Posted by Cujo (209.214.200.56) on January 10, 2000 at 07:34:51:
Hello everyone , I have been about 7 weeks into this cycle now. These have definitly been the absolute worst of my life ( 25 year sufferer ) I wanted to take the time to tell a few things about my headaches.
I started getting these when i was 16 years old , I 1st thought they were sinus related due to the stuffed up nose and the red watery eye. I went approx 10 years without ever doing anything about them. I finally went to a doctor and was diagnosed with CH.
I tried a few remedies , but none of them seemed to work so i just settled myself with the thought of having to live with them.My CH's tend to last from 6 to 10 weeks with a ramping up of 1 per week to about 5 per week , and the intensity going up as i peaked. Always... absolutely always coming after i had relaxed, be it from work , and i worked all shifts. My only trigger that i know of is Alcohol.
The last 2 times , i have tried new drugs that my Neuro prescribed. None working except Imitrex. But i have found that if i take the imitrex , after the imitrex has wore off , The CH comes back. I have also found that it seems to throw my cycle out of whack. My last 2 cycles with imitrex , i have started getting 2 or 3 CH's in a day and sometimes getting a CH that will ramp down to a Migraine , that last sometimes up to 36 hours. For the 1st time in my life , i started getting CH's at work ( i work 3rd shift )
2 weeks ago i made the conscious effort to not do anymore drugs at all. Just live with the CH's. Well.... Geuss what ? My CH's have lessened in intensity , coincidence , maybe!! But i also am back to 1 a day , and i actually feel like im on the road to remission. Sometimes its tough to live in pain , and i keep an emergency stash of imitrex inhalers at work just in case the beast makes a reappearance. But right now i feel like im on the road to being painfree very soon.
I wanted to thank DJ for such a wonderful site , there is a wealth of info here that i never knew about.
Also i want to thank everyone here that has sent E-mails to me in the past , Ur kind words meant a lot in the struggle to maintain 1's sanity through all of this.
Also if any unfortunate people out there who dont have insurance or are just too poor to afford treatment , i.e. drugs....send me an E-mail , i have lots left over that i am only gonna throw away , verapamil , nalodol , indocin , and a little bit of imitrex.
I know its illegal , but i dont give a rats ass. People should not have to live in pain needlessly.
To all you Chronics , My heart goes out to you.
I know this was way too long , so see ya , Cujo