Thank you to those of you who have already offered me advice but I thought I would throw the question out to the wider CH.com community.

I had the unfortunate experience of going through a cluster migraine a couple of days ago and I would not wish it on my worst enemy.
I am currently in cycle but also suffer from migraines. I take 360mg verapamil and 100mg topomax daily and am 5 weeks into the D3 regime and 1 week out of the loading regime.
I am waiting for my blood test to come back so I don't know what my levels are yet.

I am under the care of an excellent neurologist who was able to stop the cluster migraine with Relpax 80mg (Eletriptan)
I do have the option of upping my verapamil and I will be discussing O2 with him tomorrow. He also wanted to discuss either Botox or a Neural Block with me as a preventative as I am not happy about staying on the Topomax long term as it does make me dopey.
I have been told that the success of the Neural block comes downs to how good the neurologist is and that Botox can be quite expensive.

Has anybody had any success with either procedure for clusters,migraines or cluster migraines ?

I would appreciate any input as both seem quite scary but I do need to find a solution to my problem as I don't want to go through another one of those monsters again.

Thank you Bob you are correct but after appointment with my neurologist on Monday a definite paln has been put in place.
He is experienced and was trained at the Mayo Clinic so I trust him.
In his words my brain has become highly sensitized to pain and I do have many things going on.
The plan is to have Botox on Wednesday to try and settle my head down so he can then treat the clusters and the migraines on a level playing field. He will then up my Verapamil to 480mg/day and reduce the Topomax to 50mg/day.
The complication is that I also have high blood pressure which is heighten my head pain levels.
I don't expect any one thing to be a silver bullet just each thing being a piece of the puzzle. 
It is a complicated situation which I believe he has a handle on.
I understand what you are saying but I believe he has it under control.
Thank you for your concern
Alan

Thanks for your reply CDog, hope I have more luck.

Thrilled to hear you're finding a plan to manage this beast. Please keep us updated as this sort of information is important to so many CHeads.

Full steam and damn the torpedoes!

Botox works quite well for my Sister's migraines.

Thank you to everyone for your words of encouragement

Good news is that I've continued to improve and haven't had a migraine or cluster hit since I last posted. I can't say it has been definitive for clusters as I may have gone out of cycle but as far the pain sensitivity in my head and the chronic migraines I was experiencing, it has definitely done the job. Although my neurologist did say he did target the trigeminal nerve so I wouldn't discount a positive response on that front.

Zeitgeist, I watched the video and I've got to say the injections into the scalp were enough for me to endure. Having a needle that deep would concern me too.

Thanks again everyone for your support.

Alan

Just thought I would give my last update and two cents worth on Botox.
I had my 2nd round of Botox injections two weeks ago and a week later went into cycle despite being on verapamil (upped to 480mg/day a week ago) and D3 (1 week into another loading dose) I'm sure these will kick in shortly to give me some relief. I will also be getting oxygen this week so I should be covered (non-breather mask already purchased) I went on the pred taper this morning to buy me some time so when this is finished, everything else should kick in.

In short the Botox has not been effective for my Clusters which seems to support the general opinion. However I believe it has been very effective in controlling my chronic migraines as I have had only 1 in the last 4 months which was quickly despatched with a Relpax (God's little gift to migraine sufferers !)

Thanks for all the support and I hope this info helps someone out there

Alan

I just had my first ever botox injection 2 weeks ago. The intensity and frequency have gone down steadily since and I haven't had a full blown CH since the injection. I haven't felt the need to use any triptans for the past 4-days now which is such a relief after 2 months of having at least 2 CH per day. Hopefully the treatment continues to work, I will write with an update in a week or 2.

I've read it works well treating migraine headaches. So, lets
hope it can do the same for some of us clusterheads.

Hoppy

Hi Alan,
           Sorry to hear your in another lengthy cycle !  Damn
  you seem to be right, success is down to the individual.
I hope all's tracking well with everything else ?

all the best
colin

I too have been suffering from chronic migraine since past one year. On consultation with my doctor, I got a Dysport injection but that never helped me get rid of the pain. Doesn't that really work? Tried a lot of home remedies also but nothing helped until I went for a cosmetic botox treatment in a clinic in Brampton, Med-Aesthetics, welcomed the relief for nearly 2 months. It's definitely worth a try.