Hi ya everyone just joined up and thought I'd let you know a bit about me! I'm a 34yr old fella from England and have been suffering with Cluster Headaches since 2001. I've been on all sorts of medication to try and help with this condition. The drugs sometimes start off well but after going over and above the maximum dose I seem to become immune and the attacks start all over again. I'm currently on a regime of Pregabalin which at the moment haven't really taken effect but I'm still building up to a dose of 300mg twice a day, fingers crossed they start to help as during the month of August I've had 128 separate attacks lasting anything from 5 mins to 85 mins. I see my neurologist at least 3 times a year and I have now been put forward for the Occipital Nerve Stimultor operation, which I could be waiting for up to 2yrs for it to take place. Right gonna have to cut this short and finish it later as I've just felt the start of another damn attack 

Welcome Macca75 and  [smiley=hiya.gif]

Have you tried O2 Therapy for your CH ?  Check the Oxygen info link to the left of this area. 

Looking forward to learning more about your ch struggle and getting to know you.

Sending Pain Free Vibes your way hang in there you can get through this.

Hi Macc75, and welcome to your new home.
I agree 100% with Ginger about the o2, it works wonders for the majority of us here. Here is a pic of my Mask, available at the CH.com store to your left and my "M" tank and "E" tank regulators. Hope you and your doc find something that works for you. I also take 480mg of Verapamil daily as my preventative and it is working great, so far! Nice to meet you, others will be along soon, you are not alone with these anymore.
  Barry :)
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This is for your excellent support group and they will be able to help you with issues/questions about your health care system.

Hey Macca,

Yep there are legions of O2 fans here because this newer high flow/non rebreather method (that almost ALL docs are ignorant about) really works.

During my episode around this time last year I eventually got up to 2400 mg a day of Pregabalin, which I felt was worth it, since it reduced the number of hits I was getting at a peak cycle that was starting to spin outa control.

For abortives I used O2 as my first line, imitrex injections only if necessary (they were necessary several times, and they and the angelic person who helped me get them saved me arse).

This arsenal enabled me to prevent or abort every single hit for that episode and I sure hope you can start getting similar results. Of course we all respond differently, and my solution won't necessarily work for others or even me in a future episode.

Speaking of future episodes, we're seeing reports of people being able to prevent entire episodes, or relieve them greatly, with the approach focused on over at clusterbusters.com and it's forum. Here's a video talk on the subject by one of our fellow CH'ers: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Hey there, and welcome! The advice you're getting above is really good. Add to it some consideration for melatonin and energy drinks. I was wondering though about what you have tried, and in what doses. You said you've maxed on the dose levels but quite often our effective range is much, much higher than it is for the Rx in general. Mind sharing? And I understand about "becoming immune." Of course, that isn't exactly what is happening, but the beast does morph and what worked before may not work now...and what didn't work before might work now. It's maddening. Blessings! lance

Welcome to the board. If you search the site a bit, Lizzie2 had that implant procedure done and posted quite the description of it. She spoke about it at our Atlanta convention.

Another strong vote for oxygen here. Has almost eliminated my use of imitrex. Cheap, effective and no side effects. Hoping you catch some quiet, pain free time soon.

Joe