There is a plus side. Having this disease will give you:

1. Strength - as you survive this anything else is a cake walk. You endure the worst pain, as a result your perspective is amazing. Imagine anything, like people complaining about taxes or traffic, oh yea right, try a CH and see just how bad that traffic, it tax return is.  Just think of the complaints people have -  trivia - when compared to CH. You can stand above petty negative complaining, knowing that whatever happens or whatever you have to do - its not as bad as a CH and you survive those each day.

2. Tolerance - you are trained by your warrior attitude against CH to be tolerant in situations that might frustrate most other people. Because you have the strength to endure CH, nothing else is worth getting upset about.

3. Adaptability - you have to adapt to this CH disease, and that makes you more adaptable in general. You can take the dings and arrows of life a little better than the next guy or gal.

I totally agree with all of that.

I felt like that once I was diagnosed and had done some reading into CHs. I've lived with it for 3 years... And if I can do that, whilst living my life, I can just about deal with anything life feels like throwing at me.

Now if I could just stop smoking for good...  ;)

And the friends you meet hanging out at boards like this.........way to stay positive my friend! ;)

Joe

Totally agree. Being able to get through CH makes most other issues seem minor in comparison. I find I just don't get stressed about anything much, even when on a project and you're seeing reports in the media and questions being asked in Parliament.

Now if this was a Mastercard advert, it'd end with having a place like this where people really do understand is priceless...

Well, I think one of the keys to life is to find ways to turn negatives into positives. Although I can't necessarily say that clusters make all other aspects of life look like a cakewalk, I can say that it has definitely made me more attune and empathetic to the suffering of others. And as nasty as cluster headaches are, there are other far worse situations people deal with every day. I try to keep those things in perspective, especially during cycle.

Your 1st post...thanks for sharing your opinion of the positives of this living f**king nightmare!  Always nice to have a cheerleader around here. ;)

-Gregg in Las Vegas

You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice. :)

I've never been much of a morning person but this latest cycle has been hitting me around 5:30 am and now I don't even need my alarm clock... I just need to figure out where the snooze button for my brain is on the weekends.

Being a CHead allows me a wry smile every time I hear women say that us blokes know nothing about pain as we've never had babies.

You make a good point, litefire. But I would suggest that the virtues you list (strength, tolerance, adaptability) are not so much the direct result of having CHs but rather the product of persevering with CHs. It may be a small thing, but I know far too many who have CHs who are not able to do more than moan and pray for relief. The decision to persevere, to win against this thing, is vital to overcoming the vast depression that hits when pain is so prevalent. And I think it applies not just to CHs but to any disease or malady that tests our soul. It is the testing, and the decision to persevere and overcome, that brings the rewards you list.

Good post! Keep it up! blessings. lance

One of my faves:

Adversity does not build character. It reveals it.



And another:

Adversity introduces a man to himself.

Having CH has made my sense of humour slightly darker and more bizarre... Whether it could be classed as a positive I just don't know....

Shedz wrote on Oct 11^th, 2012 at 3:19pm:

Having CH has made my sense of humour slightly darker and more bizarre... Whether it could be classed as a positive I just don't know....

Ask your family and friends. If you aren't yet unapproachable they'll let you know. blessings. lance

Pain tolerance definitely goes up with CH, that's for sure! I had my fingertip crushed in a doorjamb at work (in a locking metal door which had to be unlocked with a passcode to get me out!)... the ER docs were surprised that I was so calm. I just said, "Well, I get cluster headaches. So you know, this hurts but nothing like that."  [smiley=smug.gif]

Peter Goadsby of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery has shown by use of voxel based morphometry that cluster patients has more grey matter (brain cells) in a particular area of the brain called the Hypothalamus.

Some people refer to this as a dysfunction and a defect. I for one suppose that more brain is good  :)

Zeitgeist wrote on Oct 13^th, 2012 at 6:57pm:

Peter Goadsby of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery has shown by use of voxel based morphometry that cluster patients has more grey matter (brain cells) in a particular area of the brain called the Hypothalamus. Some people refer to this as a dysfunction and a defect. I for one suppose that more brain is good  :)

Damn...it's impossible to argue with solid logic like that! ;D

Joe

If I didn't have CH I never would have believed that the level of pain endured was even possible to inflict. Forget about being able to survive.

I skipped a router into my hand. It took 12 stitches to close up. I could feel the cold sensation on my exposed ligaments, but there was no pain at all.

retrovertigo wrote on Oct 19^th, 2012 at 8:28am:

If I didn't have CH I never would have believed that the level of pain endured was even possible to inflict. Forget about being able to survive. I skipped a router into my hand. It took 12 stitches to close up. I could feel the cold sensation on my exposed ligaments, but there was no pain at all.

i remember something similar to that when i cut my right thumb open.  after realizing that i had severed the tendons, i wrapped my thumb, called my wife, and got a neighbor to give me a ride to the hospital. 
i walked into the emergency room and calmly told the nurse that i needed surgery.  after looking at my thumb, she turned a little pale and told me to sit down. 

the doctors spent the next six hours trying to convince me that i was in shock while i told them that it is not even close to what i call extreme pain. 

i got the same reaction when i got MRSA on my cheek.  the doctor thought i must have suffered nerve damage since i was not reacting or flinching while she cut and scraped all the dead tissue out of a golf ball sized cyst.  i had to explain to her that i suffered something much more painful on a regular basis.

i liken CH to a root canal without anesthetic, that briefe instant where the live nerve gets ripped out of the tooth.  the difference, however, is that the root canal pain lasts about a second, maby less, and a cluster headache can last for hours.

problem is, most people have never had a root canal without anesthetic either...