I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but it is my new explanation.  Simply because I feel that the CH has control over me.  There is no mind over matter here.  They wake me, they knock around in my head all day as if to say "don't get comfortable, I'm coming back in a few hours"  and my whole left side of my head feels poisoned. The congestion feels like a clamp. 
Im rambling but I need a place to ramble about this hell where somebody understands.  In 44 years I have tried everything and seen every doctor out there.  It is what it is. 

Imitrex injections work but by the end of the cycle the headaches come more frequently, and there is a limit to how much Imitrex injection I can take in a 24 hour period,  Not to mention that insurance only covers 4 a month.

Does anybody have this feeling..like there is poison in the head waiting to explode in the middle of the night? 

I think it is an alien because it seems to have a mind of its own...the cluster headache.

JOanie

Yup.

After sooo many years of chronic CH's, everyday, multiple times per day - year around........

I constantly insisted that I had already tried everything and none of it worked. When I really learned to listen, I discovered that I was wrong.

I hadn't tried everything, the right way. Go back in the archives of this site and you find me posting about how oxygen therapy "doesn't work for me." Now, I am a HUGE proponent of O2 because I learned more about it.

Same with medications, same with alternative therapies including botanical's, vitamins and minerals.

The worst possible thing that you can do is to convince yourself that you really have "tried it all" because I can promise you that you are simply setting yourself up for another 44 years of needless suffering.

Tell us more about your own, personal experience and trials with this malady!

Marc

The alien in my brain....clawing its way out through my eyeball....oh yeah, I get that feeling. :-/

Please check out this link:

Follow this link to the medications section of this board and read the post 

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

It’s a vitamin/mineral/fish oil supplement, all over the counter stuff. It’s up to an 81% success rate of those who try it and respond to the survey so you’re just shooting yourself in the foot if you don’t give it a shot. I’m 3 years pain free on it after a 35 plus year track record with episodic CH. Best of all, it’s healthy for you even without CH!

As of January 20, 2013, the compiled raw data indicates an efficacy of 80%. 240 out of the 300 CH'ers who have started this regimen and stayed on it for a month or more have experienced a significant reduction in the frequency and severity of their CH... 78% of the 300 CH'ers experienced a pain free response and 60% of the 300 have remained essentially pain free. Episodic and chronic CH'ers respond to this regimen at roughly the same rate.

Preliminary survey results indicate most of these CH'ers were pain free before the end of the third week with some responding in a little as 12 to 24 hours. The average time to respond is five days

Might be a new arrow in your arsenal against the alien. Hang in there, we do understand.

Joe