I call myself the stab victim for obvious reasons. Anyone who has ever had one of these possessed headaches knows the feeling. I have been a test subject over the last 33 years with different medications. Let me just name a few off the top of my head.Inderal, ergostat, tenormin,lithium,prednisone,lidocaine,midrin, to name a few. What I have found that works for me is 4 imetrex shots a day (which has to be specially approved by the doctor to the insurance company), Oxygen inbetween shots, and stadol nose spray, which is a narcotic, when I have maxed out my shots. The oxygen provides temporary relief, but I find that as soon as I remove the mask, the cluster returns. My headaches come on every three to four years max, usually every three. I am one of the rare females who get them. When I get them, I am off work for an entire month until they subside for another three to four years. Are there any new treatments in the last three years? I am do for them any time again. I hope my post might be helpful to someone.

Hi,
You are lucky to go that long between cycles!  I am also a female and have had Clusters for 25 years.  Your list of medications brings back memories to me.  Have you ever tried Verapamil and Zyprexa?  I don't think you would have to miss work like that if you try them.  Verapamil is a preventative and Zyprexa is an abortive.  Both of which you can take and function well at work.  The doses vary among individuals so don't take my word for that...small doses work for me on everything.  I take up to 60mg of Verapamil divided into 3 times a day (most people take much more so read other posts).  I take 2.5mg of Zyprexa at onset of a HA and am good for 24-33 hours. Others will come along and give advice, too.  Read all you can...You shouldn't have to miss that much work.  Good luck.  Keep us posted.

Joni

clusterbusters.com
the bb

Early tries with 02 I had the same problem as you, within 10-20 minutes of shutting off the 02, the CH was back. I take an oral cafergot at the first sign of an attack and then start huffing the 02. 02 slays it, cafergot will buy me up to 12 hours pain free time. Cafergot is an old school CH that kinda fell out of favor as it takes too long to get into your system. Might be worth a shot, ease up on your need for imitrex.

Joe

Guiseppi wrote on Oct 27^th, 2009 at 2:51am:

ease up on your need for imitrex. Joe

I can't stress that enough.  Too much of any of the triptans can cause rebound headaches.

O2 seems to be the winner here if used correctly.  That's my next addition after I see the NEW neuro in December.  Other than that, bbz suggested reading START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE That's my life saver.
LSA in Rivea Corymbosa seeds. 

Best of luck finding new means of attack.

Cheers,
Chad

Yep, I'll agree that the newer approach to using O2 with non-rebreather and hi flow, plus RC seeds stand out to me as two of the more recent treatments of note.

A very very critically important breakthrough for me has been the "Imitrex tip" that enables you to double the amount of imitrex headache aborts available to you, whlle halving your OD risk.

Links for imitrex tip and the oxygen info are on the left here in this forum view (or if you're not seeing them, they're available in this forum view: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE)