One of the nice things about a condition about which we know so little about cause, changes, processes, etc. that any guess you make to explain something is as good an explaination as the one offered by another sufferer!

Talking abou two separate cycles or the extension of one? Who knows and, ultimately, what difference does it make?

Makes sense to me to be on a preventive for longish periods vs. having to depend upon/pay for thre more expensive abortives.

Is the generic as good as the brand? We can debate our experience but only your body's response gives some indication to guide you.

During WWII, the poet laureate of N.C. wrote a poem which started, "When is the war going to end?"

Sorry, but we both walked into this one by surprise:

J Headache Pain. 2005 Feb;6(1):3-9. Epub 2005 Jan 25.

Chronic cluster headache: a review.

Favier I, Haan J, Ferrari MD.


Department of Neurology, K5-Q Leiden University Medical Centre, 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.

Cluster headache (CH) is a rare but severe headache disorder characterised by repeated unilateral head pain attacks accompanied by ipsilateral autonomic features. In episodic CH, there are periods of headache attacks with pain-free intervals of weeks, months or years in between. A minority of patients have the chronic form, without pain-free intervals between the headache attacks. Chronic CH can occur as primary or secondary chronic CH; the rarest form is episodic CH arising from chronic CH. In this article, we give a review of the chronic forms of CH and focus on demographics, clinical manifestations, social habits, predictive factors, head injury, genetics, neuroimaging and therapy. IT IS REMARKABLE THAT LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT RISK FACTORS THAT MAKE CH CHRONIC.

Publication Types:
Review

PMID: 16362185 [PubMed] 
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More of the great unknown <bg>!