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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004-2005 Getting to Know Ya Posts >> Pre-Clusters?
        
(Message started by: thynk on Sep 9^th, 2004, 8:43pm)

Title: Pre-Clusters?
Post by thynk on Sep 9^th, 2004, 8:43pm

Greetings all. I am scared half to death that I might be 'developing' cluster headaches.

My father has been a clusterhead for 25+ years, and has been my guide thus far. When he frist started getting clusters, he was just a few years older than I am now, and they started with sharp pains that came on with no warning, lasted 10-20 seconds then went away. These are the exact (as near as I can tell) symptoms that I've started showing over the last 6 months or so. These would come once or twice a day, feeling like I'd been hit in the head with no warning, full blast and then go away after a very short time.

The past week or so these have been coming on 10-20 times a day and have been increasing in intensity, usually just left of center about 1/2 an inch about my left eye. Other places they enjoy arriving are in either temple - these switch, but are much more frequent aroud the eye.

The wonderful doctor I have, said he has no idea if they are clusters or not. He did not find it funny when I offered to get the 3lb hammer from my car if he wanted to have an idea of how these feel. A few days ago started me on a beta blocker and a cat scan scheduled for a week from now. I know it's only day 3 into the drug treatment, but I've enjoyed no freedom from these attacks.

Is it possible that I've escaped the curse of being a clusterhead and these are just related to stress or is it likely that I'll share the demons of my father?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or to point me in the right direction.

Title: Re: Pre-Clusters?
Post by E-Double on Sep 9^th, 2004, 10:00pm

I'm really sorry you are suffering. Pain sucks!!

Do yourself a favor and maybe even suggest this to your pops.. take the quiz to the left then research

http://www.achenet.org/articles/6.php

The reason I say this is because you said SECONDS and that sounds more like Hemicrania continua

I am no doctor but if it is HC not CH than indomethacin will help you. and if your dad's headaches are like what you described as excrutiating but seconds even a single minute than he may consider this too.

Clusters don't last seconds. If you are lucky you'll get 15-20 minutes though many of us can go for hours if unaborted. And some can not abort :-[ just have to ride the entire attack out

I would hate for your dad to have gone for 25 years when they could have been treated differently if it was misdiagnosed.

I hope you do not have anything other than a pain free existance.

Good luck

Eric

Title: Re: Pre-Clusters?
Post by alleyoop on Sep 9^th, 2004, 10:05pm

on 09/09/04 at 20:43:18, thynk wrote:

they started with sharp pains that came on with no warning, lasted 10-20 seconds then went away. These would come once or twice a day, feeling like I'd been hit in the head with no warning, full blast and then go away after a very short time.

The past week or so these have been coming on 10-20 times a day and have been increasing in intensity, usually just left of center about 1/2 an inch about my left eye. Other places they enjoy arriving are in either temple - these switch, but are much more frequent aroud the eye.

This doesn't sound like CH to me. I wouldn't know if they could be stress related. It does however, sound like you may be a good candidate for a MRI. Maybe the CT scan will shed some light. Just curious, what does your father say?

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

Title: Re: Pre-Clusters?
Post by thynk on Sep 9^th, 2004, 10:31pm

Thanks for the replies, I'll take the quiz here in a bit.

My dad's clusters _started_ like this, for about a year, then moved into full blown CH cycles for several years. For the past 5 or 6 years, they have been a 2-3 times a day, every day. Sorry if I didn't communicate that clearly. I've found that in many ways, I'm much like my father, and I pray, truly pray every day that these are _anything_ other than clusters, that this is something that dear old dad didn't pass on to me. I'd even be happy if it was 'just' a brain tumor.

Title: Re: Pre-Clusters?
Post by E-Double on Sep 9^th, 2004, 10:35pm

Hang in there man!!

"Thynk" positive and educate yourself.

Good luck,

E

Title: Re: Pre-Clusters?
Post by karma on Sep 10^th, 2004, 7:39am

I don't remember having symptoms before I started getting some really, really severe headaches. After about a two weeks I went to Neuro that did a work up and diagnosed as Cluster headaches. If you do get diagnosed with CH then there are a couple things to consider.
I may get blasted for this and I know the pain is excruciating but there are some technigues and treatments that can be affective without using medication. I bring this up because there has been some discussion that some medications will relieve the pain in the short term but increase the severity of the cycles in the long term.
unmedicated treatments like Oxygen, water, meditation and relaxation, all have shown some success with dealing with the pain. My suggestion is to look at all your options gather as much information as possible from this site and discuss these with your doc. Then make an informed decision. CH is relatively rare and not allot of G.P's are informed so arrive armed with information.
Good luck

Title: Re: Pre-Clusters?
Post by floridian on Sep 10^th, 2004, 9:17am

The frequency and duration point to something other than clusters, although what you describe could be a trigeminal nerve problem (same area as clusters). TAC, SUNCT, Trigeminal neuralgia, paroxysmal hemicrania, and hemicrania continua are some possibilites.

Title: Re: Pre-Clusters?
Post by eyes_afire on Sep 11^th, 2004, 12:35am

Hopefully you may find some of these links informative:

Here are my favorite links describing some of the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias and other unrelated headache types:

cluster headache:
http://www.hospital-doctor.co.uk/hd_news/hd_news_article.asp?ID=2498&Section=Feature

chronic paroxysmal hemicrania
http://www.upstate.edu/neurology/haas/hpcldx.htm#cph

SUNCT syndrome
http://www.upstate.edu/neurology/haas/hpstab.htm#sunct

idiopathic stabbing headache
http://www.upstate.edu/neurology/haas/hpstab.htm

hemicrania continua
http://www.upstate.edu/neurology/haas/hphemi.htm

trigeminal neuralgia
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/trigemin_doc.htm

sexual benign headaches
http://www.headaches.org/consumer/topicsheets/sexual.html

hypnic headache
http://www.mhni.com/faqs_unique.htm#hypnic

exploding noise
http://www.mhni.com/faqs_unique.htm#exploding_noises

DISCLAIMER: This is no substitute for a diagnosis. See the neurologist for a diagnosis. This is only to point people in the right direction

--- Steve