Hi fellow clusterheads,. lol .. that sounds so weird.  I have been visiting this site for a few years. Had my first experience with ch probably going on 10 years ago.  Luckily I am only a episodic sufferer so i guess there is a silver lining.

This will be a long post by the way,. more just me wanting to vent / self medicate...i dont know what   

To be honest I never went and got diagnosed, although this time after visiting the clinic and getting percocet's prescribed , when all I wanted was oxygen ,  i decided to finally get referred to a headache specialist. Meeting will be probably a few weeks yet., waiting on the call ,. i will follow through this time , even if this current cycle is history by then. I figure i need to do this so i can get the oxygen for next time..

My last episode was about 2 years ago, .. i noticed this current cycle im in is very different to the last one. The attacks seem way more frequent. I can literally sleep for 40mins before the assault on my brain commences. It is truly friggin brutal.  First the neck stiffens as I awake. I jump out of bed and run downstairs. Then starts the pacing,. no idea why but walking in circles, often with my eyes closed seems to help...   

By this stage , the pressure behind my left eye has built up., and above the eye hurts.. and my left side of my neck is throbbing. Its always on my left side. The only thing that gives me any kind of relief at this stage is running hot water and splashing it on my left eye and face .. for some odd reason that gives me a millisecond of relieve , which suprisingly is SOOOOO good at this point..its like a meditative thing almost... if anyone was video taping it they would probably think im nuts.

Splashing water on my eye , doing weird breathing / gasping noises. UGGh insane.  Anyhow.. only other thing i find helpful is drinking hot water ,. this is more a comedown thing for me .. for some reason i find it soothing. 

This current cycle has been going on for 2weeks ,. .. normal headaches last 15-45 mins .. last night my headache went on for 3 hours or so.. not like a norm headache.. maybe it was a percocet thing... no idea anyhow i finally just went to bed on it .. something i can never do when im suffering this madness.. but I was exhausted. Called in sick around 5am , then for some reason was able to sleep!! First time i slept more than an hour straight in about a week !!  I didnt want to get up,    slept till 4pm... hence my long post now at 12:30am lol ...

All this to say I THINK my cycle may have ended... will go to bed shortly and I pray that the beast doesnt pay me a visit tonight .............  wish me luck!   

And to all of you fellow sufferers ,. God bless. YOU ARE DEFINITELY NOT ALONE .. this sucks royally but somehow we'll make it ...   ALL the best !

Welcome to Clusterville..

And the Percocets will cause rebound headaches and don't do much good anyhow..

You need to check out the D3 regimen (it's a year round thing - not just when you're in cycle). It's working for so many of us.. I'm going on three years PF (after being chronic since 97).

Also, before bedtime you might try Melatonin .. takes a while to BEGIN working, but it's kept me from night hits for years and years.. My neuro swears by it.

And you might try putting some COFFEE in that hot water.. The caffeine is a vaso constrictor and sometimes will abort a hit.

But mainly get DIAGNOSED and get the O2 (my tank is sitting in the corner and has been since I got on the D3 regimen).

And read read read here .. there's been some new things come up that are helping a lot of folks...

And you're not alone.. Keep us informed..