Posted by Mike (165.91.66.226) on July 18, 1999 at 14:48:33:
I find that when I get a really bad clusterheadache somewhere between 8 to 10. That I can not find any position that is comfortable. I don't bang my head on the wall, just makes me have big bumps on my head.
Most of the time when I have a 9 or 10 I try to lay down. Not that it actually feels better but I have passed out many times due to the severe pain and it is much better to "pass out" in bed then on the floor some where. If nothing else it is easier on my wife.
There is a definate pain tolerance level that a person can reach. Once you body reaches it, your body shuts down and you pass out due to the pain. This is how the doctors have explained it to me.
Another reason to lay down is I can be alone to deal with the pain. All of us have different ways of dealing with the pain. I can not always lay down, usually I try to sit on the couch or I pace the floor but alot of times the pain is so severe that I can not move at all, even breathing hurts. So laying down allows me to be still and to deal with the pain.
In response to anyone saying you can't have cluster headaches, I have seen numerous doctors aleast 50 seperate neurologist and headache specialist. I know I have cluster headaches.
I do admit there are lots of people who say they have clusterheadaches and don't. I have met many people who have "bad" headaches from stress but they are not cluster headaches.
But just because someone lays down is not a reason to dismiss them as not having cluster headaches.
I have a better question to ask, "Describe the pain for me and compare it to other pains that you have experienced in you life?"
If you have had even one clusterheadache in your life then that question will be hard to put into words but when it is put to words it is easy to relate the symptoms and pain.
Personally my answer is it feels like there is a pin point pain that feels something like a red hot drill put into my left eye and slowly turned with no remorse or way to stop it. It usually stops sometime after I have blacked out due to the pain. I will then wake up several hours later. But I always clearify the pain is not in my eye but behind it.
This is the best way to describe I have found to describe the pain.
Just my thoughts,
Mike