I keep seeing people talk about shadows? What are they?

Joe's right, no surprise there, and it is different for everyone. For me, a shadow describes a low level KIP that imitates an aura-like experience which would normally predict a full on hit. But it never really develops. It just hangs on, and hangs on. I've gone hours with this until I couldn't stand it any longer. I learned to treat them, as Joe said, just as I would a full hit. They diminish over time. Blessings. lance

+1 to all the above.  i find that verapamil has a tendency to increase the prevalence of shadows while it decreases the severity and frequency of hard hits.

not at all a bad trade off.  totally worth it.  some of the other side affects might bug me a little more when i get back home to my wife though...

Bonnie lee wrote on Oct 15^th, 2011 at 5:12pm:


that would be a shadow my friend!

AubanBird wrote on Oct 15^th, 2011 at 4:21pm:



Like CH isn't bad enough.....he has to take THAT away.... ....I feel your pain.

Joe

Yes its wonderful to hear my husband say "you havent had a headache in while" But i know in the back of my mind, THE BEAST is there he is just waiting for a nice day to ruin.

i for one dont think i have been handed the shittiest cards in the deck.  allow me to explain:

my CH's were never very bad before i joined the army.  mild sporadic hits that i wouldn't let interfere with my life.  back then, i had a successful business, college scholarship offer that would have paid up to a doctorate in dairy science, was working as a manager and research coordinator for the university of florida and had retirement benefits, health benefits, and was offered on-site housing with free utilities.  all that and nobody to share it with.

after i joined the army i suffered some damage to my internal organs from exertional rhabdomyolysis, my CH went severe and chronic.  i met my wife less than a year before that, and married her after knowing her for 26 days.  we worked through all the problems associated with diving into such a commitment.   so, today i make a fifth of the money i made before, am in nearly constant pain, and my future looks far less certain than it did five years ago.  i would never trade it though.  to me, having nobody to share my life with was far more painful than living with cluster headaches.  maybe its just who i am, but to me, all the riches, joys, and pleasures in the world would mean NOTHING if i didn't have anyone to give them to.  my wife is a great supporter, but more than that she is my closest friend.  my wife and daughter are my whole world. 

sometimes, during my hardest hits i smile.  my buddies think im crazy, smiling during excruciating pain.  what makes me smile is the thought that flashes through my head...
my wife has seen the beast come out in me, and she is still there.  i smile while i cry in pain because even the pain cant make me forget that she is still there.  i have never had that before in my life.

yeah, this big bad paratrooper is a softy at heart..

i for one consider myself blessed.

Quote:


Poetic, lovely and true. There are a lot of cards in the deck I do not want dealt to me, and losing members of my family to senseless tragedy is right up there. I endure, we endure, not because it tips some kind of cosmic scale in favor of others, but because this is what we have been given to endure. Everyone bears some burden or other, and some burdens are merely heavy, while others are crushingly so. I think it is because we bear the burdens of "thlipsis" together (a weight which threatens to bury us and destoy us) that we are able to carry on. That, and the faith and hope which lives on despite the pain. Blessings. lance

A 120mg dose is very low, with a typical effective dose being 360-480mg a day with some people going as high as 1000mg.

Any dose changes should be done in consultation with your doctor and allowing 10 days or so between dose changes as a minimum as it can take a while for the dose change to become effective.

It looks like you're following a good approach.

Even prednisione can take a day or two to kick in, so hopefully that will be helping you transition to verapamil being effective quickly and effectively.