Welcome to the board Bill. Ah the good old days when Fiorinal, Cafergot, Percocet etc. were all they had to offer CH'ers!  Are you working with a headache specialist neuro yet? We have seen the best results from doing so. There have been so many advances of late in the meds available to us and HOW we use some of the oilder meds, most GP's are clueless on  any of these. I'm epsiodic also, and currently use a 3 pronged approach, many use a similar approach:

1: A good prevent med. A med I take daily, while on cycle, to reduce the number and intensity of my attacks. I use lithium, it blocks 60-70% of my attack. Verapamil is the most common first line prevent, topomax also has a loyal following. Some have to combine lithium and verapamil together to get relief.

2: A transitional med. Most prevents will take up to 2 weeks to become effective. I go on a prednisone taper, from 80 mg to zero over a two week period to give me a break while my prevent builds up. Prednisone will provide up to 100% relief for many CH’ers but is harsh on the system and should only be used for short periods of time.

3: An abortive therapy, the attack starts, now what? Oxygen should be your first line abortive. Breathing pure 02 will abort an attack for me in less then 10 minutes, that’s completely pain free. Read this link as it must be used correctly or it will not work

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As you've found, Imitrex injectables are very effective abortives. They work for me, they’re expensive, and I rarely use them, mostly just when I get caught away from the oxygen. .

Go to the medications section of this board and read the post "123 pain free days and I think I know why." It’s a vitamin/mineral/fish oil supplement, all over the counter stuff, that’s providing a lot of relief for people who have tried it, it’s a long read, worth the time.

Have you tried the energy drink route yet?  Rock Star, Monster, any containing the combo of caffeine and taurine, chug it down as fast as you can when you feel an attack starting. Many can abort or at least really reduce an attack using these.

Finally, visit our sister board for “alternative” treatment methods outside of mainstream medicine. As you’ll see from all the success stories on this board, there is something to it.

clusterbusters.com


Read everything you can on this board For aCH’er, knowledge is your best ally. We’ll help you all we can.

Joe

Thanks for this info my new friends. I am interested in all the therapies including antipsychotic drugs because I believe in the correlation of the emotional pain that may become mapped to our brain as a result of the anxiety and physical pain that our cluster's bring us. I am also interested in the study of pain and how the pain system works within the structure of the brain. I am also interested in what they call phantom pain. Last year, I went on antidepressants for the first time after close to 40 years of cluster anxiety/fear/pain. I can experience a great deal of anger during remission as well as during bouts. For so many years of fighting off the beast through begging and anger, I now feel that even during remission I have a short fuse with any kind of anxiety/stress levels which produce those quick strikes of anger that are so reminiscent of the "screaming at the beast" which has been my defense mechanism "fight or flight" with cluster pain. So I will be checking out the other boards. Until next time.
Bill

Bill, it is my own experience (both professionally and personally) that CHs do not evoke a response from us of which we are not otherwise capable. In other words, my guess is the anger you feel is already present and the constant pain and anxiety of the attack merely bring it to the surface more quickly. There is a danger of giving yourself permission to "act out" as a result of life's misfortunes. I would recommend you not do that. It won't help you or those around you. The trials you are experiencing is even more reason to put a check on the more volatile emotions and their subsequent behaviors. Just a few thoughts. Blessings. lance

Hey Bill, good response, and be assured no criticism was intended. I do take you at your word, and I share your interest in the pain response mechanisms. You wrote:

Quote:


Couple of things. First, I think what you're after is a conditioned response, or a neural habituation, caused by the repetitiion of stimuli and favored reaction to that stimuli. We often describe a pattern of behaviors as a conditioned response when we can predict the outcome of an applied stimulus. This is behind most training programs seeking to instill a counter conditioning response: all the way from fear of spiders to Navy Seal training. In other words, without a conscious attempt to overcome our "natual" reaction we will fall prey to our conditioned response every time.

Second, it is a mistake to assume only anger is the conditioned response to fear, anxiety or pain. Others include curling up into a ball like a possum, seeking to override the stimuli with the introduction of another, equally powerful stimulus like alcohol, drugs or sex. There are others.

Bottom line is, at least for me and this forum, we can either let the CHs define us by dictating our response; or we can choose to impose upon our instinctive responses a framework that is more helpful and healthy. So O2 and our favorite abortives at the first sign of a hit rather than striking out in pain or running for the nearest gun to end this.

Pain is a powerful motivator. It drives us to seek resolution. What we're after is a good resolution and not one that is less than helpful. You might want to look up various instances of counter programming, or counter conditioning, to gain more insight into your query. Blessings. lance

Quote:


Hey Bill. I think you "got" where I was going quite well. As to your question above, I guess I have a couple of responses, at least for this site. First, acknowledging that PTSD is a complex syndrome to treat (including its onset and primary causes) in a broad sense, that which relates to any trauma's aftermath, it does apply to us.

Second, given the above qualifier, there is a direct link between all pain (and cluster pain is among the worst) and both depression and PTSD. After a day of unremitting bouts with the beast, with little effective intervention, it's important to realize depression is a natural result.

How we deal with that depression (short or long term) is the question, and that was my point previously. It's always good to bring this topic up, and it is equally good to point out the best way to deal with the beast's aftermath, is to attack it firmly from the beginning. I think in this we have agreement.

Thanks for posting. We all need to work this out in our lives, and the pain we experience is a powerful motivator to do so constructively. Blessings. lance