Posted by Hal (206.15.143.155) on July 19, 1999 at 23:16:15:
In Reply to: describing a cluster posted by Bud Kemp on July 19, 1999 at 12:44:51:
I used to describe one form of cluster headache that I get as feeling like taking the eraser end of a pencil and shoving through my right eye to the back of my head. Then, one day, for the hell of it, I actually took the eraser end of a pencil and started shoving it through my right eye. The result was that I think that I could have shoved that pencil into my eye until my eyeball popped like a grape, and the pain wouldn’t even have been in the same country as the pain of a cluster headache, let alone in the same ball park, because the pain from jammimg that pencil into my eye was like a joke, compared to the pain of a real cluster headache. My conclusion is that, if you haven’t actually felt the cluster pain, there’s just no way that anybody can describe it to you and, if you’ve felt the cluster pain, there’s just no real way for you to describe it to someone who hasn’t felt it.