Hey David,


                 Welcome aboard.You will find this site to be intoxicating.You will be drawn to it like moths to a flame.You will also make many friends here so far you have already found 1.If we could be of any help feel free,ask away.BTW good name.




Dave

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Hi to all the clusterheads,

Yes that's me in good times last year pretty much a week apart from this year! A week before getting hit...

I'm 33, diagnosed 3 years ago with CH but has been suffering in an out since i'm 18! Only episodic on Fall time now i was suffering twice a year when i got diagnosed Spring/Fall...but it seems something broke the twice a year cycle!?!

I was on the Canadian OUCH message board and i met a lot of nice people who helped me dealing with this condition...

Like i said to my best friend it's very nice to see i'm not the only one with problems in the head...

See ya'll around...

Paulin,

You've come to a great place for information.  Spend time looking around this site going through the message boards and other information here.  It's helped me a great deal in discussing CH with my doctors and understanding the affliction.  There are many who check-in who know much more than I do who will be able to assist you.  Find the message threads specific to the questions that you have or start you own.  Those seem to get more attention than the newcommer thread.

The people here are wonderful!

Good luck.

Hi folks, 
My name is Mike and I currently live in Fort Dodge, Iowa.   As many of you were, I had been diagnosed with a bad sinus problem since I was a teenager.  Fortunately a few years ago, my regular doctor was gone and his partner told me I might have cluster headaches and referred me to a headache clinic in Omaha where I was living then.  I had an attack the night before I had my appointment.  I was diagnosed with CH's and given some steroids, lithium, and veralin.  The attacks stopped immediately.   That was 2.5 years ago.  This spring it felt like I was having another episode coming so I started again on the verelin.  Even though I had been taking it, I had an episode start in the middle of June.  I started back up on the lithium also. Within the last week the attacks have been coming daily, (day and night).  My main problem is that I moved 3 hours away from my headache clinic, and i'm in a small town where they don't know anything about CH.   

I feel very fortunate to have found this site.  I have learned more from reading this site the past day than I have since I was diagnosed.  I have an appointment with a local Neurologist tomorrow and I now feel comfortable telling him what I would like to try as far as treatment is concerned.  Thank you all for your contributions to this site and I look forward to participating in all of it. 

Mike

Hi everyone.... Just found this site after doing research on cluster headaches (As I do everytime a cluster period starts).  Seems to be a pretty organized site; lots of information.

I am a stay at home mom of 4 beautiful children.  I also attend college on-line to become a school teacher. 
I am in toward the end of a cluster period right now.  I have had clusters for about 13 years.
A week after I gave birth to my son, I ended up in the emergency room about 10 times in two weeks for the headaches.  No one could tell me why at all.  It took my 7 years to get diagnosed with cluster headaches (for it was considered a predominately male condition).  I went on any drug they would give me at the time; steroids, calcium blockers, etc.  Nothing worked at all.  Imitrex worked, but not reading the dosage helped (2x's a day doesn't cut it when you get 4 or more a day).  Script ran out in 3 days when it was supposed to last a month.  Can you say ching ching $$.  It was great while it lasted.   Given the history of my mom dying from an anyurism and a stroke at a young age, my Dr. took me off it. 
I have been dealing with the clusters medication free for 3 1/2 years now.   White noise seems to help me cope with it and fall asleep right afterwards.  Other than that I don't do anything in particular when one comes on.


+0.

Hey Shanrich welcome to the board. I tip my hat to you for going the med free route, several people on the board go that route, not something I'll try!!!

That being said, have you tried oxygen. When i feel one coming on I break out my little e-tank, fire it off and can be completely pain free in as little as 6 minutes. It's been a life saver for me and for many. Which ever route you take, by all means stick aroun, we're an entertaining bunch if nothing else!!!

Guiseppi

RollingRoscoe:
KOOL CBR. I thought I wouldn't come here too much & bother people, but I saw the CBR and had to chime in.
Looks like you have some stuff in er'
What's it got? I can see lots of personalized touches, but I suspect there is more !!!
I retired my motorcycle shop a few years ago and my son still builds choppers for a mutual friend, so I still have a real interest.
Fast is it?
Cheers, Dave

Hi everyone! I'm Nienke and I'm brand new here!
I'll introduce myself  ... I'm 21 years old, living in Voorschoten, Holland. I'm still living with my parents, sister (who is going to live on her own within a month or 2) and 2 cats.
12th of July I graduated for nurse.. Now I'm working in a nursery home with people who have dementia. In April 2008 I'll go to Ghana for 14 or 15 weeks to work and travel.
I'm a chronic a-typical clusterhead for 3 years now. Thinking back I had the first episode when I was 14, but we never saw it as cluster headache. February of 2004 I had another episode, but also never saw that as cluster headache. July of 2004 the episode was gone, and August 2004 it was back... Since then it's never been away....
I don't know if al the names are the same in Dutch as in English, but I tried Verapamil, Deseril, Amytriptilline and a lot of other things (I forget and can't look for it now).
I tried acupuncture, natural physician, magnetizing and 4 treatments with heat (trying to confuse the nerve near my nose and the nerve at my C1-vertebra).
The C1-treatment worked for about 2 weeks and then it stopped...
At the moment I'm using Propanolol in combination with Taurine.. It's doing something, but not enough...
At the moment I've one attack at nights and besides that I have chronic headache.

Picture is coming later, don't have one now, because I'm not at home 

THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO. EVERY ONE HERE IS SO HELPFUL AND KIND. I AM NOW HOOKED ON THIS SITE.
NEW TO C/H ONLY ABOUT 9 MONTHS AND AM STILL FINDING MY WAY TO CONTROL AND UNDERSTAND IT. I HAVE HAD A ROUGH TIME  AND IF IT WERN'T FOR THIS SITE AND ALL THAT HAS HELPED I WOULD BE TOTTALY LOST.
THANK YOU,
DAVID
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DAVID AND MY WONDERFUL GIRLFRIEND SARAH

Greetings to All,

Whilst I've been posting for a few years now – never introduced myself.  I'm not actually called Beastfodder and usually answer to Andrew.

46 years old living in the UK just outside Congleton in Cheshire, very happily married with two children.  As for the CH it's an episodic thing usually in Autumn although I had a springtime debut this year.

Spent about four years misdiagnosed by my GP – leading to a sinus operation and a deep understanding of coping with being hit without any effective medication. After that life is good – alternatives and O2 have worked really well for me, certainly better than the prescription options which in my mind carry too much of an overhead.

Suppose this is less about me than the brilliant support I've had, both here and from Ouch UK in terms of getting O2 supplies – though I'd really like to see them lighten up a little on their policy on alternative postings!

Speaking of support I've got to mention and thank all those involved with Clusterbusters.  Even when properly diagnosed with CH and using prescription meds my episode in 2004 was over 60 two hour plus hits over ten weeks. Since then it's been about 10-15 attacks over five weeks that have been hoovered up with O2 and a clustermask pretty quickly.

Given the above makes it easier to spare you any photographic evidence of me!

As for 'lifestyle' love my wine, Guinness when we're over at the in-laws in Ireland, the odd smoke and try to run up hills to counteract the drinking and smoking.  Got a half marathon to do next month which should guarantee a couple of hours of 'quality time' to myself away from a very active 6 year old boy and little girl who's just started walking and is absolutely gorgeous.

Hi my name is carol, but my friends have called me lorac for years.. I started having episodic Ch's in 1992, and was lucky enough to be pain free for ten years...
in 2005 they came back, and every other year is my time with the beast...

   I am soooo glad to have found this site....What a relief to know others with ch...I have learned so much from these nice people.

I am 53, and now live in tennessee, with the greatest husband in the world.   Together we have 3 children, and 8 grandbabies ; 

   I hope together we can somehow bring more awareness about CH to the general public, because I believe there are a lot of misdiagnosed people out there that need our help...

   Thank you Thank you Thank you to the person who started this website   

                                                            LORAC

Hi,

Im Robert, sorry no pic.
Im 27 and this is my fourth year with CH.
Mine start in Oct and go strong until March
the pain starts the second I wake and beats me down until I finally get to sleep.
Getting concerned as Oct is right around the corner.
Anyways, its nice to know Im not alone.

Hey Father.  About time you said hi.  I thought you were gonna stand out there in the street forever ; It's nice to see another guy with a large family here on the site. 

Anyway, if you've been fighting this beast this long I'm sure you've tried a lot of things.  What works best for me is O2 and energy drinks with Imitrex Injections as backup.

Good luck...

-Dennis-