Has anyone gotten hit while behind the wheel??  Im kinda freaked out about that, NJ roads are pretty congested and noone here seems to have a firm grasp on driving as it is............ Living in the armpit of America is a HA in itself

Yep - It's happened to me after leaving the gym. This is before I knew that running was a trigger or that I had CH. I couldn't decide if I should pull over or not. I drove a few more miles to an ER. It was very scary. This is exactly where I was when it happened... except that it was night with bumper to bumper traffic.

---

Hi Eren,   Yep , its happened to me before too. personally, when i am in cycle, i NEVER let my self get far away from my trusty O2. if i am in cycle and i know i am going to be in my car for more than a half hour, i bring my portable bottle. The most important thing to do in this situation, ( I know, its easier said than done), is to REMAIN CALM ! ! ! For me, i usually have at least five minutes between, "uh oh,, here it comes", to "BAM" here it is!!!!! so in those five short minutes, start looking for a place to pull over. the first thing i do  is, roll ALL the windows down, and turn on the air conditioner FULL blast. ( sometimes that helps delay the inevitable). Once you are pulled over, general safety rules apply, such as rolling up windows and locking doors. For me, its not that big of a deal because i dont live in a big , traffic congested city, I can see how it would be a problem for a big city clusterhead. Perhaps when you are PF, a bit of a scouting trip along your normal driving routes would help you find a good safe spot should the need arise to pull over. I hope this helps.   Good luck!!!!!!!! and hang in there!   Tuck

yep! happenned to me a couple of times.  Once i was only about 1/2 mile from my home on the way to work... so i turned around and went home til it passed.

Actually the very first cluster headache i ever got i was behind the wheel, driving in the rain.  That was about 13 years ago.  I had no idea what was happenning to me,  eye tearing, searing pain etc... you know the drill.  I pulled off the side of the road til it passed.  At that time i was living in the philadelphia area... just listened to cars whiz by me.  

I am now always prepared when leaving the house...  carry extra triptans, even carry prevents on vacation just in case a new cycle begins.  

But no matter what-  the pain or the fear of pain sucks!!!  Hang in there and just stock your arsenal!!

kelly

Yeppers,

   Been there!  Keep the imitrex / 02 handy but during my cycle, I try to stay close to home when possible and make a break for it at the first signs of trouble!!!  I have gotten a hit though on a few occasions and just had to pull over!  

Dave  

When I was learning to drive, I got very mild shadows once. It scared me for sure! Luckily the lesson was almost over, because had it continued, I would have pulled over. Driving school doctor told me that if I will feel a hit coming when I'm driving, I need to pull over asap and wait for the hit to end.

I got hit after I finished the second part of driving school's safety track driving and asked the instructor to drive the car back to the driving school. I wasn't in cycle then, so I didn't have energy drink with me - but luckily I had, just in case, caffeine tablet, which I took quickly. It was still winter, so there was nicely snow on the ground and I naturally used it as "ice". You can imagine that the driving instructor didn't need any convincing after seeimg me, pacing and holding snow near my left eye! ;D

Yeah, I did explain to him what was going on, though.

Sanna

Eren wrote on Jun 16^th, 2008 at 9:50pm:

Has anyone gotten hit while behind the wheel??  Im kinda freaked out about that, NJ roads are pretty congested and noone here seems to have a firm grasp on driving as it is............ Living in the armpit of America is a HA in itself

First rule: NEVER, EVER let the fact that you have CH stop you from living your life!!!  Deal with the hits, as you get them, but DON'T stop living!

First rule (Part B): ALWAYS be prepared!  I NEVER go anywhere without my oxygen tank with me.  I ALWAYS have TREX with me.

I guess I am a little different than a lot of you, as I am chronic.  I am ALWAYS in cycle.

My job requires me to, many times, drive over 400 miles in a day.  When I feel a hit coming on, I grab my O₂ and start sucking.  If it starts to get bad, and the O₂ is not keeping it at a manageable level, then I pull over and fight the beast.  Then I just get back to what I was doing.

Remeber:  Continue to live your life, and BE PREPARED!

Chuck

Amen to what Chuck said. Don't let the beast win. If you get hit and need to pull over - pull over until it subsides.

I was pulled over one day and a nice highway patrolman pulled over to see what was wrong. Bad timing!!!! :)  I had just taken a shot of trex and the syringe was laying in the seat beside me. Needless to say he was "curious". I was not in the mood to explain much of anything about that time and gave him a "short" course on CH and told him if he were smart he'd get the "F" out of there and leave me alone. Guess he saw I knew what I was doing. He told me to have a nice day and left....  The CH subsided and I went on my merry way and had a nice day.... :)  

Do NOT give up your life because of these things.....

Hugs BD

Been hit when driving and I lived.  But I do pretty much stop my life, because I have zero use for the world when I haven't slept.  Plus, I'm so mean when I'm in cycle, that I shouldn't even be allowed in public.  

Drove around in philly traffic plenty of times during an attack.  Only once did I pull over as I was on my way to see a client.  Other than that, I managed to do it.  And I think concentrating harder on driving lessened the duration of the attack as many itmes it was gone before I got home

I remember late in my last cycle I got hit at work, very rare for me, and it was ramping up big time. I ran to my car and drove faster and a little more recklessly than I should have but had to get home to my o2. Got on it and stopped the pain in about 6 minutes.

Now I carry an "E" tank (portable tank) in my car 24/7, never out of sight.  

I will never drive again while a hit is happening. I could have caused an accident and that would have been the worst. Nothing happened that time and I for one will never drive again no matter how bad.

Happened to me many times, the lastest being today riding a high performance motorcycle.  I pulled over at 9:00 A.M. did a zomig and danced up and down the pavement in from of the convenience store.  I guess the people in there thought I was nuts  :D.

Not a lot of fun, but no choice less I stay at home all the time.

John  :)

I have had this happen on three occasions. In all three instances I had been outside on very hot, sunny, humid days. Within a few mins. of getting behind the wheel they hit. I turned the A/C on full blast, tilted the vent tward my face and drove home halfway leaning on my right side so I could get maximum use of the vent. I know people must have been looking at me like I was some sort of wierdo!

Chuck already said it but
        Don't ever let the beast keep you from living your life!!!!!

That said, just make sure you go prepared.  

Only once did I drive through a hit.  That was Memorial Day 2007.  Right before I joined this community.  Got hit in the mall with the kids at a Build-a-bear.  Drove home through a Kip-7.  It was a Kip-9 by the time I got in the driveway.

Now I don't go anywhere without my arsenal.  I carry an e-tank of O2 and a backpack with regulator, can of Rock Star and at least one Imitrex injection.

There have been multiple times since then where I've had to pull over, fight the beast and then get on with what I was doing.

I know it's scary.  I know the fear all too well.  But once you've dealt with it on the road a few times you'll get your confidence back again.  You get your life back again  8-)

-Dennis-

I'm at the beginning of a cycle (my first in 18 months) and got hit while driving this afternoon. I took imitrex, got home as quickly as possible and went straight to bed. Not fun....

getting hit when your driving sucks! and yes i've been hit in nj. if i don't think i can get in and out of a heavy metropolis with out getting hit i guess my load is going to be late. i keep my o2 bottle secured and use that until i can safely get parked. if you don't feel safe driving, pull over and be glad you don't have to park a semi truck.

Johnny: I'm not stalking you, really.

The first time I saw this subject raised, I was thinking "crap, if the world at large finds too much out about CH, they'll pull our licenses like they do epileptics!"  Later I realized based on how clueless 99.9% of doctors are about CH we don't have much to worry about from everyone else.

Luckily, as tuck pointed out, most of us get some warning before we're "drunk with pain," and hopefully we're all responsible enough to do whatever it takes not to cause a headline "Cluster Headache Causes Massive Pileup."  When I feel a hit coming, I just pull over wherever I am and call whoever might miss me to tell them I'm going to be late.  If your hits follow a pattern like clockwork, you may know if you're safe heading home, but like driving drunk it's just not something you should take risks with.

I don't think I've ever used a smiley, so I figure I should get it out of the way now so I can cross it off my list:  :-/.

yeah the hardest thing with me is getting parked. especially in nj. sometimes i can put my head back together and get rolling then get hit again in 10 or 15 minutes later and just had to tough it out. that relief you get after an attack can be deceiving. i've had some pretty rough days out there running up and down the road in high cycle.

Johnny: No doubt this subject is very different for a trucker.  Reading that, I finally figured out your picture is a profile out the window of your cab.  You know what I thought it was?  I thought it was the silhouette of the state of Arizona.  I'm from Tucson, so my mind just naturally saw AZ.  It's pretty close. That's called peridolia, if anyone cares.

lol. yeah it does kinda look like az. when its small like that. i took that pic in northern nevada on i 15 on my way up to coeur' d' alene from lake elsinor ca. what a beautiful ride that was.