I found you in the past and definitely found all of your info here extremely useful and figured I would finally join and contribute. I have been suffering from ch for about 2.5 years, diagnosed 2 yrs ago. 

I was originally misdiagnosed with MS, talk about a scary time, so having ch is actually the upside for me.   Fortunately I had problems with my neurologist and switched hospitals.  The new neurologist just happened to be one of the ch leaders in the north east, thank god.

I suffer from a mix of acute and chronic attacks.  I was getting 12-20 attacks a week for the first year, but am now down to 3-4 attacks a week regularly. With seasonal changes bringing the frequency back up to 12-20 attacks for 2-3 week spans. I have been somewhat responsive to preventative therapist.  I'm on the highest safe does of verapamil as a preventative.  But am extremely pleased with my response to sumatriptan, as 1-2 doses will ease an attack to manageable levels.  Just recently I have begun oxygen therapy and have not seen an advantage at all.   

Other than that, I try to avoid triggers, and have found some natural therapies to lower my chances of an attack when I have been exposed to my triggers. 

I look forward to my experiences helping other new sufferers.

Given the time to abort it sounds like you are using pills rather than injections. Sumatriptan injections are much faster. And what do you consider the highest effective dose of verapamil? blessings. lance