Well after educating myself on this site and the links, I feel I can finally speak with some coherence about myself and the condition that I share with all of you. I also have pm’d george and a couple others and they have been a great help. So here is deal one  story instead of fragments. Please forgive me a bit I am in mid cycle now as George would tell you and I have been building up to do this.
  I fell from a cliff when I was 13 or so and soon after developed these awful headaches that would bring me too tears and make me do weird stuff as I tried to tell the Dr’s then.
That’s when I first met this awful beast. I wrestled with it throughout my 20’s about 2-3 times a year. In the U.S. NAVY they poked around a lot and then started to give me ergotamine only find out that I was allergic cause my kidneys tried to shut down.
  My late 20’s the beast changed (morphed) and only came to me maybe once a year and I thought cool I can do this. Only to figure out it was resting for what was to come. All the while I never knew it was CH.
When I turned 39 it came to call again with a vengeance (morphed) for the last 6 years now I have had this crap only to learn what it was just recently.
Not all my symptoms match what I read but most do.
Mine are most exclusively on the left side and go from behind the eye to the temple. The bad ones involve the base of the skull and that’s where that little bump shows up. (Which I didn’t know was there till George had me check thanks and ice helped). Most of my attacks are early morning and daytime but very clockwork like. Mine are actually quite short in duration usually but not always, however I get high numbers of attacks than most.
   I do get some nighttime ones but since I had a Dr put me on trazadone (high dose) I do pretty good with those, mostly the characters in my dreams have headaches (how weird).
  My regimen is O2 15 Lpm for 15-20 min, real strong coffee or energy drink, zomig dissolving kind, solitude if possible and prayer usually pleading.

Prevenative is topamax highest dose plus gabapentin

Cycle is pf about 2 months or less

Definite triggers: extreme pronged heat, alcohol (red wine), to many honey do’s (just kidding)

Odd things I get colored prism’s in my eye’s for a day or so before a cycle begins but no pain..

Welcome home Karl!  I'm glad you finally found us.  Sounds like you've already made some connections.  That's great!  Let us know how we can help.

-Dennis-

it took me while to figuare out the connection of the prisms. thought i was the only one, guess not!!! yes the real hits come soon after. when i get them now I start setting up.

Houdy from Montana Karl. Welcome
thebb

Hi Karl, just wanna say welcome here and thank you for sharing.

Don't get migraine-like aura's, but what does occassionally happen is that in the minutes before I get hit, colors seem brighter and more saturated. Probably just because I get oversensitive to visual input, but they are (one of the) prelimenary.

Drop by some time, stranger!

Pf vibes at ya from the Netherlands!

Good to hear from you Karl, and we'll look forward to hearing more from you when you're able.  I know how difficult it can be to keep everything going when you're in the midst of a cycle--it really tests your resources, and sometimes there's just nothing left in the tank at the end of the day.

Glad that you've found a treatment regimen that's providing you some relief, and I hope you can refine it in times ahead. 

If you have not yet done so, I'd encourage you to take a look at the "Help in Getting Oxygen Prescribed" thread that has just been pinned at the top of the Medications and Treatments board--there's lots of updated information there on increasing the effectiveness of the oxygen you use.

Hang in there, my friend--better days are coming.

All the best,

George

sordof
mine are much much smaller and lots and lots of them and bright rainbow like colors. they float across my visual field. i will pm you with more detail and any one else thats interested.

I found a little better picture that represents what i see before a cycle begins, but still off the mark a ways . these prisms start about a week before without fail before a cycle and in a way are appreciated by me because its warning for me and i can start to prepare.  hope this help i would like to learn more myself about this.

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