Hi, I'm new to the board as well as CH.  I've been having them for about 6 months and last month got diagnosed by a neurologist, but I have a question that he was not able to answer for me and I thought someone here might have some insight.

I get a really bad blood shot eye on the same side as the pain - which as I understand is common for CH - but it seems to persist even between attacks.  Is this normal?!  I have a dark ring that encircles my iris almost constantly now but my doctor was not concerned by it because my vision is not affected.

Does anyone have experience with this?

The persistent bloodshot eye is very normal when getting hit often.. Not sure about the Iris ring.

Stop looking in the mirror for the pain ;) Something many of us probably do.

Oh when I saw this post I started to cry. I realized that there was someone (at least one) who also shared this pain. I am new to the site and have had the headache and red eye for over 21 years. Most doctors aren't concerned about it at all and blow it off  :-[

finally I got a new gp at truman hospital here in k.c. and he has run lots of tests. 7 doctors at eye clinic here say my eyes are healthy and it's something inside my head. so far the only thing I have is high blood pressure---pretty high blood pressure. my gp said he thinks it is cluster headachies, which I didn't know what that was. So I got online and that's how I found this site. The doc is referring me to neurology so will see what happens.

When headache is in "full swing" the red eye is so painful I want to just stick my fingernails in there and rip it out. :'(
the longest "full swing" has lasted 2 months straight and I took 4500 mg of aspirin a day. have tried lots of pain meds, but nothing prescription. maybe that's coming?

when headache is not in "full swing" there is still a tingling, pressure on the back of my head. glad i'm going to neurology. this can't be good. will pray for everyone on this site too.  :)

Hi Michelle,

For Cluster headache there are a lot better, more effective things than pain killers.

Hey check out the oxygen info here: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

There are legions upon legions of O2 devotees amongst the regulars here because for one thing, O2 can abort CH attacks with no side effects.

There are a lot of other meds etc. too, abortive, and preventative, but I see that at the time of this post, you have 5 posts, so I imagine you're finding out about 'em already.  :)

Thanx a bunch for the info. I did see some info there and got an e-mail from Mitch (which was VERY helpful).

What I would like to also ask is how is everyone out there able to work when they have a CH??? This pure agonizing suffering renders me incable of doing anything else except cry and scream! I was shocked when I had one for 2 months straight, day and night. And to top it all off, I was visiting in Canada at the time and needed to be able to drive. That was so miserable. Thank God I only drove about 15 minutes from the place we were staying to the people my neighbor needed to visit. But still, how I made it through all of that I am still wondering. If it weren't for the aspirin I don't think I could have survived at all.

p.s. it was a boatload of aspirin. at least 4500 mg a day.

the red, droopy eye is very normal for ch.  Dont worry about how it looks.  Some visine is helpful if it bothers you,  but honestly,  its the least of your problems when fighting the beast.

good luck,
christine

I remember a couple of years ago. I had a shadow that start around 5 pm and continued to escalate for the next few hours. Finally at 11 oclock it was unbearable. i had been running around at k8 9 and 10 for almost 2 hours. My tank was empty, had taken way to much imitrex. So my wife at the time called her parents. To come over and watch our son.  So she could take me to the ER. When they came in the door. He was floored. He knew about them a little but had never seen one. He said i quote "I've seen people with headaches but had never seen a headache on someone. I was at the ER for 3 hours after that.

Jrcox wrote on Nov 18^th, 2009 at 11:21pm:

I remember a couple of years ago. I had a shadow that start around 5 pm and continued to escalate for the next few hours. Finally at 11 oclock it was unbearable. i had been running around at k8 9 and 10 for almost 2 hours. My tank was empty, had taken way to much imitrex. So my wife at the time called her parents. To come over and watch our son.  So she could take me to the ER. When they came in the door. He was floored. He knew about them a little but had never seen one. He said i quote "I've seen people with headaches but had never seen a headache on someone. I was at the ER for 3 hours after that.

WOW! I can now say i really relate to that one bro!
seems like the red droopy eye is common in most of my CH.


   I had a Dr. tell me the same thing.... haha he shot me up full of something that knocked me out cold.

    I wish i had a bottle of that shit handy!

   

ER imitrex only costs $30.00, plus the visit....

Going to the ER can be such a gamble for me here in SE Alaska.  I tired to get O2 at the ER when my cycle just began in 05', and the nurse took one look at me holding my eye and said "We just can't give anyone O2, you are going to have to wait for the medical center to open".  It was 6:45 am, they opened at 7:30, she put me in the waiting room to sit and wait.  Super Lame, I didn't have anything at home to abort my headache, had to wait and they wouldn't call my doctor. Thank goodness my doctors nurse came in early and saw me, she sprang right into action and got me back into a room with O2.  It was kinda too late for it to work well.  When my doc came in, he sent a standing order to the ER imediately for O2.

I understand this thread is a little dated. There are questions I could answer and some I can't.
The questions I can answer are mainly get 0² even if you buy it as welders O².

Personally if I don't start O² at the first hint, it is too later to bother.

Personally if I use a drug like trex, it just makes the issues over all worse. I kill the HA, but they return with vengance. It extends the time x2 making 6 weeks into 12, 8 weeks in 16 and so on..

Mac_Muz wrote on Dec 1^st, 2009 at 7:14pm:

I understand this thread is a little dated. There are questions I could answer and some I can't. The questions I can answer are mainly get 02 even if you buy it as welders O2. Personally if I don't start O2 at the first hint, it is too later to bother. Personally if I use a drug like trex, it just makes the issues over all worse. I kill the HA, but they return with vengance. It extends the time x2 making 6 weeks into 12, 8 weeks in 16 and so on..

I can relate to this. Trex just seems to prolong things for me. It's just not worth it for me. It does work as an abbortive, but there is a price to pay for the relief. Some people do just fine with it. But I am reading more and more that the rebounds are very common now.