I have been suffering with clusters for the last 6 years, they have gone from occasionally to up to 14/day. Recently i was in remission and feeling pretty good, i was horse riding and got thrown off. I landed on my left shoulder (my cluster headache side). Almost immediately i started having headaches again. My headaches were extreme this time, getting woke up every hour and having the most intense headaches i have ever had. In the first 12 hrs i had 9 major headaches! My shoulder is still screwed so i seen a chiropracter who did some A.R.T. on my shoulder. I felt better almost immediately. That night i had only a couple minor headaches and slept the whole night! I have been thinking since then, the only time i see my chiropractor is when i have headaches and the only time i have headaches is when i have sore shoulders. This experience is making me believe that all headache sufferers need to have their back, neck and shoulders checked for tightness or other nerve problems. This accident i had has given me the most damage to my shoulder than i have ever had before and also the most horrendous headaches i have ever had as well. Usually I have to see my chiropractor due to using a computer too much. Maybe falling off the horse was a signal for me to look at the rest of my body rather than trying to find the strongest painkillers. I am not saying i am cured by any means but i did find it amazing how i could go from maxed out pain to very little with one 10 minute visit to my chiropractor (A.R.T. Therapist). Time will tell how i make out but i wanted to share this with you because i know how hard it is to get any help. I will write again in a couple days to see if my therapy is still working or not. :o

My hope is you hit a remedy for you! And with the smallest green fairy of envy...*giggles* I will be happy at least you found something connected and works~ hang in there.

Weird but can be true, when I have shadows at times changing position for me lessens it from kip3 to 0, none, nadda.

Usually shadowing for me is grasp around eyeball and pressure behind temple, as if I was in pressure chamber. The eye pain is as if I pressed with my fingers against front of the eyeball.

Sometimes hard work can stop shadowing, sometimes I wake up and I feel completely painless until I move with any limb.

Sometimes relaxing brings relief, also weird is I cut accidentaly my hand when pealing apple off its skin, and I cut pretty deep with top blade, I immediately stopped feeling shadowing and felt only pain in hand, makes me wonder if it is just phantom pain I am having not cluster headaches, since brain receives pain gate-like, the strongest impulse can overwhelm the minor, problem is big CH hits are probably as strong as breaking bone, so won't work for hard hits...

I'm glad you found relief! The chiropracter was never able to help me.

It seems to be helping. He figures the nerves in my shoulder are aggrivating the Trigeminal nerve in my head causing the CH. I am not saying my ch will go away when my shoulder is better but i did find it very ironic that the shoulder injury could end my remission that quickly. Man i hope so, the night with the kip 8 - 10 ch was the worst i've seen, then they continued every 2 hrs the next day until i saw my chiro.

Here's hopin :)

I'm glad you found some relief.  I would tend to agree with the Dr that the injury is probably aggravating the Trigeminal nerve, which is presenting as a CH attack.  I fear however that is is just that, and that the CH is still there.  

Take any relief you can get from wherever.

Jerry

i've noticed that a ch attack will cancel out any other pain. it also seems that physical activity will suppress attacks. getting anykind of sleep is out of the question. i dunno if that ya any

Well here's the update, my short term relief was just that..short term. After the chiropractor i had 2 fabulous days then my ch came back and made me pay for those 2 days. I had 9 kip 9 the next day and several since......god will it ever go away? My heart goes out to you life time sufferrers, i have only been 6 yrears. Am approaching chronic i'm afraid. 2 days off was a huge break. :(

That sucks. >:(  Chiropractic treatment has proven succesful in mitigating a lot of the secondary damage people tend to do to themselves "fighting" the attack. It hasn't shown any success in treating the actual attacks. Damn sorry he came back with such a vengeance. No matter how many remissions I go through, still breaks my heart every time he comes back. Always on the edge of convincing myself they were gone forever. :'(

That being said, let's get you to look into oxygen. 31 years of CH and it's still my first line and most effective abortive. 6-8 minutes and beasty is in full retreat. Read the "oxygen info" Link on the left for all the details. Hang in there.

Joe

I hate to say it, but listen to Joe.
the bb

Thanks, i will listen to Joe, i did try oxygen once at an oxygen bar at the airport. It seemed to cause a headache but maybe it was a coincidence. I'll try it again. See if i can get a bottle beside my bed.....

Thank you all for your comments and well wishes

Here's to the next clear day.......

I just started predisone again, it seems to be slowing the cycle quite a bit but the weirdest thing is with the reduction of attacks my shoulder has went from toothache like symptoms to almost no soreness at all overnight!

This is really weird, but i am positive now that the ch and the sore shoulder are related. The Trigeminal nerve must travel through my shoulder i thi :(nk. I am not saying the shoulder is the cause of the CH but they sure know how to aggravate each other.

Still getting around 3 CH a day around kip 7. Still a big improvement from a week ago.

Near the end of my last cycle I was experiencing constant shadows, I mean I had the little suckers 24hrs a day . I also started experiencing really bad pains along my shoulder and neck. I just believed the CH's had morphed once again, then I realised how stressed out I had become so I began to sit back and relax a little.


I took more relaxing baths and my wife chipped in with relaxing massages. Now, I'm not saying that this is what you may be experiencing, but it was in my case and the steps I took were very effective in eliminating my shoulder pain.

Hope you gain some PF time very soon...!


Lefty...!