the things he wants me to. I find it easier to just not tell him everything.
It is just right here now. They say we will get rain ,maybe, tonight. I hope so. We need it.
Hello everybody...Joanne

Hi guys-just spent a great weekend in Ft Myers-Alison beat me at Sorry. With their new accessible kitchen, she gets around so good. She wasn't thrilled about her quilt but everyone else was and her other grandma is going to make matching curtains. WE went to the Catholic church on Sat and a huge Baptist church on Sun-they even have an orchestra. Wonderful. Next week the Hoppers are going to be there-free. We missed the concert Friday night but we are going to se them at home in June. Bye for now. Mima

REBOUND HEADACHES

Headaches are the single most common pain complaint that patients bring to doctors. There are many potential causes of headaches: tension, migraines, sinus problems, vascular problems, neck problems, dental problems, visual problems, high blood pressure, tumors, infections, hemorrhages, etc. It is rare that any of these causes will produce severe headaches on a daily basis. Yet by the time most patients make it to my door at the Pain Management Center, they have in fact developed severe, daily headaches. Let me explain why this happens.

I will describe a typical situation. Pam is a 47 year old woman who started getting migraine headaches in her early twenties. These were severe headaches that lasted for 1-2 days, and occurred approximately once a month, especially around the start of her monthly menses. With the help of her doctors, Pam discovered that ibuprofen, sumatriptan (Imitrex), and Fioricet could help ease the headache. With these medicines she could usually stay at work.

Pam's headaches continued, but were controlled. Then in the last few years, Pam's life became much more stressful. She never had enough time for family, exercise, sleep, and certainly not enough for fun and time off. She woke up tired every morning, but a couple cups of coffee helped to provide energy. Pam's headaches were increasing. She noticed that she used to go for a month between headaches, but now she was getting headaches almost every week. These more frequent headaches were not quite as severe, but severe enough to send Pam to her medications for help. The medications did seem to help. Gradually, the frequency of the headaches increased to 2-3 times per week. She didn't sleep well, and found that she needed the coffee "boost" several times through the workday.

Pam had an MRI scan and was told that her brain was normal. She thought that she might have allergies, so she started a special diet and got an air purifier. The doctors tried her on several medications to try to prevent the headaches. None of this worked very well. The headaches continued to increase till she reached the point that not a day passed without a headache. By the time Pam came to our clinic, she was using Imitrex 2 tablets, 1-2 times a day; Fioricet with codeine 2 tablets, 3 times a day; and Ibuprofen 3 tablets, 3-4 times a day. Her diagnosis was severe, chronic, daily headaches, and she was miserable.

A LITTLE KNOWN FACT:
Pain pills, headache medicines, and caffeine all cause headaches! Is this true in everyone? No, only among those who are prone to headaches. How does one know if they are prone to headaches? If you get headaches more than once a month. If someone gets headaches more than once per month, then the surest way for them to get another headache is to consume an anti-headache medicine, an anti-pain medicince, or caffeine.

The three most common causes of chronic daily headaches are:
1. stress and tension,
2. the use of pain and headache medications,
3. the use of caffeine,
and commonly they all go together.
HEADACHE MEDICATIONS CAUSE HEADACHES:
The reason is because of a phenomenon called rebound. The medication eases the headache for a short time, but then as the medicine wears off, the headache comes back even worse, and the headache sufferer takes more medicine. Quickly, a vicious cycle develops. The medicines are needed for the bad headaches, but they also make the headaches worse. Caffeine causes the same vicious cycle. A couple of cups of coffee will actually help many headaches (notice that caffeine is in many over-the-counter headache medicines), but when the caffeine wears off, that's when the caffeine withdrawal headaches start! Many experts believe that caffeine withdrawal is the number one cause of headaches in the United States.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?
The first thing that I do is I taper my patients off all short-acting headache and pain medicines. If necessary, I may put them on low doses of a long-acting pain medicine such as Methadone. Because long-acting medicines stay in the blood continuously, there is never a rebound or withdrawal phase. Eventually, we may try to taper off even the long-acting pain medicines. Once the patient is off all caffeine and short-acting medicines, then we may re-try some of the headache prevention medicines that the doctors had tried earlier. These medicines which wouldn't work on rebound headaches, now have a chance to work on the underlying, core headache problem. At the same time, I enroll the patient in an intensive stress management and exercise program. We encourage the patient to do what Mother always taught: eat regularly and healthily, exercise regularly, deal with (rather than ignoring) stress, have regular bedtime and sleep hours, and don't smoke.

The results are often phenomenal. It takes hard work, but if the patient perseveres, they will usually see a dramatic reduction in the severity and frequency of their headaches. Some headaches will persist; Pam continued to have moderate headaches 1-2 times a month, but the daily headaches were gone.

Remember the take home message: If you get headaches more than once a month, headache medicines, pain pills, and caffeine all cause headaches!

Until next time…Steven Richeimer, M.D.

Candice - Nice picture. Now why are you taking down all the outdoor Christmas stuff? That's what husband's are for. I have NEVER done that.

Meme and Joanne - Hope you both are feeling better from your falls. That is my BIGGEST fear! I don't want to fall.

Anagram - I hope all is going well with you.

Marlene - How did TOPS go?

Ally - Hope your headaches go away. Posted that info. for you on Rebound Headaches.

I, personally, am NOT having a good time. First off, my back, from my shoulder down, my hip, knee and ankle on the right side are ALL in great pain from this darn cast being on the left side. It is pulling everything out of whack I did end up wearing my back brace for a few hours yesterday, and it did help, so I will do it again today, along with my knee brace. The Chiro can't really help, until the cast is off. The Dr. said 6 weeks to 3 months
I have only had it on for 3 weeks! I am not sure how I will survive this

The weekend I spend on the couch and in bed. I got that chill thing going on again. I was find when I got up on Saturday morning, but within 1 hr. I started to get cold and it just got worse. I was wearing long flannel PJs, socks, a housecoat, and was huddled under a feather duvet, and a nice thick fuzzy blanket, and had one of those microwave heatbags with me. It took 4.5 hrs. to get warm. My body temp. was 95.6. Then, in the afternoon, it swung the other way and went up to 100.5, but at least I could sleep and the muscles weren't tense. After that returned to normal, around suppertime, I started with an irregular heartbeat. That went on for a couple of hours, and then I was just fine. Went to bed, and had a really good sleep. Woke up Sunday morning, only to go through the same thing all over again.

I do have a Drs. appt. on Thursday for a Physical, so I guess that is good. I know people with FM have cold issues but this is ridiculous.

Well, enough complaining. It is cold outside here today (about 10 below F) and a little bit of snow we got yesterday. Supposed to get a bit more today, but it doesn't look like it is going to snow - YET.

Better stop, or poor Candice will have a fit.

I just hate it when I am in the middle of a sentence and lose it all!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy - I am another person who has cold days. It gets 60 and under and you will here me complaining.
I an doing ok since I fell. That is something I do a few times a year. I just about did it this time. My hip has been feeling pressure and some pain on walking. I guess I bruised it good. Good thing I fell on a wood floor and not on concrete. I hope you feel fine soon.
Headaches can stop a person in their tracts. Hope you guys can find some relief. A remedy= Get in the shower. Wet a towel with hot water while you are letting the water beat down on your back/shoulders.Wrap the towel around your face and head. Breath in the steam. Do this for a few minutes. I do this sometimes and it does help.
Bye...Joanne

Will be praying for your daughter, Joanne. And for you that you can (once again) pull it together while you go up to help her out.

Meme..Amy is my sons girlfriend............
and I do not have the parts ot get pregnant! No thankyou to that idea anyway!

Happy thanks for the headache info..I'm gonna send it to a friend who has chronic headaches! Mine are tension in the neck headaches and usually go away within a day but sometimes I aggravate my muscles beyond relief! I remember when my cast was on....poor you

Another migraine. I had one Sunday so bad I was in bed all day. Yesterday was better but today it is back full force. I think you all talking about it has jinxed me! I called the Dr. just now and they are getting me an appointment with a new Neurologist... well... he's not REAL new. He treated my mother last summer when she had her second stroke. I talked to him in her room about migraines and he said he had helped a lot of people. He picked up my insurance last October so I'm going to go see if he can help my poor head! I just hope the appointment is not too far in the future!!!

Going to go back to bed!

Anagram - Thanks- I go to my daughters Sunday. Her surgery is monday. I will probably be out of touch for awhileI will catch up though when I do get home.
Meme- I hope that you can get relief from your headaches. Have they tried you on inderal yet?
The sun is shining and it is a really clear day. Hope everyone is well...Joanne

I've been taking Inderal for about 20 years now. They've tried me on about everything. They got me an app. with the new Dr. for 1/27...hopefully he can help!

Great picture Candice-Anne-this fall I was freezing all the time but after UI put on weight it stopped.It's cool here but at home it's freezing. Hubby is putting in a heat pump for people that own this house. They took us ot to dinner-had broiled grouper-it was deliscious. won;'t tell you what else I ate. First time I'm doing nothing-took a nap and watched soaps-still have a stupid cough.Went to Beall's outlet yesterday and got a whole outfit for $3.20-95% 0ff. I guess I'll sit in the sun for a few minutes. Mima

Thank you for the rebound headache info Happy. I hit cycles....and lots are based on stress. I think I would never have a headache at all if I didn't have kids. I swear, this senior year of high school is the worst. I must get a call a week about something just totally stupid.
It is ssssssooooooo cold here in NY. I mean, like 17 degrees and will get colder tomorrow and Friday. I just sit and shake at work. This has been a terrible weather year for me.

Found this on a stie form a WW leader:


CHEESE SOUP - 1 cup=1 point. Heat until cheese melts and vegetables tender: 10 oz. Velvetta Cheese Lite - 2
pounds frozen "free" vegetables, 4 cups fat free chicken broth, 1 can Rotel tomatoes (or diced) ENJOY! Even
better, add some spaghetti squash in bowl and pour soup over. Same points

2 POINT MEAL IN A SALAD - Pour salad in a large bowl, top two cups of hot steamed "free" vegetables, top that
with salsa or picante plus 1/4 cup 2% shredded cheese and nuke until melted. YUM!

3 POINT CHILI - Chop and saute in chicken broth - 1 onion and 1 zucchini. Add 1 can each: drained kidney
beans and corn and diced tomatoes. Heat, add cumin to taste. Top with one slice Veggie Slices cheese. 1 cup
with cheese=3 pts.

CRUSTLESS PUMPKIN PIE - 1/2 = 3 POINTS! Mix together 1 can pumpkin, 4 servings Egg Beaters, 8 oz. 2% milk,
3/4 cup Splenda, 3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice. Spray 8" glass pan with oil. Fill with mix. Bake at 450 degrees for 20
minutes and 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. MY FAV!!

"FROZEN" YOGURT - Freeze one Blue Bunny Yogurt for 4 or 5 hours. Enjoy your home made frozen yogurt for 2
points. Or, leave in freezer overnight, take off lids, nuke for 30 seconds - GREAT!

3 POINT MEXICAN TREAT - One slice whole wheat bread, toasted - 1/2 cup fat free refried beans - 1/4 cup
salsa - 1 slice Veggie Slices cheese - layer and nuke until cheese melts -

*VEGGIE SLICES CHEESE- Sold in produce departments. 2 slices-2 points and 40% of your daily calcium

SOME OF MY VERY FAVORITE FOODS

*NATURAL OVENS -Whole grain breads, bagels, muffins, rolls, cookies - all high fiber, low points*KASHI CEREALS
-Good protein and high fiber. I love the Go Lean Crunch with yogourt!

*BALANCE BARS, ONE SOURCE, KASHI GO LEAN BARS, POWER BAR PROTEIN PLUS, SOY SENSATIONS - Try 1/2
for a snack or a whole with a beverage for a meal replacement.

*BOCA BURGERS -For a veggie burger that tastes the closest to hamburgers. 1 or 2 pts. depending on variety

*BARBER MARCO POLO CHICKEN BREASTS -At Cosco's. Six oz. = 4 1/2 points. Company good!

*AMY'S ENCHILADAS, BREAKFAST BURRITOS AND CHEESE FREE PIZZA - try them, you'll like them

*ROASTED SOY NUTS -These save me! A great protein snack!1/3 cup is 3 or 4 points depending on variety.

*PAUL'S OATMEAL -(by Natural Ovens) Just the best oatmeal you'll ever eat

*BELLA TERRA WHOLE WHEAT PASTAS-(at Schnucks and Health Food Stores) Terrific! Many varieties.

*SPLENDA (sucralose) artificial sweetener. Tastes like sugar and is SAFE! In Diet Rite soda, Blue Bunny yogourt
and many more products. Check my Shopping List for lots more foods using Splenda.

*EXCEL ADVANTAGE 110 CAL. PROTEIN DRINK - 2 1/2 PTS. 15 GRAMS PROTEIN