Clusterheadaches.com Message Board


    
      
        Clusterheadaches.com Message Board
        (http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi)
      

        New Message Board Archives >> 2006-2007 Getting to Know Ya Posts >> New registrant, easy question
        
(Message started by: thx on May 20^th, 2007, 4:58am)

Title: New registrant, easy question
Post by thx on May 20^th, 2007, 4:58am

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if this condition is permanent. I haven't had a cluster headache almost a decade, but I wonder if they will ever return. I guess I am in the process of figuring out what known triggers exist.

I first experienced the cluster headache 40,000 feet above the pacific ocean around the halfway point of a flight from SFO to Tokyo. I was 13 years old and travelling unaccompanied, quite literally, on the upper-deck of the aircraft. For a kid that hadn't even broken a bone or even been stung by a bee before it was a quite a shock. I remember thinking something in my left eye had ruptured and I went to lavatory only to be shocked by the absence of blood or any visible problem. The immediate conclusion in my young mind was the notion that I was in the middle of a stroke. There was a stewardess in the galley at the rear but she spoke broken English and I knew I couldn't explain the situation. I know it sounds melodramatic but I honestly thought I might die.

I sat there for around two hours before the pain disappeared and I'm pretty sure I passed out when it was finally through, waking up when we were getting ready to land.

It has happened exactly 4 times since then, and all but one occassion it happened on an aircraft. I am certain it was not simply sinus pressure; believe me I have read the descriptions of these headaches and it is dead-on. Once I had one in an airport after a flight.

I almost feel shallow asking such a question in this forum when I know there are many who suffer from this condition much more than I, but I wonder if anyone can tell me if an individual with my sort of profile (5 instances spread over a decade) can expect to suffer future attacks if it has been around 5 years since a bonified cluster headache. I'm trying to figure out what, if anything I am doing right, and how to prevent them going forward.

Thanks everybody, and best wishes to anyone suffering from this malady.

Title: Re: New registrant, easy question
Post by E-Double on May 20^th, 2007, 11:49am

Cluster Headaches do not come on as singular attacks that are limited to airplanes.
Given that you said that it has only happened 4x's and 3 out of the 4 were on an airplane I would guess that you had a major sinus headache.

If CLusters, the chances are that you would have had several if even for a short period of time like a week or two. Hence the name= they come in .....Clusters

Good luck and go to a doc

Title: Re: New registrant, easy question
Post by AussieBrian on May 21^st, 2007, 9:07pm

I know exactly the sort of headache you suffered, mate, and they really are just like an individual CH. The half-dozen or so that I've had in-flight would rate around a 6 or 7 on the scale we use from zero to 10.

I'm no doctor but I'd really suggest you worry not about being a ClusterHead. I'm also the first to agree with you - they bloody hurt!!!