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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
        
(Message started by: ljfraser on May 1^st, 2008, 7:08am)

Title: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by ljfraser on May 1^st, 2008, 7:08am

Hi all,

So, I've been getting what I thought were migraines since I was about 8 (I'm now 22). I was getting these 'migraines' about once a week a few months back with quite severe symptoms so I had a lot of GP appointments and was told (in passing) that it was cluster headaches, not migraines. I've read up a bit on both migraines and CH's, what do you guys make of my symptoms?

A typical attack goes like this:-

After excessive exposure to glare, fumes or physical exertion on a hot day I get a headache that comes on late afternoon. This typically involves an increasingly throbbing headache accompanied by our good friend, severe pain in the right eye. When I say severe, it frequently reduces me to tears, but there is no way it's as bad a childbirth or a red hot poker in my eye. I can't stand any light in this stage, even moonlight coming through my curtain is unpleasant. Unlike many CH sufferers I feel best lying down during the attack as I feel very nauseous (and used to throw up during my attacks when I was little). The pain in my eye is accompanied by a great pressure and it feels like my eye is about to pop out. The only thing that seems to help a bit is pressing down on my eye. The eye pain increases in intensity until it (and the throbbing headache) quite suddenly disappears after about 1.5 hours. I am then left feeling very hung over for several days.

In the past year I have also developed facial numbness on the eye pain side of my face, which typically lasts for 2 weeks after the attack (isn't this a symptom more associated with migraines?). Some residual (but minor) pain behind my eye also lasts for about 2 weeks after also.

So do you guys reckon the GP is right and it's CH, or is this some weird migraine? My symptoms seem to take a little from the migraine column, a little from the CH column...

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by AussieBrian on May 1^st, 2008, 7:42am

The best news you could ever hope to hear is that this doesn't sound like Cluster Headache at all and I sincerely hope your doctor is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Equally, we're not doctors here and most certainly don't diagnosticate over the web.

Over on the left of your screen screen should be a button marked "cluster quiz". Have a look at that and get back to us regardless the result.

If it is CH, we can help. If it's not CH we can still help by pointing you in certain directions.

We're here to help regardless how you voted,

Brian up north.

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by ljfraser on May 1^st, 2008, 7:57am

Thanks for your reply. I know you all aren't doctors, but I've already been diagnosed. I guess I'm just a bit skeptical of my diagnosis because some of my symptoms are atypical of CH, so was wondering if others got them, such as getting facial numbness that lasts for weeks.

Oh and I did take the quiz and it came out mighty inconclusive :(

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by AussieBrian on May 1^st, 2008, 9:00am

on 05/01/08 at 07:57:10, ljfraser wrote:

Oh and I did take the quiz and it came out mighty inconclusive :(

Which is why a true diagnosis is so important. If you're a CHead we can help you every inch of the way, and we will.

A mis-diagnosis of CH means you'll be ingesting certain poisons while another, perhaps more serious, condition is going untreated.

Read everything you can around this site. Ask as many questions as you like and we'll answer them as best we can.

Knowlege isn't just our best means of defence, it's our first line in attack.

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by darknight on May 1^st, 2008, 9:07am

Again i am no Doc bot to me that sounds like a mixture of cluster and migraine, i sometimes suffer all the symptoms of clusterheadaches and add to that sometimes i have light aversion, sometimes i vomit and other times its all the symptoms for both.
Best thing to do is get to see a specialist and try 02, since i have been perscribed 02 ive had nothing more than a kip3 that 02 knocks outa the park in 15 mins!!!

good luck
pfd to all!! ;)

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by writer on May 4^th, 2008, 10:21am

However, I never heard of a cluster headache sufferer who could lie down during an attack as you say you do--

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by mezza on May 5^th, 2008, 12:13am

As far as the lying down thing- :-/

I am a clusterhead been diagnosed for 9 years- many times i can be in bed and alternate positions and grind the ice pack with pillow on top over my eye- now am i completely still? no! am I silent? NO! am I rocking? yes - Do i lay down - sometimes ! Do I get up and move around, walk ? only sometimes. am i sometimes on the couch and sitting up and rocking? sometimes- Is it painful? you bet!!! I find staying in same spot, pressure above eye, ice and rocking while in bed until the abortive i am using kicks in is typically my way of getting through it.

Where a person positions themselves when a HA comes, whether that be lying on the bed, or laying on the floor beating their head, isn't a measure one way or the other for me when contemplating symptoms- You and Your doctor gotta look at the whole picture!

I am not saying you are or aren't a clusterhead. as everyone else has posted thats up to your doctor to determine.

Good luck and read every thing you can here!

kelly

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by Linda_Howell on May 5^th, 2008, 1:48am

Quote:

but there is no way it's as bad a childbirth or a red hot poker in my eye. I can't stand any light in this stage, even moonlight coming through my curtain is unpleasant. Unlike many CH sufferers I feel best lying down during the attack as I feel very nauseous (and used to throw up during my attacks when I was little).

I've had childbirth 7 times. It was a walk in the park in comparison. Light, moonlight, laying down, nauseus and throwing up????

You really need to get an better diagnosis from a professional. I am not one. But I will bet my last tank of very expensive gas that you don't have CH.

Consider yourself very lucky my firend and please keep us updated. O.K.?

Linda

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by Charlotte on May 5^th, 2008, 8:26am

Many of us have more than one kind of headache.

May I ask what meds your doc recommended and how they are working?

And what other things did your doc consider and eliminate?

Sometimes it takes awhile to find a medication, or several medications, that provide relief, especially if you have several kinds of headaches.

Charlotte

Title: Re: My GP thinks I'm a clusterhead, do you?
Post by Batch on May 5^th, 2008, 10:08pm

LJ,

A suggestion... If your present doc thinks you have cluster headaches, take him to task and ask for a prescription for oxygen at 15 liters/minute with a non-rebreather mask. If you've got cluster headaches, but there are still doubts... using oxygen therapy as a diagnostic tool may be beneficial in making a more positive determination. If you do have some form of the cluster headache disorder, there's a probability of 0.7 that oxygen therapy will abort your headache pains.

Take care,

V/R, Batch