Posted by Todd Owen (152.163.207.193) on December 20, 1999 at 07:15:49:
Hello all,
I must admit, reading through the posts here and all the info that is available, I am happy to know anymore that I am not alone in dealing with the beast. I too have been diagnosed with cluster headaches in addition to migraines. Dear god please give me a migraine anyday. At least that puppy can be beat. As for the cluster, that beast truly is an ugly one.
I am writing this post in the middle of the night--awoke once more with the cluster pain. The worst thing I run into is that the standard migraine meds, Imitrex, Zomig, Maxalt, don't work on the cluster. Sometimes all they seem to do is make it worse. Have been through a number of doctors before finding my current neurologist, and boy is she a godsend. My previous neurologist prescribed me (don't laugh too hard on this one) Ibuprofen for my headache pain. I did not know it was possible to have someone that unsympathetic to what we go through. This cluster has been going on for a couple of months now, and still does not want to break. I am on steroids and Neurontin, plus plenty of painkillers to try and deal with the bad spikes when the beast rears its head once more.
It has been almost two weeks since I last had to make a trip to the ER to try and break the pain, and that headache reset my pain scale to a new, higher level. It took two shots of morphine to break the pain enough that I could go home and sleep for a while. In the time since, I have gone through a number of doses of Esgic and Stadol.
I would be more than happy to talk to other CH sufferers, if nothing more than to find another shoulder to cry on. It truly is something only we can understand, much the same way I think my love for jumping from airplanes is something that can only be understood through experience. That is the worst part of CH--very few people understand the nature of the beast.
I look forward to hearing from others.
Todd Owen
analogrto@home.com