I'm so glad to have found you all. I truly feel as though I have finally come home! I'm a 32 yr old Earth lovin' mamma of 3 young boys, wife to an Awesome husband and live just outside Winston Salem N.C.. Until a few weeks ago I have been unknowingly battling this beast for over 20 years now. I had a few people suggest Ch before (never a single doc though) but the whole mildness of the word "headache" put me off, because surely a migraine is the worst you could get right? I just happened to stumble across the symptom description recently and had the biggest aha moment of my life and found you all, and now... well it's a new beginning. oh, guess i gotta start a new one... I write a lot. history next...

I started having headaches around 10 or so but it didn't get so bad untill my teens, especially when I started birth control. I was diagnosed with migraines around this time. I went a further 13 yrs or so before a doc finally suggested the bc was a trigger. Even 2% progesterone in the new IUD did it big time! Got the old copper one now. Needless to say I was chronic throughout that time. The funny thing is that I got into the psychedelics and other drugs in my teens and 20's and had a lot of on off pf time. ha ha.
Triptans and a few natural remedies were my only lines of defense otherwise. I was never asked specific q's about my symptoms, or sent to a specialist. also very rarely had insurance. And absolutely no support from nasty ex who would get mad cause the babies were crying and I couldn't take care of them. Those were the days where I would be pacing and nursing a baby with one arm and holding an ice pack to my head with the other until the pain was so bad I would end up in the bathroom vomiting and crying with the baby and he would just leave me to pass out on the floor. He would not let me go to the doc for meds and refused to take me to hospital... (eh, old shit, sorry bad times, bad times, lets just say not all hippies are nice) 

So, now it's a new, Wonderful husband, a new life, and a new self-diagnosis. I finally have insurance again, and a doc I like a lot. Aside from minor stuff like Mitral valve prolapse, low blood pressure, degenerative disc disease and facet arthritis I've always been really healthy, in fact I rarely even get a fever even if I do get sick. But after so many yrs without insurance and a couple recent issues with a possible misdiagnosis of diverticulitis actually being something to do with my gall bladder It's been hard to address the CH.

So far she seems a little doubtful about it being CH, but she put me on Topiramate, and for the first 3 days I had no hits at all! Miracle I thought, right? But then it all crashed, I mean EVERYTHING! I was getting unpredictable hits all day and night and I was on an emotional roller coaster from hell! I could not think straight, I was afraid I'd even forget to wipe my own arse before I got up! Then I had this silly nurse give me the run around, not understanding that I couldn't make it to my appt. without bringing all my kids (especially when it's all I can do not to cry all day as it is) I asked if she could just have the doc call me instead. and she says "the doctor doesn't have time to call you, blah blah, she wouldn't listen to a word I said! and next thing I know she's having another doc call in a script for fioricet since my insurance wouldn't let me have more than 9 sumatriptan tabs a month WTF!!! I hate pain meds! I am not a Junkie! It's even in my file at the top!
My brain wasn't working, I'm new to this insurance thing and I had no clue that I could shop around and get 20 tabs of triptans for less than $50. CVS wanted almost $400!
I thought I had no hope for the peak of this cycle until I got fed up and went into the walk in clinic no longer caring that I was balling my eyes out the whole time. I ended up seeing another doc there I like and she told me about shopping around, set me up with a larger quantity, and advised me on how to taper off the stupid anti-seizure stuff. (I was supposed to be part of some trial or something, don't remember, don't care, just glad I'm off it!)
I did however, out of desperation due to it being the peak of my cycle and all opt for the prednisone. So far it seems to have knocked the beast off cycle a bit. Except the first night when I was falling asleep I felt like I was having a bit of an acid trip, that was weird. It's only the second day and I've only had one attack, on off shadows, a bit of ocular/sinus pressure and occasional piercing pains.

I have also been taking a 550mg. magnesium gluconate for about a wk now and co q-10 and 550 mg. ginger (which has always been effective at weakening my attacks) as well as lots of water caffeine and energy drinks (taurine) for 4 wks.

So I've been doing so much research lately and have a bit of over load and confusion about melatonin. I hear that a lot of people get attacks during REM sleep. Doesn't melatonin increase REM sleep?  I do get most of my attacks an hr or two after going to sleep, and during the peak of my episodes  I'll be woken by the beast every 2 to 3 hrs a night. I'm wondering If I should even try. Also, does anyone know if Cannabis really does up melatonin synthesis, or if it has really helped them or not. I'm just not into all that any more but anything that works well...
ooh, also my well water has a lot of calcium should I even bother taking that too? I'm not sure of it's bio availability.

I will be trying the O2 soon, if not from the doc, my husband is about to get his welding equipment in soon, so I'll be trying that as well. I've always done breathing exercises at first sign and when attack subsides. not to mention just pure panic hyperventilating when in pain. yeah... ha ha that always helps.

Oh, about the doc disbelieving, I think it has more to do with the fact that she doesn't want to believe I've been in that much pain. So far I have been the one suggesting the treatments, and she admits she ism't very knowledgeable about CH. She is usually very good about sending me to a specialist for everything, almost too much. I'm sure she'll suggest it next visit.
I've just gotten this insurance about 4 months ago and I've already been to the ER once, seen 2 specialists for unrelated things and have been to the family practice 5 times all ready, kinda feel bad about it. It's like I'm falling apart all at once!
I'm almost afraid they'll drop me or something due to this "previous condition" thing. Anyone know anything about that btw? I supposedly have a really good plan through blue cross blue shield n.c. Eventhough they still won't give me more than 9 sumatriptan pills a month.  
But that's ok, hopefully I can get off all that stuff once I try the O2!

Everything Joe said, and again, before you "try" the O2, please read the link about the most effective use of O2. So many try it in such a way they find only minimal relief. The best is a high flow delivery system (25lpm+) coupled with a nonrebreather mask and breathing so as to hyperventilate as quickly as possible. I and many have found aborts within 3-5 minutes as opposed to 30-45 minutes. Also, the imitrex injections are way better than the tabs the imitrex tip to the left stretches a typical 6mg dose into three 2mg doses. Good luck and God bless. lance

Either...........some use benadryl, some use melatonin, it's trial and error, see what works for you. It's kind of the rule of thumb for ALL things CH, what works for one doesn't always work for all. 

Joe