Posted by Simon (213.122.152.122) on August 10, 2001 at 19:44:51:
Just posted this at OUCH (UK) MB - thought some of you might be interested
I' ve been waiting to post this for a while, as, knowing my luck, the very act of posting it will change things!
I have just reached day 24 of a remission, the longest free time I've had since March '95. As you may remember from threads in the the medications section here, I've been on lithium for while. When first put on at 300x2 pd I had a couple of days free, then they returned. Up to 400x2, and a break of three days, with a marked decreasein the number after that. Up again to 500x2 on a Friday - three attacks between then and Tuesday and none since - three in a month!
For someone who has tended to have two a day on average even while on very high verap doses this has been a revelation. For a week or so I actually felt like a non-clusterhead; everything in my head was clear, I did't find myself "defending" my head against things, and felt alive in a way I'd forgotten that one can.
Things are changing back though, I think - I've noticed the odd twinge, and the red-eye is appearing occasionally. However, I have room for an increase in the dose, and I have had many unbroken nights of sleep. I was not expecting to have such a dramatic change, so am not counting my chickens anyway!
Curious thing that did happen. The day after the ch attacks "stopped" I was hit with a day of solid migraine, from which I used to suffer before becoming a clusterhead. This had happened on one of the earlier short breaks after an increase in dosage as well. It is apparently not at all unusual in those of us for whom clusters have taken over from migraine. I can officially report that though migraine is annoying it is NOTHING like a cluster - the pain bears no comparison, it is the persistence that is the nuisance.
The final thing to mention is the strangest thing of all. I have actually felt strangely lacking in something since the pain free period has extended. This thing has been such a part of my life for so long that, I feel as if I've lost a part of me. It's not a part I mind missing at all when I think about it but I wonder how many other chronics have felt this when they've had a gap after years of non-stop ch.
Anyway, I will keep you informed. As I said, I'm not holding out hope that I am cured, but the rest from ch will make things a little easier in what has been generally a less than easy time!
(BTW for those of you who are legally minded, I am still officially chronic as the two week break that returns one to being episodic has to be free of medication.)
Hope you can join me!
Simon