More Drug than I really Want in Me

I've been in remission for well over two years but the cancer (and some of the after treatment) left me with chronic neck pain and headache.

Let me assure you, quite unpleasant.

I've had a variety of drugs for this condition and the one I'm on now is Zonisamide.  Which has been an "interesting" experience.

Initially, the target dose was 200mg and that worked to alleviate my neck pain but it gave me a different kind of headache.  Rather resembling the sensation of having a small meat cleaver inserted into the top of my head, just a little to the right or left of the crown.

I tolerated that headache well, I believe, thinking that my pain had merely moved.  What forced my hand was the fact that as a programmer I have to be able to think, remember things and have some mental dexterity.   That dose of Zonisamide took all those abilities and greatly reduced them.

I also developed a difficulty breathing when I was seated at my computer at home, or with my head propped up on the love seat in the TV room.

Well, I sent an email to my Headache doctor and complained while at the same time I lowered the dose to 150 mg.    I felt better almost immediatly.

I still had some difficulty with work related judgement, and some mental confusion.  I still had difficulty breathing.  So I reduced the dose further and sent another email which was answered positively in due course.

I was almost happy, and had no sexual appetite at all.  And life was very dull.

Normally, I look out the window and enjoy the view.  Nope, not now.

So I dropped my dose to 100mg and that worked for the headache.  But my endocrine system doesn't work too well on that dosage either.

Zonisamide is classed as an anti-consultant.  But it has been used to treat migraine.  My headache/neck problem has been classed as a migraine, but without the nausea and some of the other side effects of migraine.

So I am experimenting at this point with dropping my dose further.  Down to 50 mg.

I had been toying with that dosage over the course of the last week, with a couple of days where I took the full 100mg dose.  Friday I had some of the old neck problem and headache.   So Friday night, I bumped the dosage up by 25 mg.  And no headache yet today.

Not that my head feels great.

So we shall see how this plays out.  Maybe alternate 100mg with 50mg every few days or try for a constant 75mg dosage.

The experiment continues.