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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> Is this a cluster headache! Help!
        
(Message started by: Kitty on Jan 28th, 2008, 10:10pm)
Title: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by Kitty on Jan 28th, 2008, 10:10pm
Since January started, I am being awakened from my sleep by a horrific migraine pain on the right side of my head. If I stay lying down, it doesn't get any better. I usually have to elevate my head as well as put ice on the right side of my head. Some nights the pain is worse than other nights, but I have pain nightly that wakes me from my sleep. I hate having to go to bed at night. Migraine meds like Relpax help. Excedrin Migraine doesn't work very well with the night headaches. This has been happening every night since the first week of January, consecutively. I went to the neurologist and had an MRI last Friday...still waiting for results. He says this is not a cluster headache, but others I talk to seem to think it might be. I was told to check out this site by a someone who has been a sufferer for many years. So......from what you have read so far, can anyone tell me if these are cluster headaches. Although I have suffered from migraines for years, I have not had a headache wake me up every night for almost 4 weeks in all of the years that I have been having migraines. Any advice or help would be truly appreciated! Thank you!
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by vietvet2tours on Jan 28th, 2008, 10:13pm

on 01/28/08 at 22:10:36, Kitty wrote:
Since January started, I am being awakened from my sleep by a horrific migraine pain on the right side of my head. If I stay lying down, it doesn't get any better. I usually have to elevate my head as well as put ice on the right side of my head. Some nights the pain is worse than other nights, but I have pain nightly that wakes me from my sleep. I hate having to go to bed at night. Migraine meds like Relpax help. Excedrin Migraine doesn't work very well with the night headaches. This has been happening every night since the first week of January, consecutively. I went to the neurologist and had an MRI last Friday...still waiting for results. He says this is not a cluster headache, but others I talk to seem to think it might be. I was told to check out this site by a someone who has been a sufferer for many years. So......from what you have read so far, can anyone tell me if these are cluster headaches. Although I have suffered from migraines for years, I have not had a headache wake me up every night for almost 4 weeks in all of the years that I have been having migraines. Any advice or help would be truly appreciated! Thank you!

 ya can't lie down with a ch.  Ya gets them happy feets.

           Potter
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by George_J on Jan 28th, 2008, 10:23pm
Take the "cluster quiz".  Click the button for it on the left side of your screen, and let us know how you score.  

Cluster isn't just different in intensity from a typical migraine--the symptoms are quite distinct.  The quiz--while it is, of course, not a substitute for a definitive diagnosis, will give you some idea whether or not you're suffering from cluster headache.  Then see your doctor again--and a neurologist specializing in the treatment of headache.

Hope you don't have them--but knowing is better than guessing.

Best wishes,

George  
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by vietvet2tours on Jan 28th, 2008, 10:42pm
   I'm hopin ya don't

           Potter
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by Linda_Howell on Jan 28th, 2008, 10:43pm


Quote:
Ya gets them happy feets.


 Aw Potter, what a devil wit dem words you are. lol

  What he's trying to say, is that the pain from a cluster headache is so darned intense and excruciating...that we cannot lie still.   We need to pace, rock and yes...bang our head.  no migrainer would dream of doing that.

Migraines, on the other hand  present  themselves totally different.  The need for no noise, no light, a bed to lie down in, and a cold rag to the head is almost universal.

When your headache wakes you...does it ramp up in pain level?   And after a while...go down in pain level like nothing happened?  Or does it last and last for more than 3 hours say?

Are you experiencing a watery eye and runny nose on the side affected?

No one here is a doctor but we are experienced enough to help you through this if it is clusters.

Linda
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by Stinger on Jan 29th, 2008, 1:06pm
It sounds like it, but as they said, you can't continue to lie down.  You will always start pacing the room or house.  How long do they last?  Usually an hour or so.  Then they go down as quickly as they went up.  Let's hope they aren't CH
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by Stoic on Jan 29th, 2008, 10:15pm
Sorry, George, but some of us have no "cluster quiz" on the left side of our screens. How else do I get to it?
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by Ray on Jan 29th, 2008, 10:40pm
http://www.clusterheadaches.com/quiz.html

That should make things easier....


Ray
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by hotprestwich on Jan 30th, 2008, 12:28pm
lets hope not,
but sure sounds like it, my nostril will block up on the same side as my headache, also they ramp down in 40-50 mins,
lets hope its sinus related and not cluster
try a red bull or strong coffee, when you get a hit, and if the pain starts going away you may have clusters
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by Grinner62 on Jan 31st, 2008, 10:23am

on 01/29/08 at 22:15:05, Stoic wrote:
Sorry, George, but some of us have no "cluster quiz" on the left side of our screens. How else do I get to it?


I'm set up the same way, it make reading the boards easier. Start at www.clusterheadaches.com There is a lot of good info in the articles.

I had to backtrack to find out how I got my shortcut set up for just the boards. I right clicked {open in new window} on the board home icon from the web page frame and it opens up the frame full screen.
Title: Re: Is this a cluster headache! Help!
Post by outofcommission on Feb 2nd, 2008, 12:48pm
well we're all different but otc pills i can take for a migraine will set a ch on fire. if you try melitonin  or any kind of herb or vitamins give at least a weak to work and don't overdue anything. have you tried o2? i would definitely confirm that you have ch or our advice would be useless.


                                                        best wishes


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