I've been having nonstop attacks since yesterday. They come and go with maybe an hour or two between attacks. I got very little sleep last night because they kept waking me up, and I would thrash around in my bed until I eventually fell asleep.

I've never had it happen like this before. I generally only get one or two attacks a day when I'm having a cluster.

I don't have any treatment methods. I'm mostly just concerned that this could be a bad sign. Going to the doctor would be a lot of money that I don't exactly have...

So, I guess I'm wondering, is this a severe enough situation to warrant a doctor's visit? If it's not, at what point would it become one?

Explore the "Helpful Hints" section right above where we are now.

Look for some guidance on using Melatonin. I think many people use about 9-11mg/night to block attacks although it may take a 1-3 days to become effective.

It's OTC and inexpensive.

You might call your local hospital and talk to the medical social worker about local options for reduced cost care, or health department, or United Way office.

While a headache specialist migh be out of the question now ($), if you have a receptive primary care doc, we can supply legit medical material to guide his treatment of you. (If you have been around here for long, you know that many of us have had to educate our docs on how to care for us! It's a workable arragement with the right person across the desk.)

If you take this approach, print out the PDF file, below, and give to the doc.

Ordinary pain meds are no useful for CH. A doc could give you some help IF he is capable of diagnosing your condition.

You didn't say that you have CH, but I assume this is the issue.

But your school health service might be a good source of care, ergo, print out the PDF file I mentioned and take it to any doc you see.

Quote:


Not sure what your parents have to do with it, but their stance is coming from ignorance about the use of 02.  Please go to the link in yellow to the left of here and read.   I have had a tank of 02 in my car, bedroom and garage for 23 years now.

Cittenscollar wrote on Feb 27^th, 2010 at 1:34pm:


Ive been being hit like you for 6 straight months now. No sleep is tough but its amazing how tough you can be.
If this is an entirely new situation then you should get it checked out.
I second Bob,s suggestion to visit the health services office on campus, (assuming your at a major university).
Often times the larger schools can have the most current knowledge and thus the best treatments available.
Most universities require you to have insurance anymore but they wont turn you away if you dont. Stress the extremes of CH.
They will have oxygen available for you to try during a hit. tell them you need a full non rebreather mask not the cannulas.

Being a weekend. Try pushups against your desk or floor immediately on the 1st sign of an attack, untill your arms can do no more.  Breath deep and hearty. followed by drinking cold water, this can help allmost as fast as oxygen is claimed to help.

Hang in there. We all know what its like.

Do you or your parents have a good relationship with any family doctors?  They might have samples of maxalt mlt, imitrex inject, and/or sumavel dosepro.  Even 1 or 2 samples might get you through a night or two where you can sleep.

In the end Oxygen is still a best bet and I would talk to the Dean of Students at your school to see if maybe you can have them house your O2 in a safe place (although it isnt ideal it might be worth it if it could be accessed quickly).

Energy drinks with taurine (andcaffiene) might also be a good suggestion.  I cant sleep with the caffeine but id rather be giddy and awake then thrashing.

Keep asking questions and good luck. 

Try finding out about sumavel dosepro.... it is new and used for migraines too so they are pushing samples right now.