I am a chiropractor.  I’m 39 years old.  I suffer from episodic cluster headaches.  I live and practice near Philadelphia, PA.
My cluster headaches started around age 10.  As a young person, my family physician diagnosed me with tension headaches.  I had a CT scan and an EEG.  These tests were negative of course.  I was prescribed Tylenol with codeine.  My doctor manipulated my neck once and this did not help. 

Since age 10, I have had about 9 episodes in which the headaches last 4-6 weeks.  I usually get 2-4/day during my episodes.  Headaches last 40min-3hours. 

I was dumped on my head during a hip throw during wrestling practice in middle school.  I always attributed my headaches to my neck injury.  But I learned later that I was wrong.  I suffered with CH since I was about 10 years of age and the neck trauma simply immediately precipitated a 6 week episode of headaches.

In college, I had an episode that lasted 6 weeks.  I didn't know what was causing the headaches.  I just suffered and suffered with the incredible pain.  As everyone knows, the typical medically-prescribed treatments for migraine or tension headache did not work for me.  I began to think that I must have had a tumor or a brain aneurysm, but then the headaches mysteriously cleared up!

A couple years out of college, I noticed how the headaches were cyclic in nature and also my left eye would swell and tear and my nose would run (only on the left side) when I would get a headache.   I had studied anatomy in college and the one sided lacrimation problem reminded me of Horner's syndrome.  I was beginning to think that I had some sort of very rare nerve-related syndrome that my doctors did not properly diagnose and headaches were simply a part of the syndrome.

I went online to do research by typing in my symptoms of "runny nose and headaches" or "one-sided headaches" or something similar and I discovered that I suffered from cluster headaches.

I was astounded that oxygen was a recommended abortive treatment.  So I had a pharmacist friend of mine lend me an oxygen tank for a trial.  The flow was not high enough and so I bought a regulator that could deliver 15-25lpm.  Thank God the oxygen worked.
I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor to let him know that I had diagnosed myself with cluster headache.  He wrote me scripts for verapamil and prednisone and Topamax.  Nothing worked for me prophylactically until I discovered HBWR seeds… and I am thrilled with how I am responding to HBWR seeds. I think these seeds will be able to “bust” my current cycle. 
I want to share this with all CH sufferers: 
1.      You must immediately find an effective abortive.  My abortives are oxygen, coffee, injected imitrex, vigorously jogging in place, and also toking small amounts.  I inhale the oxygen vigorously for 3 minutes, then I jog in place vigorously for 5 minutes, then toke a little, then take the oxygen, then jog, then toke, etc. until the HA goes away.  I try not to take the imitrex because if I take it too often, I can get rebound headaches and the imitrex will actually begin to cause the headaches!  Plus, the imitrex can cost me as much as $300/day!  I have already paid $3200 for imitrex in a 6-week cycle!  I have never toked recreationally, but IMHO toking is a lot safer and a lot cheaper than imitrex and calcium channel blockers and lithium and I am 100% for its appropriate medicinal use.  Please do try jogging in place vigorously as an abortive.  If an abortive does not work for some of your headaches… do not give up its use!  Try using a higher flow rate of oxygen or try a different style mask that has better oxygen flow or try more coffee or exercise harder!  Please do not give up and suffer.  There were times I thought to end my life because of the pain and the fear of getting a headache that I could not treat.  I don’t want others to feel this way.   
2.      You must experiment with all different types of prophylactic treatments until you find one that works well for you… both prescription-based/orthodox and also alternative or “ethnobotanical” and cultivated.  You must find a prophylactic that works for you!  Do not rely only on abortive treatments.  Take the time and be dedicated to discover an effective prophylactic treatments that may lessen the frequency and/or severity of your headaches in addition to effective abortive treatments!
3.      You must experiment with and find “headache cluster-buster” treatment that is not only able to prevent single headaches, or to lessen the severity or frequency of headaches, but also to knock out an entire 4-6 week episode of headaches!  I am very conservative by my nature.  I never drank any alcohol until I was 28 years old.  I have never had more than 3 beers in one day.  But when you are contemplating suicide because your life with headaches is not worth living, taking a “natural” or “cultivated” substance is not so evil or scary.   I encourage all CH sufferers to try to “bust” their headaches with a “natural” substance.  If you can take 15 RC seeds or 5 HBWR seeds and completely “bust” your 6 week cycle of headaches, isn’t it worth the experiment!  You may feel a little tipsy or a slight upset stomach and that is all.  Don’t be afraid to try.   
4.      You must discover which foods trigger your headaches or worsen the severity of your headaches.  I have learned that the following are triggers for me: alcohol, chocolate, MSG (boxed or canned foods, dressings, sauces, Chinese food, etc.), pork products, lunch meats, certain cheeses.      

Feel free to contact me or reply to this message if I can encourage you or help you in any way.  You have people that care about you and want to help you.  I am praying for you and for all the sufferers who visit this forum.

-glenn

I'd add another possibility to your history. When standard meds for Cluster do not work and/or work for a short time and then stop being effective, this signals the possibility that you are dealing with Cluster-LIKE headaches.
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Link to: cluster-LIKE headache.


Section, "Medications, Treatments, Therapies --> "Important Topics" --> "Cluster-LIKE headache"