Greetings!

After 16 years of misdiagnosis (previous doctors thought my headaches were migraines or sinus infections or some combination of the two), in February of this year, a neurologist finally diagnosed my condition as cluster headaches. 
I have since taken the time to read many of your posts here on this message board, and just wanted to send a note of thanks for sharing your experiences dealing with CH, as many people I’ve spoken with have never even heard of CH.

In my case, my CH typically stay dormant for a couple years, and surface when I do something stupid like take an overnight flight, drink too little water, drink too much wine, and eat too much bacon.  That is probably what happened to trigger my latest CH attack in mid-February – I pretty much did all of the above within the span of a couple days, and continue to suffer for it.
My regular neurologist, thinking once again it’s migraines, prescribed nadalol and relpax.  After a week of nightly attacks, I went to see another neurologist for a second opinion / diagnosis.  She finally diagnosed it as CH, and prescribed Topamax as a preventive, and gave me Treximet as an abortive.
After 2 weeks on Topamax I realized I couldn’t stay on it because of the side effects.  During these 2 weeks I continued to have headache attacks almost every night, and I was starting to get depressed.  I tried to schedule a follow-up appointment w/ Neurologist #2 to discuss a different medication regimen but she was on vacation and couldn’t squeeze me in until for at least 10 days.  So I went back to Neurologist #1, explained that I had seen a 2nd specialist who diagnosed it as CH, and after quite a bit of skepticism and huddled meetings with his physician’s assistants, he finally agreed that I had CH, and prescribed me veraprimil (at my request!  I had to keep insisting on it!) – 80mg x 3 pills per day, while telling me to immediately stop taking Topamax.  This was on 3/13. 
Around the same time I finally got a prescription for Veraprimil, I guess the Topamax finally started working in my system, and I no longer had attacks.  I was worried about the attacks resuming during this transition period, but aside from shadows, I have not had an attack in 16 days as of today.
I could really use some guidance from the veterans out there regarding some of my below questions… any assistance you could provide would be appreciated!
•      I continue to have shadows – both in the form of KIP 2 of KIP 3 stabbing sensations that last for a second (only happens like once or twice per day), as well as painless but more constant pressure in my sinus areas, particularly in the evenings.  As long as I am pain-free, am I good with my current medication dosage, or should I request an increase in the dosage until it gets rid of the shadows as well? 
•      I continue to have sensitivity to light and sound even while on Veraprimil.  In the experience of veterans, do you continue taking Veraprimil until the sensitivity to light and sound go away completely, or do you begin tapering off after a fixed period being pain free?
•      I sometimes would wake up in the middle of the night feeling flushed, heart racing, and could feel an attack coming, then instead of pain, I would feel a painless pressure envelop my right temple (where I would normally have the stabbing pain during an attack).  I wonder if that’s the veraprimil preventing the pain part of an attack?  Is that how it actually works?
•      I have read many of you try the “beer test”.  Do any of you attempt the test while still taking Veraprimil?  Or do you always wait until you’ve tapered off of it?
•      My “shadows” seem to surface most aggressively when I am working, staring at my 24” monitor.  Any suggestions for how to manage this / get around this?
•      I normally wear glasses but during my CH cycles, I can’t wear them because they cause too much pain to my sinuses (does that make sense for anyone else?)  I have been wearing contacts but I wish I could continue wearing my glasses… anyone have any experience with something similar and found a workaround?

Please accept my apologies for my long-winded introduction but this kind of feels like I just found out I have the flu when my doctor dismissed it as a common cold.  Just trying to get my head around what my expectations should be in light of the corrected diagnosis. 
Thank you all for your insights and as I battle this cycle I’ll be sure to share any significant developments!

Best regards,

-Neofortune

P.s. thanks again Batch for all that valuable info on the D3 regimen... i'll definitely check it out if i get hit with another attack.

Welcome! Glad your life is improving.

Your experience with neurologists reflect the limted training they get and why we recommend headache specialists, if available to you.

The borderline symptoms: might try an incrase in Veap. and see if that helps. The mild pain beween cycles is the only tme when regular pan meds help for some; worth a try.

Delay alcohol for 2-3 weeks after you think a cycle may have ended. No way to know except going dry.