Hi, my name is Danielle, I'm a 27 year old female who suffers w/ what I call 'cluster-f***s'.... I only found out about clusters last year when a cycle started again after a 3 year remission, but I did a LOT of research on the Internet and KNEW my headaches were clusters. Last year was the first time I ever had insurance so it was the first time I ever saw a Dr. The first thing she said after I told her what the pain was like was, "I'm nor going to prescribe you any narcotics." You see, I was a herion addict in the past, but have been clean for 4 years, (3 when I saw her), and she thought I was drug seeking, and I promise, I wasnt...
She thought they were occular migraines and gave me a script for immitrex pills, which didn't work for me. Next we tried maxalt pills, again w/ no success. This was in July of '11. In the beginning of September my headaches were gone w/ out finding something that worked for them. July 28 this year my headaches came back.
I just gave birth to my second child 6 weeks ago, and thankfully he is a good baby, he sleeps alot right now, I don't know what I would do if he was colic-y while I was having a headache, thankfully it hasn't happened yet, but I know it's only a matter of time. I have an appointment w/ my dis-believing dr. tomorrow morning, to get a referral to a neurologist. I'm nervous about it though. I've been reading about different acute medications, but I am breastfeeding my son and know that I can't take any triptans... Also my insurance won't pay for an O2 tank...
I am just glad I found this website so I can talk to people who know what I'm going through, any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated!!

Hello Danniell.. and welcome to Clusterville..

About the O2.. We've all had a little problem wiht the insurance on it, but it's cheap and most of us just pay for it. The cost is minimal and the results are extreme. If you can get a script for it  - it's definitely worth the cost.

We've found out that pain meds do not work with CH at all. A vaso-constictor is what does work. Most doctors don't understand this and have to be "educated".. keep up the research and educate the doc. Imitrex is the drug of choice around here, but INJECTIONS - the pills have proved useless for most.

Trex nasal spray works for some. I've used it some with fair results, but a lot of times a can of Red Bull (at the first sign of the headache) will abort it and I don't have to take anything.

Check out Batch's vitiamin regimen.. It's working well for several (me included).

We've got about 100 years of research on this board. READ READ READ. Nothing works for everyone, but by trial and error, hopefully you will find relief and get some PF time.

Keep us informed..