March 15, 2000 :: 1:30 a.m.

Had one at 1:30 a.m. -- got sorta bad. Zomig worked after a while.

March 22, 2000

Today, yesterday, and Monday -- NO HEADACHES!! At all! Could this be an abrupt ending to a hellishly intense cycle? Or are we jumping to conclusions?

March 19, 2000

Woke up with a "regular" headache, which he had all day -- it tunred to cluster in the evening. The regular headache died down a bit with some Aleve. We went bike riding at White Rock Trail and he was OK for that.

About 6 p.m. the CH came on -- got to about a "5." I was napping and missed it. But it never fully went away and he's had it all evening.

March 18, 2000

Had two headaches and two bouts of heartburn all night long, so didn't get much sleep at all.

Remained relatively headache-free all day.

March 17, 2000 :: 1:30 a.m.

1:30 a.m., like CLOCKWORK!!

Tried not to wake me up but I heard him and went to join him. He took a Maxalt, trying to conserve his $15 each Zomig tablets -- but they still make him trippy and spacey. I told him that we'd buy as much Zomig as he needed to get through the cycle.

Anyway, it didn't get above a "6" or so.

3:30 p.m. -- another one. Took a chance and did NOT take a Zomig. Never got to where he needed to leave work.

March 16, 2000 :: 1:30 a.m.

Right on schedule.

Got to maybe a "7" or so. He didn't wake me up. Took Zomig, took 40 minutes to work. Used Thumper and ice pack.

4:30 p.m. -- started getting one at work... but didn't get too bad. No Zomig.

March 14, 2000

NO HEADACHE TODAY!!!

March 13, 2000 :: 1 p.m.

Went to lunch with Mom; he got one at the end of lunch, around 1 p.m. It didn't get too bad, but he didn't have any Zomig. We drove him straight home and he said it didn't get much worse than that.

March 12, 2000 :: 9 a.m.

Wooke up around 8 or so and felt fine, but cold, so he fell asleep in a hot bath. Woke again around 9 a.m. with a CH that was starting to get pretty bad. Debated on what to do, and decided to try the Imitrex injection.

I gave it to him in the thigh (side note: one of the hardest things I've ever had to do... I hate needles), and it stung pretty bad. The pain continued to ramp up like it does during a killer CH, but 11 minutes after the injection he said "Oh, wait, I just felt my heart jump" and then about 30 seconds after that, the pain vanished completely. It didn't ramp down in levels, it just disappeared into thin air, making those twinkly sounds.

Even in the early CH's he used to get, although they would disappear pretty fast, they used to decrease level by level. This one just stopped cold. Yay for Imitrex!!!

Although it did cost $60 per injection... at least it works. He feels kinda queasy now, although it's hard to say if that's an effect from Imitrex or a lingering Maxalt effect.

Another around 5 p.m. Real bad, it came on very fast, probably the rebound from the Imitrex-aborted earlier CH. Zomig kicked in in about 1/2 hour. We both broke down.

Oh my god, this sucks SO bad.

Doc: I recall the rebound headache I got off schedule to be one of the worst attacks ever. On my scale of 1-10 this is one of the few level 10 attacks I would point to and the fact that it happend in the late afternoon (started ramping up at 4:30 I think) was very disturbing to me. I have never had an attack this bad outside of the late-night 1-4 in the morning window.

March 11, 2000 :: 2:30 p.m.

Had one in the afternoon -- tried a Maxalt this time (about 2:30 p.m.)

He started feeling it while we were helping Ginger install more RAM into her iMac, but didn't have anything with him. It had already gotten revved up by the time we got home, so he tried a Maxalt to see if it would work any differently. He then slept for about 2 hours and woke up feeling like he was tripping on drugs, and just generally totally abnormal. Those effects lasted all afternoon and evening.

We went to Deep Ellum to see a local band at Club Clearview and he started feeling it again by the time it was over, about 1:30 a.m. So he popped another Maxalt that he brought with him and that seemed to keep it down quite a bit. We c ame home and he was able to go to sleep.

He really really did not like the side effects of Maxalt, so he is not going to take any more of those.

March 10, 2000 :: 11:30 a.m.

Had one at work where the Zomig seemed to help keep it manageable, about 11:3o a.m.

Had another sometime in the night -- more Zomig

March 9, 2000 :: 1:30 a.m.

Woke up at 1:30 a.m. with a CH. Took a Zomig pill. Pain gone by 2:10 a.m. Not that amazing but it probably took some time off the headache. It never got above about a 6 or so.

March 8, 2000

The lingering pain from last night never went away. Here it is, 15 hours later and it's still there.

It woke him up a couple of times in the night but he was able to go back to sleep without further treatment.

Went to the doctor -- she gave us Maxalt and Zomig pill samples and we bought 2 Imitrex injections. Still has headache from yesterday, but pain not as bad now.

March 7, 2000 :: 2:30 a.m.

Had a bad one, 2:30 a.m. or so. Woke me up. Worse than the ones last night. Thumper somewhat effective.

2 p.m. -- Mild one that went away fairly quickly.

7 p.m. -- Really bad one. He drank a whole bunch of water (read somewhere that this helped a few people -- but maybe had the opposite effect on him). The pain never really went away, just subsided to a level he'd describe as a bad normal headache.

March 6, 2000 :: 12:30 a.m.

Woke with mild pain which swelled to a slight moaning level; thumped a while, paced for about 20 minutes. Pain mild again by 1:30 a.m. Overall, not as bad as the attacks of the last few nights.

Next one started at 11:30 a.m., about 1/2 hour after he awoke from a nap. Thumper not effective. Paced for 30-40 minutes to punk music. This was worse than the last 3 or 4.

March 5, 2000 :: 1:30 a.m.

Bad one. Tub, then thumper. Came back to bed.

Not quite as bad as the worst of this cycle.

6:00 a.m. -- ANOTHER bad one, heard him crying in the living room. He was sitting cross legged rocking back and forth, too exhausted to pace. Thumped until it went down a little. Came back to bed, had sex, fell right asleep.

March 4, 2000

Had annoying one all day long. Took nap and did NOT get one upon awakening.

March 3, 2000

Had a couple in the night yesterday and today (about 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.) but not as bad as they have been getting in the past few days.

March 1, 2000 :: 12:30 a.m.

Bad. Thumper not helping. Pacing not helping.

Katy losing it (which doesn't happen too often).

Fell asleep in the tub but head still hurt. Hurt all day today too. His last day at C-Change/Blockbuster.