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New Message Board Archives >> 2004 Cluster Headache Specific Posts >> CH and Time Zones your input Please
(Message started by: SteveY on Jun 16th, 2004, 8:31am)

Title: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by SteveY on Jun 16th, 2004, 8:31am
Hi All

I was wondering if anyone has experienced this.

I went to the States about 6 weeks ago on holiday (fantastic time, but thats another story)

The thing is about a week after returning to the UK the CH fired up again at kip 9 and 10s.

Although I am chronic, mine have been under virtual complete control for 2.5 years.

Neuro thinks crossing time zones has sent hypothalamus wild?  What do you think?

The other thing is, the attacks, unlike before where I could set my watch by them are now all over the place at completely different times of the day and night.

Have increased verapamil to no avail, been told to up it again.

Anyone any experience of this? Anyone elses CH at random times of the day?

Could be the verap has stopped working, but I think the coincidence of the time zone is too high for that to be the case.

It is not down to cabin pressure on aircraft, flown many times with CH, but never crossed any significant time zone.

What you think, input appreciated.

PFDAN

Steve

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by don on Jun 16th, 2004, 10:24am
Never had a problem with time zone triggers and I've crossed them many, many times. All it's ever meant was my 5 pm attack in Boston was my 2 PM attack in Vegas.

But these are clusters, anything is possible.

I would think the change in your sleep pattern BECAUSE of the time zones would be more probable.

About a week after your return? You mean when the stress from travelling begins to dissipate? Just a thought.

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by floridian on Jun 16th, 2004, 11:10am

Quote:
Neuro thinks crossing time zones has sent hypothalamus wild?  What do you think?


A reasonable explanation - jet lag burdens the circadian clock, which can be more of a problem if you have clusters. Also, the stress (even positive stress) of a trip, followed by release of stress afterwards could be a factor.

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by SteveY on Jun 16th, 2004, 11:38am
Don

You're right, it is the sleep patterns rather than the actual time zone.

Floridian, stress? Who knows, hard to get stressed at palm beach ;;D

Thanks for the replies.

Steve

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by don on Jun 16th, 2004, 4:23pm
By the way, I prefer the Vegas headache over the Boston headache.

Ya think insurance would cover a week in Vegas if the Doc wrote for it?

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by Superpain on Jun 16th, 2004, 5:47pm

on 06/16/04 at 16:23:23, don wrote:
By the way, I prefer the Vegas headache over the Boston headache.

Ya think insurance would cover a week in Vegas if the Doc wrote for it?

Yes... I agree. I had my last ch in Vegas 4/5/04.
That place is fuckin awesome!

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by UN_SOLVED on Jun 16th, 2004, 7:15pm

on 06/16/04 at 08:31:31, SteveY wrote:
Although I am chronic, mine have been under virtual complete control for 2.5 years.

Glad to hear things are under control .... but I don't really understand this statement     [smiley=huh.gif]       [smiley=huh.gif]

Unsolved

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by BlueMeanie on Jun 16th, 2004, 7:20pm

on 06/16/04 at 17:47:09, Superpain wrote:
Yes... I agree. I had my last ch in Vegas 4/5/04.
That place is fuckin awesome!


That's very strange. I've been to Vegas 4x and two of the four times I went into a CH cycle. WTF is it Vegas or what. Going again in Sept. cept that's my normal cycle time anyway. Crossing fingers it don't happen again.

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by SteveY on Jun 16th, 2004, 9:13pm
Glad to hear things are under control .... but I don't really understand this statement        

Unsolved

They were under control for 2.5 years, the different time zone i.e the US meant a different sleep patern.

Since then they have gone haywire.

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by don on Jun 16th, 2004, 9:58pm
I will also be there in September.

Cant go during the hot months. Guaranteed CH attacks.

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by BobG on Jun 18th, 2004, 4:35pm

Quote:
Quote don
About a week after your return? You mean when the stress from travelling begins to dissipate?

Quote floridian
followed by release of stress afterwards could be a factor.

Quote SteveY
Who knows, hard to get stressed at palm beach

I've been preaching 'Never relax. Stay stressed' for years. Finally somebody listened to me!  ::)


Quote:
Quote Superpain
I had my last ch in Vegas

Quote BlueMeanie
I've been to Vegas 4x and two of the four times I went into a CH cycle. WTF is it Vegas

Hmmmm......Can't say what it is about Vegas but Hellen "Hooker" Hardweenie said "I know them!"  :o


Quote:
Quote don
I will also be there in September.
Cant go during the hot months.

September is a good time to visit Vegas. Temps rarely get over 105. Let us know when you get here.  ;)

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by don on Jun 18th, 2004, 5:58pm

Quote:
Can't say what it is about Vegas but Hellen "Hooker" Hardweenie said "I know them!"  


Next time you see her remind her about the $40.00 bucks she still owes me.

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by justin on Jun 21st, 2004, 5:40pm
i live in nj and ny. my clusters have gone away just for the time i was in the following places and then come back when i got home
amsterdam
maine
new orleans

the didn't go away when i went to
LA
Las Vegas

weird

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by ExPat_jac on Jul 21st, 2004, 9:33pm
I travel, and work as a consultant, and switch timezones a LOT.

(also, tend to relocate and stay in new timezone for long periods...say up to a year or two)

I am chronic, and can almost set my watch to when I will have an attack....

Once relocating, and getting over the effects of jet lag, travel and culture shock stress, I find my headachs track to the new time zone....

Meaning...if I had them at 2:30pm in one timezone, upon relocating I again have them at 2:30pm at the new time zone....

Damn, I hate the bastards  :-[

BobG...

You made the statement....

"I've been preaching 'Never relax. Stay stressed' for years. Finally somebody listened to me! "

Me, I'm a stress junkie...and in a way, I "self-medicate" using stress as much as I self medicate using coffee...I would have to agree with you....

When I am NOT under stress, my pain generally is a lot worse!  Go figure....

Also, is there anyone else that avoids sleeping just so they can enjoy the period of time when there head does NOT hurt?  My cycle stops at night, and I find I put off going to sleep because A.)  The lack of pain is sooooo sweet and B.) I worry that upon waking up, the pain will return.

I have been know to go for weeks on end with only an hour or two sleep each night....

Is this again, another self imposed "self medication" that my body causes me to do?

(I have over the years learned to listen when my body tells me it wants or needs something...it generally knows more about how to ease the pain then my mind does...example being loads of coffee, cold areas, etc.

jac

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by dave_in_nj on Jul 21st, 2004, 10:44pm
Jac - I can't bring myself up the the bedroom tonight because I know what is awaiting me up there. When I am in a cycle I wake up 1 hour after I fall asleep. I get up, smoke a cig, pace around, go back to sleep wake up an hour later...etc.

At least if I go to sleep at 2am I only get woken up a couple of times.

The stress part of this thread is completley new to me. Is this a theory, that stress can keep CH away?

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by ExPat_jac on Jul 21st, 2004, 11:17pm


You said.....

>> Is this a theory, that stress can keep CH away?

Well, I hate to go as far as say "theory", but here is how it is with me....

I have learned a long time ago not to fight my body....if my body say "have a cup of coffee", I drink a cup of coffee (even if it's say 15 cups of coffee  :) )

If I don't want to sleep...or fight going to sleep....generally there is a reason....such as you listed...I like you never sleep much over two hours before waking walking around, smoking....then going back to bed again....

So...like I said, I finally stopped fighting my body...so, I find I'm a "stress junky".  Now, I don't know if I'm one because stress helps me from having as bad of headachs...or if they add to them or what, but I no longer fight it...for some reason, I deal with VERY heavy stress well...thus tend to keep myself in stressful situations....things like work longer hours, less sleep, taking on too much work, agreeing to too tight deallines and having to push to finish projects, things like this...

I find I actually do better when I'm stressed....

Does it help the headachs?  Who knows...I'm chronic, it seems my head ALWAYS hurts....just most of the time it's around Kp Level 2-3 and I can deal with it....

So, don't know if that answers your question...but seeing as you have sleep patterns like me, you are ALREADY stressed....maybe it's the same for you also...

But I hav ebeen known to go days without sleep...just so I can enjoy a night without wracking pain upon waking!

Hell....it's 10:00 in the morning here, and already I feel the first signs of my deamon knocking on the door...hell, this is going to be a bad day I can tell already....

Good luck my friend....hang in there...

jac

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by IndianaJohn on Jul 22nd, 2004, 5:58pm
My two cents,  I get sent to Germany once or twice a year for about two weeks.  It always seem to break my cycles.  I can even have a beer there and not get smacked with a CH.  I think it's because I'm resetting my internal clock and I'm working long hours (usually twelve a day). So maybe I'm just throwing everything out of whack and the HA don't know when to hit.  After I return the HA's go into remission or start up again 60%remission, 40%starting up again).

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by echo on Jul 23rd, 2004, 10:45am
A change of time zone is a sure fire way for me to invite the bastard to stomp the back of my eyeball.  At times I think it's the combination of temperature, humidity and  time that intices him to come around.

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by pam s on Jul 24th, 2004, 12:26am

on 07/21/04 at 21:33:44, ExPat_jac wrote:
Also, is there anyone else that avoids sleeping just so they can enjoy the period of time when there head does NOT hurt?  My cycle stops at night, and I find I put off going to sleep because A.)  The lack of pain is sooooo sweet and B.) I worry that upon waking up, the pain will return.

jac


Yes, lots of us believe that part of the regime is sleep deprivation (not as if we have a choice anyway, but napping, for example, can be dangerous). Since we are likely to get hit during REM sleep, I do things to keep me from going too deeply into sleep, like sleeping propped up, and leaving lights or tv on.

Pam

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by alleyoop on Jul 26th, 2004, 1:52pm

on 06/16/04 at 10:24:36, don wrote:
But these are clusters, anything is possible.


'NUFF SAID

.......................................................alley

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by miapet on Jul 31st, 2004, 12:22pm
We have a few things on this *g* . . .
We just crossed a few time zones, and stayed pain free (of course, we were pf when we left, but we did wonder if our trip would 'wake-up' the beast).  We didn't fly (I know, that's not always possible), as we have heard too many negative things about the change in altitude.  We also plotted our trip so as not to climb too high over mountain passes (highest climb was about 8,000 ft).  We also didn't change our watches.  While everyone else was living on Pacific Standard Time or Mountain Time, we kept our sleep pattern at home, in Central Time.  We did these things as insurance.

Stress is (was) an issue.  When the beast was ramping up stress was a trigger.  Good stress (vacation, wedding, etc) and bad stress (illness, finance, etc) are treated the same way in our bodies.  Our bodies recognize all stress (good or bad) as stress, so if stress is a trigger for an individual, then good or bad, it's a trigger.

Sleep deprivation . . .holy moly . .. for like 20 years, generally, D didn't sleep more than an hour or two daily . . . and lots of times he didn't sleep (he too knew what was in store for him when he did go to sleep), he would go and go and go until he was so exhausted he couldn't help but sleep.  

Coffee?  We drank coffee all the time . . .every all night coffee place (and the servers) in this area expected to see us *g* . . .drinking coffee at 2:00am was normal *L*  Now, if we go in, they are surprised to see us, and want to know where we have been!

Anyway, just our 2-cents.

*positive light and energy*
miapet

Title: Re: CH and Time Zones your input Please
Post by BillD on Aug 6th, 2004, 2:16am
Hey Don,

Here's a twist...I'm a flight attendant and fly internationally 100% of the time. I am currently starting my umpteenth episode of clusters. Fucking hate it, but nothing I can do...

Anyway, I cross time zones and find that I get my headaches when I sleep, finally. I actually try to hold off sleeping, because I get my headaches when I am asleep, which in turn fucks up my system fo dealing with jetlag.

My own personal hell. I figure I have four more months of it then pain free days and nights for 2 years...WOO fucking HOO...

P.S. sorry for the language, but its how I feel and if I cannpt express that....



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