Hello everyone,

I'm new here and pretty new to cluster headaches.
I was diagnosed to suffer from cluster headaches about two and a half years ago, after daily attacks and taking paracetamol on a highly dose for two weeks without doing anything else but making me high :p

Well, it hasn't been too bad for me. I only have 1 attack a day when I have a cluster period and it never lasts more than 2 weeks. But oh my god... this is not human... it is torture. I am glad I found this site where people, obviously in much more pain than me, gather around and exchange feelings, thoughts and experiences.

I have a couple of questions in regard to imitrex, how to cope with an attack and the way they diagnosed me so I can't wait to dig into the forum here.

I'm looking forward to staying here for a while, although somehow it frightens me a bit.. I am affraid that what I will read will be worse than what I have experienced myself so far
But I have to do this because at the moment I am pretty scared anyway. I have to try to get at peace with this because I might be stuck with this for a while or forever. I need to understand this and realize I am not the only one out there.

cheers.

Hi there, yes we all know this a tough one.
Have you seen a neuro ? he can, like any doctor, prescribe you verapamil if you haven't tried it yet, it's pretty common. If you feel the beast ringing on your door, try redbull, or any other energy drinks with sufficient amount of caféine/taurine.
Hope this helps.

Hi bulgroz,

thx for the info.
it was my regular doctor and my neuro who diagnosed me 2 and a half years ago.

I read about verapmil in a reply to another thread of mine but I still have to read up a lot about it. I plan to talk about it with my neuro though as I have some issues with topamax.

I have read that energy drinks: caféine/taurine can help when you feel an attack coming but I'm a little bit affraid about this as I have also read that it can increase the intensity of the attack if you wait too long.
I can not feel an attack coming, no lingering shadow (no idea what that is actually) or something. The pain starts right away, although pretty light the first minute or so, it gets very strong after a minute or two. Isn't it already too late for energy drinks then?

I'm willing to give it a try during the first or second attack of a cycle, after that I can't take it anymore. I can sit through the first ones. The rest is torture...

I recently had a cycle, no more visits from the beast since last Sunday. I'll have to go shopping soon anyway so I might get me some red bulls so I can give it a try should it get back :)

Ruva have you visited the oxygen info link yet? It is the first thing I tun to when an attack starts. It would be an ideal treatment for somebody like yourself whose attacks build in intensity so quickly. Getting oxygen has almost eliminated my use of the more expensive imitrex as it works just as well as imitrex most of the time. Take a second to read the link...it's complete with color pics to show you the set up.....then chat with your doc about it. Been a life changer for many of us.

Joe

Heya Joe,

no I haven't come around to do that yet but I have noticed that it would seem oxygen treatment is definately something I need to dig into asap. So I will do so.

There's just so much haha
But yes, great tip I will most definately have a look there and absorb the info.

I don't think I mentioned before, my name's Ruben so...

Cheers,
Ruben  ;)