First time here. I'm fairly lucky, this is only my cyclical 4th bout at 48 though I think I can now understand some of the other headaches I never understood. Went to the beach on vacation just last week and suddenly one night at 3AM the drill in my head woke me up. First thought the usual - sinuses, new medications, dehydration, too much sun. Then the next night 3 AM, then again the next day late afternoon, then the next night -- just looked at the calender and realized it started dead on with the fall equinox. Previous bouts I'm pretty sure were in the fall but now I'll keep track.

When I was a kid I used to get really bad migraines, nausea, sit in dead dark cold room. Triggered by odd things like smells, stress or waiting too long to eat.

These started in my late 30's but not every year. Done the ER thing twice. CT scans, Imitrex and shrugging shoulders.

So there I was on vacation enjoying about half the day. I imagine the evening cocktails didn't help.

Also had low Vitamin D blood test so I was out in the sun and salt air and then BAM!

Anyway happy to find this board and really feel for you folks with the chronic type. Don't know how you hold on and big kudos and hugs for sticking through it!

Little thing that sometimes helps me. Hot shower right on left eyeball with massage of temples, cranium and neck with pressure points. 20% success rate but often temporary,

Hey Tymish,

Welcome to CH.com... Sorry you had to join us... but you've come to the right place.  We know what you're going through and the good news is it doesn't need to be that way.  Lots of CHers with many years experience with this disorder will be posting to this thread to help you mange the CH beast.  Ask questions when they come up and you'll get answers...

A low vitamin D3 status is axiomatic for CHers with active bouts of CH.  25(OH)D lab test data from the on gong online survey of CHers taking the anti-inflammatory regimen to prevent their CH resulted in the following graphic.

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As you can see, 95% of the lab test for 25(OH)D serum concentration before starting the anti-inflammatory regimen all came back ≤ 40 ng/mL.  Moreover, the lab tests for 25(OH)D taken after a favorable response to the anti-inflammatory regimen indicated most CHers respond favorable at 25(OH)D serum concentrations between 60 and 110 ng/mL.

Check your PM InBox for messages... You'll find it under the date in the upper left corner of this screen.  Click on the bold words 1 new message.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

Hello Tymish,

Glad you found us and a big welcome.

Hot shower/cold shower is a well tried treatment.

So is the following, which has been life changing for 80% of those of us using it:

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Read part 2 and come back with as many questions as you need.

Best,  Peter.

Apologies Batch,

Didn't mean to overlap then.

Peter.

Peter,

No worries... the more the merrier...  Repetition reinforces learning...

Take care my friend and cheers,

V/R, Batch

Hey wow, thanks for all the great info. It's all really interesting. I never had a low (28 NG/ML) D25 test before. So when I found this site and the low D3 info it kinda went bing in my head (without any pain that is). What's also interesting is that calcium channel blockers are prescribed for CH too. Since D3, D25 are part of the body's calcium regulatory system I have to wonder.

Happened to be a year I got very little sun. My doc also just prescribed Norvasc for high blood pressure. It's a calcium channel blocker like Verapamil and is sometimes prescribed for CH too. I didn't start it yet because I wanted to be home from vacation before starting a new drug. So I'll start the D3 regimen and the Norvasc. Might make it harder to tell what is working but need to keep BP down anyway. Thing is my previous stints of CH rarely lasted more than 10 days though occasionally I would get an odd one off out of the blue with a dull day ache.