Posted by Julie on July 31, 1998 at 08:30:38:
In Reply to: Why do these get DRAMATICALLY worse? posted by Don on July 29, 1998 at 10:15:57:
Hi,
It sounds like your clusters are similar to mine in that the length of the c/h runs hours and hours, longer than I think is typical for a lot of folks. I have tried the Imitrex, et. al and these meds. do not work for me. They knock the pain level down a notch or two, but have never aborted the c/h. Oxygen seems to be best if I can catch the c/h early enough (within 15 minutes); and I use a week of prednisone treatment to break the cycle. Pred. takes a day or two to really begin to work for me, so my Dr. puts me on ms-contin (long-acting morphine) for a few days until pred. kicks in. You really do have to be careful about rebound h/a with pain killers such as morphine, my dr. tapers the dose of ms-contin gradually down to nothing, and I have not experienced rebounders. I think that if you are receiving injections of morphine or demerol that rebound might be a distinct possibility for the increases in your c/h pain level. For those of us that are not responsive to imitrex, and have long-running h/a - I
think that pain med. has to be considered. All it does, though, is alleviate the symptoms...you really need to find preventatives that work to solve the problem. Good doctors should help. Julie