My clusters began in earnest when I was 25 (1973). It took years before I received any real diagnosis. Back in the early days one doctor said it was not possible to have a headache on one side of your face! Over the years I tried most every drug and therapy and in the end settled on Cafergot and O2. Towards the end (key word) I went from annual or semi-annual bouts to everyday for fours years. And then one October about five year ago they blinked out over about four weeks time. There have been moments of dread fear and doubts (I still carry cafergot with me) but no real relapses. Old guy menopause? Just luck? Not a better lifestyle by any means altho I did stop drinking about 10 years ago (a definite trigger for me) but they do seem to be gone. I can only wish the same for each everyone of you out there. It is good to have one's life back. Bless you all.

Very glad to hear you've enjoyed a good long remission without these rotten things. 

If there's any compensation to getting older, I think losing the beast is a good one.  Not ready to declare him gone, but I will say that in my case, the cycles have become less frequent in the past couple decades.  It's a good thing.

With luck, the thing will die before I do.  Here's hoping for both of us.

All the best,

George 

That's good to hear.  I have a long way to go though.  I'm 24, and they're just starting to get real bad unfortunately.  Anyhow, that is good and hopefully something I can look forward to someday.  Can I ask how frequent/bad they used to be and various treatments?

donwinfred wrote on Nov 4^th, 2010 at 11:55am:

they do seem to be gone. I can only wish the same for each everyone of you out there. It is good to have one's life back. Bless you all.

I know what you mean. I've been in a much better place since April 24th of this year, with a 23 year ongoing battle. Still, I just want to say, life was changed, not ended. I think it's important to remind ourselves that life is how it presents to us. We'd much rather have a pain free life...of course...but CHs aren't the only thing that screw up our plans. The quality of our lives depends on the adjustments we make. Easier without CHs throwing us sucker punches, but even then...we can live and love and be loved. God bless! lance

And here I come to rain on your parade! ;D

The "experts" say they're never really gone. That your remissions will get longer and longer as you age, but the "defect" is always there! I'm 50 and my last remission was 2 years, the longest ever. Hoping my 5 and 10 year remissions are just around the corner.

Here's hoping you're in the middle of a 30 year remission! :)

Joe