hey everyone i'm 17 yrs old n a girl n i got diagnosed with a ch on friday morning at 5 am at the er awesome i know. It started on wednesday and progressively got worse until thursday night i couldn't handle it and went home, cried, took 2 tylenols n passed out. I woke up at 2 am with a horrible headache on the right side of my head n face and then called my mom into my room, cried some more, n then she took me to the er where the doc told me he'd never seen this happen to a young girl. They gave me a CT scan n said everything was alright. He also gave me Oxygen for like thirty minutes and it did help but my headache came back after he stopped giving me oxygen. I'm literally angry cus i've had this constant headache for like three days and every few minutes i get a stronger headache that lasts for a while and then goes away, but i still have this headache. I'm rly tired of it, the only times i don't have a headache is a few seconds after i wake up. I guess my question is will this ever go away?? I'm so tired i just wanna rest and i just want this to go away. My right eye hurts and gets watery and was crazy swollen yesterday. I had to call in at work twice already and i missed school on friday and i just can't keep doing all that. Anyway, it's kinda cool to know i'm not alone but i'm rly sorry that there r other people who go through this too, i hate it ://

Hi and welcome

Severe headaches are no fun at all, especially when you don't know what is causing them, what they are and what to do with them.

The CT scan at ER will have been to check for possible causes of headaches like what you have, which include brain tumors, so it is good news that the ER doctor was able to rule that out as a potential cause. So he did the right thing there.

However diagnosing CH is complex as there are multiple possible causes for the same symptoms and to diagnose CH you need to exclude all other possible causes. This is why we recommend that people see a headache specialist as most doctors, including most neurologists simply do not have the skills and experience to correctly treat CH.

Since you mentioned ER, I'm assuming you're likely to be in the US, if you post your location (state / major city) then someone is likely to be able to recommend a good headache specialist to see.

What I'd strongly recommend is that you see a headache specialist to confirm the diagnosis and to provide you with the best treatment for you for your headaches.

Whilst a lot of what you describe matches CH symptoms, there are some aspects that don't, like a headache that lasts several days. But it is possible for people to have multiple headache types (I have migraine and CH). This too can make diagnosis and treatment complex.

With CH, people use a preventive (like verapamil, lithium and topamax) to cut down how many CHs you get and preventives like oxygen and imitrex to kill any CHs you get.

With the right treatment it can make having severe headaches a lot more manageable.

This is something we've all gone through, so we totally understand not just the pain but the effort to get things right.

Keep reading, you'll find a lot on the forums about CH and ask all the questions you have. Keep us updated with how you get on.

Stargirl,

Here's some reading on the D3 Regimen Mark refers to.

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Come back with questions.

Peter.