Bejeeber

I for one hope someone will come along who can answer this, @Doctalkjoe! If you end up having to inquire with the original doctor's office or some other source in order to find out though, would sure appreciate you posting what you learn here.

Others have reported remissions lasting several years, followed by a sudden surprise episode out of nowhere. This is a scenario where the CH'er typically is caught off guard, having been lulled into believing the shenanigans could be completely over and done with, never to be revisited. Switching sides (even after decades of always being same-sided) is also a pretty widely reported phenomenon.

Thank you Debra, information like this is always valued, and when included in a story like this, very touching.

Oh not the dreaded swollen face routine - I've seen wisdom teeth extraction swelling aftermaths that included cheeks the size of cantaloupes (!!!), but didn't want to to mention that earlier, in order to avoid unnecessary scares. This does seem one of the best arguments that it in fact may not strictly be the teeth.

WELL, @Billie Bea? If you're still on here, hoping for a positive as can be (under the circumstances) report on how the tooth yanking went for you, whilst also adopting a traditional half cringing stance, in case results have been mixed.

I'm no expert by any stretch, but if they're not impacted, you can hope for recovery to not be a big deal (mine weren't impacted and weren't a big deal). Main thing I remember was hopping onto the LA roadways in my flimsy VW beetle immediately following extraction while getting hit with a CH attack. But even that was early CH days for me and could have been significantly worse. No we won't! We're already sick of your flip flopping!! JUST KIDDING - here's sincerely hoping the tooth deal could be the entire cause of your severe pain issues, that this will be the end of those issues, and you can end up bidding us all "so long, suckers!!" Fingers crossed!

Very well played @BoscoPiko - I've done bits of the so perfectly described @Shaun brearley style neurotic house cleaning during busts before, and now that you mention it I may get re-inspired and attempt some more of that, in order to actually stay productive, but those snacks and movies are likely going to be calling my name pretty loudly and irresistibly. On a momentarily serious note, your updated analysis of the potentially serious warning sign that your spikes can be is definitely some pertinent input for me right now - thank you!

Resurrecting this dormant thread because I find the reports pertinent. I don't recall in my 44-ish year CH career previously having a succession of spikes like I've had lately. I've probably had some here or there, but they were forgettable. I don't care a lot about the short spikes (behind the usual right eyeball) themselves so much this time either, other than whether they are a warning sign of impending full blown activity, in which case I thank the spikes for the heads up. So yeah I may have a legit call for some preventive busting coming up soon here!

It's good to hear that this neurologist is nice, concerned, listens and is trying hard. One thing that doesn't help clarify things at all, but I would consider keeping in mind, is that he likely hasn't benefitted from the level of training or clinical experience that would more thoroughly familiarize him with all the ins and outs of headache type diagnosis, so visiting a headache specialist when one is available still seems a good idea. Since this was some incredible pain you experienced, I suppose you could also prepare with dual contingencies and have well researched versions of both CH and sinus preventives ready to deploy if there is any dreaded revisit (we all hope not!!!). FYI I would wager that most of us CH'ers have had teeth yanked, mistakenly believing that was the cause (for me the fruitless dental pursuit involved wisdom teeth removal).

Well at least you've braced for that in case it happens, but hey you never know, you might get a good diagnosis out of the deal. Especially if this neurologist is a headache specialist. It's unfortunately true that regular old garden variety neurologists are thought of us as often being ill informed regarding CH. I bet you've seen that this is indeed some straight up classic CH behavior. I've known some diagnosed CH'ers that mainly get hit in the temple (upper trigeminal), as opposed to the behind the eyeball routine I got used to thinking of as the CH standard. It sure sounds like how a cluster cycle often ends - CONGRATS ON MAKING IT THROUGH, and now hopefully you'll gain a nice long remission. Yep - all they can really go by is a description from the patient, and your descriptions seem fine. Best of luck and results with the upcoming appointment. I'd say don't make too big of a deal out of it - if the doctor isn't right, just set this as another appointment/doctor to ignore, and seek out a headache specialist while you're in remission. They can have long waiting times, but you don't have to be in an active cycle to go in and get a diagnosis.

The thing about ginger tea is (in my opinion anyway) it can be classified in the highly enjoyable beverage category. Versus other teas It also really raises my temperature and makes me think "it suddenly got hot in this room!", which hey, might come in handy for some of our mid southern hemisphere folk right around now.

Yep this is the sort of thing that for some of us can make it hard to definitively pin a smoking gun of blame on a drug for cycle extension. But can't fault you for casting a suspicious eyeball towards the verapamil. Often enough some nice extended remissions can go along with the lousy extended cycles as the years hurl by - here's hoping you too will at least get the benefit of some remission extensions!

Day 107? That is brutal @Inno, very sorry to hear it. As far as lengths etc. of cycles/remissions are concerned, while CH'ers often do find they have a predictable pattern for a while, those patterns sure do have a habit of mutating right when we'd least expect it. So all I got are a couple cliches: Expect the unexpected Change is the only constant

That one report you linked to certainly does have an encouraging take, @CHfather. This part jumped out at me: "Serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and DMT (without MAOIs) should all be safe to use while on antidepressants, although the antidepressant may dull some subjective effects. This effect appears somewhat inconsistent, particularly with psilocybin, raising questions about the necessity of tapering antidepressants prior to use. According to an interview with Dr. Ben Malcolm, clinical psychiatric pharmacist, the risks and complications of tapering off an antidepressant for some people may be more severe than taking the risks of a reduced psychedelic experience by combining psilocybin with antidepressants."

There's been an occasional report, such as the one linked to here, from someone who has busted while on an antidepressant without adverse effects, so just based on the anecdotes, I've become more of the mind that it might generally be OK, but I don't recall having seen a consensus on this.

What @BoscoPiko (and @Oaks) said! If you got the injection form of sumatriptan, you'll want to know about this: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/2446-extending-imitrex/

This sounds like something an O2 guru like @Racer1_NC might have some insight on.

Understood. Something I'm interested in, and you might find interesting too, is ketamine infusions, which we don't currently have a lot of collective experience with like we do with busting, but some very early prelim reports about it appear encouraging. In a case like yours I would hope it wouldn't conflict with employment restrictions.

YES IT WOULD!!!! I personally remain adamant about never, ever, referring to a cluster attack as a "headache". The naming of this deep brain disorder is soooo long overdue for a change, and the h word must be strictly prohibited from inclusion in the new name!

Good thinking, since in your case of course it sounds of critical importance that the calcium level be checked. Sometimes a different form of magnesium can be more compatible for a given individual (I know this because I respond better to magnesium citrate than glycinate, but my wife gets leg cramps from citrate).

I did the capsaicin cream inside the nostril way the hell back in the early 1990's, before imitrex was even available in the US. It did abort one attack (which would have been an easier one to abort for me as it was during the initial ramping up phase of an episodic cycle). After that it was only effective at providing me with one spicy hot nostril! I believe it hasn't really caught on because it isn't particularly effective. Many years later I tried the capsaicin spray in the nostril, but didn't get effective results from it either.

A sixer?. Whoa, you gave the beast both middle fingers and threw in some middle toes to boot. Here's hoping he didn't respond with any 6x beast finger pressing right behind the eyeball!

An abortive that works once or twice, then nuthin'? Unfortunately that is a familiar scenario to me. Example: Back in olden times I tried the newly reported-as-effective jamming of hot pepper capsaicin cream up the nose on the affected side and it aborted a hit! That one time. Following that it was just all nose pepper fire, no relief. I'm also the type who has found during the first days of a cycle, all kinds of stuff like lower flow O2, breathing freezing cold air, vigorous exercise can abort an attack, but as the cycle ramps up, forget it.

Oh I had specifically quoted this claim of hers as being entirely false: "ALL Cluster Busters is interested in is funding for & promotion of psilocybin “magic mushrooms” as a treatment which is all the group advocates for as the only hope to help us cluster sufferers." Not taking the bait. I suspect others could also be tiring of the feeding of the troll exercise this appears to have become.

I don't feel that Dallas Denny's frustration is misplaced. The claim in the above quote from Deborah Zale can immediately be identified as entirely false, but @Douglas Ward I don't think you'd necessarily realize that at this point in your membership here, since you appear to have jumped in with immediate single minded intent to spread your message. Seriously consider scaling back your frequency of posts (you've hit the ground running here with a lot of posts right off the bat), and be aware that posting of false claims including the one from Deborah "would love to slap all of us in the face" Zale that Bob Wold relentlessly attacked her (??!!) is offensive.