This Sucks I feel for the longtimers!!!!!

I've supposedly sufferred with migraines my whole life. A couple here a couple there the last real attack, about 6-7 was 2006, last month I had another.

Yours fits the classic description of a cluster headache. These are not treated in the same way as migraine.

High flow oxygen often is found to help, and there are other treatments. Anyhow, do yourself a favor and explore cluster headaches.

Jasil, I don't know if this going to help or not but here goes. I use to get headaches every once in a blue moon, then in Dec 2007 I started to get them every day. They did all the tests mri, cat scans, xrays to no avail. Nothing seemed to help in way of meds. It took almost 2 years but I finally saw a Dr. and spent an hour with him and he figured out what the others couldn't in 2 years. I have something called NDPH New Daily Persistent Headache. What it is he explained to me in simple terms is, a switch in your head turns on for no reason and the headaches start, they can last anywhere from a few weeks to years and then they stop just as sudden as they started. Maybe you can look into that as a cause. Hope this helps and good luck in finding relief.

Jasil-
Hi and welcome. I am sorry you are having such a rough time!!! From what you described in your post it sounds to me like cluster headaches and not so much "migraines" Do a google search and see what you can learn about them and how they are usually treated.

(also...topamax takes a little while before you "see" results...AND taking a Relpax daily for 9 days would put you into rebound or what they call medication overuse headaches)

**from emedicinehealth.com**
Cluster Headache Symptoms
The pain of cluster headache is its defining and most dramatic feature. This pain comes on without warning (no forewarning symptoms such as the aura in classic migraine) and may begin as a burning sensation on the side of your nose or deep in your eye.

The pain peaks in just a few minutes. People describe the feeling as having an ice pick driven through your eye. They use words such as "excruciating," "explosive," and "deep." This stabbing eye pain carries with it a rapid electrical-shocklike element, which may last for a few seconds, and a deeper element that continues for a half-hour or longer. The pain almost always begins in your eye and always on 1 side of your face. Interestingly, for most people the pain stays on the same side of the face from cluster to cluster, while in a small minority the pain switches to the opposite side during the next cluster.

In addition to its one-sidedness, other characteristics separate cluster headaches from other headaches.
The headaches commonly come on just after you go to sleep.

Often the eye on your affected side will tear.

Your eyelid on the affected side will droop.

You will experience one-sided nasal stuffiness and runny nose.

Cluster headaches have seasonal variations. Most attacks occur in January and July, where the days are in turn the shortest and longest.

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Sara-Migraine/Headache Forum Moderator

It does sound like cluster headaches but there are some discrepancies in your description. You mentioned the pain starting in your right eye which fits with a cluster diagnosis but you didn't mention whether your resulting headache is unilateral or bilateral. Nearly all cluster headache sufferers only experience pain on one side of the head.

The week-long cluster that you described is longer than a typical cluster but it's likely that those daily headaches were brought on from medication overuse. I understand feeling like you need something for your headaches every day but taking Relpax that often will almost always cause more headaches than it prevents. Also it's very unsafe. I don't mean to sound critical, I just want to make sure that you're doing what's best for you. If you don't already know you should not take triptan drugs (of which Relpax is one) more than 2 times a week--at the very most three times unless your neurologist explicitly tells you otherwise.

Do keep us posted and, if you get a chance read up on cluster headaches. They're very unique--significantly different than migraine in the symptoms and the treatment.

Feel better!
Ben

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DX: NDPH, Recovered CRPS
RX: Lamictal, Concerta (Methylphenidate), Clonazepam, Wellbutrin XL, Namenda, Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Melatonin, Magnesium supplements.
PRN: Ketamine nasal spray, Celebrex, Migranal, Haloperidol, Zyprexa, Lodine, Zofran, Phenergan, Thorazine, DHE IM, Droperidol IM, Toradol, Reglan, Ambien CR, Provigil, and all triptans

Thanks for all of the replies. I don't think I have clusters because the duration is so long the pain is unilateral just behind my right eye.