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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> 18 years history of cluster headaches
        
(Message started by: brad1215 on Mar 2^nd, 2004, 3:07am)

Title: 18 years history of cluster headaches
Post by brad1215 on Mar 2^nd, 2004, 3:07am

Here is my story and I hope this will help someone out there.
My headaches started when I was 16 Years old. About the time I started smoking. I did not know what they were, I had seen my dad with migranes but he could sleep while having his headache, I could not. I had no idea what caused these headaches and they normally happened during the day. This went off and on for 6 years. Well after high school I got a desk job and the headaches continued. I got a night job being a truck driver and they seemed to stop. It seemed that the reduction of stress at this new type of job and sleeping for at least 8 hours cured them, or so I thought. Well I moved from CA. to GA and I was headache free for 3 years. Then I went through a stressful period in my life and my headaches came back in about , this time they were worse, stronger and 2 times a day. My wife talked me into seeing a doctor, well after about 3-4 doctors we found 1 that actually knew something about them but not afraid to try 1 treatment and when that did not work he sent me to a Nuro (Brain) doctor. and he diagnosed me with Clusters. He prescribed Imitrex in the shot form. I stops the pain within 10 seconds but my arm hurt-I could live with that but they were quite expensive. They stopped about 1-2 weeks later. It has been 5 years and I have had intermentent headaches lasting 1 night all in all about 5 in the last 6 years. Well 3 weeks ago I had an extremly stressed day at the office and they started up again I am now using the Imitrex nasel spray they have not stopped but the spray takes about 5-10 minutes to take effect and then they are gone. I still smoke so I just had my last cigerette. Let 's see if this will cure them for good.
Me and my wife have hopefully narrowed the list of possible causes of my headaches.
1. Smoking cigerettes
2. Stress
3. I had a few when I trimmed our honeysucke bush and I did not take any sinus meds. So possible allergeys
4. Maybe Salt intake.
Maybe it is a combination of all of these put together, I don't know.
I hope this will help somebody out there, or someone see's a pattern all of us have in common.
I pray that some doctor(s) will find what is causing these so we all may have a good night sleep and no longer to be afraid to go to sleep.
God Bless All Of Us.

Title: Re: 18 years history of cluster headaches
Post by Bob_Johnson on Mar 2^nd, 2004, 6:21am

Glad that you found us; at the very least you will find support and information here. You are fortunate to be having so few attacks; hope it stays that way.

The items you listed are not the cause of clusters. The actual cause has not yet been found although some excellent research has located the source of clusters in a specific part of our brain.

At this point, the best thing you can do is stick with a treatment which is working AND starting reading the material (buttons on left) and on the OUCH site.

I'd strongly suggest you get the last of the books listed below. It will give a coherent picture of the treatments available to you and, at $15, a real buy.
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HANDBOOK OF HEADACHE MANAGEMENT, 2nd ed., Au. Joel Saper, MD, 1999, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. A highly condensed volume for doctors but good for "advanced" clusterheads who have a grasp of medical terminology and medications. Covers all types of headache with the section on cluster being brief. Sections on general considerations in treatment and on medications are important.

MANAGEMENT OF HEADACHE AND HEADACHE MEDICATIONS, 2nd ed. Lawrence D. Robbins, M.D.; pub. by Springer. $49 at Amazon.Com. This volume is better organized and easier to read for nonprofessionals compared to Saper's book. It covers all types of headache and is primarily focused on medications. While the two chapters on CH total 42-pages, the actual relevant material is longer because of multiple references to material in chapters on migraine, reflecting the overlap in drugs used to treat. I'd suggest reading the chapters on migraine for three reasons: he makes references to CH & medications which are not in the index; there are "clinical pearls" about how to approach the treatment of headache; and, you gain better perspective on the nature of headache, in general, and the complexities of treatment (which need to be considered when we create expectations about what is possible). Finally, women will appreciate & benefit from his running information on hormones/menstrual cycles as they affect headache. Chapter on headache following head trauma, also. Obviously, I'm impressed with Robbins' work (even if the book needs the touch of a good editor!) (Somewhat longer review/content statement at 3/22/00, "Good book....")

HEADACHE HELP, Revised edition, 2000; Lawrence Robbins, M.D., Houghton Mifflin, $15. Written for a nonprofessional audience, it contains almost all the material in the preceding volume but it's much easier reading. Highly recommended.