Bad cluster attack that woke me from sleep at 3am. Lasted a lot longer than normal and got up to around a 6-7 in level... at some point twords the middle it became a steady 5 with rapid waves of extra pain this part was the most annoying and lasted for a very long time it seemed. by the end of the attack it was more like a 3-4 that drug on untill I just felt too tired to stay awake.

I think Katy may have gotten sick durring all this. I tried to find her to see if she was OK but she was hidding away from me.

I got sort of emotional during this attack. I dont remember what I said but I think I was being pretty defeatist. I am just hoping I didn't upset Katy too much.

I have had a weird day since.... I woke up with level 2 cluster pain and decided to prove to myself once and for all that extra sleep doesn't fix it, doesn't help. I let myself go back to sleep and didn't take any provigil this morning. Every so often when the pain would crest a little bit, I would wake up and then immediately try to go back to sleep. I guess because of how tired I am from the last few days of bad headaches, I was actually able to sleep for quite a long time, but every time I woke up I would feel just as bad if not a little worse.

I don't know how many times I woke up and went back to sleep, but it was many many times. Eventually around 3 p.m. I decided that the experiment had failed and that sleeping more wasn't going to do anything, and that in fact, my feeling that sleep seems to bring them on or make them worse is correct. I eventually got up. I've had lingering pain in the cluster area around level 1-2 since then. It's now 6:30 p.m.

The lingering level 1-2 pain in the cluster area continued till I bedtime, we went out to meet with friends at a bar where they have a trivia competition. I avoided drinking, and really was not much help on the trivia... I played a different game of "pretend to be normal".

Slept through the night and got up around 10:30 a.m. with annoying pain.

3 p.m. had a short intense cluster attack, around a 5. Only lasted about 30 minutes.

For the rest of the evening I felt annoying dull pain, sometimes rising above a level 1, off and on throughout the evening, even up to the time I went to sleep. I was at a party celebrating my birthday, so I had a shot of alcohol. I don't know whether that had any real effect or made things worse, but it didn't seem to at the time.

Nice Birthday so far...

The pain is out of control today...

I started waking up around 5 am for short periods as the waves of pain reached a level I couldn't sleep through (1-2) I would then pass out and go back to the nightmares I was having. During one of these short periods of being awake I made note that the pain seemed to be switching sides although I don't know if I was cognitive enough to judge if it was a "wrong side cluster" or migraine-like in nature.

When I got up I had a throbbing pain in the cluster area that was well into the 1-2 level. I tried to relax and ride it out but around 9:15 it started to ramp up and became a full on attack that had rapid waves of 6-7 and a baseline of about a 5. This is a bit unusual, most of my clusters don't seem to "throb" as bad as this one did.

So here is the real sucky part... when it "broke" it never fully went away, it only dropped to around a 2 with waves approaching 3 for like the last 2 hours.

I am hoping for some relief soon...


4:45pm
The level 1-2 cluster pain has been pretty much constant since the last time I posted. Now on top of that I feel like I have a pretty intense "migraine" layered with it, it I feel it mostly on the cluster side but its more spread out and often throbs on the other side as well. Light sensitivity, feeling queasy, wanting to lie down and rest...all the things associated with migraines... along with the pin point cluster pain that makes you want to move and such.

its very tiring.

2:05am
The pain continued the rest of the evening. eventually the cluster "layer" faded mostly leaving the migraine "layer" (still on the wrong side). The migraine became a bit worse and I also started getting sharp stabbing pains in the back of my head that would make me wince and flinch. I still feel pretty crappy. But I guess I am going to try yo go to bed anyway.

This has been a simply horrible day for the most part. Thank god for my wife, she gave me presents, got me a tasty diner, rubbed my head and generally made me have a little joy amidst the pain.

I didn't seem to have a nighttime cluster attack, at least not one that woke me up... I think it may be possible for me to sleep through a 1-2 nowadays.

I woke with a mild headache in the cluster location, annoying, but not too bad. Around 11:15 I noticed a classic cluster attack beginning to ramp up. It's now 11:58 and it is up to around a 4 in the intensity. It feels like it may get worse before it breaks.

I am dictating this using my voice recognition software and it's very difficult. It doesn't seem to be able to understand me. I guess because of all the gasps and moans. I made just post this and correct it later when I feel better.

OK, that got really bad... probably around a 7 maybe even 8 in level. It also lasted a really long time. Especially the bad part. Sometimes the attacks ramp up slow and only peak at hi levels of pain for a relatively short period of time... its more likely that they ramp up quickly and hit a plateau of high pain then break and ramp down in stages. this one stayed at the high plateau level for much longer than usual... its hard to judge but at that level of pain 5-10 minutes can seem like an eternity. Mercifully, it started to break at 12:35 and very quickly dropped several levels in pain. Its now 12:45 and I am experiencing twinges around a 1 in level. Hopefully I will get a bit of a break this afternoon.

Severe daytime attacks always bother me, If I ever needed to take a regular 9-5 again, how would I handle something like that? In my last 2 office style jobs I had a lot more freedom than I would have in most jobs, and back then I was almost never getting really bad ones during the day. I just cant imagine being able to "vanish" from my cube for 2 hours and have it be ok. Hopefully my freelance work will continue to come in.

Annoying pain on the cluster side for the rest of the day. around 8PM it got a little nasty but only ended up getting up to about a 2 for an hour or so. Around 10pm the pain diped below the threshhold.

Big scary clusters are back

On advice of Dr. Watts' office, increased Depakote dosage by 50%. Now taking three 500-mg pills each night. Started that Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning about 3 a.m., woke up with a cluster that quickly ramped up to a level 8. Haven't had one at that level in a while. Lasted a long time too. Eventually started to break a little. Was able to fall back asleep around 4 a.m.

Annoying pain on the cluster side all through the morning and afternoon. Sometimes felt like it was going up to a 1.5 or a 2.

In the afternoon about 5 p.m. got another cluster attack, this time about a level 6.

These are the two worst cluster attacks in recent memory. I've had really painful ones but two that are this severe, one right after the other, hasn't really been happening too often in the past couple of years.

Waves of pain in the cluster area continued after the evening cluster attack and never really left sometimes breaking the 1-2 level for short peoiods. At around 9pm I felt like it might break for good but within a half hour I was hurting again... its after 11:00 now and I don't thik its gonna completely stop any time soon.

All and all, this has been a truly crappy day.

Felt pretty good most of the morning. Mild waves of pain off and on throughout the day.

Visited Dr. Watts' office for a follow-up. Talked about not taking over-the counter medications for a while. I don't really think they do anything anyway.

They wanted to increase the Depakote dosage to 1500 mg each night.

Cluster attack (1.5-2) around 7pm annoying pain the rest of the evening.

Woke with no headache. Mild cluster started ramping up around 12:30. Never got very bad, maybe around have one or two. Faded by 2:00p.m. to a slight uncomfortable feeling in the cluster spot nagging low-level pain the rest of the evening and also a pretty strong bout sleepiness around five o'clock

All in all, in manageable day. I found myself thinking that if most days were like this one I wouldn't have much problem working around headaches.

Woke up with no headache but started feeling paint fringes around 10:09a.m.. Around 11:20 a classic right side cluster started ramping up...

11:40 now about 3 in level

11:55 up to around pay for or five

12:15 breaking

12:30 gone

Around 1:00p.m. a lingering pain developed in the cluster spot and slowly ramped up to about a 1 to to by 5:00p.m..

7:30p.m. down to just annoying again

Nagging low-level pain for the rest of the evening on the cluster side.

I slept until morning but had a headache when I woke. Experienced waves of uncomfortable pain and most of the morning.

Had a 45 minute cluster attack around1:00p.m. reaching around a three or so in intensity. Waves of pain thereafter on the cluster side for the remainder of the day.

3:00a.m... I woke with overall headache, but I was to sleepy to remember details. I know I had kept waking up in pain over and overafter that. By around 7:00 a.m. it started getting worse or maybe I was just awake enough to understand the level of pain. During the lulls, I would continue to fall asleep and have nightmares about not being able to do my job of managing a shoe store because of exhaustion and headaches.

Around 7:30 I stopped falling asleep due to the pain being more constant and possibly more intense. It started ramping up quickly on both sides. By around 8 o'clock it had faded on the migraine side by had gotten worse on the cluster side about a 3-4.

Around 9 clock the cluster had "broken" and started quickly disipating leaving only in mild migraine and that I was hopeful it would not last long but unfortunately it started building in intensity again and became really bad about 10:00 it's now 10:40 and it has calmed down some but I think it is going to last a long time... I'm sad.

By around 1:00p.m. I started feeling better, see tired, but only mild pain.

Waves of uncomfortable loans of pain return in the evening and I also started feeling very sleepy again.

Bad cluster attack again this morning at around 5-6 am.

The interruptions in my early morning sleep are not good, sometimes those few hours is the only time I get any rest.

waves of annoying but moderate pain all through the morning and afternoon. also bouts of sleepiness despite taking provigil this morning but then I really have not had much rest the last 2 nights.

Very bad cluster attack this morning around 5am lasted for the normal 1-1.5 hours but I was really out of it so thats mostly a guess.

Annoying waves of pain switching sides during the morning hours which was bad because I had a teaching gig at 1 PM. I still felt like warmed over crap as I drove to the assignment but luckily I was able to suck it up and started feeling better not long into the session.

I felt pretty OK during the evening but I still think I had some pain off and on.

Only mild pain... felt good for the most part. I began to imagine that maybe it was a trend.

First day in a long time that I felt mostly pain free. I think I had some mild discomfort and some pain durring the morning mostly.

Some annoying pain undulating back and forth most of the day no major cluster attacks.

Some annoying pain undulating back and forth most of the day no major cluster attacks.

Mild pain throughout the morning, a slow ramping cluster started around 3pm and has slowly been getting worse at around 3:50 its between a 1 and 2 in level.

I'm hoping it wont get worse.

It calmed down but never really left then came back pretty strongly for a short burst around 11pm.

Somewhat headachy most of the day and around 6pm I started feeling a classic cluster ramping up. about 30min later I think it will be relatively mild... Maybe a 2 or so.

Annoying pain on the migraine side most of the day.

Started getting a classic cluster attack around 7pm that got to around a level 4 and dissipated after about an hour.

Annoying level of pain returned mostly on the migraine side for the rest of the evening.

Whats with all the boring posts?

Just wanted to mention that we have been transferring my daily notes since I have started taking Depakote to the blog in order to better keep track of how it may be effecting me. So for a while the writing may end up being a bit dry.... heh.

Woke with nagging pain on the right side and wondered if it was just a regular old garden variety headache which I assume I still get but don't often notice.

around 11:45 I was feeling really tired so I decided to read in bed and fell asleep for a few minutes. by the time I woke up I was feeling the familiar ramp up of a classic cluster attack.

It got up to around a 5 or so and lasted for about one and a half hours from start till breaking and quickly stepping down as the classic ones do. I can still feel it a bit but its mostly gone for now.

Woke with no noticeable pain but developed a pretty serious cluster around 2:30 p.m. About a level 4. Short intense "classic" cluster attack. Started breaking around 3 p.m.

More mild pain on the cluster side returned and persisted throughout the evening.

Felt dizzy and out of it. Exhausted. Mild cluster pain.

6 a.m. - had a bad "classic" cluster at the hotel, around level 6-ish.

Felt pretty good the rest of the day. Short mild twinges through the day.

Mild migraine/cluster that switched back and forth throughout the day.

Bad cluster on the plane, around a 3-ish.

Distracting pain most of the day, bad around 6 p.m. again.

Migraine feel late in the evening.

Not too bad twinges during the day and a bit achy in the evening.

Clustery on the right side, a bit, but not too bad.

Felt not too bad today. Mild undulating headaches.

Started 4 Depakote.

Woke with fairly bad cluster around 2 a.m. and was driven to the bathtub.

Odd feelign and slightly headachey for the rest of the day.

Head felt really strange and I felt like I might pass out at the peak of "relations" with my wife.

Woke at 7:30 with no headache, but soon developed mild ones around 8:00 - 11:00 a.m. Best described as "undulating." Slowly "wiggling"... for an hour (imagine a drawing like a little sine wave).