Jeannie wrote on Apr 21st, 2009 at 3:07pm:ellenjoanne wrote on Apr 21st, 2009 at 1:45pm:Jeannie wrote on Apr 14th, 2009 at 12:33pm:... and not happy.
+1 girl! I feel for you. For the first time ever, I had CH in March of this year! I'm still in cycle, in spite of the meds my neurologist put me on. Is it the weird weather that caused yours (temps bouncing up and down like a yo-yo)? I think it is with me, because the only other thie I had CH at this time of the year was in April & May of 2006, when we had the same kind of wildly swinging temperatures.
Spring is my usual time to be in cycle.
Sorry you are still having HAs despite the meds you are on. What are you taking? I am on Verapamil. So far it is keeping my HAs to kip 5 or below. I am having constant shadows though.
PF wishes,
Jeannie
I've been getting CH since Oct. 1999. I was formally diagnosed (I finally sought treatment, after having a Kip 10 attack on the night of the 4th of July, 2005 that literally lasted for 3 hours [I screamed and cried and literally wanted to die]) in the summer of 2005 by a board certified headache specialist. I've been on Verapamil non-stop since that time.
My present headache specialist (my old one moved out of the area in late 2005) is a neurologist, who is an Associate Proffessor of Neurology for the Medical College of Wisconsin, and is also a board certified headache specialist. She runs one of only 2 or 3 headache centers in the state of Wisconsin. I've been seeing her since late 2005. Right now I'm on 480 mg/day of Verapamil. I use Migranol nasal spray as an abortive (I DON'T like needles, so Imitrex injectors are a no-go for me). It usually does a pretty good job of stopping my headaches (although every once in a while, it doesn't work too well). My cycles are typically in Nov. and December (although I did have nasty cycles in the summers of 2000 and 2005).
My neurologist feels my headaches are very aggressive (they're typically Kip 8 or Kip 9 and have a tendancy to get out of control, to the point where they end up having major attacks daily or twice a day). So, as a result, she typically tries to hit them hard with the meds. I originally did a 1 week taper dose of Prenisone in March. The headaches came back a week after I stopped. Since Prednisone has so may side effects, they prefer not to restart it unless they have no choice. So, I was put on 50 mg/day of Lyrica (I took Methergine for my cycle in December 2008, and I thought it was LAME). I got headaches for every other day for 4 days. Then for a week (around Easter), I was pain free. But starting this past Thursday, the headaches started up again. I saw my Neurologist yesterday, and she upped my Lyrica dose to 100 mg/day. She also put me on it for 3 months, and at the very least, I'm supposed to call back in 2 weeks with a followup (sooner if things get out of hand), at which time my meds will be adjusted it they need to be.
I hate these headaches. The last time I had a CH cycle in Spring (April and May 2006), we had the same situation we've been having for the last few weeks - wild swings in temperature. I wish the temps would just settle down. I'm at work, and I've had at least one shadow today (around lunchtime).