Posted by Richard E. DeFord (205.242.231.86) on June 29, 1999 at 19:05:31:
In Reply to: Cluster headaches posted by Mike Fletcher on June 29, 1999 at 18:22:58:
Join the club! Unfortunately, even heads of neurology departments act like porky pig when it comes to us. I can offer a few observations I have made.
1)My clusters seem to be caused by variations in sleep times - example - staying up late a couple of nights in a row when I am used to going to bed at 9:30.
Also - inregards to sleep, I also have Gastro Intestinal Reflux disease. I find on nights when I wake up more than 2 times to take antacids, I seem to start an episode of CHs 7-10 days afterwards.
2) A combination of 100% Oxygen and Imitrex Injection is effective most of the time, though not all.
3) Preventative medications are few and far between....really just comes down to trial and error in finding out what you react to.
Good luck........going through them too....I can certainly sympathize. I was talking to my fiancee about them tonight and she is really scared for me.
Richard