I can't believe I haven't thought about a forum ages ago, but here I am, suffering from CH, and apparently talked to the wrong people.
Whoever hasn't experienced the CH pain, has no idea what we are going through. I don't get it every spring (and I thought after 5 years I would be magically healed) but this year I wasn't so lucky.

I feel like the intensity of the pain and the length (last time I had it for 4 month) are getting longer the older I get. Does anyone else have the same impression?

Thanks for taking the time to answer, bejeeber.

Are you saying that each attack has a lengthening remission or a cycle?

I wanted to share that I started avoiding certain foods, which trigger day attacks. I'm staying away from alcohol, chocolate, msg products, cheese and nuts. Caffeine helps me and minimizing the always pertaining headache during the day.

However, I still get nightly attacks and am still hopeful that there is a simple cure which would finally stop them altogether. While Imitrex or O2 helps keeping the Beast at bay, I'm wondering each day what I have to do to stop this cycle.
I can't help but wonder if it is mood related. In the past years I experienced certain events that heightened my mood and the CH was gone the following night.
Has anyone had the same experience, or am I going nuts?

Halunke wrote on May 21^st, 2011 at 10:57am:

Yes - 30 years ago I started with roughly one month long episodes each year. Then they started coming a month later each year, then there'd be a 1.5 year remission, then 2 year remissions, etc.

If I would have tracked it in accurate detail I wonder if it would've shown to correspond to the fibonachi number series 

Somewhere in there the episodes started lasting 2 months instead of 1.

This pattern continued and my last remission was a whoppingly voonderbar 7 years (!)). Not an uncommon pattern with CH remissions I've seen other long time CH'ers report. My last episode itself lasted 2.5 months though.

There's no cure for CH yet.......but the clusterbusters is as close as I've seen so far. I have not tried it yet. I have close friends on the board who were getting creamed, NOTHING was working, and busting has them trying to remember what a CH is. It's worth a visit to the clusterbusters board to educate yourself and make an informed decision. Until they find a cure!

Joe

The only thing we have universally in common are the CHs themselves. After that, it's kinda a crap shoot when we share experiences and interventions that do or do not work for us.  I pray you will find age brings a cessation to the hits. It did not in my case. I did "mature" from episodic to chronic, with wild fluctuations of both intensity and duration over the past 4 years.  In short, everyone is different.

Quote:


If you mean "are CHs mood, or state of mind, induced" I would say, no.  So far, no one I know has been able to outthink a hit. It is true some find exertion, which may be related to an endomorphic high, helps reduce or abort the hits.  This may explain what you are describing, depending on what you mean by "heightened." 

As far as feeling lucky goes, feel free to feel as lucky as you wish. But pain is pain, and this pain is really a pain. I do however count myself blessed to have found this community. Blessings to you. lance

Are you at least able to keep 02 with you at work? I was in law enforcement for 30 years and took to keeping an E-Tank in the trunk of my cruiser, in high cycle buckled into the front seat next to me! People just assumed I was a medically trained cop and had 02 available! Sure makes a difference in the abort time when the tank is always "right there" so as soon as you feel the tingle/tension feeling start you can blast it with 02.

Joe

PS: The wish it would "just go away".....an almost daily thought on cycle.