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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> I need helpome questions please
        
(Message started by: stebiggu on Mar 7^th, 2007, 12:36pm)

Title: I need helpome questions please
Post by stebiggu on Mar 7^th, 2007, 12:36pm

Hello,

My name is Steve. I live in England. Im 21 years old. When I was 18 me and my Girlfriend were on holiday in Ibiza when one day my right eye and right nostril startd pouring out liquid.

I went to the hospital and they didnt have a clue what it was so they started looking through this big book, put me on oxygen and gave me an imitrex shot and told me iv had a cluster headache.

Since then the same thing has happened twice before and again lastr night, aswell as a funny feeling in my right ear and eye and a very dizzy spell.

The one thing is though, I have never had any pain whatsoever, and certainly not like what some of you poor folk describe.

So I need to know, how do clusters start, is it a long build up over time of small signs or does it just one day hit you in the middle of the night with a headache .

Do any of you think I could be on thay way to clusters or do they not work like that.

I need help please.

Many thanks

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by Sandy_C on Mar 7^th, 2007, 1:06pm

Hi Steve, and welcome.

Have you taken the cluster quiz (third button down on your left)? Please take it and let us know how you come out. It's a very good questionnaire to take, which can help point toward, or away from CH.

To try to answer your question, for me, personally (I cannot speak for others), the very first CH attack I ever had hit me with the worst pain I had ever felt in my life (up to that point - I've since learned that there is more pain). I did not have any of the painless symptoms you describe prior to that very first hit, but I have read on these boards about "painless hits", where all symptoms of CH are there, but without pain.

It could be that you are experiencing some sort of pre-CH cycle or something, or it could be something else entirely different. In either case, everyone here will tell you that since you are experiencing these symptoms, you must get to a doctor and get a firm diagnosis one way or the other.

Again, take the quiz, and read everything you can. Keep a log of when you experience these symptoms, when they started, how long they lasted, everything. Take this log with you to the doctor - it will be of tremendous help.

Others will be along soon who can give you more information than I can. In the meantime, read and learn all you can, and I hope that if you do have CH, that your cycles will always be the "painless" kind.

Sandy

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by stebiggu on Mar 7^th, 2007, 4:33pm

Is there a painless kind? I have had, al day today, a burning sensation in my right ear, occasionally in my right eye, then my left, then a pain in the top right hand side of my head.

Help/opinions from as many others as possible will be much appreiated but i will go to the doctors asap.

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by Lobster on Mar 7^th, 2007, 6:13pm

on 03/07/07 at 16:33:03, stebiggu wrote:

Is there a painless kind?

Not that I am aware. The trademark of a cluster headache is the agony part.

The dizziness part is also something I have never experienced with CH.

I am not a doctor, but my first impression is that you were wildly misdiagnosed.

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by cynjeep89 on Mar 7^th, 2007, 6:33pm

Doesn't sound like a CH to me either but I am wondering about a spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leak. My advice would be to get to the doctor as soon as you can. Please keep us posted!

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by Bob_Johnson on Mar 8^th, 2007, 8:13am

When clusters are first developing it's not uncommon for the symptoms to NOT fit the diagnostic model; they may evolve over a long period (a year or more is not uncommon). It makes for confusion for the M.D. as well as the patient.

Click on the OUCH button (left) and make contact with your local group. Would strongly suggest one of these books.

MANAGEMENT OF HEADACHE AND HEADACHE MEDICATIONS, 2nd ed. Lawrence D. Robbins, M.D.; pub. by Springer. $59 at Amazon.Com. 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.

--------
At this stage, starting to learn will help settle you and give you some ways to understand what is happening.

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by MJ on Mar 8^th, 2007, 11:47pm

There is a painless kind of CH.

I had suffered from silent attacks most days of my life between major cycles for 30 some years.

They have all the symptoms of a cluster headache with the nostril sinus flareup, affected eye, profuse sweating, in my case increased shades of pale. The attacks can last from 15 minutes to an hour or more. Yet there is no noticeable pain as one would expect with the CH symptoms we all know.

What "does not" happen with me is pronounced dizziness or burning sensations allthough some lightheadedness may occur. They do not last all day but may repeat several times throughout the day.

The silent attacks are an aggravating part of CH for some of us and very real.

The dizziness and burning may suggest that a closer look should be had.

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by MJ on Mar 8^th, 2007, 11:57pm

On the burning sensation there is the feeling of the skin being drawn tight during a silent attack and perhaps this may be the same feeling.

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by chewy on Mar 9^th, 2007, 6:23am

I dont know how a cluster can be diagnosed based on one headache.

The key word here is "cluster" as in group of.

Check in with a good neuro.

Title: Re: I need helpome questions please
Post by pattik on Mar 10^th, 2007, 6:43pm

on 03/07/07 at 16:33:03, stebiggu wrote:

Is there a painless kind?

Apparently there is some evidence of painless attacks with some of the autonomic symptoms present.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/08/000811062536.htm

Patk