Migraine

Hi everyone,

I'm a 38 yr old cluster head (since 18), who's experiencing a bad year and need to find something that works.

My cluster seasons used to only come every 4th spring (yes once every 4 years!) and last at about 3 months (1 to 2 migraines a day), but this year (supposed to be a non-cluster year) I've had 3 breakouts each lasting about a month... really wired...

In the recent past Verapamil 120mg/day and MethylPrednisolone dospak has worked as a preventive and I use cafergot as an abotive (Imitrex injections work great but $$$). Well, the preventives arn't working this time, I'm relying on the cafergot way too much and don't feel healthy.

I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to talk about alternative medications and from what I've read Depakote, Lithium, and Topamax are my choices.

I'd love to hear advice from other cluster heads. I'm at my wits end and can't spend half the year fighting migraines.

Thanks, Randy.

ps. I have some real horror stories about having clusters in the 80s - early 90s that I should share sometime. Thank God for modern medicine is all I have to say!

Randy,

Hello and welcome!

I don't have clusters, but while you're waiting for someone who does to answer, I thought I'd welcome you and share what info I do have.

With the Verapamil, you might talk to your doctor about an increase. You probalby won't want to go into the really high dosage range that has been tried for some clusterheads, but at 120 mg, there may be room to safely increase, particularly if you're using one of the time-release formulas such as Verelan PM. I take 240 mg of it at night for both hypertension and Migraine prevention. To see what I meant by high dosage range, take a look at High Dose Verapamil Problematic in Cluster Headache Treatment.

On abortives...

Have you tried oxygen? I know several people who are able to abort attacks with medical O2.

Imitrex injections -- Some clusterheads are able to abort with less than the standard 6 mg injection, some with as little as 2 mg. Your doctor can prescribe the individual 6 mg dosage vials, and you inject under the skin with an insulin syringe. For some people, that means you get three doses out of what would have been a single dose. That accomplishes two things -- it means you can abort more attacks in a day without going over the max dosage; and it cuts the cost dramatically. Imitrex injections went off patent last year. I keep waiting to see generic sumatriptan injections come out.

Hope this helps a bit.

Welcome again!

Hi Randy,
Welcome aboard. I'm sorry to hear the clusters are back. I wish I had more information for you.

We hope to hear more from you.

Hi Teri and Nancy, Thanks for the welcome.

Teri, I might be mistaken, but I think you recommended I go see Dr. Mathew at the Houston Headache Clinic about 6+ years ago, and on a different forum?.. If it was, Thanks, they we're great.

Well the doc(gp) put me on Topomax. Ugh, strong stuff. Hope it works. I'm still on Verapamil 120, and he prescribed Relpax 40mg which surprisingly works (other triptans haven't).

I asked him about O2, he just kind of laughed for some strange reason. I think he thinks I think I know more about clusters than him HA!

I'll keep everyone posted on my experiences with Topomax, but I'd still love to hear from a CH who has gone down this road before.

Wishing everyone well!
Randy

Randy,

We may well have talked on the About.com forum. You're very welcome.

Wow. Great that Replax works, as long as you don't get into rebound territory.

Clusters aren't as common as Migraine. We have a few clusterheads, but not a lot. You might also want to check out www.ouch-us.org and www.clusterheadaches.com.
Hope you get some more feedback here soon.

quote:

Originally posted by randy217:
Hi Teri and Nancy, Thanks for the welcome.

Teri, I might be mistaken, but I think you recommended I go see Dr. Mathew at the Houston Headache Clinic about 6+ years ago, and on a different forum?.. If it was, Thanks, they we're great.

Well the doc(gp) put me on Topomax. Ugh, strong stuff. Hope it works. I'm still on Verapamil 120, and he prescribed Relpax 40mg which surprisingly works (other triptans haven't).

I asked him about O2, he just kind of laughed for some strange reason. I think he thinks I think I know more about clusters than him HA!

I'll keep everyone posted on my experiences with Topomax, but I'd still love to hear from a CH who has gone down this road before.

Wishing everyone well!
Randy

I know pretty much nothing about your question, but I just wanted to add a droolie hello to the pile!