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Hey Greeneyes, Welcome to Clusterbusters... I've sent you a message. Check the envelop icon in the upper right corner of this window. Take care, V/R, Batch

Welcome greeneyes. I am glad that your MRI came back clear. It rules out other stuff, but does not say that you have CH. Clusters normally last up to 3 hours, not all day. You may get many attacks in a day, but are pain free between them. Yes, you will still have muscle soreness even when the CH subsides. But the screaming pain is intermittent. Many begin with short hits of 5 to 30 minutes. That can get worse later in life. If you look up Tirgeminal Nerve, you will see all the nerves that can be affected during a hit. There are three main branches and many smaller ones. Normal pain meds do not help with CHers. Some may occasionally think that an Oxy or two helps. They are very few and far between. Some have had multiple injections of morphine in the ER with no relief. Your quickest defense is an Energy Drink or Shot. Even a cup of coffee will help. All should be downed at the first sign of an attack. Next is to have O2 in bottled form available to you with a non-rebreather mask to breath it thru. An O2 concentrator is not going to give you 100% O2. The steroid taper pack should provide relief the day you start it. It is often used as a bridging med until a med like Verapamil can build up in your system and begin to work for you. There are some look a like headaches. paroxysmal hemicrania, short-lasting unilateral neuralgia headaches with conjunctival injection (SUNCT) and hemicrania continua.Some of these respond to Indomethecin. I may have spelled that wrong. Keeping the diary will help your doctor make a diagnosis. The crawling feeling you mention is not something that I have had. Initially I had short visual disturbances. It is so long ago, it almost lost history!! Not many actually go from episodic to chronic. Some have remissions of 18 months or years between episodes. Others are right on schedule from the start - every spring or fall say. Others report longer and stronger hits as the years progress. Those who also have dealt with migraines report that CH is much more painful. Let us know how you are doing after the Pred. you are starting today. If you feel a hit coming on, get some caffeine into you quickly. It really does help. If it is CH, there are several things that you can do to mitigate the pain. My heart goes out to you. I look forward to hearing your update. And I apologize that I did not see this post sooner. Hugs!!!

Hi, My theory is that no two cluster heads are alike, and just as soon as you figure yours out, it'll change. I'm a chronic sufferer, but my clusters are very different from most. Alcohol is not a trigger for me, but KFC's Krushems are so cold they'll trigger an attack, as will sudden, strong smells or changes of temperature, etc. Also, to little stress. I have chronic daily headaches, chronic migraines and chronic cluster headaches. I would say a headache diary is vital to understanding your headaches. Through my diary (which I've kept daily for 7 years now) I learned that I cannot stay up late more than 2 nights in a row unless I want to be body slammed later with migraines and clusters. I used to track what I ate & drank, my exercise, sleep, headaches and all painkillers and preventative meds I took. After a couple years I cut that back, and I now just track all my headaches and the meds I take to stop them. But, tracking this stuff showed me Topiramate was making things worse, and I can show that Magic Mushrooms and RC Seeds drastically improved my clusters. MG