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Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already. (Read 3152 times)
Enfuriae
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Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Mar 5th, 2017 at 8:05pm
 
Why does my body do this to me? The only medications that work for me are migranal and o2. I just ran out of the latter and I'm stuck using migranal, which is so expensive that I only use it as a last resort, knowing that the long term side effects are severe. I'm a chronic sufferer and this illness has ruined my life. I have tried the vitamin regimen, which made me very ill, I've tried verapamil, tegretol, seizure meds, vasos, imitrex etc. Nothing works for me. I'm desperate and suicidal. The worst part is that outside of this illness, I love my life. I have an amazing and supportive significant other and friends. I'm a generally happy and loving person. This thing destroys me though. It's not that I don't want to live, it's a quality of life issue for me. How can someone live a full life with this pain? It's inhumane. I have spoken with my neurologist about physician assisted euthanasia, but because it's not technically physically life threatening, the state in which I live (Colorado) will not allow this. I'm at the end of my patience. I've drank drano twice, both resulting in severe vomiting and nothing more. I have tried to overdose on meds, but for whatever reason, my body rejects every attempt to end the suffering. I don't know what to do anymore. I just can't keep going through this every month. I only get a 2-4 week remission and then the nightmare starts again. I am here because I need to vent and also because I need help. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My next option is surgery, which my neuro has informed me is very risky and may not even work. I'll be without o2 for the next 3 days, but I do have 4 vials of migranal left. Necrosis or not, this is my only option and a risk I'll have to take. I'm in a really bad cycle too, with 8-12 attacks per day. This pain is something that I can't even form into words. The whole side of my face is swollen and red. I just want to end my life so that I never have to feel like this again.
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Hoppy
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #1 - Mar 5th, 2017 at 9:51pm
 
Were the imitrex in pill form or auto injectors?

Hoppy
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Enfuriae
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #2 - Mar 5th, 2017 at 10:01pm
 
I've had both the nasal and injectors. The nasal didn't work at all and the injector only worked about 30% of the time as an abortive. The other 70% of the time it would take the edge off of the pain, but not get rid of it entirely. I would basically take it just to knock myself down to a migraine like status, which still isn't super fun, but better than the pain of a cluster. I think it's worth mentioning that I am also newly diagnosed with MS and my neuro says that there is a possible link between the two and it could be the reason I'm unresponsive to most medications for CH. Been a CH sufferer for the last 13 years and newly diagnosed with MS about a year ago.
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Hoppy
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LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE


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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #3 - Mar 6th, 2017 at 1:42am
 
Have you thought about alternative treatments, if so, check out our sister site, ClusterBusters, the link is to your left on this page.

Hoppy
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Enfuriae
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #4 - Mar 6th, 2017 at 4:10pm
 
I tried the vitamin regimen last year, but it caused toxicity and it made me very very sick. My dr said that taking too many fat soluble vitamins like that can be fatal and advised me to stop it immediately. I do take vitamin d3 every day though at 5,000 units, which my neuro said is safe. I've tried the energy drink trick. I've had mixed results with that. For whatever reason, my body is very sensitive to medications. I was removed from verapamil because they couldn't get my dosage up to the level I needed for it to be beneficial. It lowered my blood pressure so much that I was fainting constantly and really weak. My dr said it just wasn't safe for us to continue down that path. Seizure meds don't work because they impair me to the point where I still can't function. The goal would be to find something that helps that doesn't cause me to hallucinate or impair my cognitive function.
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Hoppy
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LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE


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Perth WA
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #5 - Mar 6th, 2017 at 5:01pm
 
Try adding these to the 5000iu/day of vitamin D you are already taking, Kudzu, is an antihistamine, use the brand Samsara, and put  a scoop of it in hot tea 3 times a day. Also Butterbur in a capsule. You can find both of these on Amazon.

Hoppy
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« Last Edit: Mar 6th, 2017 at 11:24pm by Hoppy »  
 
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Skyhawk5
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #6 - Mar 7th, 2017 at 12:23am
 
I've been in cycle since New Years. Awakened on average 10 times per night. O2 to the rescue. Also a DHE injection (migranal is DHE.) So I sleep OK every other day.

Many of us use welders O2, the same stuff. I have stopped a few attacks just by hyperventilating, with concentration to exhale as much as possible. Strange but true.

The thoughts of horror are true for all of us. This is my 29th year of CH. I have the best tools I could get to fight it, stopping 97% of them. But, that fear is still there.

Don
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Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the Beast , I  have O2 so I fear him not.
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Enfuriae
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #7 - Mar 7th, 2017 at 8:32pm
 
Oh man, if I could get to a point where this was even remotely manageable I'd be over the moon. Thank God I'm getting my o2 refill tomorrow. So I have another kind of odd question. I don't know whether this is something that is common, or something that is just specific to me and I'm kind of embarrassed to talk to my dr. about it. Does anyone else experience increased sexual appetite during bad cycles? It's really bizarre, but after exceptionally bad attacks, I've noticed that my body gets extremely aroused and I don't know why. Is it some kind of weird response to counter the pain or what? It feels really inappropriate to go from excruciating pain, banging my head against the wall to...that. Any insight?
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Peter510
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #8 - Mar 8th, 2017 at 4:06am
 
While you're in a state of pain your body is flooded with adrenaline. This is an autonomic reaction to pain or threat and is common enough in stressful situations.

For example, in times of war the sexual activity (and consequently the birth rate) of the population soars.

I believe it is linked to a "survival of the species" evolutionary response to trauma.

So, it's not unusual and certainly not something to be worrying about.

As an aside, have a read of the link below. It's made life go from chronic daily suffering to maneagable for me.

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to Login or Register

Peter.
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« Last Edit: Mar 8th, 2017 at 4:08am by Peter510 »  

You don't stop laughing because you grow old....You grow old because you stop laughing.
 
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Batch
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Bremerton, WA
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #9 - Mar 8th, 2017 at 10:43am
 
Hey Enfuriae,

Sorry the CH beast is still jumping ugly and that you had problems with the anti-inflammatory regimen. 

I've worked directly with several hundred CHers as they started this regimen.  I also monitor posts reporting results of taking this regimen on a daily basis.  To my knowledge, we haven't had any reports of an actual toxic response since CHers here at CH.com started using this regimen in December of 2010.

Can you tell us a little more about your toxic response to the anti-inflammatory regimen?  Did you have any lab test results that indicated vitamin D3 toxicity?  How much vitamin D3 were you taking prior to the toxic response and how long had you been taking that dose?

From my experience and results from the survey of 187 CHers taking this regimen, 5,000 IU/day vitamin D3 is the minimum effective dose for some CHers, but it's too low for the majority to experience and sustain a pain free response.  Have you had a recent lab test of your serum 25(OH)D concentration? 

Are you presently taking the vitamin D3 cofactors: magnesium, zinc, boron, vitamin A (retinol) and the vitamin K2 complex?  They are very important as they support vitamin D3 metabolism and its therapeutic action in preventing CH.  Without them, vitamin D3 is less effective in preventing CH.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch
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You love lots of things if you live around them. But there isn't any woman and there isn't any horse, that’s as lovely as a great airplane. If it's a beautiful fighter, your heart will be ever there
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Enfuriae
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #10 - Mar 8th, 2017 at 12:11pm
 
It made me violently ill. Severe vomiting, headaches (though not clusters) excessive sweating and weakness etc. It basically felt like the worst bout of food poisoning a person could have, and lasted a lot longer. The issue was not the vitamin d3, it was a combination of all of the other fat soluble vitamins. I took the vitamin d3 loading dose, which was fine and then went down to 8,000 iu per day, along with all of the other supplements. I followed the regimen exactly as it was outlined here, and even sought advice when it started to make me feel sick. By the time I finally went to my Dr. I was a mess. I gave him a list of all of the vitamins I'd been taking (which were all part of the regimen and nothing more) and he told me that the combination and doses of those vitamins together could potentially cause toxicity and be fatal and that was what was making me so sick. He also told me that it is unnecessary for a woman in her early 30's to be taking that amount of those particular vitamins (specifically the geriatric vitamins, vitamin K and the multi) to begin with. As soon as I stopped taking everything except the 5,000 iu of vitamin d3, my symptoms cleared almost immediately and I was able to keep food down again. This regimen may work for many people and that's fantastic for them, but as I have already mentioned, I'm very sensitive to certain medications so this could very well be why it made me so sick. My body simply can't process certain types of food or high doses of anything due to ongoing issues with my pancreas. I did have my d3 checked again about 3 months ago and my levels were in the high 30's, as opposed to 15 when I first started monitoring them a year ago. I also have MS and my neuro has informed me that people with MS are prone to certain types of headaches, including CH, and that they tend to be generally more resistant to treatment. I have noticed that my attacks are far worse when I'm having an MS flare up so I believe this to be true. Over the last 13 years, o2 and Migranal are the only 99% reliable treatments that I have found and I feel like I've tried just about everything. It would be nice to find a preventive that works for me, but I'm not holding my breath. Surgery really is my last hope of being able to go back to a normal life.
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Fish Head
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Re: Horrifying. I wish it would just stop already.
Reply #11 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 12:10am
 
In assisting a patient on a CH forum, and in consultation with an experienced headache specialist, we did once pick up a misdiagnosis of CH, in a female, in her 30s, with MS.

The one commonality, was that frequency, severity and duration data for CH did not quite match, but it took a true CH'er to spot it, because it was very, very similar.
My headache specialist had seen only one other case of PH in a lengthy and international career. PH is rare, but affects more women than men, that was our first clue.

What this woman had, apart from terrible MS, was de-myelination of nerve sheaths and the resulting headache (Secondary Headache to MS in her case) was called Paroxysmal Hemicrania (PH).

I know you've had CH prior to MS... I also know personally how any headache "diagnosis" may have stuck for many, many years and that it may be right or wrong. It may be worth looking at your MS, other causes of "cluster-like" and secondary headache and doing this with a second set of eyes on it, a second opinion.

In the previous Woman's example, we got a second opinion and had a Neuro overturn her long time CH diagnosis, check her Indocid (Indomethacin) response and there it was, Paroxysmal Hemicrania. She responded to Indocid "absolutely" and immediately (CH'ers generally don't). She was she pain free within days on the correct medication, was free of the burden of CH misdiagnosis, and it cleared the way for some much needed PH and MS treatment. She has been doing better since and has been better equipped to raise a child whilst having MS.

She was also absolutely certain that her problem was CH, and it turned out that it was not. So, it may be worth a second opinion, even if you've done as we probably all have here at one time or another - laboured under one diagnosis for a long time. I was misdiagnosed for 25 years with Migraine, and for most of that time vehemently believed it to be true, with the same strength of assertion that you do.

She simply showed her Neurologist this piece:
Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to Login or Register

And the correct differential diagnosis was made.
Pain free in under a week, and all she did was to visit a forum, keep an open mind, and ask her Neuro for a review.
He checked Indocid response, as he should have and she was pain free.

If you're looking down the barrel of CH and MS, (or even PH) I would still recommend getting an alternative pair of eyes over the D3 regimen. Your Dr. clearly needs to go back to medical school and read up on D3 toxicity, in which he will invariably only be trained in treating deficiency, not treating disease - a very different ball game. There is much ground to be gained with the D3 regimen, outside of CH too. Any specialist worth their salt will treat the regimen seriously, as many now are doing.

Neurology Journal thought it was safe enough and had enough merit to publish it: Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to Login or Register
Maybe show your Dr. that paper. If you get more claims of "toxicity", maybe it's time for a new Dr. and/or specialist.
2nd opinions have got many of us out from under the burden of CH before.

I think Batch's opinion on using D3 in CH was about opinion #963 for me, but that's the second opinion that worked, now endorsed by my headache specialist and Neuro. (Don't count me again Batch, I've completed the survey and you have my results).

Never stop looking for answers, that is key!

Hope this helps.
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