Hi Kim,

I just now saw you are back on Brain Talk 1. We need to go over there I think. But for now I will tell you about the C3/C4. I'm sorry, I know you asked about that and I spaced it! Okay, I had cervicogenic headaches with variant migraines and/or occipital neuralgia. The SEVERE pain was always up around my head in the typical "ram's horn pattern"...so they call it. This was all due to bone spurs/osteophytes pressing on nerve roots. The docs tried to treat it conservatively at first. And I went through 3 years of awful pain before I found a spine group that fixed it! Just know that the pain I had at that level was UP the back of my head and never downwards. BUT, also know that the C5/C6 was bad at the same time. The NS just didn't want to fuse both at once. So, any pain I had in my shoulders which was minimal at the beginning, I attribute to the C5/C6. I suppose the C3/C4 could refer pain elsewhere but in my case it was the base of my skull and head. Okay, now for Tramadol or Ultram. I tried that once and I can't really remember what happened. Either it made me sick or I got nauseated from it. But in any case my Pain Management doctor did tell me that HE is finding that it is not helping his patients much although he was once a believer in it. I suppose he may still use it for some people I am just re-iterating what he told me. I have extreme difficulty with most meds. And, he did want me to try Lyrica. I am telling you what...you might as well put me totally out of comission if you hand me Neurontin or Lyrica. I just cannot tolerate them. Okay, so after all of this pain BS, pardon me, he finally decided to let me stay on Vicodin since I was taking only 1/2 pill a day along with Klonopin. I know it can be addicting but I am extremely careful about how much I take of anything. And I will say 1/2 of a Vicodin and 1/2 to 1 tablet of .5 Klonopin gave me some functionality back! At least I was able to drive and get out and about. Okay, now Norco is a "baby" Vicodin. That is how I view it anyway. Vicodin is usually 5/500. Norco, or at least the one the NS prescribed is 7.5/325. I also have some that are 3.5/325. Norco has less Tylenol in it which is supposed to be easier on your liver...more so than Vicodin. Currently, I am taking 1 to 2 a day of the 7.5/325. Hopefully, I can taper down as time goes on. Also, for some reason, the Norco does NOT make me sleepy like the Vicodin did. Anyway, I hope this helps. Kathi