My cluster period started a few weeks ago.  Just shadows at first, for about a week, and then a big one.  And then another.  I steadily went from one a day to four a day.  I peaked at this amount, injecting myself with 24mg of Imitrex throughout the day.

During my 4th or 5th round at the ER (my physician is always out of pocket) they injected me with nerve blockers.  This is the only variable I can think of that could interfere with my conclusion in this topic.  But on to the real subject:

What provides me with relief?  I've heard plenty of people say caffeine does the trick.  I've tried regular coffee, caffeine pills and en the biggest Redbull they sell with absolutely no results.  Please don't laugh, scoff or (if you're in the middle of a cluster cycle) hate me for seemingly misleading you, I assure you that's not my intention. 

I have found relief in Dunkin Donuts Extra Large Dunkaccino. 
This thing is a whopping $2.50.  It's on the menu, and no I did not mean cappuccino.  It's like hot chocolate with espresso or something, but I swear as soon as I tried this freakin thing my headaches went away.  I woke up at 2 AM the night after or the next night and the cycle continued right where it left off.  Then 2 days after I got another one because I thought it was so good, and bam it ended it again.  I'm willing to ride this entire cycle out regardless of the 1000 or so calories that's in this thing. 

Like I said, caffeine has never worked for me before.  I'm pretty sure Redbulls have their fair share.  Someone test this and confirm my findings please, and I hope to God I'm not an idiot and you find relief.

Thanks Lance.  Here's an update:

Had one early this morning, cluster free all day long.  Gave my buddies a ride to DD and just so happened to get a shadow.  I wasn't planning on getting one until I got the shadow.  Aborted immediately.  I haven't even drank half of it.  Guys I really encourage you to try this and post your experience.

Note:  I am diagnosed with cluster headaches by a nuero.  When this started working I did a quick google search to see if maybe I have been having caffeine headaches.  I did not see the frequency that has accompanied mine, nor the other side effects of congested/runny unilateral nostril or unilateral eye 'squinting' and tearing.

There's something in this thing that's doing the trick.

Also I encourage you not to go to Starbucks.  They don't support your troops.  And no, I am not affiliated with DD or getting paid to advocate the use of Dunkaccinos as medicine, just sharing what I can folks.

Crossing my fingers it continues to work for ya!

Joe

helplesswife wrote on Nov 16^th, 2012 at 8:10pm:


This will not touch the pain of a CH, not even with even stronger narcotic pain killers. However it leads to a big risk of issues relating to narcotic addiction that far too many people here have gone through (myself included) when just using pain killers that doctors have prescribed.

helplesswife wrote on Nov 16^th, 2012 at 8:10pm:


It sounds like he is using an oxygen concentrator and not oxygen cylinders. The concentrator does not deliver pure oxygen and it does so only at a low flow rate making it a lot harder to abort a CH and taking a lot longer too. I'd strongly suggest that he moves to oxygen cylinders to kill off his CHs quicker.

These are the three keys to make oxygen effective as an abortive:

High flow rate, minimum 15 LPM, preferably 25 or better.

A Non Re Breather Mask

Started as soon as you feel the attack coming on.

For a rapid abort, you need to get 100% oxygen to the lungs, at a rate to support hyper-ventilatilation. No outside air, no exhaled air. Thats's why re breather masks and nasal canulas don't work as the air is not 100% oxygen, too much outside and exhaled air. Oxygen concentrators start out at a lower percentage of oxygen and eventually get over 90% but STILL not 100% oxygen. Hope this helps.

Joe

Thanks for the info Joe, that's good stuff and I will use it. 

Helpless wife- I'm sorry to hear that your situation is so grim.  Hopefully things will turn better for all of us.


Update:  Switched to regular non-DD coffee. Had a shadow yesterday morning and aborted it successfully.  Went cluster free all day and night, finally heading to bed around 4 AM Sunday.  Woke up to a shadow around 10 AM. 

I wanted to see for sure that these were not simply caffeine headaches.  I rolled back over and tried to sleep it off.  It developed into a cluster.  Eye tearing, unilateral nostril conjestion and of course, pain.  Went ahead and injected myself with Imitrex and rode the pain back into my pillow.


This evening, around 8 PM, experienced another shadow. Not trying to play around after my experience this morning, went to DD for my "guaranteed" solution.  Aborted the attack, but 30 minutes later another shadow began.  Devastatingly discouraging. Shot myself with another Imitrex injection and am chalking it up to a caffeine immunity.

Although this solution might be temporary, it DID drastically improve my situation of 4 attacks a day to 2 max.  That's more effective than anything I've tried yet.  Hopefully my núero consult on Tuesday will bring about an oxygen cylinder prescription or possibly verapamil.

Will continue to update on the Dunkaccino situation, maybe tonight was just a fluke.

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