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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004-2005 Getting to Know Ya Posts >> my story
        
(Message started by: Mark_D_B on May 27^th, 2004, 5:00pm)

Title: my story
Post by Mark_D_B on May 27^th, 2004, 5:00pm

[i][/i][b][/b] I am new to the group and I put my story on the general board by mistake, if you could please read and give me any feedback that you may have, I would like to hear of any suggestios or just your story, thank-you

Title: Re: my story
Post by Superpain on May 28^th, 2004, 5:29am

The treatments you are using are 3rd rate at best.
Read up here and give suggestions to your doc or find a good headache neurologist.
If you have clusters the only thing hydrocodone will do for you is make you not care about the headache, and/or take the "sharpness" off of it. And it can cause rebound headaches.

Get a script for oxygen!
Read up on the left on how to use it and with any luck you will be able to abort headaches in minutes.

Otherwise, imtrex injections are the second best, but most powerful abortive for most of us.

Prednisone is a cortosteroid that taken in a "taper" can alot of times break a cycle.

And besides that verapimil is probably the most effective preventative ( for most).

Those are normally the first treatments prescribed by good doctors that know their shit, but everyone is different and different things work for different people.

My story...
18 yrs of ch with no good docs, no treatment and no relief. Then I found this place and found help, just a few months ago. I am pain free right now. Read up and be informed and hopefully you can be too! ;)

Title: Re: my story
Post by Bob_Johnson on May 28^th, 2004, 8:26am

Suggest you get either the second or third book.

HANDBOOK OF HEADACHE MANAGEMENT, 2nd ed., Au. Joel Saper, MD, 1999, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. A highly condensed volume for doctors but good for "advanced" clusterheads who have a grasp of medical terminology and medications. Covers all types of headache with the section on cluster being brief. Sections on general considerations in treatment and on medications are important.

MANAGEMENT OF HEADACHE AND HEADACHE MEDICATIONS, 2nd ed. Lawrence D. Robbins, M.D.; pub. by Springer. $49 at Amazon.Com. This volume is better organized and easier to read for nonprofessionals compared to Saper's book. It covers all types of headache and is primarily focused on medications. While the two chapters on CH total 42-pages, the actual relevant material is longer because of multiple references to material in chapters on migraine, reflecting the overlap in drugs used to treat. I'd suggest reading the chapters on migraine for three reasons: he makes references to CH & medications which are not in the index; there are "clinical pearls" about how to approach the treatment of headache; and, you gain better perspective on the nature of headache, in general, and the complexities of treatment (which need to be considered when we create expectations about what is possible). Finally, women will appreciate & benefit from his running information on hormones/menstrual cycles as they affect headache. Chapter on headache following head trauma, also. Obviously, I'm impressed with Robbins' work (even if the book needs the touch of a good editor!) (Somewhat longer review/content statement at 3/22/00, "Good book....")

HEADACHE HELP, Revised edition, 2000; Lawrence Robbins, M.D., Houghton Mifflin, $15. Written for a nonprofessional audience, it contains almost all the material in the preceding volume but it's much easier reading. Highly recommended.