Migraine Headaches Support Group

I would recommend seeing a doctor immediately. Over the counter meds are not meant to be taken everyday. You sound like youre in a vicious cycle of rebounds and may have developed a long term dependency on excedrin. Please see a doctor soon and discuss this.

I have told the doc..she said as long as its once a day..its cool. ??????? I know I cant live with out it. maby i'll get a second on it..but I dont know what other option i have?

I definitely would get a second opinion. Many doctors, especially primary care physicians are not all that knowledgeable about headaches and migraines in particular. You need to see someone who specializes in migraines. Period. Ask for a referral if you have to. I agree, I wouldnt stop taking the excedrin cold turkey...obviously you're dependent on them and will need to be under a physicians care and advice to go off of them in a monitored weaning process. Seek a second opinion. There are so many options out there for treatment for migraines. Good luck to you!

SurvivetheStorm is exactly right.

The golden rule for taking any abortive or pain relieving medicine (including over the counter stuff) is a limit of 2-3 times a week, or no more than 15 days out of a month.

I'm afraid you have set yourself up for rebound headache, which means that you need to get off of the Excedrin for at least a month before preventatives will even touch your headache.

You need to wean off. I would suggest definitely finding a headache specialist.

Also, in the meantime - you can buy a pillcutter from any local pharmacy and begin weaning off of them yourself. Tylenol, aspirin, and caffeine aren't going to throw you into the intense kind of withdrawal that you need to be under a doctor's care for (such as Fioricet, opiates, and many of the preventative meds). What you will notice is the headache, but that's really going to be expected.

I would suggest taking half a pill less than you currently take every week to two weeks.

You also need to not take anything else with acetaminophen in it. Anything. Not cold medicine, not anything.

If you end up needing pain relief, I would suggest ibuprofen if your stomach can handle it. But the same rules need to apply - no more than 2-3 days a week.

Then, when you can get in to see a neurologist - who will hopefully be learned in headache medicine, hopefully you'll be weaned off enough or completely..that he or she can prescribe you a preventative medicine and some abortives...and you'll be in a place where they'll be able to work for you.

Take care,
Laura

I just joined this group also. My husband and older son also have almost daily headaches but not the neuralgia problem as my youngest son has. They also take a lot of Excedrin but not daily. It seems to help their headaches more than other things.

When Ryan, my youngest son, has a true "headache" he also has good results taking Excedrin's and Imitrex together. He had a coagulation problem a few years back and had to go on a prescription anti coagulant for a few months. During that time he didn't have any headaches and rarely needed any Excedrin but the doctor retested him and took off the medication since the clots were dissolved.

Somewhere I read that taking an aspirin a day could reduce headaches. This is just a thought, but maybe it's the aspirin in the Excedrin's that helps both you and my husband and older son. There are other natural blood thinners available that might be safer. Even vitamin C is anti clotting.

My husband and older son both take a lot of Excedrin and do not have rebound headaches at all. They both know what triggers their HA and tries to avoid certain foods and other triggers. My husband also takes Toprol now which has helped. He does have tinnitus from too many aspirins over the years and that's a huge problem so he is trying to rely on other things to get rid of his HA now because it's affecting his hearing. That is a risk of taking too many aspirins. My husband grew up taking a lot of them too. There is nothing that can be done for his tinnitus.
Cindy

okay, i took excedrin for migraines on a daily basis, after being told by my a dr.(a cardiologist)that it was okay to take with my high blood pressure medication....both, 1 a day in the morning...like brushing my teeth.

i actually took it religiously for three years, i would buy it everytime i refilled my prescription...

after three years of controlling my blood pressure and headaches, i came into some severe stress that caused my headaches to get periodically worse....i HAD to increase the excedrin to 2 a day...one in the morning, and one before i went bed!....after about 3 months of that routine, my migraines got to the point that i had stay in bed 2-3 times a week, and if it wasn't a migraine, it was a regular daily headache....i literally banged my head into the wall to relieve the pain....it was driving me crazy...

once it to the point that it was unbearable, i told my dr what was going on...and after insisting that something else had to be wrong, he did diagnostic tests, cat scans, mri's, sent me to a neuroligist who did painful nerve tests, sleep tests, ...everything and they still couldn't find the cause so as a last resort, i went to the dentist...he found that my upper wisdom teeth were pressing against my sinuses and skull...suggested extracting all 4....and with that my migraines went away....i still get occasional headaches that i treat now with Aleve, and i get about 2 migraines a year which i treat with Aleve and Excedrin for Migraines....

sorry so long, and don't know if it helps...but if 1 excedrin a day helps you then keep taking it....but if you get to the point where daily migraines are driving you crazy....go to the dr. AND the dentist...thats my advice....

good luck

-dr-

Hey, im just coming back to this group as my migrains had faded away. Now im pregnant and its out of control again and pretty much daily.

For you, first of all welcome. And please go see your doctor. This sounds so serious, and they should be helping you!!
Good luck :)

I live off of excedrin migraine and I take at least 40 to 50 pills a month. I'm scheduled to see a neurologist/migraine specialist who states that excedrin migraine causes rebound headaches. Mine come on usually around 8 p.m. daily. I'm lucky if I have one day out of a 7 day week that I don't get one. It's the only thing that works for me right now. If one comes on too strong and too quickly I usually have some strong coffee and it subsides. Recently I've started vomiting.