Look at the tabs on the left. Bob Kipple, a board member here until he passed away to a CH Free World , gave us the KIP Scale. Just a way to rate our pain from 1-10. You'll find it scary spot on for CH pain!

Joe

Most of my experiences have been covered. I would sound like a broken record. I have never made the 10 on the Kip scale but 5-9 are very familiar. I started having these when I was 18. I am from a very remote part of Ky and in 1987 the doctors in the area had no idea what a cluster headache was. Now I live in the modern world and find that the situation is the same. Family doctors are useless for this. During the first attack I thought I was dying or having a stroke. The first one was that only one. It did not reoccur for a year. Then it made itself known. Still several years passed before I found a doctor that could name the beast. I am currently trying a combo of capcacium and licorice root. I will let you know how it works. First results were promising, three PFD's. The headache came back but only about a 5. I use ice packs to distract myself, and thankfully the tap water here is about 38 degrees this time of year. I have tried to drink them away. THAT DOES NOT WORK!. I have tried warm vibrating message to the head, this leads to unconsciousness and incontinence. This forum is a godsend. I do not know anyone else that suffers from these and trying to describe the pain is useless. The best I can do is "brain freeze that lasts for hours".

Welcome aboard!  Wish to heck you weren't here!

There is a wealth of knowledge around here.  You will find some to be wise, and others to be otherwise.  Feel free to ask questions and to get the info you need.  May I suggest you read the oxygen info button on the left and use that as an abortive?  the only change I would make to that is to increase the flow rate to at least 25 lpm.

I'm glad to hear you are using the licorice root.  I hope you will pass along your experiences with it.  It has just been recently brought up on this board, and I'm interested in your results.

In Jan a group of us will be getting together in St Louis for a weekend.  I'd like to extend an invitation for you to join us.  Meeting another Clusterhead can be life-changing.  Look under the Meetings and Get-togethers page for more info.  BTW, we have a couple of other Clusterheads who also live in KY.  Be watching for them on the board.  You won't find better people anywhere.

Jerry

Wow!  A Kip thread and Barb never mentioned Drummer's garage.  Merry Christmas!