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(Message started by: brain_cramps on Mar 17^th, 2004, 11:20pm)

Title: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by brain_cramps on Mar 17^th, 2004, 11:20pm

I've got an odd question, I guess.

Does anyone else suffer from any non-CH one-sided headaches?

Why do I ask?

My cycles are usually 18 months apart - like clockwork. I have been expecting my cycle to start any day now. For weeks, I have been getting shadow-like headaches, so I thought it was getting close.

More than 20 yrs ago, when first diagnosed, my neurologist told me to quit drinking coffee when a cycle hit. I realize that a lot of people here think that is backwards, but it seems to work for me. Until this cycle...

Just over 7 months ago, I quit drinking (alcohol). Since then, I have been drinking a lot more coffee than usual. Since I thought my cycle was starting, I quit drinking coffee altogether. (I have since heard that when quitting drinking coffee, it should be done gradually, not an abrupt stop.)

Now these shadow-like headaches are much worse. I've thought it might be related to quitting caffeine, but the odd thing is these headaches are only on my CH side. This makes me think that the AREN'T caffeine related.

However, I haven't got hit at night yet. In fact, they are by far the worst (not CH-bad!) immediately after eating. This makes me think that they AREN'T really clusters. They hurt more than a "normal" headache, but nowhere near as much as a cluster.

In many ways, they are similar to the start of a cycle. Jaw, temple, ear pain.

On the other hand, they seem to last almost all day, but only getting worse after a meal and NO hits at night.

Any comments or suggestions?

Confused,
grant

P.S. I know someone will comment about my quitting caffeine at the start of every cycle and how caffeine is "good" for CH... ie. cafergot. As far as I know (according to my neuro years ago), caffeine IS NOT the main active ingredient in cafergot. Ergotomine is. I'm sure someone will correct me on this. ;)

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by cootie on Mar 17^th, 2004, 11:48pm

I'm not gonna correct you on anything or preach about caffiene.......I jus wanted to say HI GRANT !!! Sorry yer havein the aches in the head.....hope it lets up !!! Pam the uninformative informant

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by brain_cramps on Mar 17^th, 2004, 11:49pm

hi pam! ;;D

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by t_h_b on Mar 17^th, 2004, 11:52pm

Caffeine has helped with some of my mild shadows. Could be that it was masking yours.

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by Lizzie2 on Mar 17^th, 2004, 11:54pm

Hey Grant,

There are actually several other one-sided headache types, but it kind of varies. Not too many other headache types have the "strictly one-sided" label like clusters. Sorry you're having pain :(

Lizzie

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by firebrix on Mar 18^th, 2004, 12:00am

Yeah gidday there mate!

Its true that many people say coffee helps yet it has never helped Mopar. When his chronic state once became even worse I suggested he drank lots of coffee yet it did nothing for him. Ha. kept going on every 2 hours just as they'd always done.

BUT your post does remind me of what happened to a friend who decided he didn't want to support the coffee industry any more (personal reasons) and quit drinking coffee immediately. He said he developed a one-sided ha. which persisted all day but disappeared at night. He told others about this and learned he should have stopped drinking coffee gradually rather than just stop.
The ha became annoying and so as an experiment, he decided to drink 2 cups of strong coffee. Result? Ha went away. He thinks that some people are more susceptible to caffeine withdrawal than others and that if anyone who wants to stop should do it gradually.

You could try having a cup of coffee or two to see if, like his, your ha goes too? If it does, you may be one of those who need to taper the caffeine!

This is just MHO and 1c worth.............maybe less..........
firebrix

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by Kevin_M on Mar 18^th, 2004, 12:24am

Yes, Hi Grant,

Who knows whats up yet.

Depending on how much caffiene you drink, if it was a lot, then yes gradually slowing helps. There are caffiene headaches which can occur otherwise. Who knows, maybe that can incite a cycle on it's way.
Yeah them one-siders make me feel like the Jack of Spades, I think that's the one-eye. Can't find any cards. Just the Jokers stick in my head. Rattle rattle. The other side of my face is too scary for any ladies bridge club.
You'll know when the clusters are rattling when the pain lets you know.
I'd rather just be some ten of diamonds and keep shuffling the royal-half-face-pain to the bottom of the
deck. The hand of clusters keeps showing up though and cutting the deck. That bugger gets around.

Hope he's not bein' dealt to you.

Kevin M

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by brain_cramps on Mar 18^th, 2004, 12:55am

Thanks for the replies.

just found this --- kinda backs up what firebrix had to say and even mentions CH too.

<<
Caffeine is related beyond dispute to primary headache in three ways:

1. Heavy caffeine intake is associated with migraine and cluster headache.

2. Caffeine has been demonstrated to have a withdrawal syndrome often featuring severe headache and nausea/vomiting.

3. Caffeine is used as a medicine to relieve various primary headaches including migraine.

Migrainers and cluster headache patients are more likely than the average person to have a history of heavy caffeine intake. There is some confusion on this point, as some authors apparently believe caffeine directly causes, promotes, precipitates (triggers), or aggravates headache and migraine.

In fact headache is not a symptom of caffeine overdose or caffeine intoxication. It is withdrawal from caffeine, not caffeine directly, that produces headache. It may be heavy caffeine intake makes large variations in caffeine intake more likely, and thereby makes caffeine withdrawal (and therefore primary headache) more likely.
>>

http://www.batnet.com/spencer/theory.html

While I am appreciative of the replies, I am pissed at myself. >:(

I quit drinking alcohol (wasn't that much of a problem --- sure wasn't painful) to acquire a caffeine addiction (which DOES hurt). I never would have guessed it. ::)

guess I start again tomorrow and taper off. hopefully this makes a difference.

thanks again,
grant

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by ave on Mar 18^th, 2004, 3:53am

Cramps, and others - about the unidentified pain you have now following the pattern of clusters...

Nerve cells are able to "remember".
It is not too far fetched to suppose that nerve cells that have been involved in severe pain (as in cluster) remember, so that any trigger for other hedache pains, or pains along the trigemenal nerve, may set these cells off ina familiar groove of pain.

At the moment I am "enjoying" a mild little migraine. But it has put into play some features of cluster (eye tears and the pain is attacking a small area on my scalp that during clusters hurts like hell.)
Yet this is not a cluster. I can tell for I know them both. But the symptoms are moving together.

And unless I get full blown attacks of either affliction I may not be able to easily tell the difference.

Of course you may been having a mutated cluster. The diversity of the beast's faces keeps surprising me.

keep well.

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by pubgirl on Mar 18^th, 2004, 7:50am

Grant

Almost all the TAC's are one-sided so amongst the unilateral headaches are PH/CPH, SUNCT, TN, NDPH and many migraine types.
That doesn't help much does it!
It is the other symptoms which define them, not the "one-sidedness"

Ave

I totally agree,when I developed cluster headaches, my migraines diminished in number but became more "clusterlike" i.e. worse. Now sometimes a bad migraine and a mild cluster are hard to tell apart by the symptoms, aside from when they happen as the m's are mainly day and the CH at night.

As they both occur on the same side, I put it down to that area of the brain and trigeminal nerve being oversensitised by the CH. Not scientific, but it's what I think and the neuro can't explain it any other way.

Wendy

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by Kevin_M on Mar 18^th, 2004, 8:14am

on 03/18/04 at 07:50:52, pubgirl wrote:

I put it down to that area of the brain and trigeminal nerve being oversensitised by the CH. Not scientific, but it's what I think and the neuro can't explain it any other way.
Wendy

Yeah Wendy, sometimes I think that nerve has developed a life of it's own.

Kevin M

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by brain_cramps on Mar 18^th, 2004, 11:48am

OK --- After finding the link in the 2nd post of mine in this thread, I decided to try a little test. I made up a STRONG pot of tea (all out of coffee right now) and had a couple cups. It was after midnight by this time, but I wasn't worried about if I would be awake for hours.

Almost immediately after having a cup, the headache that I had almost non-stop for a couple weeks almost completely disappeared. After a second cup, it was gone completely.

Unfortunately, I was awake until around 6:30 AM. After 3 hours, I woke up with that familiar headache. (Since quitting drinking, I typically only sleep around 4 hours/night) At least I got in some extra studying.

After a couple cups of tea, its almost gone.

sheeeeesh --- I never would have guessed that caffeine could have that effect. Guess I start drinking just enough and then taper off. ::)

grant

Title: Re: any *other* one-sided headaches?
Post by Tiannia on Mar 18^th, 2004, 1:00pm

Caffine withdrawl is very hard. In College I lived on triple mochas (talk about caffine overload) then I got pregnant and the doc told me to stop the coffee. I usually had my first mocha by 7am. So by 8am the next day I felt like my head was going to explode.

Excedrine "the headache medicine" has caffine in it as caffine thins your blood and constricts that blood vessles so it helps HA.

Sodas can be just as bad. Go for the no caffine types. Also the colorless ones are better, the carmel colorig can actually cause kidney stones if you drink a lot of them. (My husband has had this happen 3 times. Ouch. Said if that is what it was like to have a baby, no wonder women scream so bad. [smiley=laugh.gif])

Taper off slowly. Nowadays, I drnk one cup of regular coffee in the am during the week and one soda in the afternoon. Other then that I drink herbal tea nd water.

Good Luyck hun. Hope that the Beast leasves you alone this cycle.

Tia