Hello,

This is my 1st post, and sorry in advance if it seems long winded! You are more than welcome to just breeze through it and take out of it what you can. I feel this will be a good place to vent a little as no one around me can understand!

I have been dealing with the beast for 10 years or so (I thought was around 12 but my wife had better record - of course). I am a 35 year old man, with a beautiful wife and 2 wonderful children (8 year old  girl & 5 year old boy). I live in Southern New Jersey (just outside of Philadelphia). Love my Philadelphia Sports teams!!! I socially drink & smoke a pack of cigs a day. I play Hockey, Softball/Baseball & golf. Have a family business with my father, that could be better barring the economy (but we are holding our own, all things considered).

Anyway, that was just a brief background on myself. The reason for it is once again to vent a little. The things that I hate most about this Damn Beast are how it affects the things I listed above. I mean I can deal with the pain (sort of), but it affects my life with my beautiful wife and my wonderful kids. Then it will make me miss some of work, that then my father has to pick up my slack. All in the while for lousy headaches that no one else can understand! Honestly I am not sure I can even understand. When I am not on cycle or even not having one during when I do cycle, I think man I spent 2 hrs yesterday Rubbing my eye for a lousy headache. Then I think I am a (insert another word for Cat). It drives me insane, but when I am dancing with the Beast I want to do anything to get rid of that pain.

But my biggest fear of all, is passing this to one or both of my children!!! I dont want them to feel this pain or any pain for that matter. Maybe you guys could give me insight on the hereditariness of this???

I am intrigued by a lot of the remedies, and plan on trying a lot them. Have an appt with my nuero on Friday (Hoping to get the O2). I am really interested in trigers! Even before being told this is what I have and thought it was regular old Migraines I still was trying to figure out what was causing them. I read a lot on here about Tomato based products, which me & my wife thought Tomato Paste was the culprit. Cause my wife makes her GRAVY (for people not around this area SAUCE (as in Spaghetti) without Tomato Paste, but my Mom uses Tomato paste. (we call it Macaroni & Gravy by the way). It seemed like that was it, but I never wrote anything down. OOPS!

I am real curious to know how smoking affects it. It seems like it is a big part of it. Would like to know of people that quit - if it got any better/ worse/ no change? maybe people quit only while cycling? I know I should quit in general anyway, but maybe this could be the kick I need?

Well I have rambled long enough! I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you!!! You have Taken me from being completely alone to the feeling of I have a lot of people in my corner now!!! I am sorry you've had to dance with the Beast to be here for me!!! Or I have had too as well, but I am here for anyone that needs me!

Thanks Again,
E

That is short for Erik (people were calling me E long before Entourage ever came out)

Attached is a picture of me & my family.

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You have a lovely family, E.   Welcome to this family!

Jeannie

Welcome E

There are several threads on triggers on here err..some where.

alcohol being the biggest , but not for every one and not necessarily all types of alcohol.

Don't know a grate deal about what effect cigarettes have on ch , I'm still smoking , it had been thought of as a cause at one point because a higher percentage of us smoke or have smoked at some point but there is no evidence to support that . Some people find the smell of cigarettes is a trigger but that falls in the strong smells category.

Hope neuro appointment goes well and you get your O2, it's some thing I want to try for my next cycle .

Good luck and God bless

Nigel

Welcome, E!!!!
I know and understand the fear you have for your kiddos - I have a couple myself and another on the way.  I worry about them - not just the time I lose with them when I'm hurting, and how it affects them to see Mama hurting or recovering from hurting, but also if they will end up with this issue.  Good news is, as far as I can tell, the likelihood that the kids will end up with this is low - although definitely something to be on the look out for. 

Also, please understand, that triggers are just that - triggers.  The may spark a hit or may make a hit worse, but they are not the cause or reason for CH and the CH will likely still happen even without the triggers.  Just wanted to put that in...

Again, welcome and I'm glad you found us...
:)

Welcome to the community Eric....sorry ya had the need to find us though!!!!

O2 is probably the most important thing you can do to start reclaiming your life with your wife and kids!!  It's been a lifesaver for many of us!!  99% of the time I can throw the beast to the curb in under 10 minutes!!

Although it's not an option for all, you might want to explore clusterbusters.com and read about the success many folks are having there using "alternative meds"!

Sending PF thoughts and wishes your way and Welcome Home!!

Dallas Denny

There is a thread here called "What's Your Trigger?" and there are well documented anecdotes about what triggers for some. Alcohol almost universal. Smoking...so many of us do smoke there is some thought that perhaps the primary cause of CH's also provides for us a double addiction/compulsion to smoking. You have to find your triggers. One question: how in the world can you stand touching your eye during an attack? lance

wimsey1 wrote on Aug 11^th, 2010 at 7:24am:

There is a thread here called "What's Your Trigger?" and there are well documented anecdotes about what triggers for some. Alcohol almost universal. Smoking...so many of us do smoke there is some thought that perhaps the primary cause of CH's also provides for us a double addiction/compulsion to smoking. You have to find your triggers. One question: how in the world can you stand touching your eye during an attack? lance

I am going to start logging all of what I do. To answer your question, I don't actually touch the eye. I gently (and I mean gently) with a cold rag, massage the area around the eye. From my eye brow towards my temple down below the eye to my nose and back up in a circular motion. Seems to help, I will have very sharp pain at the beginning and then slowly dissipates. Not sure if it just relaxes me or what, but it seems to loosen the pressure from around my nose - for whatever reason.

Thank you all for your kind words, wishing all PF days & nights!

E

Jeannie wrote on Aug 10^th, 2010 at 4:35pm:

You have a lovely family, E.   Welcome to this family! Jeannie

Thank you & Thank you!!

E

wimsey1 wrote on Aug 11^th, 2010 at 7:24am:

One question: how in the world can you stand touching your eye during an attack? lance

We are all different.  Sometimes I think I might damage my eye due to pressing on it too hard during a hit.   

Welcome to the board, and I agree, what a great looking family! ;)

Joe

Hi E,

I totally understand the fear you have in passing CH on to your children.  I have a son and often wonder if he will carry the same burden as me.  I have spoken to him about it and to be honest things could be worse!  I went undiagnosed for over 10 years.  At least if he does get it, he will have a wonderful supporter who knows what to do to manage the beast!!

There were a number of posts about CHs been seen in different generations - START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE.


Mike NZ wrote on Jun 29^th, 2010 at 12:46am:

I found some interesting reading (via a link on this forum) at START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE. Quote: In contrast to migraine headache, genetics in cluster headache is not thought to be important, although recent studies have shown a positive family history in about 7% of patients with cluster headache. When compared with prevalence of CH in the general population, first-degree relatives have about a 14-fold increased risk of developing CH. Furthermore, in one study, five sets of monozygotic twins were 100% concordant for CH (4). 4. Russell MB. Genetic epidemiology of migraine and cluster headache. Cephalalgia. 1997;17:683-701. The 7% figure implies that there is not a single dominant gene, however the connection is more likely to be connected to multiple genes. The 100% figure for the five sets of monozygotic twins is very interesting, however it is hard to base conclusions on such a small data set. At least for these identical twins they each know exactly what the other is going through when they have a CH.

So based on the statistics, it's pretty unlikely that they'll get CHs.

I'll also agree with the others about the great photograph of your family.

Bige,

Clusterhead here from Cleveland... Welcome

Go Browns!!!!