I think that I have gone from being chronic to episodic.  It has been nearly two months since I have had to inject myself with anything. I have been chronic for eight years and being episodic again is a wonderful thing.  If it is actually true...

Drink it in, baby! Enjoy the calm!

What Brew said!!! Keep everything ready to do battle....but enjoy the heck outta the good times. Maybe the beast will never find his way back! ;)

Joe

good news. I am interested if you changed anything in your routine. Better sleeping pattern? Quit smoking/drinking? Perhaps used less abortives? I think any of these can cause rebounds

Great news!  Fingers crossed that the beast stays away!

Beth

I'm very happy for you!  [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]
Hope this break lasts forever.

[smiley=thumbsup.gif] Lottie

THANKS EVERYONE.  To JOhnglist, I increased my verapamil from 400 mg a day to 480.  I don't know if that made the difference.  

Hmmm, that's hard to say. It's possible - everybody reacts differently to meds.  For you it was possibly enough to stop the CH beast.   Mojo sent your way to keep CH away from you.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!


             Please tell us is there anything you may have done different to knock the beast on his ass?? Something you ate or did?? or somewhere went?? If you got a gut feeling about something please let us know.  But if not just go with the flow...

                               Coach Bill

                   

coach_bill see above.  I increased verapamil.  

are you still taking Verapomil? Or did you get off it? I am wondering if I should try to get off it and see if I am CH Free.

Johng, I have a 31 year history of CH so I have a good feeling of when to start backing down my prevent. It's an "educated guessing game" as to when you go off your prevent. Verapamil is one of the meds you do want to work with your doc going on or off of it. Both need to be done gradually. As you wean off, if you feel the beast breaking through, you know it's not quite time yet. But do work with the doc.

Wishing you some beer drinking, verapamil free, and PAIN FREE  time in your near future! ;)

joe

J Headache Pain. 2005 Feb;6(1):3-9. Epub 2005 Jan 25.

Chronic cluster headache: a review.

Favier I, Haan J, Ferrari MD.

Department of Neurology, K5-Q Leiden University Medical Centre, 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.

Cluster headache (CH) is a rare but severe headache disorder characterised by repeated unilateral head pain attacks accompanied by ipsilateral autonomic features. In episodic CH, there are periods of headache attacks with pain-free intervals of weeks, months or years in between. A minority of patients have the chronic form, without pain-free intervals between the headache attacks. Chronic CH can occur as primary or secondary chronic CH; the rarest form is episodic CH arising from chronic CH. In this article, we give a review of the chronic forms of CH and focus on demographics, clinical manifestations, social habits, predictive factors, head injury, genetics, neuroimaging and therapy. IT IS REMARKABLE THAT LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT RISK FACTORS THAT MAKE CH CHRONIC.  [Or that reverse them. --bj]

Publication Types:
Review

PMID: 16362185 [PubMed]  

Guiseppi wrote on May 13^th, 2009 at 12:43pm:

Johng, I have a 31 year history of CH so I have a good feeling of when to start backing down my prevent. It's an "educated guessing game" as to when you go off your prevent. Verapamil is one of the meds you do want to work with your doc going on or off of it. Both need to be done gradually. As you wean off, if you feel the beast breaking through, you know it's not quite time yet. But do work with the doc. Wishing you some beer drinking, verapamil free, and PAIN FREE  time in your near future! ;) joe

cept my Neuro told me to get off Verapamil ASAP. I have another month wait list for another Neuro so in the meantime, I am going solo by using this board and research I have reach as guidance. Sticking to my verap for now. But wondering when to test weaning off it. I am not on a super high dose either.  I take 4 80mg pills each day spread out and Melatonin at nite. I am clusterfree 11 days now. I hope its gone for now but afraid to wane off Verap jsut yet.

to jOhnglist;  I am still taking it, I have no intention of changing anything that I am presently doing.