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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004 Cluster Headache Specific Posts >> Questions from a New Guy about Headaches
        
(Message started by: eyethrob on May 28^th, 2004, 6:09am)

Title: Questions from a New Guy about Headaches
Post by eyethrob on May 28^th, 2004, 6:09am

Hello,

I have suffered much with headaches my entire life. As a child I was diagnosed with Migraines. Then in High School I got a "new" type of headache that hurt my eye. I would wake up in the morning with a sore eye, along with my normal migraine. Aspirin,etc would relieve the migraine type symptoms, but not the eye pain. For lack of knowledge, I called these "eyeball headaches", and I knew that they were different.

The common, but quite painful migraines come and go every week of my life.

The "eye-ball headaches" became "crushing" by the time I was 25, but I would only get them for about a couple of weeks at the time, even though it seemed like months.

Now I am just desperate, but at least I'm finally going to see a "family doc" about it next week.

When that "eye-ball thing" goes away (or at least almost) after a few hours of this terrible headache, I am then left with the normal symptoms of a migraine.

My question is ,"Am I having two kinds of headaches at once?"

Many of my sypmtoms seem to be migraine, but the eye pain, and the "cluster period" seem different than migraines.

Actually, the only thing different is that I have a migraine headache, plus my eye is on fire. And my perfectly healthy teeth on the same side of the face feel like a severe abcess in terms of pain.

These "more severe" headaches I have in spells definitely seem different than the headaches I have normally. These "more-severe headaches seem to come 3-5 times a year for 1-3 weeks. However, sometimes I'll just get one. Or, sometimes they'll last for six-weeks. When I'm lucky enough to get them in my left eye/head rather than my right, they're not quite so "peaking" but still not pretty.

I desperately squeze my head with all my might, for three seconds of alternate sensations, but i couldn't imagine banging my head on anything.

While most of my "eyeball" headaches seem to come in the afternoon, about 25% wake me up, even though I went to bed feeling fine.

So, the eye-doc says my eyes are healthy. The dentist says my teeth are beautiful.

I am 40 now, and I am sooo... dang desperate. I can't believe this episode of eye-ball headaches has lasted so long, over a month.

Do I have cluster-headaches, even though my symptoms aren't all textbook. Is the reason they aren't quite "textbook" because I have a "common migraine" problem along with cluster headaches.

I just want more confidence self-diagnosing myself, so I can TELL my doctor on Tuesday what is wrong with me.

Another thing, I had somewhat reasonable results with analgesics with my usual headaches, but these eyeball ones put me down for the count, regardless of OTC meds, except for once in a while.

Title: Re: Questions from a New Guy about Headaches
Post by BobG on May 28^th, 2004, 6:29am

Yes you can have cluster headaches and migraines either separately or at the same time.
Many here have reported it. They are not the same and have different symptoms. With migraines the person can ‘sleep it off’. Not so with clusters. It is impossible to sleep and most people with clusters are up and moving, rocking, pacing and screaming.

We’ve all been to the eye doctor, then the dentist, then to the ear-nose-throat doc.

Click this link
http://www.clusterheadaches.org/library/general/trigeminal_pic.htm

Follow the orange colored nerve. That's the trigeminal nerve involved in cluster headaches. You can see where the 3 branches go and why the eye, face, nose and/or jaw can hurt and make you think it is something else.

And then we go have a CAT scan and/or MRI. 99% of the time nothing is found.

Read all you can under the buttons on the left side of your screen. Educate yourself. Your doctor may not know anything about cluster headaches and you'll have to guide him/her.

Welcome to the board. Sorry you're hurting.

Title: Re: Questions from a New Guy about Headaches
Post by Bob_Johnson on May 28^th, 2004, 8:22am

You will find it a more organized approach to learning about CH if you will get either the second or third book.

HANDBOOK OF HEADACHE MANAGEMENT, 2nd ed., Au. Joel Saper, MD, 1999, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. A highly condensed volume for doctors but good for "advanced" clusterheads who have a grasp of medical terminology and medications. Covers all types of headache with the section on cluster being brief. Sections on general considerations in treatment and on medications are important.

MANAGEMENT OF HEADACHE AND HEADACHE MEDICATIONS, 2nd ed. Lawrence D. Robbins, M.D.; pub. by Springer. $49 at Amazon.Com. This volume is better organized and easier to read for nonprofessionals compared to Saper's book. It covers all types of headache and is primarily focused on medications. While the two chapters on CH total 42-pages, the actual relevant material is longer because of multiple references to material in chapters on migraine, reflecting the overlap in drugs used to treat. I'd suggest reading the chapters on migraine for three reasons: he makes references to CH & medications which are not in the index; there are "clinical pearls" about how to approach the treatment of headache; and, you gain better perspective on the nature of headache, in general, and the complexities of treatment (which need to be considered when we create expectations about what is possible). Finally, women will appreciate & benefit from his running information on hormones/menstrual cycles as they affect headache. Chapter on headache following head trauma, also. Obviously, I'm impressed with Robbins' work (even if the book needs the touch of a good editor!) (Somewhat longer review/content statement at 3/22/00, "Good book....")

HEADACHE HELP, Revised edition, 2000; Lawrence Robbins, M.D., Houghton Mifflin, $15. Written for a nonprofessional audience, it contains almost all the material in the preceding volume but it's much easier reading. Highly recommended.

Title: Re: Questions from a New Guy about Headaches
Post by Mike_Easton on Jun 4^th, 2004, 2:06pm

I have been a migraine sufferer ever since I was 9. I am 15 now.

Mine started as just a migraine. Then I had the eyeball pain, which got worse in about a week. Right now I have the Migraine, and when the cluster comes, the migraine goes away.

Ive had the migraine for about 9 weeks now and the clusters will be 6 weeks come Monday.

Title: Re: Questions from a New Guy about Headaches
Post by mynm156 on Jun 6^th, 2004, 3:34pm

you may have them both. And I think that these beast while are all very painful for us seem to effect us all in slightly different ways. Thats why somethings work for some ppl and not others.

Good Luck On Tuesday!!! Take no prisoners!!!! Tell him like itis!

Good Vibes

MYNM156