Posted by My Head Hurts (205.188.196.42) on January 08, 2000 at 04:04:26:
Hello all, I need your help in determining if I truly have CH. I am a 38-year-old white male. About 1 1/2 years ago I awoke from a sound sleep with a piercing pain in my head above my right temple, never had a headache like this one before and thought I was having an aneurysm. I was on my way to the ER when it faded away within about 5 -10 minutes. I went home and was awaken 2 days later with the same thing. I went to my general doctor and they said they were most likely tension headaches. So I went on with life and the headaches got worse, usually waking me up at night or having them when I wake up in the morning (always seemed to be dreaming when they hit) although I did have them during the day occasionally as well. I returned to the doc.'s and they sent me for a cat-scan and nothing showed up. The headaches continued for a couple months, usually lasting about 45 minutes and coming on, and fading away within 5 - 10 minutes. Then they went away for over a year and I thought they were gone forever. Now they are back and hitting in the same manner as before, but with slightly less intensity, 1 - 2 times a day, usually at night or in the morning. This time the pain is a little less severe and a little more general - over the temple, almost to the back of the head and to the forehead, but it still has the same pulsation and familiar feel it had before. I went back to my doc and she said tension headache again and prescribed some sleeping pills and an antidepressant. I’m getting of tired of walking the streets at 3:30 in the morning or banging my head on the floor till it passes. I am scheduled for a MRI next month but I don’t expect it to show anything. Do you think these are CH? Could they be tension headaches? Would tension headaches wake me up at night like that? My stress levels remain about the same from day to day (although occasionally high) and it never seems to coincide with the headaches, so it doesn’t seem that it would be tension. Just about everything I’ve read on the net points to CH, but I do not have the droopy eye or running/stuffed-up nostril and the pain is not exactly behind my eye. I’m dying here, please give me your expert opinion. Thanks in advance for your help!