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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004 Cluster Headache Specific Posts >> Has anyone have this happen?
        
(Message started by: IndianaJohn on Jul 31^st, 2004, 7:54pm)

Title: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by IndianaJohn on Jul 31^st, 2004, 7:54pm

Hello to all my clusterfriends,

Yesterday I had a K7 at work that I aborted with Imitrex. Then around 9PM I had another, again aborted with Imitrex.

Around 10 I took the rest of my daily 480mg of verap, 300mg neurontin and went to bed. All night I was plagued with K5/6's . I would wake up have a cig, the beast would leave and I would go back to sleep. This patter repeated about 7 times last night, all through the night. None of the HA's were realy bad but everyone woke me up.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Thanks,

John

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by UN_SOLVED on Jul 31^st, 2004, 8:08pm

What ?? Waking up in the middle of the night with headaches ??? UNHEARD OF !! ;;D j/k

Sleep is my enemy ! It WILL bring on a CH that is usually FULL BLOWN !! I use Imitrex all night long ( and all day long too ! )

Hope you get some better relief ( and some sleep )

Unsolved

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by IndianaJohn on Aug 1^st, 2004, 9:18am

Yeah I know that CA happens at night when I sleep. I didn't mean to sound stupid. But 7 of them in one night? That was a record for me.

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by UN_SOLVED on Aug 1^st, 2004, 10:39am

THere has been many times where I would fall asleep only for an hour or so then have an attack. 7 attacks a night (for me) means 7 Imitrex injections (@ night). I can only do that for a few days. BP will start raising and the number of hits stay high until I do something .... like a steriods taper or a DHE / Solu Medrol IV infusion to try and slow them back down.

I always have told my neuro's that " I can handle 3, 4, or maybe even 5 hits a day. Anything more than that really begins to bother me both physically and emotionally "

Hope your 7 hit nights end soon.

For those getting hit hard and often....when you feel like you just can't take it anymore and you're at the end of your rope. .. I would suggest getting ahold of a neuro (Immediatley, demand it ...not next week) and seek out something that will probably give you (at least) a break from the headaches. (DHE 45 IV, Solu Medrol, Solu Cortez, Decadron, or Droperidol IV [watch EKG's] & Benedryl)

Good luck,
Unsolved

PS. John, --> Ever had an Occipital block ??

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by IndianaJohn on Aug 1^st, 2004, 10:52am

Thanks Unsolved,

I am not familiar with the occipital block. Does that block the nerver around that eye that gets inflammed? Is it effective?

You mentioned Benedryl. Is that effective as well?

Thanks for your input, I really appreciated it.

John

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by thomas on Aug 2^nd, 2004, 8:46am

Yeah, I've had nights like that, but not since I quit using imitrex.

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by farmboy on Aug 2^nd, 2004, 9:02am

When i get into cycle i get hit about 7 to 9 times a day for 2 days in a row then it tapers off to 4 a day.and down from there. it seems i get then ever 2.5 to 3 hours.

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by UN_SOLVED on Aug 2^nd, 2004, 9:17am

The Benedryl is used together with the Droperidol. It's supposed to make it "more effective" for some reason. (According to Dr. Rozen of MHNI). I can't tell you exactly why ... maybe someone else can (Floridian maybe).

Benedryl by itself will do NOTHING for clusterheadaches !

"Neural blockade and similar injection procedures often are prescribed for therapeutic benefits; however, they also can be useful for diagnostic, prognostic, or prophylactic indications, or for a combination of these purposes" ... SOURCE:http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic514.htm

"A recent study has shown that injecting an anesthetic agent and a small dose of steroid into the region of the greater occipital nerve (at the base of the skull) can provide cluster patients with an average of 13 days pain-free time after a single injection." DR.TODD ROZEN
SOURCE:http://www.achenet.org/articles/84.php

http://www.clusterheadaches.org/library/surgery/occipital_block.htm

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/servlet/useragent?func=synergy&synergyAction=showAbstract&doi=10.1046/j.1468-2982.2002.00410.x

A huge list of nerve blocks
http://www.doctorsforpain.com/patient/nerveblocks.html

My first (of 6 now) Occipital nerve blocks gave me 17 days pain free. All others have failed, but worth the try !
Look at what I've tried already
http://www.chhelp.org/michaelsprocedures.html

An O. N. Block is worth a consideration. It's not painful and is cheap. The needles contain a mixture of steriods and a "novocaine' like substance.

It may help some people here !

Unsolved

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by floridian on Aug 2^nd, 2004, 10:55am

on 08/02/04 at 09:17:40, UN_SOLVED wrote:

I'm not that familiar with droperidol (and just came across a warning from the FDA - it can cause serious arrythmias when used to control post-operative nausea - that may not be relevant to the localized use in a nerve block.)

Histamine is one part of the cascade of inflammatory molecules (along with substance P, CGRP, Nitric Oxide, interleukins, etc). Stopping one of these is not enough to abort or prevent (unless maybe they find one that is responsible for the release of the others (if that is the way it works)).

Anti-histamines alone might help a few people, but blocking multiple messengers is more likely to lead to pain relief.

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by marfanoidus on Aug 3^rd, 2004, 3:52pm

The worst two nights I ever had with CHs were during my current cycle.
Day 1, heavy workout, LOTS and LOTS of sweating.
Night 1, k10, none of the coping skills (dance) helped. Zomig didnt' help. Closest I ever came to killing myself.
Day 2, just like day one in workout. Got O2, after night 1.
Night 2, 6 attacks, k5-k6. O2 helped with them all.

I've had lots of nights fighting 3, but only 1 with 6.

CHs are largely symptomatic. The only change you experienced was in frequency. I wouldn't worry about it (meaning, I wouldn't worry that you are getting a tumor or something like that. I would worry about having to fight it so much).

If the nature of the pain changed, or other symptoms started to take on new life, then I would worry.

My night one above was sort of like that. I had this weird 'tingling numbness' that I hadn't felt before, and the pain was more intense than I had ever felt - it made me redefine my Kip scale for what a '10' really is.
But that only happened once, and since then my HAs have been getting better.

Looking back, it was like the crescendo.

good luck to you all.

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by millwright75 on Aug 3^rd, 2004, 7:47pm

I don't know about having that many in one night, but I have had nights of 4-5. Last night was a k6 at 7:00 PM (lasted about an hour), a k4 at 10 PM (about an hour and a half, which gave a false feeling of security thinking that maybe I'd be able to sleep through the rest of the night...WRONG ANSWER!!) K10 struck at 1:15 AM and woke me out of a dead sleep, medication didn't work nor did the HOT shower, Cold shower, crying, praying, begging, pleading... you get the picture.
That one went away after about two hours and some vomit. I was relieved to get a couple more hours of sleep before getting a K6 around 5:30 AM.
I thinking we ticked off someone really important!!!!

Title: Re: Has anyone have this happen?
Post by UN_SOLVED on Aug 3^rd, 2004, 8:37pm

on 08/02/04 at 10:55:00, floridian wrote:

Droperidol is used only in a hospital setting. It is given through an IV (usually with Benedryl). It is not used in any kind of nerve blocks.
For me > it works like DHE IV. ... BUT .... IT WILL CAUSE CHANGES TO THE EKG READINGS AND I CANNOT TOLERATE IT FOR MORE THAN 3 - 5 DAYS. CAUSES AN INCREASE IN 'QT INTERVALS'

Anyone getting Droperidol should have DAILY EKG's done !!

Unsolved