So here I am after... 14 years of dealing with this problem. Suffering through it is probably a more appropo term but you get the idea.

I'm 37, live in northeast Indiana and have finally taken to really working on treatment. I have been extremely lucky in both the treatment and the provider. My Dr. (Mark S. Souder) is a family physician who actually has pretty extensive experience treating CH patients. We also have an excellent headache clinic in Fort Wayne that my Doc had me visit just to reaffirm his diagnosis, which they did. If you live anywhere near the Ft. Wayne / Auburn area, I HIGHLY recommend both of these providers. The only drawback on Souder is that he is EXTREMELY busy and you WILL do some serious waiting room time if you see him. He has a strict policy of NEVER walking out of a room until his patient is satisfied and has no further questions.

I'm usually a late fall / early winter once a year cycler. Previously, I knew when the leaves fell, the pain was on the way. This year I've gotten a cycle that started about 2 weeks ago out of the blue after a roughly 2 year remission. Luckily, Doc was on it, set me up with 360 mg of Verapamil daily and here on day 4, my attacks are reduced significantly. Only one real hit that was taken care of by an Amp energy drink and a few light shadows. (Amp is wonderful btw if you hate the taste of normal energy drinks. The green can Amp is actually quite good and, for me, has worked wonderfully) I also set myself up with a rack of Imitrex pins that have gone untouched and hopefully remain so.

For the first few years, I just thought they were nasty headaches. In my younger years, the boys and I would go out chasing skirts and knocking back drinks and I would ALWAYS get these ripping headaches. It would destroy my social life. It was living in constant fear of sleep and running for weeks on two hours of sleep a day if I was lucky. Which lead to exhaustion, which compounded the problem and became a self feeding internal torture chamber both physically and psychologically.

Luckily it seems like there is a bit of hope. Typing this makes me think I'm jinxing it but there ya go. I'm extremely happy to find that this is far from an unknown problem and that there is a community of people out there who ACTUALLY get it. Who ACTUALLY understand it isn't an excuse, sympathy bait, or a lesser problem I'm overreacting to.

G'day, Falwell, and welcome home.

What ever's working - keep at er!

What ever's working - keep at er!

Welcome home. Lots of good info and support here, read read read, knowledge is power against this beast.
I didn't see you mention oxygen. This is the first choice of ch'ers, works amazingly well for most. Read up on the Oxygen Info link on the left and get some ASAP! If you haven't tried it CORRECTLY, you will never hear the end of it around here, and we know what we are talking about.
Feel free to ask any questions.

May I add my welcome as well? I look forward to hearing more from you. blessings. lance