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(Message started by: killmynoggin on Jan 24th, 2006, 7:01pm)

Title: i hate cylces
Post by killmynoggin on Jan 24th, 2006, 7:01pm
hello i am new to this site and to the world of ch's. it wasnt until my soon to be wife started to research what the hell could be going on with me. after all the imitrex i have been going through is so ridiculous, and i have thought because of being mis-diagnosed for years that these were in fact migraines. however the difference is a couple of things for me. number one : smoking pot doesnt help the pain, it does help me to relax and to get a deep sleep when i am finally able to go to sleep. other than that i do not use marijuana usually until after i take a sick to my stomach imitriex pill , because my insurance provider only will pay for the pill not injections which do seem to work better for me than the pill. i will usually come home from work sit down for a minute hold my new daughter and about an hour or so latter i willget up and take 5 exedrin migraines with a huge coke. then when i feel it start to come on i will take the imitrex pill , then i will usually go outside to my garage and wish i could take my cordless drill and drill a hole into my head so it will take the edge off. nothing works, what i did used to do was go out to the gargae because it is cold air coming in there and breathe as deep as i can and hold my breathe, sometimes i go back inside and take a steamy hot bath with a towel over my head, but nothing, then my wife sees my grabbing the side of my head (left side for me) and hit it, grab it, rub it, squeeze it as hard as i can , followed by going to our bedroom , and throwing a bag of ice on my head, followed by fetal position, followed by on my knees with my head burried into the carpet, and moaning and horrible horrible pain. i feel like a baby when it happens. my ex wife used to accuse me of it as an excuse, (hey wait with her i guess i did sometimes hahaha) but i cant tell her exactly when it will happen , but i do know that when it does, i go staright to hell, i mean that. i dont picture myself as a tough guy or a soft guy either. this drops me to my knees and i beg god to stop but for some reason that seems to not do anything either. when i was a kid i grew up in monterey california, i started getting very bad allergies and sinus issues when i moved to sacramento. my doctor used to say that i was getting these migraines due to allergies and would load me up on pills and shots for the antihistimine. well here it almost 10 years latter and i am 33 now and i am so tired physically, and just tired of being in pain. i am in the middle of a cycle right now, the last time i had them this bad was almost 2 years ago, wish i knew why they lay dormant sometimes. i didnt have any head trauma growing up other than normal kid stuff, but man i have such a high pain tolerance now because of these things that some things dont even phase me that might others. when it happens to me my left eye starts to close, my wife can see the vains on my left side of my head protruding out of my skull, my nose only on my left side gets stuffed up and i can breathe out of it. but the one thing i see some of you havent written is a symptom i seem to get and maybe it is just me and how i act to pain, but most of the time my mouth gets extra watery for some reason. i used to go into my gargae and lift a dumbell as fast as i could , i think it was the extra breathing that did something to help with a little bit of the pain, one thing i am worried about tho is mixing excedrin with imitrix and also taking so damn much of them. my regular doctor doesnt understand and when i call in he says i will call a rx into rite aid for you for some more imitrix, i know there has to be a better drug out there for this, i just cant wait , in about 2 weeks they should be gone for at least a couple of months. lets see in the past 5 weeks or so i usually get one at 1 a.m. in the morning, then again usually around 330 a.m. and then of course while i am at work around 11 a.m. . they are starting to last a bit longer and this is how i know my cycle will be ending soon. it seems as if they get worse before they go dormant again. i was also wondering if anyone has the same blood type i do , i think it would be intersting to know if that has been looked at , i am b- .if any of you have any suggestions please let me know.

Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by sunguru on Jan 24th, 2006, 7:23pm
well, hi hi hi...You should call yourself lucky of you get it only 5 weeks every two years. I get it for 6 moths every year. Pfft...But the most important thing is to relax your body, AND DO NOT USE POT!! In many cases it aggravates the pain even more...And sorry, there isn't a pill that is really effective against it, seeing that the attacks only last for about an hour and pills need time, about half an hour to go into your bloodstream. A really effective method though is a painkiller by injections...But to get that as an prescription is a pain in the ass. A recommend you though to read the article posted here with the headings "cluster nightmare". May be really helpfull...

Hope that I helped you a little bit.

With get well regards,
Paolo

Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by killmynoggin on Jan 24th, 2006, 7:23pm
also i forgot to mention , that i dont really get bothered by laying in the light or by noises or get sick and throw up like a common migraine and it is also (not sure in migraines) if it is always to the same side of the head or if it is all over with a migraine. and let me make a correction as well. i have had these stupid things this bad since i was around 19 or so. before that i do believe i was having sinus realated headaches and possibly a migraine here or there. but these are so intense and so different and the pain really takes your breathe away from you. sometimes i beat the shit out of my bed floor or pillow. half the time i want to just self medicate, perform surgery on my head, drill a hole in it, run it into a wall, beat it, have a 300 pound wrestler slam it, or just take it off my shoulders for about an hour or two.

Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by MJ on Jan 25th, 2006, 12:18am
Hi Kill

I also get the runny mouth sometimes drooling all over the damn place.
The pot definately will make things worse in a cycle.
Same with excedrin though it may seem to take the edge off the pain both actually increase the hits. Theres a lot of experience here to back that up.

My blood is red too is that the type you have.

Read on theres a lot of information hidden in these pages and the links to the left.

Welcome

MJ

Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by RichardN on Jan 25th, 2006, 3:21am
Sorry for your bad time and ineffective docs.

PLEASE read up on the oxygen info (link on left).  I can't take Imitrex (arterie blockage/high cholesterol) and 02 is my only abortive . . . can kill the beast in minutes if used early-on in the attack.  Proper regulator and mask is essential.  

You have much reading to do and many questions to ask.  When my wife found this site for me 2/02, I was a basket case . . . got much of my life back thanks to this family.  What makes us unique is also what unites us.  We truly do understand your pain.

 Be Safe,  PFDANs

    Richard

Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by agonymum on Jan 25th, 2006, 5:41am
im sorry you are suffering so much at the moment , i hear you .

im new to this site too ,its helped me so much , i hope you find all the support you need here- im sure you will .

Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by Bob_Johnson on Jan 25th, 2006, 9:25am
Your doctor should be willing to intervene with the insurance folks to get Imitrex injection.

But your first job is to learn about your options for treatment.

Here is a link to read and print and take to your doctor.  It describes preventive, transitional, abortive and surgical treatments for CH.  (2002)
 
http://www.brightok.net/~mnjday/chtherapy.pdf  

MANAGEMENT OF HEADACHE AND HEADACHE MEDICATIONS, 2nd ed. Lawrence D. Robbins, M.D.; pub. by Springer. $49 at Amazon.Com.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.


Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by killmynoggin on Jan 25th, 2006, 1:37pm
thank you all for the replies. when i did smoke pot when i had these, i found i would smoke it more like a cigarette, i asked myself why, well i know why, i used to smoke cigarettes about 2 years ago when i would get these, i would go outside to the garage and chain smoke them , it seemed as fast as i could, i now know why, because of the way i was breathing, it appears maybe i was breathing so fast and so heavy that with the bad stuff i was inhaling , i was also pumping o2 in to my system as well, last night i started to get one , really bad, along with my huge glass of coke and 4 excedrin migrains, i went out on a walk (more like pacing in my gagrge) but this time i started to breathe as much o2 in as i could , and tried to control my pattern of breathing, this took some of the edge off, and cut some time off as well, from more like a 70 minute to 90 minute ordeal it was more like a 45 minute, i am really going to push for o2 from my doctor. and if he still is a jerk about it, i will just keep going to the urgent care up the street from my house to get it, then i will be changing doctors and getting the help i need.

Title: Re: i hate cylces
Post by Fox on Jan 25th, 2006, 3:36pm
I hate cycles too.  The only good part is the end.

My experience with Imitrex is that is helped abort CH but seemed to increase the frequency of them, and it became a vicious cycle.  More Imitrex, more frequent headaches, more Imitrex.  I've stopped using it and frequency returned to 1 CH per day.

We're all different, so this may not be the case with you.

Perhaps take a look at some of the links, etc. on Imitrex and its "rebounds" and "hangovers".

Best of luck finding an answer.  I found help at this site - you will too.

Cheers,
Fox



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