Re: A few questions:

[Guest guest]

Kathy...

Getting referred to a rheumatologist is usually a good thing. These docs REALLY know medications. If anyone can help you, they can. Just know that finding the right medications is often a long drawn out affair of trial and error.

Regards,

On 3/2/07 7:06 AM, " txbluebelle " <txbluebelle@...> wrote:

Group I need some help here. Right now my only source of pain relief

is extra strength Tylenol (2-4) a day. Too many of those and I get re-

bound headaches. As you can imagine that isn't cutting it. I took

Celebrex for years and Bextra before that. And while it wasn't

helping enough, it WAS helping. One of the primary things it was

doing was keeping my migraine headaches at bay. They had become very

few and far between. And that is huge.

I stopped taking Celebrex recently as an experiment. I was exhausted

all of the time and had noticed a swallowing problem. This is more

recent. Maybe the last 6 months or so? Well, when I stopped the

Celebrex the swallowing/throat problem went away! It at last got so

much better. But without the Celebrex I can barely move (I do have

arthritis) and the migraines are back on just about a daily basis. I

even had a complicated migraine with aura a few weeks ago.

I'll try to explain the swallowing thing. I CAN swallow okay it just

feels very strange and delayed. And it feels like my neck, ears,

throat are somehow congested? Not like a cold or anything. There is

this uncomfortable fullness and feeling like your brain/head has been

hit by a sledge hammer. Not pain exactly just a whop. I seem to be

able to breath okay but it almost feels like your throat is

swelling.... not a comfortable thought. Also there is some ringing in

my ears. I think my internist just thinks it is all psychological.

But it seems to hit about 1-2 hours after taking the med and is less

the next day. I'll be doing something else and all of a sudden it is

just THERE. So I try to crawl in bed and go to sleep and ignore it.

I tried the generic for Neurontin (only made it through 1 100mg

dose). Within an hour of taking that I had a migraine that lasted two

days. I was expecting some mental confusion but not that much

dizziness and pain on such a low dose.

Now to top it all off, my internist has decided I am too complicated

to deal with. He wants me to see a rheumatologist. I'm not sure that

will help. Because of GERD there really aren't any other NSAIDs I can

take.

Does anyone know how I can find out if this throat issue/fatigue is a

serious/important side effect? I'm in the middle of planning my

daughter's wedding and can't make any radical changes the next two

months. If it is safe to go back on the Celebrex I probably need to.

Oh just for the record, I don't " do " meds well. If there is a side

effect my body will find it. And it looks like my " new " insurance is

pretty crummy. The doctor grumbled when he saw it.

Kathy

[Guest guest]

Kathy,

Oh my....I HAD THE SAME EXACT THING post surgery.

I could not have explained it then nor now but your words ring oh so

true. First we thought it was caused by a sinus infection, then

meds,

then reflux. I had an endoscopy done, it showed nothing except

reflux.

The meds for that after 4 months showed little result. As, I started

to

clear up all the little nuance issues following surgery, the

pressure

of the throat thing has gone away. Stress? maybe...I went on Lexapro

for nerve issues somewhere in the middle of that. I guess I can not

pin point why it went away but thank God it did.

I'll try to explain the swallowing thing. I CAN swallow okay it just feels very strange and delayed. And it feels like my neck, ears, throat are somehow congested? Not like a cold or anything. There is this uncomfortable fullness and feeling like your brain/head has been hit by a sledge hammer. Not pain exactly just a whop. I seem to be able to breath okay but it almost feels like your throat is swelling.... not a comfortable thought. Also there is some ringing in my ears. I think my internist just thinks it is all psychological. But it seems to hit about 1-2 hours after taking the med and is less the next day. I'll be doing something else and all of a sudden it is just THERE. So I try to crawl in bed and go to sleep and ignore it.