First , let me say that this site is a Godsend for people trying to figure out what's wrong with them. There is safety and comfort in numbers, and you provide both above and beyond. I didn't know what cluster headaches were until about 10 years ago, but have been suffering with them for 25 years. When I was a young man, I was racing a teammate home from a softball game. We were going 125 on the interstate, when someone entered the highway and went right into my lane. I tried to avoid him by changing lanes, and he must have seen me in the rear view mirror and he then tried to avoid me at the same time, again changing lanes, right in front of me. Avoiding him a second time, I lost control and hit the center concrete barrier head-on at 110 mph. My head went through the windshield. I'm pretty sure I blacked out for a bit, but, I was not in bad enough shape to keep the police from making me walk a line. I passed the test and received my wreckless driving ticket and was thankful I was alive and not going to jail. About 6 months after the accident, at the start of spring, I started getting these terrible headaches, starting behind my right eye, and intensifying in pain. My eye would water and my nose would get stuffed up, but, only on the right side. I kept thinking that if I could just get my nose clear, the pain would go away, but it hurt even worse to blow my nose. The headaches would go away after about an hour, only to come back the next day. Then, they started coming twice a day, about mid-morning, and at night. No one loves to have a beer more than me, and this was like gasoline on a fire. I was convinced that my accident had caused me to have allergies, which affected me every spring and fall. Being the young fool that I was, I would smoke and drink right through the headaches. The worse it hurt, the more I drank. Since I was getting the headaches in the morning without alcohol, I never imagined that my evening beers were contributing to the beast, along with smoking. Not being a quick study, I FINALLY figured out that everytime I had a beer, I would get a headache about 45 minutes later. EVERY time. So, I stopped drinking when I was in a cycle, and my headaches were alot less frequent. I still had my cycles every year, twice a year, spring and fall, but without the help of alcohol, I was only getting 1 or 2 headaches a day, lasting from 30 minutes to 2 hours. occasionally, they would last 4 or 5 hours at night, causing me to wear out the carpet in my house. I don't know why it helps to pace, but, it seems to help me. I lived with it for 15 years, and about 10 years ago, my wife made me go to a doctor. They took head x-rays and did an MRI, and then my doctor told me that I was suffering from cluster headaches. I had no idea what they were, had never heard of them before, but, basically, my doctor told me that if they ever go to the point where I couldn't handle it, to come back and see him. I thought he was a quack. I left his office thinking to myself, "Thanks for nothing!". Also about 10 years ago, my wife became pregnant with my daughter. I remember thinking that if I ever wanted to walk my little girl down the aisle, I had better quit smoking, so I did, and it's been 10 years and counting. In the last 10 years, my cycles decreased to once a year, and by not drinking, once a day, for about a month and a half. Then, about 5 years ago, I went 2 years without a cycle. The the last 3 years without a cycle. Wishful thinking maybe, but, I thought they were gone, but, low and behold, last week, the beast made his return.

I know this is a long and drawn out post, and I apologize, but, I wanted to let you know that, after I left the doctors office 10 years ago, my wife did some research and quickly found your website. I can't tell how much it meant to not only confirm what the doctor had told me, but, to know that I was not alone. I think that for every person that finds this site and posts their feelings, there are hundreds of people like me that are benefitting from the information and comfort that you provide. I wanted to thank everyone associated with this site let them know how much it touches people's lives without you even knowing it. God bless you all.