I have'nt been here for a while, so a big Hi to everybody!
I have been in remission for 18 months but now the beast is back with knobs on.
I have had some colleagues form the US here in Romania for the last three weeks so I have been overdoing it entertaining them with drinking, smoking and lack of sleep and I am sure this has kicked off my cycle. Has anyone else experienced this, maybe after a holiday?
My cycle tends to start with feeling of unease and maybe a twitchy eye for a few days, then I get a massive hit, then it calms down for a few days with a smaller hit once or twice a day. After this period I have a week or so of really big hits everyday at around 5pm and 12am culminating with a HUGE hit that lasts for around 3 hours. The hits then reduce in frequency and intensity until they go away, unless I have any alcohol, then a minor hit becomes really big one.
So, at the moment I am in the latter stages of the cycle, hopefully, and I am avoiding alcohol like the plague (I don't even feel a beer).
I feel a bit like a zombie at the moment because of couple of nights where relatively minor hits have woke me up and not let me get back to sleep for a while.
If I look on the bright side I am gald I am having a cycle now rather than in 4 - 6 months time because my wife is pregnant with triplets and I can't imagine how we would cope with three newborns and me in a CH cycle. Hopefully they will be toddlers by the time I have another one ;D

Sad to hear you are back in cycle after so long a time. It feels like a regression, especially when your life returned to "normal." Congratulations on triplets! A friend of ours had triplets-they are now 9 years old-and they are just now re-entering society! Anyway, avoiding the triggers is a must. You don't mention the abortives you are using, or preventatives. Maybe you will go out of cycle, but it's a good idea to employ the good stuff to reduce the suffering. Things like energy drinks (min 85mg caffeine + 1000mg taurine), melatonin, and especially O2. Stick around and let us know how you are doing. Blessings! lance

Conratulations on the triplets!! WOW! I suspect you have a little bit of work in your near future, what a blessing. :)

Do you have an effective treatment program? Avoiding triggers such as alcohol is a great idea, but hoping you have somehting else. An effective prevent med like verapamil, lithium or topomax? For aborting your attacks, oxygen, imitrex, energy drinks? We've made some tremendous advances in what we use, and how we use it, that's really brought quality of life back to CH'ers. Let us know what you have, maybe we can throw some suggestions your way.

Joe

Thanks Guys, I am sure me and my wife are going to be very busy over the next few years
I don't use anything for my headaches. One of the problems is the standard of healthcare here in Romania, most of the good doctors go and work abroad as soon as they possibly can because of the poor pay and the ones that are left really leave a lot to be desired. As a British ex-pat working in Romania I have private healthcare but even that is pretty poor (I will never moan about the British National Health Service ever again). I just don't have the access to many of the drugs and treatments that are described on this site.
I have tried energy drinks and very strong expresso and it does seem to work if I take them as soon as I start to feel the symptoms and I avoid having a beer when I am in a cycle, I still smoke but try and cut down when the beast come calliing.

When you have a few minutes, read the oxygen info tab on the left side of the board. Specifically the welding oxygen information. Here in the states, you can get welding oxygen without a prescription, it's very inexpensive, and is the same stuff they put in the medical bottles. I can abort an attack in as little as 6 minutes. Beats the old 90 minute rides!!

Joe