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Topic: i can't even fathom the pain... (Read 457 times) |
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dystopia
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Hi Everyone,
I'm so glad to have found this site and forum. I don't suffer CH's but my father recently had his first one ever. He's 52 and in 25 years I have *never* even seen him have a normal headache. He's never taken aspirin, advil or tylenol, when he gets colds he pretends he's fine...basically he's Mr. Tough as Nails. He recently battled Cancer without even telling anyone in my family until after he had surgery and radiation therapy. My point just is, for a man like this to beg to be taken to a hospital...it really blows my mind (no pun intended, sorry)
It's 3am and reading through the site brought me to tears. I guess I'm upset because he was taken to the emergency room for his first one, and he *asked* to go. He didn't know what a cluster headache was, he just thought his eye was going to explode and could not function because of the pain. For my dad to *ask* to be taken to the emergency room and after reading posts and all the info on this site the past few hours...I can't even begin to fathom how much pain they must cause.
It's Saturday morning, he was taken in last Monday. When he went in Monday they told him it was probably a cluster headache and that they wanted to give him a CT scan today (Friday). During the week he had 3-4 more attacks, but being so tight lipped about his suffering, didn't tell me how bad they were, just that one went away on wednesday morning.
So I guess I'm just wondering...is a CT scan standard procedure? Are they looking for tumors? Can high blood pressure (I think his averages 140, but during that attack in he emergency room rocketted to 180), which he's always had, though not severly be a factor?
Can anyone offer any small bits of advice for someone in their first week of attacks ever?
I'd appreciate any and all help or advice you have. I'm about the only person he tells anything to or will let him help him, so I've taken it upon myself to give him the info I can find and let him figure out his own coping skills and what works for him.
Thanks so much, this seems like an amazing support network. After reading about all your experiences, I think I'll be praying nightly I never have to go through a CH.
Again, thanks in advance for anything you can offer.
- dystopia
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oscar
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
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Re: i can't even fathom the pain...
« Reply #1 on: Jul 28th, 2002, 2:45am » |
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Welcome Dystopia, you couldn't find a better place, this was and is for my husband ( he's the one with CH), and me a lifesaver, or better say a marriage saver !  , we are pretty new for the CH, and in this site, but I can tell you that the scan I think is normal , My husband's neurologist made him have one after he was diagnose, just to make sure there is no other reason for that pain.
First thing you or your dad need to do is find a Neurologist, I think is on medical information, you can find a list of Dr's that have treated some people here in the site so they might be well informed about Clusters (if you are in USA).
I don't know if high presure has something to do with clusters, but I know that one of the medicines my husband is taking IS for high blood presure, even though he has it normal, maybe is for the presure in the eye.... I'm sure someone soon will help you on that one.
Well good luck, best wishes for you and your dad, I'll keep you in my prayers.
Ursula
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paul_b
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
 
Posts: 371
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Re: i can't even fathom the pain...
« Reply #2 on: Jul 28th, 2002, 4:20pm » |
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welcome---best advice I can give is to get your Dad connected to this site. Have him check out its contents. He will find many "tough as nails" types and then he can determine his path for coping. Yes he needs to be tested to rule out other problems and you need to recognize that the pain is his and even though you may wish to make him better, you can only be a supporter. He won't die from the pain. Yes it hurts like HELL and BEYOND. Be patient, there is a lot to learn about CH and those of us who live with it.
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Donna
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Re: i can't even fathom the pain...
« Reply #3 on: Jul 28th, 2002, 8:13pm » |
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Welcome to our site and family. Supporters, like yourself, have a tough role to play, as clusterheadache sufferers come in all temperments and pain tolerances.
So far as we know, high blood pressure has nothing to do with the cause of cluster headaches, although Verapamil, a high bp pressure medication, is a serious medication in the control of cluster cycles. As a matter of fact, we must use it (in most cases) at a rather high dosage, more so than high bp, often at twice and three times the dosage. The other popular meds are oxygen and Imitres as abortives. Of course, not all meds work for all people, and there are lists of meds that have been sucessful.
Yes, CT is a normal procedure to use on anyone with any kind of head pain.......to rule out the existance of something unaware of.......like a tumor, hematuria or other problems.
Most of we supporters agree that the best thing to do when our sufferer is in pain is..........back way far away, but not so far as not to be there if he needs you. And believe us, HE will be the one to initiate the call for help and not you. This tends to make us feel bad and misunderstood, but it is the nature of the beast, and we need to understand that when someone is in that type of pain, they can't cope with conversation.......they need to concentrate on controlling themselves and their pain.
There is much to be learned here from our own experiences, info gathered, compiled, compared, etc. Just take your time and search all of the buttons, then go to the OUCH site and search some more. He will find something that will help to some degree.........hopefully a lot.
Bring him here. Print out info for he and his doc to discuss, and tell him to educate himself so that he can argue his case with confidence. He might be the one to teach his doc about CH.
Good luck to you both, and please keep us posted.
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