I'm 52 and about 1.5 weeks into a cluster.  I get the clusters less than once a year recently, it was more often when they started, 20 years ago.  My typical cluster is ~2 weeks with ~ 1 to 2 headaches a day.  I may have gotten to Kip9 once or twice, Kip8 perhaps 15% of the time (including last night), otherwise Kip 7 or 6 is my typical (and I am very grateful for that).  

I spent the first 6 years thinking I must have mold in my house and it was giving me headaches intermittently.  Then I moved and they showed up in the new place!  Doctors were useless, I was diagnosed with "atypical migraines."  I have to say my relatively low exposure to them kept me from going to doctors a lot, maybe they would have figured it out.  But I finally figured it out once the web finally got invented.  

I have a neurologist apointment tomorrow, since i got three headaches nuking ~4 hours sleep last night, I'm going for the gold.  Or rather the drugs and the O2.  I hope to come away with prednisone, lidocaine, and O2.  We'll see what the dr thinks.  As it stands, my sister "loaned" me some percoset, which I fogot about until at nearly 4 AM the 3rd headache was starting (with perhaps 40 minutes of shadow after 2nd one "ended.")  I don't know if it was the percoset or if I was just finally done for the night but boy did I sleep good... for about 3.3 hours when my wife woke me to see if I was driving the offspring to school.  Boy did it feel good to wake up pain free!  

So Percoset tonight (as needed) hopefully prednisone, O2, and lidocaine tomorrow!

I am so grateful that this site exists.  I have printed off the medical treatment stuff so I know what and how to ask for stuff tomorrow.  

8-)
Mike

Bag the Percs and the lidocaine,  neither are appropriate for ch.  Get the oxygen it's the ticket.

     Kinder gentler Potter

Talk to your doctor about prophylactic treatment like Verapamil; he may put you on a prednisone taper too.  Read through the site; pain meds are not recommended for CH.  Regular NSAIDS are not effective, either.  Try Melatonin; I take 10mgs a half hour before I go to bed and after doing that for less than a week, I haven't had a night hit.  O2 is great and effective.

Good luck!

Welcome to the board, another San Diego Boy, there are so few of us classy west coasters around! Be real careful with the narcotic meds, they are of little use for CH and cause some significant side issues. Most find the best approach to CH to be a 2 pronged approach.

1: A good preventative. That's a medication you take daily while you are on cycle to reduce the intensity and the frequency of your attacks. I use lithium at 1200 mg a day. Other popular prevents are verapamil...at doses much higher then most docs are used to, and topomax. All require close monitoring by a doctor.

2: A good abortive strategy. Read the link on the left titled oxygen info. I can abort an attack in 6-8 minutes...be completely pain free...just by huffing oxygen. It's cheap, quick, and no nasty med side effects. Should be your first line abortive. Imitrex injectables or nasal spray are also popular abortives. There are many others to read about on the meds page and discuss with your doc.

Glad you found us, pull up a seat, educate yourself and help your doc help you!

Joe

Mike,

How did the appointment go? Do you feel like you are going to make some progress?

Good or bad - let us know how you are doing.

Marc

Mike - let me know if you're with Kaiser - I can point you to my husbands doctor and neuro if that helps.

I had the appointment on Friday and it is now Monday.  

I got Verapamil, Relpax, and Melatonin.  I got a prescription for Oxygen but seem to be having a hard time getting that filled.  Any suggestions, especially from anyone in San Diego (esp North county) would be appreciated on how to actually get my hands on some oxygen.  

Friday I had only one midnight headache which seemed to abort with a 40 mg Relpax.  I thought wow, that was fast, I've got things semi-licked.  

Saturday nowhere near as good.  Up for about 3 hours midnight on, took 2nd 40mg Relpax about 1.5 hours in and took the Percoset then as well.  

Last night was the best yet by far, maybe the verapamil/melatonin are finally doing their job.  I woke at midnight with the start of a real headache, took 40 mg Relpax (and only one Percoset, my attitude: I'll worry about addiction when I want one without a headache).  THe headache did not seem as bad as usual so I actually lay down in bed and probably in 15 minutes fell asleep and made it through the night!  

I'm guessing the Verapamil primarily is doing the trick, and I can go to 3 of them today according to prescription.  

So far so good.  Thanks for the replies and encouragement.  

Mike

We used to get my husband's O2 from PMS (Professional Medical Supply). Ran into an issue when his Rx ran out (after years of good service) and he had to go to the ER because he was getting blasted. Then Kaiser called the prescription to Apria and they DELIVER! That is darn handy!

First thing you'll want to do though is ditch the mast they give you and get a non-rebreather mask. Look at the link on the ch.com store to see what I mean.

Let us know if this helps. I can have my husband (CH Sufferer) call you later if you need additional help. Send me a PM with your phone number.

Christy

QnHeartMM wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2009 at 5:11pm:

We used to get my husband's O2 from PMS (Professional Medical Supply). Ran into an issue when his Rx ran out (after years of good service) and he had to go to the ER because he was getting blasted. Then Kaiser called the prescription to Apria and they DELIVER! That is darn handy! First thing you'll want to do though is ditch the mast they give you and get a non-rebreather mask. Look at the link on the ch.com store to see what I mean. Let us know if this helps. I can have my husband (CH Sufferer) call you later if you need additional help. Send me a PM with your phone number. Christy

What she said! ;D

APRIA is one of the bigger outfits in San Diego and should be able to handle it.

Joe