Hello, My names Louise. I'm 25 and currently going through only my 2nd cycle of CH. I got diagnosed last February and had a 5 week cycle. I had a terrible reaction to sumatriptan and by the time a neurologist suggested anything else I was pain free and it all kind of got brushed under the carpet.

However last Saturday it came back and to be honest I had forgotten about it seeing as I had only had one bout previously. I understand all CH sufferers are different so I just wanted to share with you my cycle.
Starting Saturday early hours of the morning I had a 10/10. Lasted over an hour and paramedics were called as I was at a friends and she didn't know what was happening. All I could do was assume it was my CH coming back.
Since then I have had every other day 10/10 headaches early hours of the morning but only one attack on that day. The rest of the day is consumed by shadows that can reach a 6/7.

I have a brilliant GP who prescribed me oxygen at home which makes me pain free in 5-10 minutes using a flow rate of 15 litres per minute. To help my shadows I down a red bull as soon as I feel it come on and the either stops the pain in its tracks of at least makes it manageable.

Being episodic, I do feel lucky and my heart goes out to all you chronic sufferers and eposodic sufferes who have it worse than me. For a while I thought I was alone with my weird pattern of headaches and not having 6-8 attacks a day but now I've just realised I'm a lucky one to not suffer to the extremes some of you do. I have been so educated through this website and OUCH UK, having spent my nights from 2-4am after a bad one reading through this (I struggle sleeping after a 8-10/10).

I have my fingers crossed that this cycle lasts the mere 5 weeks it did last time but who knows with this deadly condition. All I can say is oxygen and red bull have given me hope managing this condition and I'm not so scared of it any more.

Louise

You've said it all, Louise. You're managing this dread condition, you're not so scared any more, you're planning for the future and you care for others.

You're very welcome here.

Thank you for the welcome  ;D
Just a quick question Brian, any tips or advice for getting back to sleep after an attack? Been awake since 3am.....it's now 6am, thankfully I'm not in work today (very understanding boss) but as of tomorrow I will be......

Fair dinkum, Louise, if I knew the answer to that one I'd be the richest bloke at ch.com. As holy grails go, that'd be among the holiest.

Simple relaxation might help. Putting all fear out of your mind. Outright denial is one of my favourites.

There's a lovely lady here who mentally puts on her bikini and sits on a beautiful beach watching the surf roll in. I'm on her side completely, except for the bikini.

Dreams are free.