ReyvOW!

OW! My head is killing me. I’ve had a refractory migraine for three weeks. Up until this bout, I had been doing really well with Vyepti infusions and my abortive medication called Reyvow (lasmiditan). But when this migraine started, I was out and driving, and you can’t drive while taking Reyvow, so I wasn’t able to nip the migraine in the bud like usual. It was a few hours later when I finally took the Reyvow, and I just haven’t been able to get rid of this migraine.

After a week with the migraine, I took a low-dose course of steroids. The headache eased a little, but then I finished the steroids and the migraine came back. Bad. My neurologist prescribed a course of Depakote. No luck. So then I got some nerve block injections. I’m still in horrendous pain.

You know what makes this even more fun? My acute medication, Reyvow, which I’ve been taking for a few years now and is the only thing that’s ever worked for my migraines-it’s been discontinued by its manufacturer, Lilly, because it wasn’t popular enough. It wasn’t making money.

I have three Reyvow pills left. There’s nothing left on the market like it. My doctor prescribed a triptan as a replacement, but those haven’t worked for me in the past. But maybe, in conjunction with the Vyepti infusions, it’ll work? That’s what I said to my doctor. She said that she liked my optimism.

In reality, I don’t feel very optimistic. I hate that Reyvow is no longer being manufactured worldwide. I spent the afternoon calling around to various pharmacies to see if they still had any in stock after learning that CVS is now out of Reyvow. An article I read predicted Reyvow would be available until June 2026. It’s only February.

I feel like I’m in an apocalyptic Hellscape where I’ll have to ration these three remaining pills for when I really need them. But how will I decide?