Hi all, apologies for the drama ahead (I know I am a drama queen, but the situation seems to merit it)

Name is Javi, 42, from Spain.
I am  not exactly a newbie, I first registered in this forum about 15 years ago, and it was actually from the survey in clusterheadaches.com that I realized that i had CH.

Also through this message board I started using kudzu, which has worked pretty well for me.

At some point after that I forgot my credentials or my account was removed due to inactivity, I am not sure.

In 2009 I registered again, i was only using kudzu and was pretty happy in general but I had realized that visiting the toilet was able to stop a hit, so I shared that story here and left again.

I am a lucky episodic, by this I mean that I normally get a four to six-week long cycle every couple of years.

My last cycle took place in jan-feb 2014, which is almost 2.5 years ago, so perhaps I am growing out of CH. I think I may be starting a cycle now, I am not sure.

Also my hits are not as severe as other people´s (i´d say kip 7).

Yes in that respect I consider myself lucky.

So guilty as charged: I am a selfish hypocritical individual who come here when in need and leave when pain free.

But now the pain is back, and I am scared.

I have two kids, 4 and 6. For the last month my eldest has been complaining of pain centered around his right eye. He complains for a short time, say 5 minutes. I ask him "does it hurt very bad, sweetie" and he goes, yes... "a bit".

I give him a little gel mask that I keep in the freezer, and this seems to ease the pain.

I have not noticed eye redness or swelling, I have noticed a blue vein towards the right eyebrow that seems to stick out a bit more than usual.

I have just started keeping a logbook.

As tough as it is to face it, my son might, perhaps, have CH.

I have my first recollection of a possible attack at age 24 and I got my first real cluster (several daily attacks) at age 26 I think. I only discovered it was CH at age 29.

My son is only six... will he not even be allowed a pain free childhood?

Will his childhood memories be forever tainted by pain and anxiety?

Will his academic performance be impaired by this?

Will he need a bedside oxigen tank, will his little friends think of him as the "kid with problems" ?

My dear son... why you? 

Well, on the plus side I will be there to help you, at least somebody will understand your pain and you will not, for as long as I live, be alone.

Javi,

Welcome back.

You need to get your son to a headache specialist as soon as you can, if only to eliminate a CH diagnosis.

Does he wear glasses? This might be solved by a good optician.

Get it checked out and then you will know what you're dealing with. Statistically, it's very I likely to be CH.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Peter.

Yes, thanks a lot Peter and Brian.

Yes, I am sure Peter meant "unlikely" and I agree, statistically it is unlikely but the signs are there.

In any case I may have overreacted, even if it turns out to be CH there are more tools and knowlegde today that there ever were when we first faced this condition.

I will keep you posted. Thanks again!

Also try to get his teeth checked out and maybe visit and ENT, I am diagnosed with CH but I was checked for everything else that could possibly cause headaches as a child (was only diagnosed with CH 10 years later).

You guys are amazing!

Batch, I will look at the D3 regime and keep you posted. It seems to make sense... I used to live in the UK and my CH was way worse back then, then I relocated to sunny south of Spain and it did improve in frequency and severity, although it did not completely dissapear. I thought I was growing out of CHs, but perhaps it is just that I am getting more sunlinght.

My kids spend a fair bit of time playing outdoors (although with sun filter applied to their exposed skin between april and september)

This is something I definitely need to have looked at.

Anyway, thanks a lot, you guys are making me feel  better.

Thanks a lot Batch and Thierry for your messages.
I have upped the dose to 20.000 for now and some sunlight.

Plus multivitamins, magnesium and omega3 and 3 mg of melatonin before bedtime.

Will keep you posted.

Update 6th of July.

My cycle seems to have finished after 6 weeks, I have experienced neither pain nor "shadows" for the last 2 weeks now, so chances are this cycle is over.

This has been a strance cycle. It was unusual for me to have quite a few nighttime attacks. Pain was sever severe that I ended up visiting ER to breath oxigen, which I did not need to do in previous cycles. On the other hand I enjoyed a surprisingly high number of pain free days during the cycle.

I am not sure what to make of the D3 regime. It appers to have helped with the frequency of the hits, I had quite a lot of pain free days (I was being hit perhaps 1 out of 3 days). 

I might have not done the regime properly.  I started with 10000 ui daily for a week , Omega 3 and supplements (including magnesium) and Melatonin, then I upped the dose to 20.000 for a week, then kept it at 10.000 until the cycle appeared to have ended.

Now I doing 5000 ui per day as maintenance and will probably go down to 10.000 a week in the near future.


Regarding my son, he has not complained about any sort of pain again... I AM SO HAPPY!

Thanks to all that replied to my post, thanks to all that sent me PMs, thanks to all for being there and showing support.

Big thanks to the CH forum and community, you guys are priceless!

Special thanks of course to Batch. You, sir, are a star!