Posted by Greg (204.46.61.167) on December 06, 2000 at 15:17:15:
Hello to all,
I've been visiting this site for about a month now to try and get a handle on what to do to combat the demon. I'll share my story and ask a few questions that I don't have answers for.
I have been a CH sufferer for five years now. The first year they came on I just thought I was dying. The second year I was convinced I was dying and had the usual (I suppose) barrage of tests and my Doc said "you have Cluster Headaches". Like most of you (again, I suppose) I said "Cluster what?" That is when I started to do the research to learn a little more about what was going on.
My CH come on sometime in November and usually last about a month or so. I got my first one this year on Nov 3 and they are still going so I am in the wait and see stage of this bout. I usualy get one a day and it is either at 1:30pm or 12:30am. I try to play basketball every day at lunch and, if I do, I'll get a CH at 1:30pm. if I don't get a chance to play, I'll get one that wakes me up at 12:30am. They last about 1.5 hours if I don't medicate. I have an O2 tank that I have been bringing to work and have recently started using Imitrex nasal spray with good results; usually begins to work at the 15-minute point and gone after about a half-hour or 45 minutes.
I have a few questions... Anyone else affected by exercise? It is a given for me that I will gat a CH if I exercise. I am also wondering if anyone ever had an "ice cream" headache that was above and beyond the normal one you get when you drink that shake a little too quickly. I brought one on in 1996 while on vacation in a very warm place. I was overheated and we stopped by a stand where they were making frozen drinks. I was very hot, very thirsty, and took in a bunch of the drink before I realized what I was doing and got the mother of all ice cream headaches; on all fours, about to pass out and vomit, just a dandy. I never had a CH before that and didn't get them immediately following thay episode but, the pain I feel during a CH is the same pain I feel when I get an ice cream headache. So, just wondering if meybe I "damaged" something during that monster brain-freeze.
Also wondering if these are going to get worse? More frequent? Any experiences with this type of info would be greatly appreciated.
I wish all of you well. The one thing I have ascertained from this site is that I "have it" much better than some of you folks. The five or six times a day for months stories are terribly frightning for those who don't have that frequency. Not sure if it's just a matter of time...
Thanks for listening.
Take care and God Bless,
Greg...