Posted by Kelly (209.108.213.67) on July 10, 2001 at 12:11:25:
My husband first experienced a cluster headache about 2 years ago, when he was 22. His symptoms were the same that everyone describes, blinding pain, sensitivity to light and sound, the urge to bang his head on the wall, sleeplessness. We tried everything, from oxegen to prednisone, and nothing helped for more than a few hours. Finally, we bit the bullet and tried Imitrix, in the nasal spray form instead of injections. Within 15 minutes he was asleep and didn't wake up for 18 hours (this was after a six-week headache bender and 1-2 hours of sleep a day.) When he woke up, the headache was finally gone. Since then, whenever he feels one of them starting, he takes Melatonin (a sleep aid you can buy at any drug store or grocery) and tries to go to sleep. If he can't fall asleep, it always comes and he takes the Imitrix. We find that if he gets to sleep within an hour of onset, he can avoid the chronic headaches with minimal discomfort. It also seems that they are triggered by lack of regular sleep, so we watch that too. He has been headache-free for over a year now. I hope this works for someone else too!