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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004 Cluster Headache Specific Posts >> Shadows & Final Resolution
        
(Message started by: Jeepgun on Apr 2nd, 2004, 12:17pm)
Title: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by Jeepgun on Apr 2nd, 2004, 12:17pm
Sorry for the bolus of noobie questions, but here they are:

1. What are "shadows"?

2. Once you have clusters, do you ever "outgrow" them? Do they ever go away forever and never come back?


Thank you.

-Frank
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by ChrisUhl on Apr 2nd, 2004, 12:30pm
Hey Frank

Welcome aboard. I'm a newbie too having had CH for only 3 years. But I'll try to answer your questions anyway (although you're probably gonna get much more in depth and qualified answers).

Shadows is that annoying pain inbetween attacks. For the first two years I didn't experience them. The out of the blue they appeared when I was in my cycle. As I understand shadows manifest themselves quite differently from person to person. In my case it's a burning sensation behind my left eye and temple. It's kinda like the attacks just way more bearable. Sometimes my teeth ache too. I found caffeine, nicotine and oxygen good ways of killing the shadows. I use caffeine pills and nicotine pads for that. And of course the oxygen mask when I'm near my tank.

When the shadows get really bad I use one third of Imitrex. It's described in another post how to do that but in short you unscrew the syringe, plunge it in your thigh (almost all the way in) and plunge down the rubber plunger with a thin something (a tooth pick for instance). This will sure kill the shadows - at least in my case.

There's hope ahead for loosing the clusters altogether. My neuro told me that most people grow out of it about age 60. But some people experience it longer. My dad had CH from he was 26 to 53. And has been pain free for 8 years. So hope lies ahead - way ahead.  ;)

Sorry to hear about your CH by the way. How long have you had it?
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by Jeepgun on Apr 2nd, 2004, 12:38pm

on 04/02/04 at 12:30:12, ChrisUhl wrote:
Hey Frank

Welcome aboard. I'm a newbie too having had CH for only 3 years. But I'll try to answer your questions anyway (although you're probably gonna get much more in depth and qualified answers).

Shadows is that annoying pain inbetween attacks. For the first two years I didn't experience them. The out of the blue they appeared when I was in my cycle. As I understand shadows manifest themselves quite differently from person to person. In my case it's a burning sensation behind my left eye and temple. It's kinda like the attacks just way more bearable. Sometimes my teeth ache too. I found caffeine, nicotine and oxygen good ways of killing the shadows. I use caffeine pills and nicotine pads for that. And of course the oxygen mask when I'm near my tank.

When the shadows get really bad I use one third of Imitrex. It's described in another post how to do that but in short you unscrew the syringe, plunge it in your thigh (almost all the way in) and plunge down the rubber plunger with a thin something (a tooth pick for instance). This will sure kill the shadows - at least in my case.

There's hope ahead for loosing the clusters altogether. My neuro told me that most people grow out of it about age 60. But some people experience it longer. My dad had CH from he was 26 to 53. And has been pain free for 8 years. So hope lies ahead - way ahead.  ;)

Sorry to hear about your CH by the way. How long have you had it?



Thank you. I've had them for about four years now, but have yet to experience shadows, thankfully.

I'm turning thirty-five in a couple of weeks, so maybe I have only twenty-five years left to go! Yippee!! LOL! *sob*
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by echo on Apr 2nd, 2004, 12:46pm

on 04/02/04 at 12:17:27, Jeepgun wrote:
1. What are "shadows"?


To me they are the dull feeling pre and post CH.  Not enough to rip you eye out, but enough to know the SOB is about to, or has, knocked on your brain.


on 04/02/04 at 12:17:27, Jeepgun wrote:
2. Once you have clusters, do you ever "outgrow" them? Do they ever go away forever and never come back?


Good God I hope so!  I doubt it --  but I hope so.  The only real cure is a "Dirt Nap".
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by Jeepgun on Apr 2nd, 2004, 1:06pm
When in the throes of one, I swear I would sell my soul for relief if I could, and I have sincerely prayed in pain-wrackled sobs for death.  :'( :( :-[
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by joesf on Apr 2nd, 2004, 1:29pm
My shadows consist of the spectrum from a HA behind both eyes and top of head ( kind of like you been out in the sun too long) to bruised tender feelings on the cluster  HA side sideburn, neck, eye.
I have been getting these for 40 years.  I am 55 now. The time between episodes went from annual to biannual to now 5 years as I got older. HAs are not as intense as when I was younger, or I am dealing w/ pain more effeciently.
I gave up trying drugs and doctors at 40. I just tried O2 this time and I am unsreof its effectiveness. At first I thought it was working, but then I got 2 bad ones that went right through it. If theses HAs were lessened from the O2 I dont know however. I stopped using it and noticed i had a series of brief ones coming and going. Last night I had  the longest but certainlly not the most painful HA ever lasting about 11 hours. I dealt with that one with showers, rubbing the head, and trying to be calm. These were brief waves out with longer periods of pain. Kind of like a sine wave. About a 8 max on a 1-10 scale of pain.
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by Gena on Apr 2nd, 2004, 2:17pm
[quote author=Jeepgun link=board=chspecific;num=1080911127;start=0#4 date=04/02/04 at 13:06:41]When in the throes of one, I swear I would sell my soul for relief if I could, and I have sincerely prayed in pain-wrackled sobs for death.  :'( :( :-[/quote]

Don't worry about this one, I think everyone has had those thoughts a few times, I know I have :P
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by Jeepgun on Apr 2nd, 2004, 2:59pm
Thanks, Gena. It's reassuring to be among people who actually understand. That's the hardest thing, I think: You can explain these things until you are blue in the face, but nobody really ever understands.  :-/
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by Charlie on Apr 4th, 2004, 7:55am
The good news is that a lot of people have seemed have "outgrown" this horror. I had them for 22 years but my last real attack was April of 1991. It's been 13 years for me. I'm 57. There may indeed be an age factor but it isn't proven. There are those who have developed CH in their 60s.  

I don't know about "shadows." To me I was getting clobbered or not. I don't remember anything else.

Charlie
Title: Re: Shadows & Final Resolution
Post by Turts on Apr 6th, 2004, 3:44am

Quote:
1. What are "shadows"?


For me shadows herald the start of the cycle. I usually wake up of a morning with a sickly hunger pain in the stomach. You definately know what is means when they turn up. Once the cycle picks up momentum the shadow dissapears and I just get a sudden WHACK. We all know what I mean.
Sometimes I get an aura, a flashing of specs in my eyesight and a slight dissiness before the,tap,tap, tap at my cellar door.


shadow- Also used in the kip scale to the left of screen


Quote:
2. Once you have clusters, do you ever "outgrow" them? Do they ever go away forever and never come back?


I hope so.


Turts


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