I have horrible cluster headaches that last about 30minutes. The pills take about 30minutes to kick in.
To take the pain away I was prescribed the Imitrex injections, but they are very costly and I can't afford to buy enough to last me through the winter.
Is there a way to use the pills and dilute them in water to use them as injections? I am ready to try anything!!!

I don't know if Imatrex has a quick dissolve tablet, but Zomig does this brings me relief in 15min vs. 30 for the pill. I hear they're coming out with a nasal spray that is supposed to work even faster. ask your Dr, if Imatrx has these.

I to suffer from cluster headaches. I get 9 imitrix injections a month and 6 imitrix ns every three days. The nasal spray kicks in about 6 -10 min. You may want to check into that.

thank you all for your input. i have had clusters for 12 years. i have a very good and caring neurologist. we have tried every preventitive available. i have found that the imitrex injections work very well 100% of the time.unfortunatly, i have both chronic and episodic headaches which mean that i have them constantly. i have been able to extend use of injections by only using 1/3 of each syringe at a time.i do have virtually unlimited access to 50 mg. pills. i will be retiring soon and will lose access to injections but not pills. i have considered my future without the injections and it fills me with an unfathonable dread.my query about making injections from tablets is made out of desperation. i will do what is necessary to make this happen but only within legal and reasonable boundaries. i need to know specifics, such as can binders be leeched from pills, can distilled water be used as carrier, etc. please, anyone, can this be done. those of you who have clusters know what getting 3 to 5 k10's a night know my desperation. i have tried other message boards and clusterheads.com, and responses have been supportive and informative, however off point of my query. any source of information or direction would be greatly appreciated. thanx, morich

You really, really do NOT want to inject the pills. Any pill contains binders and stabilizers that are very dangerous to inject and cause damage to your veins and can even cause heart problems -- definitely do not do this!

I to have used the technique mentioned to get 3 shots out of one. However, really the nasal spray is just as fast. I have never in my 5 years of being chronic and on the net heard of anyone sucessfully turning pills into shot form. You are out of luck. I understand the need to get the medicine in quickly to kill the attack before the beast gets you but you can't inject the pills. I am chronic and get hit 8x everyday. I have tried all preventatives and non worked for me either. I am on methadone now and have not had a ha in 5 months! Have you tried oxygen with a non breather mask with a 10-12 litter flow rate for 15-20 min.? Oxygen is cheap and works fast also.

You cannot make an injection solution out of a pill. This would be dangerous and just wouldn't work. Once you are retired do some searches on the web for free medications for the elderly as there are several places that will help you obtain free meds.

You cannot make an injection solution out of a pill. This would be dangerous and just wouldn't work. Once you are retired do some searches on the web for free medications for the elderly as there are several places that will help you obtain free meds. Also you should really consider discussing the fact that you are using the same syringe 3 times. This is not a safe practice and is something to discuss with the doc as he may be able to write you a prescription for a vial of imitrex and a prescription for single use syringes so that you can control the amount of imitrex you are using with each shot but still using good infection control with one syringe per use. Also just for comment but be sure to ask the pharmacist for a biohazard container to destroy your syringes in as it is illegal to put them into the regular trash.

The answer on using the pills for injection is NO.
You'll just screw yourself up.
Different substances for different forms of delivery.
It's just the chemical factor.
Why haven't they had you try the Imitrex spray?
It works well.
I was on it for a while.
It's fast when you get it in the body on time.
I was just changed to a sublingual form of another medicine and we are going to try adding still another
migraine med after the first sublingual does to make the first medicine longer acting.
There is even still another migraine med that works for some people that can be taken at any time during the headache.
The thing about Imitrex with me is that I had to get it into my body within a small window of time.
I now take Maxalt and that is more flexable regarding how quickly it gets into the system.
The med I will soon be trying to extend the medicine effect is Amerge.
My husband, who has migraines from an accident takes Axert and that's the only one that works for him and he can take it at anytime during the headache process.
He can be all the way up to the nausea stage and that stuff will work for him.
Kat