In the last week I've had just 4 major hits, and am painfree for 2 days. Am living in the shadowzone though, but I can handle them. They are merely bothersome, annoying at worst. No nocturnal hits, none in the daytime. Life is starting to look good again, haha.
I will be aware of danger in the next few days, but if I am still painfree in the weekend, I'll celebrate it with a cold tasty golden boy (a beer that is....). It'll be a great test anyway.
This is btw my first time with the Verap, so I was wondering how that works with a small amount of alcohol?
To all who are suffering right now - I will be cheering for you to beat the Beast soon.

Painfree vibes from the Netherlands to y'all.

God knows we all love a success story around here. I don't do verapamil, I do lithium. As I slowly ramp down from 1200 mg, I learn at about 600 mg if the beast is truly gone or  not! Here's hoping he's lost your address for a while.

Guiseppi

Well Guiseppi, I'm not sure if it is to thank the Verap for, as I am only on it for the 15th consecutive day now, for the first time in my life.
Maybe it's that this time my cycle was just shorter than normal (since Mother's Day approximately, and a week of shadows prior), which means that I had it for about 5 to 6 weeks this time. Normally they last about 9 weeks, the beginning and ending included.
To be honest, I was very worried this time, as the hits were so severe, say at least a few 9s each day, as severe as I had them in the nineties when they were all over the place (my cycles have become very distinct clusters since autumn 2000). I was worried (though I never shared that worry untill now) that the extreme nature of the hits this time, would signal the beginning of a chronic state of CH (isn't this a fear common among clusterheads.... I'd really love to know). But for some reason it left me early this time, and hope I won't be seeing it back again for another 2 years.
Best of luck to all those who battle right now!

Not to rain on your parade but Verapamil knocked out 90% of my hits last cycle.  It was hard to tell when the cycle ended.  I'm still tapering off it.

It could be that the Verap is just that effective.

-Dennis-

Well, people, after all I guess it IS the Verap, coz I'm still painfree (even the shadows are becoming less frequent) and thankfull for it.
It's about a month now I started using it.
Had a follow up with my neurologist last friday, and he told me to continue using it at least a couple a months. He too thought the Verap was the big factor in aborting this cycle, taken into account my cycles normally last much longer. As I've stated before, this is my first experience with Verapamil but I guess it just works for me.

Sounds as if the Verapamil regimen is working for you.  Very glad to hear it.   :)

All the best,

George