I fell into this site and, until i did, thought i was the only person that had these awful things. On one hand i am glad to know I am not alone and on the other sorry that others are suffering too. My Doctor actually hit the nail on the head and diagnosed it, but his PA says i have Migraines...she needs to come visit this site.

Thank you all for being here and i look forward to touching base as time go by.

welcome to the forum!! Yes, every doctor should visit this site and learn a thing or two!!.  ;)  If your not using o2 yet, you should try it, you'll like it :D I guess I'm an o2 pusher now.

Welcome Mike glad to have you here and sorry you had too.

May your dancing be more for fun than due to CH in the future!  :D

Start reading like a mad man. In very short order, you will know mountains more then your doc about CH. This condition requires you take an active role in planning and administering your treatments. Hopefully this will be a friendly relationship with your doc. That being said...don't be afraid to push a little when you know you're right!

Welcome home.

Joe

Mike in lubbock wrote on Jun 14^th, 2010 at 4:43pm:

I fell into this site and, until i did, thought i was the only person that had these awful things.

I know exactly what you mean. When I discovered there were others out there who knew what I was going through, I felt a mixed reaction of relief (I'm not crazy!) and sorrow for the pain others feel. Good to have you aboard. I pray we all have a painfree day. Blessings!

WOW! I'm so glad you found us, but so sorry you have to. I am in Lubbock as well. Drop me a line if'n you wanna chat.

PFDN,
Eric

Guiseppi wrote on Jun 14^th, 2010 at 5:19pm:

Start reading like a mad man. In very short order, you will know mountains more then your doc about CH. This condition requires you take an active role in planning and administering your treatments. Hopefully this will be a friendly relationship with your doc. That being said...don't be afraid to push a little when you know you're right! Welcome home. Joe

It could not be said any better.

Don

Guiseppi wrote on Jun 14^th, 2010 at 5:19pm:

Start reading like a mad man. In very short order, you will know mountains more then your doc about CH. This condition requires you take an active role in planning and administering your treatments. Hopefully this will be a friendly relationship with your doc. That being said...don't be afraid to push a little when you know you're right! Welcome home. Joe

Can we just make the statement above the official clusterheadaches.com slogan?  :)

Mike - people who research and ask questions here and then act decisively based on their new knowledge often find some much much improved relief. Please be one of those people.  8-)

I agree with Joe and Bejeeber (haha - not suprising!)
People who take an active and partnering role in their health with their physician generally do much much better in terms of their overall health and wellness than those who sit back passively. 

Also, in particular in regards to such a rare condition as CH, you easily may come across a treatment or idea that your dr doesn't even know about. 

And, please, in my opinion, a good physician is not threatened by questions or a patient's own research.   If your doctor has concerns about certain treatments or such that you've come across in your research then she/he should vocalize those concerns and certainly has the right not to prescibe treatments of which she has doubts about the safety.   However, a good physician should never ever belittle your efforts at caring for yourself.

Mike,
Glad you found us, but sorry you're here (as we all are sorry we're here with CH).

O2, O2, O2,  It's been the lifesaver for MOST of us (nothing works for ALL). And READ READ READ this site.... there is more information here than in most medical schools about CH.

NO, you're not ALONE anymore. We're here for support and believe me we do UNDERSTAND what you're going thru - because we're going thru the same thing and it takes another Clusterhead to understand.

Get hold of Eric. Trust me, I've met him and he's a really nice guy (not an axe murderer or anything like that). Just meeting another sufferer is an experience and it gives you a real sense of NOT being alone. I've seen him get hit and he's seen me get hit and we both lived over it. You'd be surprised how NON-embarrased you are in front of another CHer.

Again, welcome to Clusterville.

Hugs BD :-*

l'll tag along with Joe and Lettucehead's comments.

Several years ago, when I had to move, my primary care doc, who I had to leave, wrote me an extraordinary letter thanking me for what I had taught him over the years of our relationship!

If you have a relationship anything near like this one, can you imagine expessing your trust and appreciation by giving him/her a copy of this book?

MANAGEMENT OF HEADACHE AND HEADACHE MEDICATIONS, 2nd ed. Lawrence D. Robbins, M.D.; pub. by Springer. $50 at Amazon.Com.  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....")