Posted by Bill Herbstritt on August 11, 1998 at 13:52:19:
Just adding myself to the list of us who suffer from these terrible headaches.
My Clutser Headaches (CH) exhibit a terrible, sharp, burning, pulsating pain starting behind the right eye and moving to the whole right side of the head before subsiding.
I seldom get them during the day but during the effected period can feel the stuffiness, slight burning and lingering heaviness on the effected side almost all the time. The major pain for me lasts about a half hour when I am awakened about 2 hours after going to sleep almost every night during the period. It really makes it a scary thing to go to sleep at night. I am a fairly optimistic (look at the bright side of things) kinda guy, but for one or two months out of the year it is really hard to stay positive. I feel like a different person during this period, terrified to sleep and living in fear of this monster residing in my head.
I could not even imagine having these things cronically as knowing that they will go away in a month or two is sometimes the only thing that gets me through it.
For years I attributed them to stress or nerves but with what I have learned in the past year, I do not feel these to be the culprits.
I do not really remember persuing medical treatment until the last 3 years and until last year (now with the info on the net) did not even hear about a CH. I did discuss it with my doctor last year after an MRI revealed nothing, but by the time we diagnosed CH the period had subsided.
I have had them this year for about 3 weeks now. The first two were fairly mild, with lite bouts 2 or 3 times day, but for the last week I have had a screamer every night and the lingering feeling all but an hour or two a day. I now have an appointment with my doctor in two days and will bring the info I have found on the net to him and insist on trying something from what I have found.
Wish me luck and best to anyone else with these terrible things.
Bill