Posted by tatty (12.16.164.10) on August 02, 2001 at 18:39:09:
Hello all. I'm new to the board and thought I'd come in here to find some support. No one else, including my parents, my girlfriend or other friends seem very supportive. This is the fifth year that I've had episodic cluster headaches. I'll have them 4-6 times a day for one - two months and then they'll go away for about three months and come back. As you all know, it's a living hell. But I'd really like to give you all some pointers for how to handle them. Since they only last 45 minutes - 2 hours, pain pills don't seem to work all that well. They take about an hour all together to digest and go through your system. I have found a powder form of asprin called "BC - Pain Relief." You can pour the powder in the back of your throat or mix them in with juice. Mixing it with juice is the best cause you can hardly taste it at all. The thing that makes these one of the best over the counter pain relievers is that, since it is in powder form, it only takes about 5 - 15 minutes to kick in. Each dose contains about 650 mg of asprin and depending on the intensity of the headache, one or two work just great. I've only been able to find it at gas stations and a supermarket store called "Kroger's." It works for me.
Another thing is my neck. Whenever I'm not in my cluster cycle, I still feel like I'm starting to get headaches in the same area. One day I popped my neck and it went right away. I'll do that probably about 15 - 20 times a day when I'm not in my cluster headache cycle. However, the wierd part is, my neck won't hardly pop at all during a CH cycle. I knew last week that the cycle was about to start when I woke up and my neck didn't pop like usual. Is that wierd or are there some that have that experience as well? Doctors don't help much. It took them 3 years to diagnose me with cluster headaches. But I'll just have to stick with the powder asprin and neck popping until I find something better. Any suggestions? Thanks..