Posted by ADS (131.151.64.239) on February 11, 2000 at 14:03:56:
In Reply to: Complex disorder posted by Bob Johnson on February 11, 2000 at 12:12:35:
Thanks for the advice.
I think that the scorn that I have received from others has been near as bad as the CHs themselves. Other than my mother, who suffers slightly from migraines and spent a night or two watching me rubbing my face along the carpet, few people understand the pain. Partially, it may be my fault, I have problems trying to express what it is that I feel, and when the headaches are over, I myself don't really seem to recognise what happened. After 15 years of having episodal CH I still find the effect the pain has on me incredible. I sometimes wonder if the CH does not have a psychological component as well as a physiological one.
In 1987 I was working underground in a mine. I fell and broke my collarbone and three ribs. I had to wait for six hours before the end of the shift and any chance that somebody would come and look. Yet for some reason, even though I was in extreme pain, I never paniced, screamed, cryed, lost hope or any of the other things that seem to have happened within 5 minutes of getting a CH.
How does one explain that to a doctor, or for that matter to one's wife that is having to go through the experience for the first time?