Posted by John Geraghty on May 16, 1999 at 11:08:59:
I am currently suffering yet another cycle of clusters.
I am a 42 year old male suffering since I was 27. My clusters are nightly events, occuring at the same time every evening. I go to bed and about an hour after falling to sleep I am awakened by the pain.
I spend up to 45 minutes to an hour and a half suffering before I can fall back to sleep. There are smome daily attacks, but these are rare and usually less painful.
I have these attacks usually in the spring. They will last for a month to a month and a half. I have been treated unsuccessfully with Verapamil therapy, Imitrex, and other ergotomine therapies. I have had several insurance carriers through my job, changing about four times over the last fifteen years, and each plan had different doctors.
My experience has been that by the time I found a doctor who would diagnose, (Or re-diagnose) my condition, that by the time treatment came the headache cycle was ended.
I have been pressing my fingers into my facial area so hard at night I have bruised my face.
I am desperate to connect with other sufferers.