Hi everyone. I dont know if I ever posted here before. I made an account 2-3 years ago when I helped my brother figure out he had cluster headaches. He started getting them 8 years ago.. 2 years apart....... so 4 cycles.. the 4th one started up on the 7th of this month.
Since I helped him figure out what CH's were.. we figured his cycle and how long it usually would last .. like 3 weeks to 3 1/2 weeks of the cycle.. then a 2 year gap of nothing.
This time my brother went almost 3 years w/o a cycle.. then it just started up.... which coincidently is started up on his regular cycles which usually is in September ish.... well its been a harder cycle. Its been very crazy. He gets an attack 4 times or so a day... (which years in the past he would get like 2 and at the same times.. so he had an idea it was an average 2 a day) but this time its all over the place.. nothing is certain.. they go hectic!
My brother started taking the meds he took in his last cycle... kind of helped.. kind of didn't. Other meds he tried caused rebounds..... and thank God he got Oxygen prescribed yesterday and now has it.. it kills the attacks.. but its just beyond out of control... like they're coming all the time now. My question is.... can someone screw up the cycle by medications? Using oxygen... can you just irritate "the beast" by killing it ...and then it just going spastic and attacking now at random times of the day.... I mean... I have no idea why his pattern in this cycle is not a constant.
He's been so depressed and I have no idea what to do for him.
He's tried a lot of stuff to help him... but what if its making the cycle worse? He even tried the damn shrooms which last cycle in a sense it helped.. and his cycle died off within a week.. but this time... I fear cause he used the shrooms in the beginnin of his cycle.. he may have just made it worse.
Has anyone gone through weird cycle periods where nothing is certain? Is it always spurratic (is that how you spell that?) anyway... my intense fear is that his cycle can turn to something chronic. God willing it never turns to that cause he's had a pretty good schedule of every 2 year cycle.. but I dont know anymore.

Any advice, experience, would be greatly helpful. I just cant' stand to see my brother going through this. He has his first kid on the way and his job right now is at stake cause the cycle has been so bad... I dont know what to do for him. 

What Nolan said! There are some members of this board who feel certain meds, especially the imitrex family, extend cycles. This is all anecdotal with no real studies to back it so it's still anyones guess.

If he has had success with "busting" in the past, follow Nolans instructions and visit our sister board. I just got home from the annual clusterbusters convention in Vegas. As usual the susccess stories from busting are mind boggling.

That being said, you mention he is "trying" meds, is he working with a doctor this go round? So many of the meds we use for CH are High Horsepower, and it can be risky to go on and off without a doctor supervising.

As to the cycles changing their patterns, that's par for the course. One of the cruelest aspects of the beast is how he morphs everytime you think you have a handle on him. Attacks will switch sides, cycles will lengthen and shorten, the same with remissions. It's one of many aspects we don't understand.

Thanks for supporting him, our supporters are considered gold around here. Any chance you can "nudge" him onto the board?

Joe

Cluster is definitely sporadic by nature. You'll get some relatively predictable cycles and then along comes a nasty one that just won't seem to respond to what usually has worked. You gotta learn to roll with the punches and change your game plan on the fly some times. Have a back up always, and a back up for that.