Hi,
I am a 19 year old female who was dx with Hemicrania Continua about a year and a half ago. Since then I have been on Indomethacin with complete relief from my headaches. I take Indomethacin 50mg three times a day with meals. I also take Omeprazole 20mg 1x a day and Zantac 150mg 3x a day to try and protect my stomach from the Indomethacin (I have a hard time tolerating NSAIDs).
My neuro is trying to get me off the Indomethacin, and we have tried slowly lowering the dose but it hasn't worked. Everytime I try to step down to taking it twice a day my headaches come back.
All of the other medications that can sometimes work for Hemicrania Continua (at least the ones my neuro knows of) I have already been on before the Indomethacin and they did not work.
I decided to do some research on my own and did a pubmed search. I found a study done with Occipital Nerve Stimulators, that seemed to be promising (however, the study was hard to understand and perhaps I misunderstood it). The study was done with people with other types of headaches as well, and it didn't say which types of headaches had relief with the ONS.
This made me wonder if I would be a candiate for something like this, afterall I am young and who knows how long I will be able to put up with the Indomethacin.
However, I did have a Occipital Nerve Block done and experience no relief with it. Are the nerve block and ONS similar, or are they different things? Does the fact that I had no relief with the nerve block mean that the ONS wouldn't work either?
Is there anything else that you know of to work for Hemicrania Contiua?
Thanks so much!!
Jess

