Posted by Deb (206.45.78.95) on January 10, 2002 at 01:04:34:
In Reply to: Any women with cluster headaches? posted by Linda on January 09, 2002 at 15:52:06:
Hi Linda, welcome to our little corner of the world, sorry you have to be here but glad you found us. I don't know of any correlation between bc and/or giving birth, at least not in my experience. What I might be able to help you with is the amitriptylene (let's call it Elavil) aspect. I have successfully been using Elavil for the last 4 cycles. BUT when I first started on it it took a lot of experimenting to get the dosage, timing, just right so that it would keep the CH at bay and not leave me like a zombie. Typically I would get a CH at 2am, after starting Elavil I would get it at 7am, (it changed the timing of my attacks, which seems to be what is happening with you) these I would handle with 02. I kept upping my dosage until I didn't get the 7am attack or any attack thereafter. IF one would "break through" as I call it, I would handle it with 02 and up my dosage again for a few nights. The most effective dosage for me seems to be around 60 - 75 mgs. My doc prescribed in 50's, 25's and 10's so I could add, subtract etc., She was okay with this because apparently you can go quite high with Elavil. She also said I wouldn't notice much difference between 30 and 50 mgs., so when 30 wasn't doing the trick anymore I skipped right up to 50 and upwards as necessary. I don't necessarily take these right at bedtime because I typically stay up quite late, but I find if I take it around 9:30 - 10:00 it keeps the CH at bay and I can still function in the morning. Anyway, hope this will help, feel free to email me anytime.
Cheers
Deb