So I was awakened by our common friend today. It was my first attack in almost 2 weeks. Well...actually, now that I think about it, a week.

I have a very unusual sleep schedule, I usually get up between noon and 1400. My CH's start anywhere between 1430 and 1700. At 1430 today, my wife who also has a weird sleep schedule (we both work/worked nights for years), woke up with me writhing in the bed, curled up like a ball with my hand jammed against my RIGHT eye. We were both unarmed, no imitrex or O's. On a pain scale of 0-10, my attack was ranking about a 9. My wife is my angel, she started to rub my neck and the back of my head near my neck. When she was massaging the LEFT side of my neck and head the pain would ease up some, bringing it to 5 on the 10 scale. When she massaged the RIGHT side of my neck and head, it didn't ease the pain at all.

The attack lasted about 45minutes without aborts. I took 2 excedrin, 2 Ultracet, and a flexeril and chased it with an energy drink. I have a bad back from many years of being in the back of an ambulance so the muscle relaxer was for my back which was tense for the entire time I was curled up in a ball.

As usual, I feel like shit afterwards. It drains the energy right out of me. I didn't have any imitrex, so I didn't have any of the horrible side effects of taking it. BUT, I've noticed that what I thought was side effect of imitrex is really residual yuckiness from the CH attack. I've described my side effects of imitrex as: my hair folicles feel like they are on fire, my left arm gets heavy and weak (both arms when taking the generic equiv.), dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), and a general hang over type feeling for the rest of the day. Today, both of my arms feel weak and the fuzzy 'not quite all there' hang over feeling are present. They just aren't as extreme as when I take imitrex. This feeling has me a bit concerned.

Need to schedule another appointment. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my last appointment. My wife has Lupus and has had a bad few days and one them was on the day of my appointment. Imitrex was refilled today, so I'm ready for battle.

I don't really get any side effects from imitrex (injections & pills.)

of course, if I use a pill it takes longer so I have to go through the pain longer, therefore I am more tired but I don't believe it's because of the Imitrex, but only because I just felt like I was dying for the past 20-40 minutes.

My suggestion is that if all you have is imitrex, try to get O2. It aborts my attacks and shadows pretty quickly... and really has no side effects or long term effects.

hey blue...
i have only had to use it a handful of times thankfully. 4mg injections. when away from O2. now tho, like i said i'm ina good place and don't need to use it. i'm finding out from the whole CH experience (started last april diagnosed last june) that im a bit sensitive to meds. and thanks yes early on i saw the trick for using a half dose, but use it so infrequently (still on original batch of samples) that i never tried it.

Thx again!!  Kill the Beast!!! MKD

ditto. if it works 4 u.....awsome. i keep it as last resort. we all know anything..ANYTHING is better then a fricking CH attack!

MKD >.<