Welcome home Buzz.

All of us know your pain and none doubt it.
Its a journey we all live. Much of what is known of CH exists here on these pages and in the minds of those who post and are so afflicted or support one who is.

Some just refuse to suffer.
"An opponent with nothing to lose is the hardest to beat so I hope the beast has it's gloves tied tight."
Great saying.

Joe - Get back to work. I ought to have you fired RIGHT NOW!

Dude I feel your pain is so over used but we have the same symptoms. With me it's been since 1995 and I like you get about 2 to 10 (my record) a day. First of all f##k the warnings about Imitrex 2 times a day. I injected as many as 6 times a day and I have two heart stints. That being said and me being a non medical professional I still worried about it each time I injected but I took the risk and perhaps I was lucky. Here's what I did to minimize the risk. My doctor was able to convince the insurance carrier that 4 "stat dose"kits was not enough so they increased my monthly to 9 which meant I got 18 injections each month. I read a great tip on this website that said you can cut the dose in half so each month I took my 18 injections and injected them in a vile (tough to find) then I got a prescription from my doctor for insulin syringes (cheap)  and now I had 36 doses of Imitrex which I could take 4 times a day or knowing me 6 times if i needed it.
Now you may ask, why weren't you using O2 and I would reply that in the past I had no success with O2 so trex was my catch all. I first tried O2 back in the late '90s when,  apparently they didn't  know the flow rates needed for the O2 to be effective so I'd been prescribed far below the 15 lpm required to be effective. Now that I have the correct regulator I rarely use Imitrex but it saved me before I corrected the O2 problem. For your road trips without your O2 have your doctor prescribe Zomig 2.5 Mg it dissolves on your tongue and you always keep one in you pocket. Just for the record you are chronic.
One more note; last year I was implanted with an ONS (Occipital Nerve Stimulator) that never worked and now has to be removed. It was painful when it went in and I'm sure it will be painful on the way out. I telling you this cause it's good sometimes to hear someone who's going through it like you.
Good luck bud, Hang in there!
David

Buzz,

Hang in there friend... My last "episode" started in 97, but I figure any day now it'll be over  .

We LIVE between hits and do what we have to when we are getting hit. O2 has been a savior for "most" of us here.

Pete gave you some good advice about the supplements (he yelled at me until I got on them and I'm doing much better since I listened to him).

As far as relationships go with CH ... well we all have a problem there. Some have great supporters and some of us go it alone. My best supporter is my 8 year old grandson - he knows Granny needs O2 when she starts pulling on her ear and runs for the O2 tank... he also knows not to touch her until she smiles at him and then he has a big hug waiting. That's the ONLY support I've had since I developed these things...

And you're right about acceptance... once we accept we're going to get hit and there's not anything we can do about it... well, we get on with our lives and COPE.

And I'm laughing with you about the bruises... we've all been there. I've come up with some that I have NO idea how I got them, but there they were. About 10 years ago a group of us were together and got to comparing our "wounds" and arguing about who had the most "unique" ones.  Sometimes ya just gotta laugh with people who "understand".

Since there are so many in the area where you are, my best suggestion is to "get together" with one or two. For some reason it really helps to meet another CHer. This site is great, but meeting another CHer is awesome - trust me - I never miss a chance and always go away feeling a lot better.

There's a convention in Atlanta in July. If there's a way come to it... It's an eye-opening experience to just be with others for a few days.

Hope you're feeling better today.. As someone said - Breathe!

I'll state right off that I'm a supporter, not a sufferer.  But having been a supporter for almost 20 years one thing jumped out of a recent post.  Buzz, you mentioned no two treatment types were ever allowed to overlap.  I think this approach might be flawed.  My clusterhead took a cocktail of lithium, verapamil, and sometimes prednisone for years.  Add oxygen in large M tanks and that kept him going. Sometimes the doctors added things like depakote or inpatient DHE when the going got especially rough.  If you're looking for ONE cure/treatment/therapy, I think you may be off base.

There is no one thing that works for every clusterhead.  Some work for most, none works for all.  O2 is about the closest thing to a "universal" treatment, but it has to be done correctly for it to bring relief.  Huffing some O2 twice and declaring it doesn't work is not correct.

I think E-double is right.  Perhaps the anxiety about CH is causing you more trouble than it should.  I can honestly say that CH has never caused my clusterhead to hit anything or anyone.  He was much more laid back about it once he found out it wasn't fatal.  Don't assume he wasn't in severe pain, he was, but he knew it was temporary and he could get on with life after it stopped.

Living between the hits is a state of being, not just a phrase.