Posted by Laurence on August 26, 1998 at 15:19:34:
In Reply to: The threat posted by Dan on August 26, 1998 at 13:13:38:
Hi Dan,
Welcome(?) to the club. What you describe as "the threat" is probably what us old hands here call the shadow effect. It is a number of the cluster symptoms but without the screaming pain. If you check the July messages, you will find a lot of postings about the subject which may strike a chord with what you are experiencing.
This is how I described the shadow in July: "For me, while the illness runs through its cycle, I have a shadow almost all of the time. When the illness is at its height, the shadow may lift for only a brief moment or two during the day. As the cycle runs its course, the shadow begins to lift for a bit more each day. There may be the occasional setback. But I am always completely aware of when it has lifted. My head feels unmistakably clear.
The shadow is a continuing sensation in my head (right side for me) at the front, middle or towards the back of the head - sometimes in only one spot sometimes more than one. The right eye, right-side forehead, right nostril or right cheekbone also feature. The sensation varies from just tingling to mild pain. The more areas affected by the shadow the more likely the sensations are to be classified, by me, as pain.
An attack, or “headache”, is simply when the illness is showing its maximum effect in my brain. The “headache” varies in intensity and duration from mild to devastating. The longer and the more intense the “headache” the longer it takes my brain to recover from it. My whole body is assaulted when the pain is too bad for me to remain standing."
Your fear of a full-blown attack occuring because you are experiencing a constant shadow is a perfectly natural one. However, with experience, you may well learn to live with the shadow because the headache attacks still actually only occur at specific times of the day or night or in response to specific triggers (eg drinking alcohol in a cycle).
For me the headaches normally hit at night an hour of two after sleep. They can also occur if I have a nap during the day. Putting it another way, if I don't fall asleep (even for a very short period of time) I don't need to worry too much about doing normal things. While I won't be at my best, I'm not likely to have a full-blown cluster either.
As the cycle runs its course for me, it starts off with an initial small shadow, then come one or two headaches on occassional nights with a shadow througout the day, then come 2 or more headaches every night and occassional day time attacks along with the constant shadow, then, as the cycle comes to its end, the headaches subside but the shadow hangs on for a few more weeks before finally the shadow itself lifts completely.
I hope these comments may be of some small help to you.
Bye for now
Laurence