Posted by Harry Zweier on February 28, 1999 at 18:52:07:
Here's the letter I sent to CBS--To whom it may concern:
I urge you to include a discussion of cluster headaches in your upcoming March 4th episode on chronic pain. My friends and fellow sufferers at clusterheadaches.com notified me that you may not even mention the affliction.
While I realize that far more people suffer from migraines, research has been done on them for years and a wealth of information and support exists on migraines. For those few of us suffering from the brief but excruciating terror of cluster headaches, little has been provided.
Over the last couple of years I do thank God for the information I have been fortunate enough to have located--especially the website. Still, I know that many people suffer from these debilitating headaches that wrack us with pain and destroy our sleep. Those who have not yet been accurately diagnosed are at terrible risk. A friend of mine who was a pharmacist once casually referred to them as suicide headaches because of the people he knew who had taken their own lives in despair. As for myself, I know that when I first experienced the brutal attack of a cluster headache almost ten years ago, I went to an emergency room and requested a CAT scan, thinking surely I must have some dire and obvious malady.
Books that do explore this condition will invariably state that, though typically lasting only from 30 minutes to 1 & one-half hours, the pain is much more intense than migraines. A recent frustration for me has been the managed health care approach of denying or seriously limiting the quantity of injectible Imitrex. The onset of cluster headaches is without warning, usually in the middle of the night, and the rapid relief of an injection is the only effective treatment I have found for an attack in progress.
All these facts can be easily researched with a well-informed neurologist. Again, I urge you to insert anything you can about cluster headaches in your upcoming program. And PLEASE present the address "clusterheadaches.com" as it is saving people's lives! Not everyone has access to good medical care and an accurate diagnosis. This site helps so many. Thank you for your kind attention.