I started getting cluster headaches around 2002, i'm 29 now and I hadn't had an episode in about 3 years up until about 4 weeks ago. This is by far the worst series of headaches I've ever had. Like most of you, I like to consider myself pretty tough and not a complainer, I've played sports all my life, I know what it's like to get pretty banged up...by these headaches literally make me want to die to make the pain stop and bring me to tears on a regular basis. It's excruciating to such a level that, well, I don't have the words, it's just ineffable. Usually I just thrash about on my bed or floor holding my head, sobbing/moaning/screaming in pain...until they go away, which lately has been around 1-2 hours.
I'm a student and I don't have health insurance, but I did get some immitrex from a low-income health clinic. This medicine can help but only if i take it as soon as I feel the precursor headache or shadow headaches. Unfortunately, more often than not, I'm asleep when I get the headache and it's full blown when I wake up, at which point the medicine seems to have little to no effect.
I'm writing this rather long response for two reasons, one is that it's simply a bit therapeutic for me, writing out my feelings and frustrations (plus it's nice to know i'm not alone with this agonizing condition). Secondly I'm just wondering if anyone has any home-remedies or techniques they've used to manage the pain. Expensive surgery and MRI's are really out of the question for me, at least for the foreseeable future. Has anyone had any experience w/ foods that caused or helped alleviate the pain? Any kind of movement, exercise, or anything else that they've found helps?
If so, please share. Unfortunately I haven't really found anything myself. This is one of the worst parts about this condition, for me, is the helplessness I feel...
Also, to Batch, I take vitamins daily, the ones I take have 100% vitamin D, I'm assuming this is a good source of D3? You seem to have some knowledge about that so I thought I'd ask.
Anyway, this turned out to be quite the reply, sorry for the length, thanks for listening.