Last night I was  getting slammed by one of my 4-5 late night visits. I was amped up to about k9or10 when all of the sudden the HA jumped from the left side to the right side in the middle of the attack. Now, I understand that it is not that uncommon for HA's to switch sides during cycle or switch to the other side on the next cycle as it has happened to me before. But I have never had it switch in mid-hit. I gotta say, it freaked me out and hurt like hell(if it's possible to get worse than k10, I was at that instance). Does this happen often or am I truly just a freak? :)Yep, I just left myself open for all kinds of fun comments there didn't I

Literature on side shift is uncommon and I've never seen a situation mentioned like yours.
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J Headache Pain. 2009 Aug;10(4):259-63. Epub 2009 Jun 3.
Lateralization in cluster headache: a Nordic multicenter study.

Meyer EL, Laurell K, Artto V, Bendtsen L, Linde M, Kallela M, Tronvik E, Zwart JA, Jensen RM, Hagen K.

Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Neurology at Karolinska Insitutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

A slight predominance of cluster pain on the right side has been reported in several studies. The aim of this large retrospective Nordic multicenter study was to estimate the prevalence of right- and left-sided pain in cluster headache (CH) patients with side-locked pain, the prevalence of side shifts in episodic and chronic CH patients, and the occurrence of cranial autonomic symptoms related to pain side.

AMONG 383 CLUSTER PATIENTS, 55 (14%) HAD EXPERIENCED PAIN SIDE SHIFT. OF THE REMAINING 328 INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT SIDE SHIFT, THERE WAS NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OCCURRENCE OF RIGHT-SIDED AND LEFT-SIDED PAIN (54 VS. 46%). THE PREVALENCE OF SIDE SHIFT WAS SIMILAR FOR EPISODIC AND CHRONIC CH AND THE OCCURRENCE OF CRANIAL AUTONOMIC SYMPTOMS WAS NOT INFLUENCED BY THE PAIN SIDE. In conclusion, previous reports of a side difference in location of cluster pain could not be confirmed in this large Nordic sample.

Publication Types:
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

PMID: 19495933 [PubMed]

Can you elaborate a little more on what happened exactly when the shift started in mid-hit? Sounds bizarre, but then again, with our condition nothing surprise me anymore...

Oh Funk I doubt anyone on this board would be so cold as to kick a CH'er when he's down by commenting on his mental status. ;D ;D ;D

I'm with Bob, I've heard several people talking about CH switching sides, either a whole cycle on one side and then another cycle on the other side, or getting a right side attack then  a left side attack same cycle, but wow, switching sides during an attack, thats just messed up. :'(

As always, certainly a good time to touch base with the head doc. Hope it's just a freak one time thing.

Joe

Since I have had back to back hits before with very little time between hits, it COULD happen to have back to back hits where it changes sides and almost no time between them.

Just a guess because a hit changing sides seems very weird to me.

neuropath wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2010 at 9:13am:

Can you elaborate a little more on what happened exactly when the shift started in mid-hit? Sounds bizarre, but then again, with our condition nothing surprise me anymore...

Honestly, no I really cant elaborate, as I really have no idea what or how it happened. All i do know is that it happened fast and the pain got worse just as fast. I'm 39 and I've been having these HA's since I was a young boy and nothing kike this has ever happened.  I've had 10 or so hits since and they are back to the left side again so I guess it was a one-time thing. I just thought it was weird and wanted to see if anyone else had ever experienced anything similar.

Much Luv and PF Wishes
Pfunk 8-)

I hope for you it was only a freak one-off.

PF Wishes and hang in there!

Occasionally I'll get one that starts on the left and goes to about a K3 before going home to the right side, but never have I had one change sides during the fight!  I will say though that when I do have it happen that it will be a reall doozy when it gets to the right side where it belongs.

Jerry

Never heard of this.  I have suffered as an episodic for 30 yrs and always unilateral.  Some cycles the attacks are on the left and some cycles the attacks on the right, but never switching sides within the same cycle.  Keep us posted

I'm an episodic right side - always - except for one time.  I had just had my regular evening right side hit, ending as normal.  About 5 minutes later, bam - left side!  Freaked me out - especially because I was so used to placing my ice packs and pressing my hands and fingers in just the right spots (this was before I found O2 and seeds), that I could not deal with the left side at all.

Thankfully, it was short, and not as intense as a "normal" hit.

Sandy

I'll be damned if it didn't happen again last night. I got hit on the way my mother's house. When I got out of the car to go inside the damn thing moved from the left to right side again. Not getting hit to often right now(down to 2-3 from7-10) but when it switches it hurts like hell!!!

Pfunk 8-)

For some reason I dont remember if it was the last cycle or the one before but , I am a lefty always,  but one cycle . I had a colonastapy and when I woke I had a ha on my right side. I didnt even recognize them as my clusters. The pain was not as severe and the duration was different , I was due for my cycle though, anyway one of them got fairly bad and then I knew for sure . The duration of the cycle was the same . The good thing was the less intense pain, plus the o2 worked on all most all, but the bad thing was I have a lazy eye lid on my right and the whole cycle my eye was almost completly shut , like the lid was just to weak to open .