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Siegfried, Because I suffer from both Migraines and CH it took 10 years for my doctor to diagnose me with CH. All my symptoms were migraine symptoms. It wan not intil I went to an appointment and my doctor noticed that I was sweating a little and he asked me what was wrong. I told him that I had a kidney stones. He asked me how I could drive and function with kidney stones and I told him that they are nothing compared to my headaches. He started treating me for CH and I went from headaches 3 to 5 days a week to 1 or 2 per week. My abort of choise has always been Zomig. My insurance at the time would give me 72 for a three month period. I would runout before the new prescription would renew. Long story short, my headaches were craving Zomig and if I did not take it I was in a consistent migraine cycle and wold get CH events also. I was at my wits end when I found Cluster Busters. I asked about busting, O2 and had to try something because I could not live like that any longer. I stopped taking Diltiazem Zomig and Percodan for 5 days and started the busting process. It saved my life! Now days I only take Zomig when I am somewhere that will not allow me to use O2 or if I am not having much luck with O2. life is good now! I can go a few days or even weeks pain free. I know most of my triggers and the ones I can avoid i do and the others I deal with. This site and its great people have helped me more than words can say.

I believe we are all equals here. No one is better or worse. If you have survived one attack, it's one too many. I don't think anyone's resume is better than anyone else's in my opinion. Chronic or episodic. We as survivors have all had some very low dark days where we didn't want to be here. This thread isn't about the dark days because no one usually wants to talk about that. Id like to start a positive post thread OR positive tips and thoughts on what got us through it. What got us through those dark days, why we chose to fight another day. I'm doing this thread in memory of those who lost their fight. I don't really want to emphasize on the bad. But the positive. Perhaps some of us out there are going through some really dark days, months and years right now and could use some encouraging words to uplift them and know that they can keep moving forward. Let me start....and let's keep this going....and PLEASE be respectful of those with faith or without. It is what helped that person so let's not be judgemental. Speak wiith love. ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Tomorrow is a new day, always remain positive no matter how bad it is, you have survived this far ! You are a warrior, a survivor and you matter. You are important, Have value and I am so glad you are here ~Tom T~ *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Hey Greeneyes, As you appear to be responding to this regimen, I would continue the accelerated Vitamin D3 loading schedule at 50,000 IU/day vitamin D3 for another four to five days along with the rest of the anti-inflammatory regimen. This is a safe and effective way of elevating your serum 25(OH)D up near 80 ng/mL where at least 83% of CHers experience a significant drop in the frequency of their CH or a complete cessation of CH. Poping and chewing the 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 softgels between your back teeth and swirling the contents under your tongue for 5 minutes without swallowing will help in absorption... I do this frequently during my 25(OH)D burn down tests where I stop taking vitamin D3 until my CH return... I'm a chronic CHer and take an average of 15,000 to 20,000 IU/day vitamin D3 along with the rest of the anti-inflammatory regimen. I've also maintained an average 25(OH)D serum concentration around 140 ng/mL for the last three years. Yes, I know that is above 100 ng/nL.. I also know that the 25(OH)D lab test results are a very poor indicator of vitamin D3 intoxication/toxicity... If we were to equate a high serum concentration of 25(OH)D to vitamin D3 toxicity, there are several RCTs indicating the concentration would be well North of 200 ng/mL. My PCP is comfortable with my 25(OH)D being this high (It's been over 167 ng/mL) as he has a copy of the anti-inflammatory regimen treatment protocol so knows as long as my serum calcium stays within its normal reference range... and it has... there's no real issue with vitamin D3 toxicity. As the CH beast is still jumping ugly after a week of 50,000 IU/day vitamin D3, I would start a week to 10 day course of Benadryl (Diphenhydramine HCL) at 25 mg/day... If there's no joy at this dose and the CH beast is still jumping ugly, bump it to 50 mg/day. Take care and please keep us posted. V/R, Batch

I do seem to be having some positive response since starting the loading schedule over a week ago. I had to order the mature multi but have been taking everything else. My last really bad atttack was last Wednesday night (lasted about an hour). I still have had the pressure, stabbing pains, and burning off and on throughout the day(most only last a couple minutes....except today I have had it since last night very dull) but my last 3 attacks have not been as high on the pain level and have only lasted 10 min. I'll take what I can get. It's better than getting them everyday...multiple times a day... less than a week to go before I finally get in to see the neurologist.